BY JODY ANDERSON
Conestoga College’s convocation ceremonies normally held in June will not be held in the rec centre due to the removal of the ice rink and construction.
Convocation, which is scheduled for June 10-12, will instead be held at Bingemans, a change of location that presents some planning changes and challenges.
Paul Osborne, executive director of marketing at Conestoga, admits this is a bit of a puzzle but is confident things will go as planned.
There were, however, some questions of how to make the pieces fit, as the new venue is smaller.
“We just were there, to walk through what it would be like. So you’ve got big issues like the gowning, where do you line students up because they all have to be in the right order to receive their diplomas and degrees. How are we going to handle that? How are we going to handle the gowning, where guests go after, parking and all of those crazy things,” Osborne said.
Though there are adjustments to be made so things go smoothly, convocation itself should proceed as normal. There will be two sessions a day over three days and they will include the usual aspects.
“There will still be a photo studio, flowers, frames and all of that,” Osborne said. “It’ll be different, we don’t have the large space we had here but we’ll make it work.”
“It’ll be an interesting move when you’ve done it here forever. Any change is difficult but we think it’ll be a really nice ceremony for students and their parents and family who come to watch.”
