Promotion is one aspect of event planning that may get overlooked, but how successful can an event be if no one even knows the event is happening? Successful events require a good level of promoting, but that promotion must be wisely done to ensure it’s appropriate and achieves what it sets out to do.
This was possibly my largest contribution up to the point of the performance, and it is one that I think I worked rather effectively with. I had a small role in assisting Leoni with the design of the programmes, offering opinions on decisions and such, at one point having the final say on what material we should use. We had wanted to use this lovely cardstock as it would give the programmes a sturdiness and a better texture, however we faced an issue with printing as the settings weren’t what we required and we were very short on time so, with that limited time, we discussed our options and decided to just use paper. It wasn’t what we wanted but it was the best decision for us in the moment; to get programmes printed in a timely manner was our ultimate goal and this decision let us achieve that.
The majority of my contribution came in the form of a radio interview on BCB Radio. The interview, which can be found here from 43:00-51:00, was broadcast the day before the showcase to bring more publicity to the event and advertise for future events too. Leoni and I did well on the show but we had points to improve on. I misspoke in saying the show started at 6pm rather than 7pm and we both failed to really mention the other projects we have going on at college. If we get chance to do another interview for the final showcase then we will go into it having talked over what questions could come up, and we may also bring notes with us so we have something to reference if we are short on what to say.
That being said, we coped well with the pressure of the situation and gave a good account of ourselves and the show. I have been on BCB Radio once before but that was pre-recorded and I spoke for myself, rather than representing the college and the show, so this was still a very new experience for me but one I dealt with well. I was clear in my responses, I believe I put forward worthwhile contributions, and I would definitely say that this is something I want to do more often in the future.
In future, this could manifest as anything from another promotional interview to a stint as a host with my own show – a goal of mine, hopefully I can look into this more later on in the year.