importance choosing the right date

Researching dates of event. Choosing the right date and time for an event is very essential. I have come to understand this as I have been tasked to research all the dates we have chosen for the event. I have mostly used the internet as the mains source of research for this and also looked at some leaflets from theatres and other hall and club promotions

The date of an event is very important because this van help determine who will be attending the event and who won’t. The date we agreed on had to be pleasing to the invited guest and the stallholders. Since some this people are going to be media professionals the date chosen has to not clash with any of the global or local media events as this will not only acts as a competition for our local event but will also cause a risk to the audience which will result in disappoint for the Humber Media Showcase. Choosing the right date will give the invited guest less reasons to decline the invitation.
This none significant task as I first thought is actually an important aspect of planning and developing a successful event.

BLOG FOUR: MARKETING AND PR

A marketing plan is the who, what, when, where, why, and how of your marketing campaign for hosting an event”, The international hotel school (2011). Market planning for an event is an essential and vital aspect of organising an event; Event Scotland advised that “the development of an effective marketing and communication plan is essential for the delivery of a successful event”.  An effective market plan helps to give the organiser a strong perceptive of what the event objective is and whom the event is targeted at. Gaining this knowledge helps to tie the event concept with the audience.

Event mission statement

Humber Media Showcase is a three hour showcase and networking event at Hull truck Hull from 7pm to 10pm. The event aims to attract both amateur film makers (Hull college final year students) and media professionals to network with small, big, local and global business members of the community.

The event will be divided into two separate parts, the first one and half hours will be dedicated to all invited guest, sponsors, organiser (the broadcast media 2013 class) and stallholders networking. This side of the event will allow the stallholders to sell their products or in the case of the organisers to sell their skills.  The invited business members are given the opportunity at this point to discover hidden talents and products.

The second part of the event is purely for the organisers to showcase their work. This part of the evening will demonstrate to potential employers and business members of the audience including parents the work and talents the students at Hull College has gained and develop. This will act as a portfolio and work experience evidence for any present employers in the audience.

The main objective of the event is to allow business members or media professional to network with struggling and talented film maker. The event hopes to conclude with both film makers and invited business members to have gained something from the event, Film makes with business contact or an offer of job and the business professional a talented film maker to help film and promote their business.

Targeted market

As discussed above, the networking and showcase event aims to target local and global business member of the society such as Hull Bid, representative from media companies such as the jayjay media in Hull and The production company located in Leeds, these are both independent media production companies. Other business will include local business, shop owners in Hull city centre.

Other invited members will be made up of the stall holders, these are local business that the organisers have approached and given the opportunity to rent out a stall to advertise their products during the networking part of the event. These businesses will range from different variety from Hull student union, to local business or restaurant mangers.

With a diversity of businesses attending the event, there will be a mixture of both male and female. This is an adult event with the exception of family organiser’s family members; however the targeted demographics are professional adults ranging from 20 to 60 years of age and over, these people will be interested one or the other in media production, either as a profession or looking to hire.

The stallholder, invited guest and sponsor will all be contacted through email and telephone communication to notify them about the event and the role they could play.

The event

What does the target audience wants or expect from the event.

All invited guest, stallholder and sponsors should expect an eventful night with live instrumental music a chance to meet new business minded member of the community and collaborate with aspiring talented film makers and other students and professionals.

More entertainment to come as the event closes with a one and a half hour of video projects the film makers have produced. The video will be shown in a cinema style screen at the Hull Truck studio located at the top floor of the building; this is just below where the networking part of the event took place so the guests do not have to walk to separate buildings. The studio chairs are very comfortable and there will be room for short toilet breaks during the screen and refreshments before, during and after the event.

As this is a onetime event, none of the guest members would have been to an Humber media showcase 2013 so it’s a chance to show the community and invited guests the skills and dedication Hull students has to provide.

This is a free entry event for all invited guest apart from the stallholders who will be asked to pay a bargaining sum of fifteen pounds to be given the opportunity to hold a stall at the event. This will provide the stall holders a chance to showcase their work too all other stall holders and invited guest which at the moment is an estimate of 50 guests.

List of the positioning/ attraction of the event: why should they come to this event instead of another: the location, food, entertainment networking Hull Bid- what makes it unique.

Objective

Specific: As the mission stamen above mentioned that the main objective of this event is to allow business members or media professional to network with struggling and talented film maker  as well as to pass the module with the organisers gaining business contracts for jobs.

