Reflections on the event
All weeks
The planning and implementation process for our event was mostly successful and any barriers we did face, we overcame. Our team strategy was to divide ourselves into different small groups to focus more on specific areas such as marketing, catering and event design etc. Personally, I felt I could contribute the most towards catering and event design due to job experience and interest within those areas. The majority of our group were in two teams and this proved to be slightly difficult during meetings where we had to branch off into our smaller teams to discuss that area, meaning we couldn't sit in our two teams at once.
Using the 'Planning Process model (Shone and Parry, 2010, p90)', we can assess how successful our event went and what could be done better. The model starts with defining your own objectives and the objectives in our event were to host a sophisticated Grad Ball, offer a high standard service to all who attended and to ensure guest happiness. Drafting the outline plan is the next stage in the model. Relating this stage to our event, our draft outline plan began during the initial stages of securing a date where most guests could attend near the end of term. From here, we had to decide on a theme based around our demographic, décor, marketing strategies, type of food and drink and entertainment. As part of the event design team, deciding the décor for our event was important as we wanted everything to fit in with our theme, whilst not overcrowding the event space. We decided on a gold streamer photo wall area, prosecco pong area, hanging balloons and a balloon arch for the most of our event décor. As part of the catering team, we decided on a canape style menu to fit in with the Grad Ball style event alongside our 'THE' cocktail. Through discussing options for entertainment with the entertainment team, we concluded on hosting prosecco pong at our event as it is easy to engage with and keeps within the classy layout of our event. As a team we constantly had to consider the demographic of our guests and repetitively asked ourselves "would they enjoy this?" when new ideas were introduced.
Once the outline plan is completed, a systematic detailed plan must then be done. This involves every detail being cemented. During this process, the marketing team documented our planning processes through TikTok and Instagram to give viewers a 'behind the scenes' preview of our event with the strategy guests become intrigued with what our event is all about and therefore purchase tickets. Through the advertisement of our event, tickets were purchased through the link on our Instagram account. Furthermore, the sound and lighting team calculated the sound and lighting equipment we would need for our event and how they will approach setting this up. In the event design team, we calculated the quantity of everything we would need including how many balloons we would need to fill the whole room and how many gold streamers we would need to produce an eye-catching photo wall. Competition analysis was completed in each group and in the catering group for exmaple, we figured out the prices of canape ingredients to cater for 60 people from multiple different supermarkets such as Lidl, Tesco, Aldi, Asda. Our budget was confirmed and this allowed us to ensure the quantities of everything we needed for our event were correct so they could be ordered in time. This stage also included being involved in food training days and learning how to properly set a table. The importance of food and safety was reiterated throughout workshops in the kitchen and everyone understood the standards to withhold on the day of our event.
Organising and preparing the event is an essential part as without efficient preparation, we will fail to meet guest's expectations. We were given our roles for the night e.g. front of house, kitchen, bar, raffle organisers, runners. I was placed on bar due to experience within my job as a bartender in Cardiff outside of University. As part of this process, we finalised shopping lists, allocated job roles, prepared 4 week plans leading up to our event, created bar and kitchen set up and clean down plans and made visual map layouts of where everything will be placed on the event day.
Implementing the event was successful with a turn out of more than 55 guests, more than anticipated as some bought tickets on the door. There were staff near the door so guests were immediately greeted with a welcome. Canapes were served hot and delivered fairly early so guests wouldn't become hungry. The bar was constantly busy from start to finish with a total of £708.50 from guests. There were multiple people from our group ensuring guests were enjoying their time whilst also cleaning by picking up litter and empty glasses. All guests seemed to enjoy the DJ we had hired and our raffle at the end
Divestment is the last stage in Shone and Parry's model which is giving feedback on the event. The most successful part of our event was the fact all guests said they were enjoying themselves. The set up was successful with a large red carpet, photo opportunity and free prosecco upon arrival. The actual event was also successful, the bar never ran out of our classic 'THE cocktail' and the service was quick and efficient. Canapes were served hot and there were a substantial amount. We sold 10 bottles of prosecco meaning guests wanted to interact with prosecco pong and we witnessed them enjoying this activity. The improvements we could have made to our event are designating more people to be runners, picking up empty glasses and litter to make the event space cleaner, premixing more cocktails before the event started as the demand for these were huge, adding one more activity as the prosecco pong table was sometimes crowded with people waiting. The skills and knowledge I have learnt from this module are how to set up lighting and sound equipment, becoming a better team player through working with different people in order to find resolutions, how to set up a table correctly, better communication skills, food hygiene information, how to work with different personality types within a team. I feel our event was overall successful due to the guest's feedback and how efficiently everything ran on the night e.g., quick service of bar and food.
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