Harmony University Thesis

Megan Hall

Event Planning Portfolio

Sport Corporate Leisure The three main sectors for event planning are sport, corporate and leisure. Sport events are not just competitions, sports events have an exhilaration aspect which displays incredible skills. Not only this, but they are also fun, and these are tournaments, championships and organised games. Corporate events consist of team meetings, which are often informative with a fun aspect that is often used within the workplace and conferences. Leisure events often consist of things such as festivals, concerts, films, or even just being with friends.

Unit 1 Outcome 1

Unit 1 Outcome 1

Unit 1 Outcome 2

Purpose and Type of event Mine and Jodie's event plan falls in the leisure sector. We would like to create a Christmas themed prom for all students to attend. This is because a lot of people did not attend their proms in secondary school, and unlike sixth form college students don't receive a prom at the end of the year. Event Partners Originally, the event idea has come from Jodie and I, however if we are deemed with the best idea by the panel, we will then be joined by the rest of the class in enforcing this idea. However, not only will it be our class enforcing this, but we have also reached out to the Miskin Theatre and asked whether we could use their space to carry out our event. However, at this time it has not yet been confirmed. Budget Overview We have not yet settled on an exact figure; however, we are aware that this event will not be costly. We can provide speakers where the music for the event will be played from, and if our request to use the theatre is approved then we will not have to hire a location for the event either. Therefore, our budget will cover food, decorations, and beverages. This money will also be made back quickly due to charging students £5-£10 per ticket to attend the prom. Timeline As our event is Christmas themed and likely to occur after college hours, we would like to propose our event to take place on the 10th of December 2023. This falls on the last Friday of the term before we break up for the Christmas break. We have asked this event to take place from 6pm-10pm. Physical and Human resources required. Physical resources will consist of the speakers, food, beverages, and decorations. Human resources would be required more. If our idea was to be successful, we would ask each of our classmates to contribute different things, whether that be decorations, playlists, or more speakers that we can connect to one another. Target Audience Our target audience is specifically designed for the students who attend NKC Tonbridge, however we can account for students to bring an extra paying person as their "date" however a list of these people will be made to ensure that there will be enough space. Promotional Activities To promote our event, we will make creative posters that we can put around the college, as well as send members of our class to different classrooms to notify everyone of what will be occurring and when. Our main way of doing this successfully is not only pitching this to the panel but to the students as well to create our event to be promoted through word-of-mouth.

Unit 1 Outcome 3

Despite being prepared for most things, there is always a chance things can go wrong. For example, if there were a fight within the event we would have to call the police, therefore this incident requires outside assistance from emergency services.

Our event is a formal ball therefore requiring a formal dresscode, therefore if we were to have attendees arrive in attire that does not meet the dresscode then we must have to ask them to leave. However this incident can be resolved through personnel working at the event.

Having a contingency plan allows event planners to prepare for potential risks that can occur during an event. A contingency plan is similar to a back-up plan, where alternate strategies and solutions are put in place, minimizing the effect of unexpected situations. Contingency plans provide security within an event, and can make an idea stronger and allow more confidence.

Unit 1 Outcome 4

To carry out a risk assessment you need to firstly identify potential hazards, which can cause harm or accidents. Then you need to assess the risks, evaluating the severity of each hazard. Then you must prioritize the risks and implement damage control ensuring that if the risks are too severe they're eliminated, and other risks that aren't as severe are closely watched and have ways to be minimized.

Not only does incorporating health and safety requirements into our plan provide a safe environment for everyone, by following these guidelines accidents can be prevented, risks can be minimized, and hazards can be addressed. Risk assessments, first-aid provisions, and adhering to fire safety regulations prioritizes the risks and allows safety regulations to be followed efficiently.

If you don't follow security measures efficiently it puts the attendees at risk, and can encourage potential threats. Especially since our event is taking place within college, we need to ensure that a secure environment is in place. We can do this by only allowing people who can prove that they have a ticket. Similarly, as suggested earlier any plus ones will also need to be ticket holders and have their names on a list. We can then determine who is and isn't meant to be there. Security measures will play a big role within our risk assessment.

Unit 1 Outcome 5

Organisers – As an organiser a post event evaluation can help determine what they are doing well and what they can improve on. They can make changes where needed, such as health and safety or security measures. Performers and participants - If participants give an evaluation of an event it helps the organisers to understand what type of sponsors/acts should be used again and how their communication and teamwork skills are. Audience/Spectators - Event evaluation from an audiences' perspective can help an organiser understand aspects of the event that they enjoyed and also the parts where they can improve so the next event can improve and attract a wider audience. Event partners – Event partners can evaluate whether they will make a return on their investment, this is where they can justify further events in the future.

Evaluating an event can help you understand the success of rate of your event, as well as comparing them to your previous goals, you can understand where you could've made tweaks and therefore make changes in an event you may hold in the future to ensure a more successful run. You can understand your strengths and weaknesses in which you can apply your strengths to later circumstances, and improve on your weaknesses to apply them as strengths.

Evaluation is information that has been interpreted often giving a meaning of a prediction of an event. Evaluation is often a process of assessing what you do and how you do it.

Unit 2 Outcome 1

Staff debrief – A meeting held after am event where members of staff can reflect on their personal experiences, strengths, and weaknesses. Customer satisfaction/complaints - Customer satisfaction surveys/complaints allow a valuable evaluation of an event through providing direct feedback from people who have actually experienced the event. Event revenue – Event revenue helps with evaluation reflecting the financial success of their event, with more revenue it proves that the event was more successful. Data records - Data records are solid acts and figures so in the evaluation process it is a perfect way to figure out what works well and what doesn't.

Setting objectives to measure evaluation helps you to measure the effectiveness and success of an event. With set, defined goals you can set smaller tasks in order to meet these targets. If you set objectives you can assess the impact and engagement on the audience of your event.

Unit 2 Outcome 2

Online surveys are a way that business owners/event holders can send a type of questionnaire out to both their customers, attendees, and staff. These surveys have easy access and can be found via links, QR codes, or emails. Social media feedback such as polls are also a great way of to receive feedback from attendees, these are often created through Instagram stories, Twitter posts, or Facebook posts. Attendees can also leave comments on posts, or even direct message the event holder allowing real-time communication and feedback.

SWOT analysis – A swot analysis both identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, it also focuses on the internal and external factors. Questionnaires – With a questionnaire you can learn the attendees thoughts and feelings, how they heard about it and what they enjoyed most. Interviews – Interviews allow a detailed insight to the strengths and weaknesses of your event, as well as expectations and satisfaction.

Formal feedback is usually received in a professional manner, such as written reports and surveys, often being quite detailed. Informal feedback is often given in a more casual way such as through conversations, emails, or even social media.

Unit 2 Outcome 3

Unit 2 Outcome 4 Evaluation

Our strengths within the Christmas event we hosted were our skills to adapt. The whole class had to come together to create an event that another team had created. This led to all of us having to adapt in different roles and adjust to the job we were given. We worked in teams that we hadn’t necessarily worked with before proving our resilience to tasks that are out of our comfort zone. Equally, we all put in the effort to contribute to the production of the event, whether that was sticking to the theme and wearing pyjamas, or bringing blankets, pillows, food, or films. Through this we all managed to carry out the event despite the nerves that we felt to begin with. Our weaknesses were finding difficulty in finding a person to carry out payments, it was quite a boring job and on top of that due to the nerves and potentially being in groups we do not work with efficiently we ended up finding ourselves losing our professional side. We didn’t carry out the event as though we were hosting, instead we took part in the activities that were occurring, which added to us losing our professional side. In the future, if we were to do this event again, I think job roles should be assigned more specifically based on our strengths and skills. With an event it is ideal that things run smoothly, it is not the time for trial nor error. However, due to all of us being pushed out of our comfort zone we were all made to feel anxious therefore not fulfilling our roles to the best of our ability. Similarly, with our roles not being specific, this lead to cause the professionalism to drop.

Potential target audience in:Sporting: A football match for familiesCorporate: A meeting for employeesLeisure: A rave for teenagers

Identifying competing events prior to your event is a cruicial part of event planning. You are able to adjust your plans, avoid clashes, as well as stand out from your competitors. This is a strategic way to generate the biggest audience, or maximize sales.

Initial market research plays an important role in order to understand your audience, identify trends, as well as make informed decisions.

Unit 3 Outcome 1

Advertisement and direct marketing would be the best way to promote our event, we can apply decorative emails to everyone in the college who is our target market. And apply posters all around the college.

• Advertisement
• Sales Promotion
• Public Relations
• Direct Marketing

Product - Our "product" is a Christmas Ball, similar to a prom.Price - We would ask for £170 to ensure decorations, food, music, and entertainment is covered and charge £5 per ticket.Place - We would hold our event in the Miskin Theatre in our college in order to save money on a venue.Promotion - To promote we would have posters, as well as advertise through the college website.

Marketing Mix for our event

Importance of materials when promoting an event is being able to actually initially entice people into attending the event.

Importance of equipment is what runs the whole event, without equipment there is no event.

Importance of staffing when promoting an event is due to being able to ensure enough support ensuring the smooth-running of an event.

Importance of budget when promoting an event is being able to source a detailed forecast of your events finances.

Importance of time when promoting an event is due to ensuring you reach the right people/ amount of people in the correct timing.

4 main ways of promotion are advertisement,sales promotion, pubic relation, and direct Marketing.

The marketing mix consists of the '4 P's': product, promotion, Place, and price. These are the 4 key elements when it comes to marketing a product.

Unit 3 Outcome 2

Promotion Methods: Advertising and direct marketing.Resources: Entertainment, food, beverages, prizes.

Unit 3 Outcome 3

Marketing Plan

Target audience: Our target audience is all college students, but only students who attend NKC. Competition: Our main competition is everybody else in our classes ideas, we must be able to give strong reasons, and a well developed plan in order to prove our event is the best option.Marketing Mix: Product - Our "product" is a Christmas Ball, similar to a prom.Price - We would ask for £170 to ensure decorations, food, music, and entertainment is covered and charge £5 per ticket.Place - We would hold our event in the Miskin Theatre in our college in order to save money on a venue.Promotion - To promote we would have posters, as well as advertise through the college website.

Jodie and I would be managing the event, therefore our roles and responsibilities would consist of the safety of all attendees and staff, as well as ensure all staff members are following rules and regulations. We will also need to have a detailed plan, as well as carry out a risk assessment to ensure we can keep incidents to as minimal as possible.

Attendees and external factors to our event

Photography/Art

Dance/Music

Our class

Jodie

Me

Marcia

Management Structure for our Event

While managing an event, there is a lot of things going on at the same time. You need to plan the event, coordinate vendors, manage budgets, oversee logistics, carry out a risk assessment and put health & safety precautions in place, as well as ensure everything runs smoothly on the day.

Roles & Responsibilities of managing an event

Management structures are in place to ensure operations run smoothly and are a lot more effective. If your staffing is structured efficiently, you are covered support-wise as well as if any risks occur.

Management Structure

Key skills for event management:- Organization- Communication- Problem-solving-Multitasking- Creativity

Skills needed to manage an event

Unit 4 Outcome 1

Teamwork, especially while running an event, is cruicial. Having good teamwork promotes efficiency, distributes workload, promotes diverse ideas, makes problem-solving faster.

Music department - for live music.Dance department - for entertainment purposes.Photography department - to take pictures.

Value of teamwork

Functions of teams involved

Unit 4 Oucome 2

Event personnel - handle logistics, assist guests, manage security, coordinate with vendors, oversee the events schedules.Volunteers - they assist with setup, cleanup, registration, guiding guests, help with promotional activities. Contracted persons - they may be caterers, security personnel, decorators, and entertainers, therefore their responsibilities being defined by their contract.Event partners - provide services in exchange for exposure, providing goods/services, or help with marketing.

Roles and responsibilities of the following at an event:

Unit 4 Outcome 3

Our event would've consisted of everyone in the class having main roles and responsibilities, therefore we would have 19 personnel required. The main job roles would be organisers, and decorators.Skills needed in these job roles:Organisers- Planning- Multitasking- Problem-solving- CommunicationDecorators- Design skills- Creativity- Attention to detail- Communication-Problem-solving skills.

Personnel at our event

Unit 4 Outcome 3

Verbal - coordinating tasks, updates changes, ensure everyone on the same page.

Debriefing personnel after the event allows feedback, identification of what works well, and improvements.

Briefing personnel before an event ensures that everybody involved in the event knows their roles, responsibilities, expectations, and timeline.

Role of communication

Unit 5 Outcome 1

To ensure there is no discrimination when holding an event, event organisers can promote inclusivity through: clear anti-discrimination policies, providing accessibility for all, and ensuring there is a diverse group working among the team.

Discrimination

Discrimination is the act of treating a person unfairly based oncharacteristics such as: race, gender, age, religion, or disability

• Equal Pay Act 1970
• Sex Discrimination Act 1975
• Race Relations Act 1976
• Disability Discrimination Act 1995

Main pieces of legislation relating to equality of opportunity:

Equality of opportunity means giving everyone the same opportunities to succeed in life, regardless of things such as: background, race, or gender.

