eek one and two Back to the second year of the Event Management course. I can see a couple of familiar faces apart from the lecturer and a few new colleagues. Sheridan was our lecturer for this year. On the first week, he went through some of the topics that we would cover in this unit such as events as projects ref Tum et al., (2006), the 6 stages of Tum’s Event management model which are; define goals plus Target market, research CSF’s, determine s******s & resources Required, link s******s, resources to CSF’ and develop strategies and finalise plans. We also covered important aspects of risk management REF RISK MANAGEMENT. Risk and risk management although they are similar they have to be dealt in different ways. REF risk/risk mgnt I have learned that it allows organisations to control expected or unexpected situations, defining responsibilities, deadlines, identifying or minimising impacts, reducing response time and preventing recurrence of undesirable cases. Identifying and addressing risks of any nature that could negatively affect a company's business process may not be a very simple task. This activity requires prioritising actions according to relevance to the organisation's business processes, defining responsibilities and recording evidence. To be honest I had no idea how important the risk management at an event is until the day of our live event when we had a fire act but I will tell you more about that later. Ref We also had to start thinking about our event group. I was unsure if my previous group still wanted to be together. How about if I end up in a group where I do not feel confident enough to share my opinion? Ref confidence. I took a deep breath and turned back to them and asked if we would remain together. Sarah replied back ‘’ I think so’’ but I noticed that she was as confused as I was. We did a WBS (work break down structure) activity REF WBS. We basically had to place functions in boxes from the left to the right and think of the names of sub-groups of a list of things that need to be done in order and the same step for the sub-groups. The objective is to go from left to right until getting to ‘’tasks’. Reflecting back it was good that we did this exercise because it helped us breaking down all our event tasks in detail. The other activity that we did was about the V festival, why it has been V successful and what are the risks to the V Festival and Mega Event ref mega event. We were asked to think about the impacts of wider aspects of risk management towards our event. Think how the wider aspects of risk management and share with the class. Week three This week we covered the financial management of a business and at the end of the sessions it was clear that the success of a good company depends a lot on good finance management. ‘’ The most common deficiency I have identified in many event planners relates to the area of financial management.’’ (Goldblat 2011). An analysis of the financial situation, a detailed monitoring and also a good strategic planning. And for small businesses, this plan is even more important, even with lower billing (Goldblat 2011). Many small businesses and entrepren******s end up starting their business without sizing up how much they can spend and how much their budget is. Goldbalt 2007 p158 said: ‘’The budget represents an action plan that each successful event plan must carefully develop.’’ I understand the theory, the why it is important but when it comes to calculate the break-even point I struggle. At the end of the session we did some exercises to help us understand the break-even point and petty cash money. Hopefully it can help on our live event. Week four This week we were divided into groups to participate in an activity. We were part of a company who organise ‘’ The Rat Race’’ and we had to prepare a press release giving all information about the event that would take place in London in late September 2016. I was surprised to find out that my colleagues have a lot of imagination. A group used draw a rat to replace the word. What a great idea, why didn’t I think about that. We also did another exercise but this time about controlling ris at Leeds New Year’s Eve 2003. There are different definitions of ‘’Risk’’ REFERENCE RISK. Among other definitions risk is the probability of an event happening, it can be threat, when negative, or opportunity, when positive. It is the result obtained by the effectiveness of the hazard. The process of identifying risks is complex and should seek the knowledge of all. Team meetings can be used to discuss new risks and how what was planned is working (or not working). In addition, in the daily follow-up tasks, members should remember the critical points and dedicate to really understand what is happening. Time allotted in this is a valuable investment. Remembering if things go wrong the person that signed the form in to blame. The idea of risk management is to prevent incidents to happen and that is possible if the company keep track of all the necessary documentation and plan in response to each risk. REF RISK Week five On the first hour the lecturer asked us to reunite with our event group and do an exercise on what type of organisational culture would fit our event. My result was that my ideal organisational type is Hierarchy, it is characterised by rules and bureaucracies. I was surprised with the result because I would say that I am more a Clan type of organisation because of my personality. We started another exercise but this time it was to analyse the risk communication plan at the Radio 1 Love parade, BOWDIN, G., I. McDONNELL, J. ALLEN and W. O’TOOLE, 2010. 