For any event to go ahead smoothly, in depth planning is absolutely vital. Our event required plenty of planning to ensure it was a success; from seating to sound, promotion to performance, and everything in between, we had to consider all of it. Although I only joined the project in the latter stages, I took part in all I could to help plan the event and in effect I became the right hand to Leoni, our events manager.
Meetings
One thing introduced to us to help our process was the idea of properly thought out meetings, chaired by our events manager, with a prepared agenda, and a commitment to communicate our ideas to the group. Below are videos documenting the two meetings we had that day. Prior to the meetings we planned an agenda which would guide us along so we knew what we had to cover and in what order we would cover every topic.
One of the main points of contention was regarding in-times for students on the day of the performance. Blake and I had opposing views with equal merit and so we decided to put that conversation on hold as we needed to progress to other matters, I saw this as a good way of keeping things moving in a meeting without getting bogged down in one thing. Throughout the meetings, new topics came up and they were added underneath the agenda headings, along with Leoni (acting as meeting chair) noting down the results of our discussions.
After taking a break, we came back to continue the meeting and discuss further the topics we didn’t manage to reach. Before we got to the new topics though, we still had the in-time for the Level 2s and 3s. I mentioned that we could give them the option to come in rather than deciding for them; this puts the responsibility on their shoulders and also allows us to come in a little bit later to ensure that we aren’t too exhausted ahead of a very busy and likely stressful day.
During the meeting we allocated jobs to people to spread the workload and ensure that appropriate tasks were given to people whose jurisdiction it came under. Some health and safety research was tasked to me as we don’t have a dedicated H&S officer, stage management tasks were given to Harry as he is the stage manager, and so on for the rest. We also provided deadlines so we knew what time we had to work with, without finding ourselves running around last minute struggling with the workload.
Meeting Notes
Throughout the meeting, I believe I contributed very valid points and stayed on track – generally doing well in what was somewhat unfamiliar territory, having quite formal meetings. One thing I would like to improve on is getting quieter members to contribute, asking them questions, asking for their thoughts, as so far all I really did was give my thoughts when I should be finding out what others think, their prompted contributions could be well beyond what I have to say so next time I will endeavour to do this.
Final Stages
As we made it to the last day, we still had plenty to plan and figure out. Things such as specific job roles for other students, how we wanted the final hour to run before the show, and much more.
Earlier in the week, we decided that the L3X students would have a leadership position and students from L3 and L2 would either have set roles or would be on call, in essence. Leoni was head steward with her team, Blake and Harry would handle the stage and any other issues that arose inside, whilst I was in charge of parking with my crew of four first year students. Parking arrangements last year weren’t as thought out as they could’ve been so this year we made sure to include directions to the venue in emails and inform our attendees of what was going to happen on the night.
I decided it would make sense to have one placed on the corner so any unsure drivers had a student as a marker to follow, followed by two students at the barrier who could scan a card to allow cars to pass through to the car park, then we have our last crewmember stationed within the car park to direct people to free spots and guide them to the entrance. I briefed the team on how to greet attendees and what important information is needed (greet politely, give directions, “Enjoy the show!”), and my role was to act as a general overseer who could support the team and liaise with our events manager inside.
I believe we ran a very tight ship as attendees had minimal confusion and everybody seemed to understand what was supposed to happen, and anyone unsure received proper guidance from my team.