On Monday, May 31st, we held the strangest alumni reunion ever (until now!). We have created a new, virtual event space for the school, using a platform called WorkAdventure. The platform allows several sessions to take place simultaneously, with participants moving freely between different meeting rooms. People can also strike up ad-hoc chats in small groups in the corridors, which enables informal networking and casual conversations.

Upon entering, our alumni created avatars resembling 90’s video game characters, and were able to explore the virtual space using arrow keys. ‘Such a cool platform’, ‘What the heck is this???’, ‘How do I move this thing?’ and ‘Oh wow!’ were some of the first comments heard from the alumni when we greeted them on the site.

While some participants encountered technical glitches, and the space was a bit too large for our needs, the people who managed to access the platform were positive about the experience. The mammoth event began at 2pm with a Japanese reunion led by Mr. Ishimura, and finished after 10pm with a group of ‘old-timers’ sharing their ISP memories and experiences. In between, there was at least one alumni conversation going on at all times throughout the event, which meant more than eight hours of alumni connections!

Here are some of the exchanges that we witnessed during the event:

• Classmates meeting up first time after more than a decade
• Younger alumni fooling around and creating crazy avatars for themselves
• Two alumni students (Class of 2006 and Class of 2010) realizing that they have interests in the same field, moving to a different virtual room for a one-on-one chat to exchange ideas and contact details
• An alumnus joining in the middle of the night from an online café in Tokyo, because he didn’t have a lap top or computer at home (such commitment!)
• A promise to help organize a mini reunion in Philadelphia when the pandemic allows
• Old friends connecting from different continents spending hours to catch up with each other

Thank you to everyone who participated, it was lovely to see you all and hear your thoughts and latest news.  We truly hope to be able to organize in-person reunions again soon, because they are irreplaceable. Meanwhile, virtual connections are here to stay too!

***

If you have any comments, ideas, feedback or news that you’d like to share with us, please contact alumni@isparis.edu.

Edit: 02062021 Edited Toronto to Philadelphia.