StarRez Celebrates 30 Years at Global Connect

StarRez celebrated its 30th year at Global Connect in July, 2022! After three years without an in-person event, the StarRez community gathered again in San Diego to Learn. Adapt. Share. Connect.

The conference welcomed over 500 attendees from around the world. The time spent with our StarRez community was packed with learning sessions, collaboration, and even included an evening networking session on the USS Midway!  

As we reflect on Global Connect 2022, we want to thank our community for providing an unforgettable experience. The amazing StarRez community was forthcoming in sharing their learnings over the last two years, travelled far distances to attend, and brought immeasurable delight to StarRez Connect.  

We encourage you to continually collaborate with your peers and utilize the wisdom and shared learnings from Global Connect highlighted below.

Global Connect Community Highlights

Over the three-day event, community members shared their insights, adaptations, challenges, and experiences. Here are a few key insights and takeaways from the conference:

‍A Connected Campus is a Powerful Campus

Connecting across your housing operation with campus partners and others in the greater housing community creates a powerful experience for students and staff.

• Dashboards, data subscriptions, reports, programming, and forms allow for easy data sharing within your operation and across campus by centralizing data.
• Users who can easily access appropriate data improve efficiencies and productivity.
• Data sharing enhances communication and allows for better customer service and team empowerment.
• Recurring data discussions are key to successful operations.

“The value of dashboard reports has transformed our operation due to allowing our many campus partners to have self-service when they need real-time data. We title our dashboards with what the data means and how to use it.”

- Martin Sagendorf, American University

Personalize the Student Journey

Today's students expect a personalized journey. The community delivers with StarRez.

• The StarRez community consistently innovates, prepares, and adapts to create the best experience for residents.
• The University of Oregon leveraged a creative use of report designer by creating customized door signs and welcome letters to create an individualized and special experience for each resident.
• In addition to utilizing appointments for move-in/out and RA interviews, the community shared how appointments were leveraged for laundry room tracking, shower reservations, and package pickup

“Using the Report Designer has transformed the move-in process at Oregon by allowing us to print labels for students items that need to be moved from their car to their room, which reduces the risk of students items being lost.”

- Brady Rowe, University of Oregon

Create an Inclusive Experience for All Students

When students feel welcomed from their first interaction, they will truly feel at home.

• Offering housing for all genders creates happy, healthy, and inclusive residential communities.
• Continually creating new online processes and adjusting current processes within StarRez ensures inclusivity for residents from application to check-out.
• Offer online room selection for all students, including those with accommodation requests.
• Create a safe, private environment for students to disclose requests.

“StarRez webinars were foundational in helping us prepare a proposal for Gender Inclusive Housing to Senior Leadership... In pursuing a Gender Inclusive Housing process, I encourage you to share with campus partners how this is reflective of your university’s mission.”

- Jason Bartlett, St. John's University

Efficiently Onboard New Staff

Student housing is not immune to the the great resignation. The StarRez community offers several tips for quickly onboarding new team members.

• Cross-training users and sharing data can help mitigate losing staff members as others are ready to step in and help.
• Document StarRez business practices to expedite onboarding new users.
• Connect with your StarRez representative and the community when you need ideas for training and onboarding new members.
• Leverage existing documentation in StarCare Online to create guides specific to your housing operation.

“StarCare is amazing. I tell my team all the time, if you don't know something, you should first go to StarCare.”

- Jeremy Stone, Liberty University

We’d like to extend a big thank you to all our customers, hosts, and guest speakers for helping create such a vibrant and rich event. We look forward to delivering more valuable events for our global community in 2022 and beyond! Make sure to pencil in the 2023 Global Connect Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, from July 9-July 11, 2023!

We look forward to seeing you then.