Equality of opportunity

Unit 5 Outcome 2

To ensure customer service standards are met at an event, effective training must be required beforehand, this way staff can be prepared for inquires, they can provide clear information, and address any issues that arise quickly and efficiently.

Customer service is the act of esuring customers are satisfied with product/service. Customer service is done through answering questions, solving problems, and being overall helpful. Having good customer service at an event enchances the atendees' experiences. This can then lead to promotions such as positive word-of-mouth. This not only increases the opportunity of the attendees returning to future events, but bringing more people with them too. At events in particular, they are often crowded spaces, therefore leading to things such as long queues. In order to minimize the amount of complaints about this you need to ensure employees move fast, as well as open up multiple different places i.e., if there is a long queue at a particular toilet show the attendees to another.

Unit 5 Outcome 3

Unit 5 Outcome 4

Our staff must be friendly and approachable, making attendees to the event feel comfortable to ask quieres or for help. Our staff must also hold good problem-solving skills, if an incident occurs they must be able to solve it promptly and with ease.Our staff must also be able to understand our event thoroughly i.e., what will occur and the reasoning behind our event such as the charity.To ensure all attendees feel included, there must be easily accessible enterances and exits for those who may be in a wheelchair.Once the event is concluded, it is always good to hold a place where feedback can be given and receieved. This will allow attendees to feel listened to, as well as allow room for improvement in future events.

Expected standards of customer service

Customer service is room 1 can easily be improved by being proactive and friendly. Staff can be trained to anticipate frequent questions or issues and be ready with solutions. Also, having a friendly and approachable demeaner can make a world of difference. Attendees should feel comfortable asking for help. Clear access to information, and prompt response to queries can also enhance the overall experience.

A common issue could be confusion about the event layout. Attendees might struggle to find specific booths or amenities. To overcome this, our event staff can provide detailed maps at the entrance (room 1), and have personnel stationed at each room to inform and guide attendees. Another useful solution is clear signage throughout the exhibition.

Customer service is key at any event, but even more important at our exhibition where it is both interactive and informative. If attendees can walk away from our exhibition feeling valued and heard, this will cause our exhibition to be an unforgettable one. If attendees walk away feeling fulfilled it creates a higher chance of them wanting to come back, therefore potentially creating a loyal client base. Good customer service will also be able to solve problems quickly and efficiently, ensuring that our exhibition runs smoothly.

However, there are two barriers that may occur when it comes to this room, this could occur with the deaf or the blind. Fortunately, we already have solutions for both. For the blind we offer a spoken explanation of what will occur in each room in depth, for the deaf we have the leaflets in which explain the same as what the colleague would be.

In room 1 we will hold a member of staff explaining our exhibition as well as logging how many people are entering the room so we can keep security measures up to date. Therefore, they will be using both verbal communication, and electronic communication to welcome our guests. Apon arrival, our colleague will be handing out leaflets which will explain what will be occurring in each room, this is also providing written communication.

Room 01

Communication & Customer Service

Customer service could be improved in this room by only allowing a small number of people into the room at a time, allowing a more intimate feel. Similarly, the staff who are in this room must be able to demonstrate excellent communication skills between themselves and others who may not have the same level of skill.

As previously mentioned there may be a lack of communication within this room which may flare up a few complaints from attendees as they may feel as though they are not getting the treatment required. To avoid this as much as possible, it is an innovative idea to ensure the member(s) of staff make rounds around the room, being available to attendees on a more one-to-one basis may make them feel more respected.

There are some barriers in this room, for example a lot of people suffer with mental health issues such as anxiety, which can cause interactive elements to be overwhelming for some people. Therefore, we have computers along the side which provide some theoretical information and questions to get a broader understanding of what has been learnt. A barrier can also be found if there is a large group within the room at once, it may be hard to ask questions therefore causing a lack of communication between the attendees and the members of staff. However, there will be rooms following with a ‘Q&A’ aspect in place, to ask questions they may have missed the opportunity to ask previously.

Despite communication being hard in this room, customer service skills would be essential here. It is important to constantly check on attendees and ensure they are comfortable. For example, the member of staff working within this room should make rounds of the room throughout the time spent in here asking people questions to make them feel more comfortable and included, as well as be friendly and humorous. This is down to it being an event, not a lecture, therefore it should be enjoyable.

In room 2 we have an interactive room, in this room there will be a member of staff demonstrating a hairstyle on a model in the middle of the room. Around the room there will be models seated for attendees to try themselves. Our form of communication will be both verbal and interactive. There will also be a projector to ensure that everybody can see close.

Room 02

Communication and Customer Service