The high school reunion business has slowly been growing over the last 20 years, and Great Reunions has captured the "lions share" of the market nationwide.
When Mike and Denise Silva bought a 17-year-old Southern California high school reunion management company in 2000, they knew Great Reunions (GreatReunions.com) had some growth potential. Six years later, that potential is being realized in a big way: With offices covering California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Oklahoma, Virginia, Maryland, Washington, DC, New Jersey, and New York, the company is on track to organize over 500 high school reunions in 2006 -- up 250% from when the Silvas took the helm.
Mike Silva credits his company’s people with much of the success. The 20 full-time employees of Great Reunions have, in most cases, been with the company longer than most reunion management firms have been in business, giving Great Reunions a depth of experience that is unmatched in the industry. It doesn’t hurt that the company’s people-locating functions are all done in-house, using proprietary software developed solely for Great Reunions, or that clients can leave virtually every aspect of the reunion planning and notification process up to Great Reunions.
“We are the only high school alumni website that actually physically locates classmates during the reunion planning phase,” he explained today. “We spend more time and money on this single focus, and as a result, we give our clients the highest attendance per reunion in the nation. That’s important, because it maximizes the memories for our clients and their classmates.”
And that undoubtedly contributes to the fact that Great Reunions is now the largest reunion management company in the country, outpacing each of their nearest regional competitors nearly five to one. The growth hasn’t gone unnoticed. Great Reunions was recently approached by prospective investors to consider an IPO bid.
In the world we live in today, Denise Silva acknowledges a dedicated team and best practices aren’t the only factors fueling her company’s rise. “High school reunions aren’t just about checking in with people you spent four years with a lifetime ago,” she said. “Most people have known their high school classmates since childhood. Maybe they grew up next door, maybe they played Little League together, maybe they went to the same elementary school. In any case, more and more people are looking around at the world today and feeling a need to reconnect with their roots. And for a lot of people, that means going to their high school reunions. We’re proud to be able to make that happen on such a large scale.”
We were very fortunate in 2005, which enabled us to donate $10,000 to our favorite charity, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
