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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