Graduation Gala Process

The IEOR Grad Gala is our biggest single event of the year. It is an event for all our graduating students (BS, MS, and PhD). It's a very celebratory event, and the students have a lot of fun celebrating their time at Columbia. 
Historically, we rented out the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, and bused students to the event. 

A note on guest lists:
Traditionally, we look ahead on the guest list. For example, this means that the first wave of invitations for the Spring 2024 event will go to May 2024 grads and December 2024 grads. December 2023 grads will be invited in the second round of invitations (they should have been invited to the previous year's gala.)

VENDORS (2023-2024)

Picking the Date: 
- Set a date as early as possible, by December if possible. Make sure to notify staff and faculty as soon as the date is cleared, preferably by the first faculty meeting of the Spring semester. 
- Thursday has generally been the best day for this event. The only major conflict on Thursdays is Professor Kachani's Operations Consulting class, but he typically has an earlier final. 
- Jeana found that the Thursday of finals week is generally a good day for this event.
-MoMI is not open for private events on Friday, but if using another venue, Friday is typically the best day for events.


Order of Operations: