Student Organizations and Activities hosted its annual SOAcon conference to help support students stepping into leadership roles in student organizations in Norris University Center on Friday.
The event provided students with the opportunity to build relationships with vendors that help make student groups more successful.
Organizations such as Northwestern Catering, marketing agency Club Colors and the Student Organization Finance Office attended the event to talk with student group leaders about marketing and fundraising support.
Weinberg sophomore Vira Vitiv, Associated Student Government’s director of external grants, represented the Student Activities Finance Committee at SOAcon. She attended the event to answer students’ questions about funding for the 2025-2026 school year.
“SOAcon is a great opportunity for student orgs to get that face-to-face interaction with a lot of facilitation departments that exist at Northwestern,” Vitiv said. “I think it’s very easy to not know what resources students have, so I think SOAcon does a great job at connecting those resources and getting in front of students to have those conversations that sometimes get lost over emails.”
SOAcon attendees received free tote bags, phone chargers and catered food. According to student group leaders, the timing of SOAcon was especially helpful as they prepare fundraising and marketing initiatives for the fall.
NU Associate Director of Annual Giving KellyAnn McGowan, spoke to students about Catalyzer, NU’s crowdfunding platform. Student groups can participate in one Catalyzer cycle per academic year in order to receive help running a crowdfunding campaign in advance of a project, event or initiative.
McGowan said Catalyzer is currently running its spring funding cycle.
“It’s an important way for students to be able to leverage their networks and find funding for projects that are important to them that they might not have been able to do without a little bit of extra assistance,” McGowan said.
Norris Executive Director Corbin Smyth said the purpose of hosting SOAcon each year is two-fold: it allows vendors to distribute valuable information to student leaders and gives students from different organizations the chance to interact with each other and inspire one another in new projects and initiatives.
Norris allows student groups to book different rooms for meetings and events. Students attending SOAcon visited the Norris table to learn how to use the new table-booking software, making it easier to plan meetings in advance.
“We’re all here because we want to support the kinds of things that student organizations want to do,” Smyth said. “I cannot imagine Northwestern’s student body without student organizations. The vibrancy of students being involved and putting their academic learning into practice through their student orgs — I mean, it’s incredible.”
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