3rd ed. Events Management. Oxford: Elsevier (Pages 586-588). It was very sad watching a lot of people being crushed to death because of poor communication plan. It made me realise the importance of a good communication plan between all members of an event. Week seven The process of globalisation of the economy requires that companies (especially those with international operations, which have to deal with more complex scenarios), are prepared to quickly make decisions based on information that constantly changes and are influenced by several variables. In this way, the use of methods that facilitate the analysis of these scenarios in a short time is essential. A good way to analyse the external environment is thought PESTLE. Todays seminar was about the use of PESTLE and we did activities to practice. In groups we needed to do the The 2012 London Olympics: a PESTEL analysis. Some aspects were easier to analyse then others like environmental and economics. The second activity was about a disaster at a rock festival called RROSKILDE. This time it was much easier because we were familiar with the risk management plan already. The activity consisted in creating an effective plan fand share with the class. (based on a case study in Shone and Parry, 2013: pg229). We confirmed our group name. which was Solentice. Amy came up with this ideai to join solent+ apprentice she said that she saw something similar one on tv. It was a fresh name and easy to memorise so we all went for it. 16 After submitting our event manual we were ready to give each other’s a grade. We filled the peer’s assessment form and gave it to Sheridan. I had to be honest and give the grades accordingly to what I thought they did. The finance team were the ones that surprised me the most, I personally thought that they did a good job and deserved the grade I gave them. No more lectures – room/time used for event team meetings Week 21 - Finally, the day that we have been waiting for so long. I woke up at 7.30 o’clock in the morning to meet up with Bisi at 10 am. I allowed plenty of time because I live 45 minutes away from Southampton. I drove to Bisi’s apartment to help her because she had some decoration accessories that we needed to take to the venue. We had a long day awaiting us. We have arrived at the venue and as soon as we got in, we started setting up the chairs and the VIP tables, soon I had to leave because I needed to go to Grace’s house to collect her and the humpers and some more decoration stuff. By the time we went back to the venue it was already time to pick up one of the dancers from the station. It was 15.30 and everything seemed to go according to plan. The performers started rehearsing, each one had different requirements. I was the logistics on the day but Bisi was helping me as well. She was dealing with the tech guys and the host while I was dealing with the performers requirements. Time flew, it was 19.00 already. Guests started arriving. As soon as I saw the first one I knew it was happening. We were delivering our first live event. I could see everyone was as nervous as me. The performers were incredible, we had a champagne glass act and a fire act. Even though that the fire act performer had exoerience in the area I was still apprehensive. During her act I was holding a fire blanket behind the curtais and Grace was downstairs in from of the satage with an extinguisher just in case of any unexpected incident. Amy was our risk manager on the day, she did an excellent job identifying all the risks and ways to prevent them from happening. During the second part of the event I was backstage helping the performers getting ready and making sure that the schedule would be followed. The way everything was planned. The event was a success, it was ahead the schedule but our lecturer thought that it was better than finishing after the time set. Everyone seemed to like the event, we had good feedbacks on the host, performers and the atmosphere. Week - 23 Another evaluation between us. Although the event was a success we still had to go through this process of evaluating each others performance. The event was finished but there were many lessons learnt during this couple of months that we were together. On the day of the event I could see how everyone was trying their best to put up with a good event. They sure deserved a good gread. I was so happy to know that we raised 1200 for the Pink Ribbon Foundation. After the peers assessment Sheridan gave us the feedback from our event we showed him proofs that we had closed the account and transferred the money to the charity.