Planning your event

• Reserve Elliott School event venues: go.gwu.edu/ESIAvenues
• GW Events and Venues (to reserve non-ESIA event and exhibition space)
• Academic Scheduling (to request classroom space)
• Academic Technology (to request A/V in the classroom or to request assistance for video conferencing in Lindner Commons)
• Disability Support Services (DSS)
• GW Event photography request form
• Furniture rentals (risers, tables, etc.)
• Request GW University Police officers at your event

Day-of

• Internet instructions for guests and attendees
• Instructions for Web Conferencing in Lindner Family Commons (PDF)

Catering

Casual

• Muncheez
• Panera
• Roti
• Sinplicity
• Whole Foods

Reception/Formal

• Good Gracious
• Spilled Milk
• Well Dunn
• Windows

Videography Services

• Cliff Matheson – reporter@erols.com
• Cyp Bowlding – cypavs@yahoo.com

Translation Services

• Translations ABC
• My Translation
• Voices for Health
• Transperfect
• CTS Language Link

All program assistants, staff, faculty and authorized student groups who plan on hosting events in the Elliott School’s Room 505 or Lindner Family Commons room are required to attend an event training every 18 months. Public Affairs will hold an event training session once every semester.

If you haven’t completed a training, please contact the Public Affairs office.

1. The person organizing a program is responsible for coordinating with the university’s Disability Support Services (DSS) to provide reasonable accommodations to students with disabilities and to support non-students access and inclusion to the best of our abilities.
2. RSVP forms should include the following:
   1. Contact information of the person organizing the program, along with a message that says: “The Elliott School can coordinate with the university to reasonably accommodate most disabilities. If you need specific accommodations, please contact (contact’s name) at (telephone number and TTY, if possible). Requests should be made as soon as possible, but at least three days prior to the program to ensure accommodation.”
   2. Link to information about the university’s Disability Support Services (disabilitysupport.gwu.edu)
   3. Links to the locations of the university’s motherhood rooms and gender inclusive bathrooms (benefits.gwu.edu/motherhoodrooms and mssc.gwu.edu/bathrooms)
3. Any event with three or more speakers must consist of more than one gender. If a panel, symposium or other event with three or more speakers consists of a single gender, the moderator must be of a different gender. This is part of the Elliott School’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. To this end, we support events and speakers that reflect our community’s diverse backgrounds and experiences including but not limited to race and ethnicity; gender identity and expression; age; sexual orientation and identity, religion, nationality, culture, and ideologies. We believe this diversity enriches the educational experience for all and encourage members of our community to strive towards achieving this goal when planning for events.
4. All events that provide catering should include a vegetarian option. Longer events like conferences should include additional options for dietary restrictions such as gluten-free and be labeled as such.

GW Consider what extent the Public Affairs office needs to be involved

Any event with an expected attendance of over 100 guests or featuring high-profile speakers — such as cabinet-level officials — should be coordinated with the Public Affairs office. If you’d like the dean to attend/participate in your event, contact the Public Affairs team, which serves as a liaison for the dean’s office, as early as possible.

Explore if other programs should be notified regarding possible collaboration

If the event’s subject matter is related to another program/institute at the Elliott School, it’s a good idea to contact the program assistant to cross-promote the event to help increase participation and audience engagement.

Book the space

Make sure to book enough time for your event, plus the set-up and restoring the room back to its default layout. To reserve Elliott School event venues, visit go.gwu.edu/ESIAvenues. Elliott School venues that can be booked through this system include:

• 2nd Floor Atrium (reception space)
• Room 505
• Lindner Family Commons
• Basement Atrium (reception space)
• Exhibition space – 2nd Floor Atrium
• Exhibition space – Basement
• Exhibition space – Lobby

For classroom reservations — Contact Academic Scheduling

To reserve other event spaces across campus, including City View Room and State Room on the 7th floor of the Elliott School building, make a reservation through GW Events and Venues.

• Layout of City View Room (PDF)
• Layout of State Room (PDF)

Submit your event to our online calendar

Fill out the GW University Calendar Event Submission Form. Once your event is added, it will be promoted on our online calendar, digital screens throughout the building and in our weekly email newsletter. 

Things to note:

• Only on-the-record events go in our calendar, newsletter and screens.
• Events also must be submitted by Thursday, COB, in order to go in the upcoming Elliott School Events newsletter. Otherwise, if it’s not submitted in time, it will go in the next week’s newsletter.
• In the “Event Host” field of the submission form, search for and select the hosting GW organization, department, institute or center. Multiple groups can be selected if there are several event co-hosts.

Send out an email invite

You can also utilize GW’s free email marketing platform, Emma, to create branded invitations to be sent out to your mailing list. Please be sure to include language in all invites indicating if your event is on or off the record.

Explore our Branding and Design page for tips on what fonts, colors and messaging to use and where you can find license-free photos.

Promote your event over social media

Publicize your event over Twitter and Facebook on your organization’s accounts. Explore our best practices on posting on social media.

You also can request our team to retweet or re-share your original posts on our main Elliott School accounts. Visit the Office of Communication and Marketing’s website to find more information about the university’s social media policies and how to make a request. Please note the Public Affairs team reserves the right to determine what’s relevant for our social media audience.

To reserve Elliott School event venues, visit go.gwu.edu/ESIAvenues. Elliott School venues that can be booked through this system include:

• 2nd Floor Atrium (reception space)
• Room 505
• Lindner Family Commons
• Basement Atrium (reception space)
• Exhibition space – 2nd Floor Atrium
• Exhibition space – Basement
• Exhibition space – Lobby

For classroom reservations — Contact Academic Scheduling

To reserve other event spaces across campus, make a reservation through GW Events and Venues.

Once you have filled out your request for one of the Elliott School venues at go.gwu.edu/ESIAvenues you will receive an email that indicates your ‘reservation request has been received’.

This is NOT an approval for you booking. You will receive a separate email once your request has been approved. 

If you have not heard back in 3-5 business days, reach out to Robin Khan via robinkhan@gwu.edu.

For high-level photography requests, submit a photography request for a GW photographer.

Any requests for the Elliott School Dean to attend or participate in your event should be sent as early as possible to the Public Affairs team, which serves as a liaison for the dean’s office.

Graphic design requests can be submitted to GW Marketing and Creative Services.

You may also make use of GW-branded Canva templates for creating an email banner.

Events must be submitted to our online calendar by Thursday in order to go in that week’s newsletter. Otherwise, if it’s not submitted in time, it will go in the next week’s newsletter. Ensure that you have selected the name(s) of the hosting organization(s) in the “groups” field of the form.

Please note: Only on-the-record events are featured in our newsletter.