Measurable: the organisers at moment are liaising with potential business sponsors, stall holders and media professionals as invited guest. Steps have been taken to promote the event online with a video of the organisers introducing themselves, this will be broadcasted on the event’s facebook and twitter account and also on the event’s website once it has been activated.

Achievable: the event will be held at Hull Truck, payments and booking arrangement has already been made and the date and time has been arranged upon. The date choosen for the event has also been researched and there is not much competition with similar event. The team is still waiting for replies from more business to get involved and organising five different movie nights at the college to help fund the event as well as a mock up of the actual event 2 weeks before the event commences.

Realistic: the goals set for the event is realistic and plans and actions has been put in place to see that all is accomplished before the event. The event location has booked and plans have been placed to help raise more money for the event. A run through of the event will also take place 2 weeks before the actual event giving room for improvement. A list of potential stall holders, sponsors and invited guest has conducted and emails have been sent out.

Time:

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=event+market+plan&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CEIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eventscotland.org%2Fassets%2F2170&ei=5l87UbjCOuSM7QalioFg&usg=AFQjCNHpb4cYvPRx2ry4rlrW3YA2PBwcWA

http://www.hotelschool.co.za/2011/03/how-to-write-a-marketing-plan-for-an-event/

blog 3

Blog three

Petty cash

There should not be any cash needed at the Hull Media Showcase event, the venue, refreshment for guest and equipment should have already be paid for. While the bar at the venue should be opened for any guest wishing to purchase further drinks from the one provided, this will fall under the responsibilities of the venue manger(s) which Hull media showcase would not pay or be responsible for.

Fees

Event Scotland (2006 P: 66) advice to avoid paying fees at the event, but paying before as this would make the event preparations much easier and also for security reason. Paying in advance will have it privileges as event Scotland have pointed that it gives you security, for example, not paying the florist in advance would give him/her an option to opt out of delivering on the day of the event, however advance payment means that you have a contract and the person had to deliver as promised.

“Ensure you get a proper receipt for any cash payments” Event Scotland (2006 P: 66), this is an advice Hull media show case will be following as receipt is a prove of contract/bound between Hull media showcase and the seller  which will save time and money if anything goes wrong.

Security

Hull media Showcase will run from mid evening to night time, the could increase of risk of petty theft however none of Hull Media Show staff will be collecting money or paying fees on the night so this should reduce the risk factor of been robbed on the night of the event. Hull city previously had the highest crime rate, however Hull daily recently reported in 2012 that Hull saw a 14% decrease in crime.

http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/Crime-falls-14-Hull-10-East-Riding-official/story-17111823-detail/story.html#axzz2LkDQZYF4

 Entrance sales

At the moment Hull Media Show is still debating if adding an entry fee is an appropriate move considers the audience. 
It is important to get a realistic ticket price, one that will make sure that the both the event manger and guest are satisfy. As the aims of this event is not to make profit but to entertain our guest, meeting the guest's needs and expectation are far more important  more so if there is an entrance fee. 
Making sure that the audience gets value for money and does not feel cheated is highly important as thus could determined wither they are going to attend or not.

Research into Previous Hull college final year showcase (2012 BA graduate) event have not charged an entry fee.

the stall holders however will be charged for their stalls which should be clearly stated in all document sent out as Scotland events advice on page 74, this will not only act as evidence in the case of a disrupt but will also ensure that all parties are in the same page about what is needed from whom. Including a when and how of payment will ensure the money is collected on time. All dealings with money should also be recorded so it can be accounted for.

Public funds 
getting the support of local authorities can help the event be more effective and successful. Scotland (p: 75) events suggested that "events supported locally are more likely to be susbantial in the long run as they fit with local strategies”. 
Hull Media Showcase has been liaising with Hull bid trying to persuade them to not only contribute or attend the showcase but to get involved. Even if this just to include their name on flyers and information packages for the showcase.  As one of the aims of this showcase is to make this less a student event and more towards a respectable young professional event, hull bid name and involvment will encourage this and will also help sway the minds of other business to get involvement.

Part of hull bid’s mission is to bring more events and entertain to the city centre of Hull, “In addition to supporting such major festivals such ast the Freedom Festival, Hull BID has organised its own activities to keep the city on the entertainment map” (http://www.hullbid.co.uk/page/marketing-and-events).

Hull bid helps to support both small and large event that will help put Hull on the map. The Hull Media Showcase is an event that aims to do this; we are aiming to invite influential business men and women from both inside and out of Hull to the networking and showcase event.

While Hull bid might not be able to help finically, however there are other provisions and service in kind that go a long to help towards the event as mentioned above. Hull bid works with big and small business that gets new letters and emails from them, spreading the words/invitation out to some of these business would benefit the HMS event as these small and large business are the targeted audience for this event.  

