An Anti-Bullying Campaign Event Hosted by Savoir Faire Event - Research Paper Example

Introduction In this paper an anti-bullying campaign event will be critiqued and evaluated over. It also comprises of a self reflection, an assessment of stakeholder feedback and an over view of application of techniques used in the delivery of the event. Event Review The paper is about an anti-bullying campaign event hosted by Savoir Faire Event. The Event was held on the 11th April 2012. The aim was to bring an awareness campaign of bullying in the School playground, Colleges, Universities, Cyber and bullying in the work place. However the main objective was to educate children and adults of the consequences of bullying other people and how it affects the lives of their victims and families. The event also highlighted five main fact of bullying: The firstly, is that people that bully are also victims themselves, because they might have been bullied at home by their parents, siblings or partners. The secondly, bullying at work is very hard to define, because a manager that bullies his/her employee will scream and shout when they want a particular task done instead of asking politely, but when the employee accuses the manager of bullying the manager will say that the employee is incompetence at his/her job. Thirdly, cyber bullies cannot be seen as they hack into their victims Face book or Twitter account to torment them over and over again by posting awful messages about them and sending it viral over the internet. Fourthly, student that suffer bullying are most likely to commit suicide, which has now become an epidemic worldwide and finally, victims of bullying are withdrawn from society, develop low self-esteem, become paranoid, stressed and depressed. Event Management Principles used in the event plan: There are a lot of companies out there today hosting and organizing events regularly. These companies range from small time private events to large scale international events. The larger events do happen but they are rare and the returns of the big events are incredible. The anti-bullying campaign hosted by Savoir Fair Event was one of its kinds though it was a small scale event. The first and basic principle of a successful event is co-ordinate. It is very important things in an event to be extremely well-co-ordinate. (Allen, 2005) The co-ordination part comes from stage one. This is one it is important to get the act together and ensure that all orders are in hand, the entire plan is made well before time and a comprehensive report has been submitted it in by the event manager covering all finances, operational and feasibility aspects of the event plan. As said in event management literature (Monroe, 2005)  “Event Management is the application of the management practice of project management to the creation and development of Festivals and events “ (Berridge, 2006) At Savoir Fair Event we did their ground work before hand so we were good on their co-ordination. The plans were put before hand so everyone was aware of what was expected of the event and of each of them. By doing this we were able to asses our budget. Thus we had a clear idea of what the returns of the event would be in the process. We were also issued with a plan of the event had to broaden their research by contacting some organizations such as Beat Bullying, Bullying Busters and Newham domestic violence. Two of the organizations that we contacted attended the event and gave a brief presentation, offered advice to those that needed it and assured the guest to feel free to contact their organization at any time and not to suffer in silence. Thus from co-ordination point of view we were prepared and well co-ordinate. We ensured that our guests did not suffer in silence and the purpose of the event was also fulfilled at the same time. Not just this, we had also chalked out the event schedule and timeline before hand. We also added a bit of fun and jazz in the event to ensure that the audience was gripped into the event throughout the course of the event. In order to add fun to the event we arranged for the event we invite students from St Martin’s High School dance performance’s Speaker (Gil Robinson), Comedian (Miraculous), Monologue (Christine) artist, 1st Poety (Jordan), Singer (Lola) 2nd Poetry (Toyosi) and two poetry who review all what bullying is all about, guitarist and a comedian. We also use gantt chart for our time management and SWOT and PESTEL to analyse the external and internal factor that can affect the success of the Savoir Faire event plan. Thus we went on field well prepared and in complete command of what was expected of us and what was expected of our guests. Appraisal of Application of Techniques used in the Event: Marketing of the Event:   Event promotions are very important as they trigger awareness, spread the word and attract crowds. The promotion of different events is different depending on the nature of the event. A special event could be hosted in order to promote a certain product or to draw attention towards that product. Similarly an event could be promoted to spread awareness about a social cause like in the case of Savoir Fair Event. Marketing tools used for promoting every event varies and could be from a range of events. A multi-national could conduct a general promotion campaign for an event they want to host. As every event has a certain shelf life and various risks involved event managers need to ensure that they are all aware of all risks and all tools of promotions have been used to their complete potential. It is important to understand that the audience’s only reference point for the event is the promotion. It does not have any other reference point so it only has to depend on it. In the case of repeat events, the audience slowly and gradually starts getting an idea of the type of the event, the venue and scale of the event. For some special events, the promotion of the event is very strongly