Week 20: Mega Monday Event

The second event night had a theme called “Mega Monday” and marketed itself as a beach event.

The group had an initial setback when the volleyball net they had planned to use proved unavailable for the night. The group used their innovative skills to create a net out of chairs and still have beach volleyball games available throughout the night. As a result of this, the group struggled to have the event ready on time. The group had not established a set plan for setup nor a schedule for the evening. 

As a result, when confronted with a minor setback, the group members encountered difficulty planning around it while still having the other parts of the setup go smoothly. Consequently, some of the decorating was rushed, as it took some time to inflate all of the props and find a proper place for them. 

Still, the event was adequately ready when guests began to arrive.

The group offered guests a twenty percent discount on their drinks and had a live DJ to get the party-goers dancing. The guests at the event found the volleyball setup unusual and were intrigued, resulting in many students participating in the event. 

Several of the group members had high self-efficacy, which lead to outgoing recruitment during the event. Throughout the night, group members walked around the campus to encourage their fellow students to attend the event. When they encountered students who were on their way to night clubs, they emphasized their event’s drink discounts, games, and dancing, and thus, they persuaded many students to go to the theme night event before heading out to the night clubs. The group was able to get around a hundred guests to come to their theme night.

After both events, students were largely satisfied with their accomplishments. The instructor noted that the two events had very similar themes and could have likely been more successful if groups had differentiated themselves more. In future runnings of the module, the instructors will ensure that groups hold events that are varied in theme and encourage students to think outside the box, while being careful to allow students the autonomy to concoct their own ideas. 

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Week 19: Hawaiian Night Event

The first event night was entitled “Hawaiian Night” and took place on a Monday night in late March. Half of the group arrived early and set up the event, moving tables, putting up decorations, and organizing the lights and speakers. The venue looked the part and was ready by the time the guests started to arrive.  

The students running the event had encouraged fancy dress for guests and each guest was given a lei as they entered the venue. The night was complimented by beach party music and beach-themed party games. Games included hula-hoop competitions, a piñata, and limbo, and the student organizers offered guests prizes that included drink vouchers for use that evening. The bar prepared a variety of specialty beach themed cocktails for purchase that were popular with the  approximately 80 people who attended the event.  

The group had negotiated with a local pizzeria for a discount on Hawaiian pizza, which was delivered during the event and provided free of charge throughout the night. The group had also negotiated with a local night club to subsidize the cost of taxis to take party-goers to the club after the event.

The running of the event could have benefited from a group leader or event manager who coordinated the happenings behind the scenes. Once the event was underway, it was clear that students knew their roles but there lacked a cohesion to everyone’s operation.  Nevertheless, overall, the event was a success and the students who came to the theme-night clearly enjoyed the activities.

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Week 18: Final Event Preparation

The final session before the students hosted their themed event night was used to ensure groups were prepared for their event and that their expectations matched those of the instructors and the venue manager.

Each group met separately with both the manager of the event venue and with the instructor to review the planned timeline of the groups’ events and allow for any last minute questions or clarifications. Groups discussed with the manager when they would have access to the venue, and the layout of the room and its available furniture and electrical outlets, and plans for loading and unloading equipment for the night. The meetings were held in the venue so students could better visualize how they would set up their event. Some groups had not yet accounted for the specific dimensions of the venue, so the meeting proved very valuable for planning purposes. In addition to the logistics discussion, everyone completed a risk assessment to and ensure the groups’ plans complied with health and safety requirements.

Afterwards, the students had the opportunity to put their presentation and ‘elevator pitch’ skills to the test. The venue manager was open to ideas from the students to help them promote their event by providing discounts on refreshments and vouchers for free drinks. The venue manager listened to each group’s pitch, based on their market research, and decided what promotions he would make available according to how successful he thought the group’s night would be and how much revenue would come into the venue.

The session was also an opportunity for the instructor to ensure that each group was moving towards final stages of their event preparation and they were applying the principles they had learned. The instructor pushed students to reflect on what they had accomplished, what still needed to be done, and how they would pull everything together for a successful event. The instructor gently pointed out any weaknesses he saw in the group’s plans so they could be addressed prior to the event. For example, one group had not yet acquired all their resources because, while they had agreed in principal on the division of this task, they had no strong group leadership to ensure everyone was on task. The groups became uneasy when they realized how much work was left and the instructor encouraged them to focus on the tasks and management so they could bring everything together. This reflection time also served the purpose of providing a head start on their final assignment—composing critical reflections of their progress throughout the semester.

This session was the most difficult stage of the module for the instructors. Checking on the groups required assertive suggestions and questions, as groups were initially reluctant to go into detail and reveal the gaps that still existed in their plans. The main problem stemmed from a lack of leadership and open communication within groups to ensure that everyone was accomplishing their assigned tasks. In future courses, the instructor would spend more time discussing details and would ensure that the role of the group leader/manager was emphasized during the module before the event planning began.

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Weeks 16 and 17: Event Preparation and Marketing

During the sixteenth and seventeenth sessions, students began enacting their business plans.