Scotland event (p: 75) events however also highlight some negative attribute to having a sponsor or stakeholder, one of them been that authorities are “unlikely to be the sole investor in your event”. With this said, all HMS event member have all agreed to invest money and their time to organise the event so any authority wanting to invest will not be a sole investor.

Another point made by the Scotland events (p;75) is that the investors/sponsor will want something in return or might be wanting to change the programme, this would result in changing the event’s purpose and aims. Scotland events (p: 77) advices event organisers to make sure that they research potential sponsor and investor to ensure that the event and the investor has the end game and objectives because “when a company sponsors an event it usually means that it provides cash for a number of benefits”

Commercial sponsor

Some events have to hire out a professional to look for potential sponsorship and stallholders and there are some benefits to hiring out a professional.  a professional would have lists of contacts which will be more effective than having to research contact details, however as this is a small event with a small budget, one of the members has been elected to research and look into sponsorship and potential stall holders at the event. This is save the event from hiring out a third party and also save the event money.

blog 2

Many authors and critics defined event in different ways, but what Yeoman, Robertson, Ail-Knight, Drummond and Beattie, expressed that what all these definitions agree on is that “event were originally a celebration of ceremony and ritual – and were a reflection of a culture and community” (2004 P:4).  Yeoman and co (2004 P: 53- 55) argues that event mangers have neglected the value of culture and the community in events which they describe as the “very heart and soul, the rasion d’etre of any truly great event” (2004 P 53) to satisfy the needs and demand of the clients and stakeholders

Since Events are linked to the culture of the community, a lot of thought have to go into planning and designing an event in order to reflect the communities culture, however event manger seems to Omnis the design element as “design is excluded even from the descriptive title ‘event manager’” (p:54)

Passion and clear vision are an important attribute to have when planning an event, however most contemporary event mangers have subtitled these for the ‘ritual sacrifice’, instead focusing their attention mainly on pleasing the stake holders and client or concentrating themselves to fulfilling a social or psychological ceremony. Successful events use to be defined on its ability to satisfy a particular need, but current event mangers are under pressure to justice the success of an event by the returned profit to stakeholder(s), and the size of audience although not just any audience but the type of the audience in attendance as the economic impact is more essential for event mangers. “since the mid-1990’s” (P:55) attracting more tourist for the additional economic benefits they bring to the community” is much more the focus compared to sharing the community’s culture as discussed on page 54 as the main reason of an event, however with changed been made to accommodate and attract tourist, the economic gain takes priority over the culture integrity. (P: 56)

blog 1

Week 1:

Week 1: blog 1

The business dictionary defined event as an “Occurrence happening at a determinable time and place, with or without the participation of human agents”, the definition given here seems too general and incomplete. For an event to be categorised as a success, there are a lot of planning and organisation that goes into arranging an event, there are research involved and in most cases there are financial involvement. An event is not just an occurrence that just happens at a time and place as the definition above suggested but a well planed, researched and organised gathering of people for an outcome. 

Many authors has categorises event into different forms. Shone and Parry 2004(In Tum, Norton and Wright, 2006:10) categorised events into four different types:

Looking at Shone and Parry’s classification, Hull Media Showcase could be categorised as a mixture of both cultural events and personal.  The aim of showcase is to present the group’s media work some to potential employers, friends and family members, therefore the showcase consist of a personal side and also an artistic side. The showcase can also fall in the organisational events category as in a way the showcase is to help sell the students talents.

As Tum, Norton and Wright, (2006: p13) suggested that an event “needs to fulfil a need” . The mission statement for the showcase is to ‘To show and demonstrate the skills and talent of the students at Hull College and also to provide a chance for networking’.  Tum, Norton and Wright, (2006: p13) further empathises on the importance of the mission statement, stating that “the mission should then become the focus of the event” However continuing on page 31, the authors explained that the published mission statement is often different from the ‘true mission statement’ and it is “important for the event manager to understand what the true mission is, irrespective of what might be stated in the published mission”

Part of the learning outcome for this module includes the ability to apply management skills, exhibition of work and reflect on self performance within the group. As this is an important aspect of the module, these three outcomes is part of the true mission statement as well as students networking and showcase talent and work with potential employers.

In order to be able to work effectively as a group, a working contract had to agree on. During the first meeting, all the team members suggested some of the agreements that should be included in the contracts, also looking into other examples of group contract online and reflecting previous group work over the years and the problems that we encountered, i was able to draft a group working contract.