linked to the past reputation of the company, the sponsors of the event and the stakeholders involved. (Raj, 2008) The turnout of Savoir Fair event was good which meant that tools of promotion were very effectively used in the marketing of the event. People poured in crowds and enjoyed the event thoroughly as they got to see what they expected. Operational Techniques used in the event Operations are very critical for an event’s success. Unless operations are properly organized and executed, the event can never be successful. It is thus very important to channelize all operations of an event accordingly. At the Savoir Faire event the events manager used and the resources were very skilled. It is important for the events manager to harness the available human capital to its complete potential in order to achieve the desired objectives of the event and in order to avoid the event from being a complete failure. At the end of the day it is all about team work and any evaluation on the success of the event has to be based on the efficiency and effectiveness of group leadership and teamwork. As everyone associated in the planning and management of the event was a volunteer, a team is “a psychological group whose members have a common goal that they pursue collaboratively. Members can only succeed or fail as a whole and all share benefits and costs of collective success or failure” The basic premise of a team is that the commitment they share to pursue a task is common. At Savoir Faire all the basic techniques of operations in event planning were used. During the planning stage of the 5 major fact of bullying, every member of the team was given a particular task to perform. The team identified four main tasks of event coordination; human resources management; budgeting and financial plan and marketing coordination. The job of the event manager was to organize the venue, video and camera man, entertainment, health and safety issues, chef, Liaison with the student union, sponsors and charities. (Voss, 1985) Assessment of Group Leadership and Teamwork: As the Human Resource Manager I compiled the lists of volunteer, poster, flyer, t-shirt, ticketing and sign post, decorations financing provided training; implemented the marketing plan. After the identification of the functions necessary for the achievement of the group task, the functions were written on pieces of paper and folded for each team member to pick and reveal the task picked. Therefore, the team roles were based on the balloting approach used rather than on the basis of individual choices or abilities. The step by the team in defining the specific functions relevant to the common task represented a right step towards the right direction. The successful planning and implementation of an event is deeply rooted from the ability of the event organizers in ensuring that clear definitions of the members of the team are defined. (Allen, 2005) The need for the assignment of roles to team members is based on the belief that everyone has something to contribute to the team .Every member of the team is unique and has a specific skill that is important for the success of the team and for the overall achievement of the team objectives. To avoid conflict and deficit the need to first identify the skills and professional abilities of the individual members of the team we ensure that volunteers were chosen with the right profiles and given the right tasks to perform their duties to enable them to use skills and abilities and then use them to allocate responsibilities. This is what may have caused series of conflicts during the planning and implementation stages as team members continued to swap roles at different stages of the group task. At a certain stage, it nearly resorted to the use of physical strength to resolve team role issues as some team members did not take lightly the roles that they picked during the open ballot. The personal inventory theory theorizes that people think reason and respond differently and based on their different personalities. Financial Evaluation of the event: The financial screen “examines whether the event organisation has sufficient financial commitment, sponsorship and revenue to undertake the event. The first step in this process is to decide whether the event needs only to break even or whether it is required to make a profit for the host organisation. The Immaculate Mellow, Brasserie Express, Fadiga & Co, UEL Student Union and Events Music Management society who were the sponsors and clients provided the sum of £700. Total revenue that was realised amounted to £1000 the total expenditure was £1,264.86, a net operating profit of £250.00 Prior to the commencement of the event, the team had sought ways to maintain financial prudence especially with the limited fund provided by the sponsors. This was resolved through the sale of tickets in advance to raise the additional funds required to pay up major expenses fundamental to the hosting and success of the event. Therefore, using the financial screen to evaluate the extent to which the Team had sufficient financial commitment to undertake the event, it can be said that there was sufficient fund as the result of our financial prudence. Furthermore, the team sought to ensure the future growth of savoir Faire Event generating profit. The fact that at the end of the anti-bullying event, the team earned a profit of £250.00 and raised the awareness of anti-bullying campaign showed that the fourth event objective was achieved. Although through the use of the three event concept screens, out team achieved the 5 main objectives it set in the process of planning and hosting of the Savoir Faire Event. Every event has is downsize which we use as a learning tool for future event. For instance, the area that was not taken into consideration was the additional lighting for the room however video man as extra light which we use to brighten up the room. Secondly, the chef did not turn