Session 16 saw the students deciding what their key tasks and course of action would be in the implementation of their business plans. Each of the groups spent a portion of the session discussing their plan (handed in the previous week) with the instructor. The groups were then asked to plan a Gannt Chart of their upcoming tasks that included the order in which they needed to be enacted and their relative importance. During this activity, both groups realized the importance of viewing marketing activities as a main priority.  The instructors provided support (when needed) with determining the best path forward for planning, budgeting, and designing their marketing and advertising strategies.

During Session 17, each group met separately with the instructors to report on their progress.  They continued to prepare their marketing strategies and continued to move their plans and projects forward. Both groups marketed their events online and offline; however, each group differed in their target audience and the personal and public networks utilized to disseminate their marketing materials.

Students benefitted from guidance when taking marketing plans from concept to implementation. Instructors reminded students to refer to their business plans to ensure the marketing of their events was coherent and supported the overall goals of their venture.

Having completed their business plans, some students believed the majority of the decisions and work had been completed and were initially overwhelmed at the amount of work still needed to enact the business plan. The delegation of tasks within the groups helped quell anxieties as groups divided the work and each had their own portion for which they were accountable. Lastly, some marketing material had to be redesigned as it was deemed inappropriate by an outside party. This provided a valuable lesson on considering not only the core audience, but also investors and stakeholders when marketing a business venture.  

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Weeks 14 and 15: Writing Business Plans

During the fourteenth and fifteenth sessions, the instructors aimed to help students understand the importance of writing business plans and their crucial components, as well as how to write and present them effectively. 

Session 14 began with a discussion on the importance of developing clear, concise, and sound business plans. The instructor emphasized the important role a business plan plays in developing and setting up new enterprises and ventures. The lecture also highlighted key areas of the business plans and the unique circumstances entrepreneurs face when developing their business plans.  

The remainder of the session was dedicated to group work. The instructor distributed a handout detailing the standard format of a business plan and briefly discussed how the class might apply the session to their enterprises under development for the second assignment. The session knitted together the concepts the students had learned in previous sessions, as those skills and activities completed in previous sessions could be incorporated into a holistic business plan for their upcoming event. 

Students worked with their teams to strategize a timeline for the composition of their event’s business plan. They were given three weeks to organize and draft the plans. Each group would need to hand in its plan and have it approved before the students could proceed with planning their events and making any purchases necessary for organizing, marketing, and running them. While students worked, instructors were available to provide support and answer questions as needed. They encouraged students to view the business plan as an opportunity to plan how to best use their resources. 

Session 15 was less structured and provided an opportunity for groups to continue to develop their plans. Instructors were available during the session to respond to any questions or concerns while the groups worked.

Students initially struggled with understanding how the different elements of the business plan linked together and supported each other to make a sound final product.  Instructors dedicated extra time to each group to discuss how the elements of their plans could come together. By working together and with the instructors and applying the concepts directly to their assignments, students were better able to conceptualize business plan as a whole rather than a sum of its pieces. 

Instructors also gently encouraged students to assign leadership positions within the groups. They reminded the students to think about their individual skills and talents and encouraged them to delegate tasks according to these elements. In future occurrences of this module, instructors will have students discuss role assignments earlier in the process. The groups would be able to use their time more efficiently on the tasks at hand during the group work sessions. 

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Week 13: Proposal Presentations

For the thirteenth session, each of the two groups presented its event-night proposal separately to the event venue manager. Like the previous week, this session was divided into two periods, each assigned to one group, to give each group the opportunity to discuss their project ideas freely and have the full attention of the instructors.

Following the presentations, the venue manager provided feedback regarding the suitability of their ideas for the venue and suggesting solutions to potential pitfalls. The Instructor then offered some practical advice and handouts for writing formal business plans, and each group spent the remainder of their assigned time period working on the development of its business plan. The instructor encouraged the groups to spend their time ensuring everyone in the group knew his individual responsibility towards writing the business plan, as the following week there would be no taught session or content and the remainder of the work (final drafting of the business plan) would be done outside of class.

The aim of the session was give students a chance to elicit feedback from the manager of the venue location. The presentations also gave the students practical experience pitching their ideas and plans to a business manager.

This session proved valuable feedback and guidance to both groups. They were able to better understand the expectations of the event venue manager, which took the project from an abstract assignment on paper to a tangible event that they could visualize. Students left the session excited to finalize their event plans. 

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Week 12: Enterprise Development Session

The twelfth session was dedicated to applied group work on the themed event for the second assignment. The session was divided into two periods, and the two groups met separately during a specific time slot given by the instructors.

While in class, groups further developed their concepts and plans for their upcoming themed student-night event. They were also tasked with preparing a brief presentation ("elevator pitch") on their theme night plans, to be presented the during the following week's session to the manager of the event venue. The presentations included event details so the manager would have the opportunity to confirm that the ideas were suitable and that the venue could accommodate their plans. To assist with the preparation of the presentations, instructors gave each group a form to fill out that outlined their proposals, which was collected at the end of the session.

The overall aim of the session was to have students apply what they had learned throughout the first eleven sessions and to begin making solid outlines for their events and develop product pitches. It was also an opportunity for students to ask questions as they delved into the planning process.

While groups worked together, the instructors noted that some students had difficulty coming to a consensus and moving forward with plans. Groups were given a period of time to manage and organize their ideas, and if it appeared that a group was ‘stuck’, instructors stepped in as needed to moderate. 

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