HBCUMADE App Launches Homecoming Concierge

As proud alumni descend on traditionally Black faculties and universities this HBCU Homecoming season for camaraderie and celebration, an app is making the beloved custom simpler to navigate.

HBCUMADE, the primary social community devoted to HBCU alumni and college students, has unveiled its Homecoming Concierge, a digital hub designed to simplify the planning behind the nation’s most spirited celebrations. A press launch reviews that the platform, which centralizes resort bookings, occasion listings, and journey instruments, goals to streamline what has develop into a serious financial engine for Black America.

The launch comes as HBCU alumni journey has surged 35 % over the previous three years, and Homecoming occasions collectively generate an estimated $2.5 billion yearly throughout native economies.

HBCUMADE founder and chief government Skánia Florestal, a Virginia State College alumna, says initiative is in the end about cultural continuity.

“Homecoming represents the biggest annual migration of Black professionals and college students in America,” Florestal mentioned in an announcement. “But till now, there’s been no centralized infrastructure to assist this huge cultural and financial phenomenon. We’re not simply constructing a reserving platform — we’re creating the digital spine for HBCU tradition itself.”

By means of a partnership with Klerk, a hospitality expertise agency, the platform gives unique resort offers with main chains like Marriott and Hyatt, together with curated occasion calendars and social instruments that allow customers join with pals attending the identical festivities.

Since its smooth launch, HBCUMADE reviews that the Concierge has secured 25 resort partnerships throughout key HBCU markets, drawing greater than 14,000 members and a pair of,300 energetic app customers, with a objective to show the patchwork planning course of right into a single seamless expertise.

“Each fall, our campuses develop into financial engines that rival main sporting occasions,” mentioned Florestal. “The Homecoming Concierge captures and amplifies that vitality whereas making certain each participant feels supported and related.”

For Justin Latimore, HBCUMADE’S chief expertise officer and a graduate of Savannah State College, the mission represents what he calls “a cultural convergence of code and neighborhood.”

“We constructed the Concierge to deal with the actual challenges alumni face — scattered occasion information, last-minute bookings, and lack of centralized entry,” Mr. Latimore mentioned. “By combining cultural information with user-friendly design, we’re proving that tech can strengthen traditions as an alternative of changing them.”

The platform additionally incorporates a “Cultural Calendar,” which tracks Homecoming dates for greater than 100 HBCUs, plus a real-time feed of events, live shows, and alumni gatherings, and consists of sponsorships, premium promoting, and boosted listings for occasion promoters and universities.

With the Homecoming Concierge, the corporate hopes to interchange the chaos of last-minute plans with curated coordination, turning a season of scattered spreadsheets into one in all neighborhood, comfort, and collective celebration.