up; however we heard both light snacks the day before the event which the guest enjoyed, the printers could not print the logo on the T-Shirt used by the team however the team find an alternative printing method to get the logo printed on the t-shirt. During the initial planning stages of the Savoir Faire Event, the major focus of the Team was those who were directly involved in the event such as the sponsors, Audience and the suppliers. Even though the event was meant to promote Anti bullying, the event would have been used to further the collaborative working between the UEL and the Newham Borough of East London and also the wider social environment. In addition to the furthering cohesive community, the event may have earned higher profit for the UEL through the tickets by responsible members of the society and other of the Newham Community who reside close to the university. Stakeholder feedback Once the event was over a review was undertaken in which people were asked to evaluate the event. All the audience that was in the event acknowledged that apart the event was full of fun it was also heard a positive impact of the awareness of bullying. Also similar oral assessment was posed to members of staff of University of East London and volunteers who contributed in the event, all agreed that they had fun and that they would be willing to attend in consequent bullying event in the future. The result is to pursue the views of the families, friend, sponsors, students and staff of the University of East London and volunteers is mainly due to the belief that as stakeholders they are in a better position to assess the outcomes. Hence, by means of the marketing screen as an end of event evaluation to determine whether the event make positive impact, was attractive, inviting and full of fun, responses from the various stakeholders indicated that the 5 main facts that was discuss at the event uplifting and brought more awareness of various types of bullying. This means that the event attained the objectives of creating fun, educating, awareness, promoted the understanding and different types of bullying that may occur in various wellbeing of the stakeholders, positive and productive manner. Although the views of the stakeholders suggested that the event was a success and able to achieve those respective desired outcomes, the fact that such responses were arbitrarily collected questions the reliability and validity of the research opinion with regards to the outcome Self-reflection on your personal performance as an events manager Being involved in the planning and implementation of the Savoir Faire Event provided me with a great opportunity to work as a team and to take on team leadership wherever the need arose. Although I had participated in various group works prior to this event, the planning and hosting of the anti bullying event provided me with a more practical and real world scenario of how to plan and implement events in a team had almost nothing in common except the outcome of the academic result. It is arguably clear that every individual has different uniqueness; our team seemed to me to be highly joint in that we rarely disagreed on any issue. Despite the tensions in the group and we are two in the team we apply appropriate team roles theory, by participating in the team and assisted each other in very area this has help me in acquiring the skill of team working. As a future event management professional, I will come in contact with people from varied social cultural backgrounds and who may not necessarily be in the same or similar school of thought with me or who may not share my views on issues. The way that the team roles were allocated and the differences in personalities created a good working environment on various occasions that we met. Although in my previous group, I had shared the unitary view of conflict as bad due to its potential in having a negative effect on the progress of a team or completion of a task, my view was about conflict has changed since the completion of the team task and successful hosting of Savoir Faire Event. My view about conflict at present is that of the interactions which sees conflict as a positive and necessary force that drives effective performance. In my future career as a professional events planner and manager, participating in the planning and implementing of the Savior Faire Event will enable me to anticipate conflict among members of the team and to plan ahead on how to make positive use of the conflict to achieve the goals of the team. I did not apply the interactions view of conflict during the process of the event as I was also embroiled in the conflict as well hence it was not possible for me to make a positive use of the conflict for the benefit of the team. Even though I was not part of the conflict resolution team, my major focus during the planning and implementation of the Anti-bullying event was to produce a successful event. Having to work as Human resources which were overwhelmingly accepted by the members of the team, my next and subsequent tasks were to source found volunteers, and make sure all staff were happy and satisfy. When differences were detected among one of the volunteers, he was called side and the problem was soft through good communication. Conclusion: In this paper an anti-bullying campaign event will be critiqued and evaluated over. It also comprises of a self reflection, an assessment of stakeholder feedback and an over view of application of techniques used in the delivery of the event. Although I do not intend to work as human recourses during the teamwork, however the skills that I have acquired as the result of participating in the team that successfully hosted the Savoir Faire Event will assist me in future to take up such position in my future professional career as an events planner and manager. REFERENCES: Berridge, G. (2006) Event Design and Experience. 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