Contemporary Fashion Business

Finding the

venue

Finding the

VENUE

My personal Business plan, outlining my roles and responsibilities in the Project Comms Management team, to create a launch night which promotes the class of 2020

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Planning a memorable exhibition for the class of 2020.

The contemporary fashion business module aims to allow students to gain a deeper understanding of the business requirements needed to progress into a career within the fashion industry. As well as being an industry which is built on design, creativity and inspiration, marketing and business are also hugely integral aspects of it too, because this is what will help to sell the initial creative designs and concepts in the competitive realms of fashion communication. Contemporary fashion business is integrated as a way to gain knowledge on the key principles of business and production management, presentation, client handling and design practice within the Fashion industry. During this module, a number of essential skills will be refined including, event planning skills, team-work skills, negotiation skills, pitching skills and business professionalism skills; all of which come together to offer a strong entrepreneurial development for each individual involved.

The class of 2019 Launch Night

By working in teams and demonstrating each of these entrepreneurial skills, the Fashion Marketing and Communications students have been given the task of curating a marketing business plan to promote the graduating Class of 2020 end of year launch night to industry, press and peers. In order to do this, the group has been separated into two teams; the creative management team who will be responsible of creating invites and save the dates, designing press releases, capturing promotional social media content and planning the exhibition installations, and the project management team who are responsible for finding the venue, negotiating sponsorship deals, sending out industry invites, collating RSVP’s, and handling the finances of everything that is required for the launch night exhibition. Even though the two teams are separate, it is essential for them to work together and keep in constant communication with one another to not only ensure that a fully successful business plan is created, but to also be certain that each task is being carried out by the person responsible for it. No task is individual; each task aids another, and if one does not get done properly, then it will have a domino effect. If there is a lack of communication and negotiation between the creative management team and the project management team, it will reflect in the standard of organisation. The end goal for both teams is to plan and execute a memorable launch night exhibition which will support the fledgling careers of the soon-to-be, Class of 2020, graduates from the Fashion Marketing and Communication course at The University of Chester.

When it came to choosing teams, it was important to carefully consider each individuals skill set to ensure they were placed within the team which would be most suitable for them. For me, one of my biggest lessons throughout my time at University has been understanding that I adopt business and marketing skills more so than creative skills, so it was unquestionable as to what team I would be on. Project management would be the team that I would succeed in and it would give me a real opportunity to develop and refine the skills which I already attain in this area. There are six of us in total on the Project Management team, and between all of us, we have negotiated and delegated individual job roles. To do this, we curated a list of everything which we needed to cover as a team, and we matched each person up to a specific role which they would not only enjoy most, but also one which would be the best fit for them depending on their skill base. It was decided that my responsibility amongst the Project Management team would be to find and secure the venue in which the launch night exhibition of Studio 204 is going to be hosted. This was decided because I was able to put forward a number of transferable skills, both soft skills and hard skills, which were essential for the success of finding a suitable venue for the launch night. Although I already have a refined skill set for what was required, taking on this role was the chance for me to be able to advance on them even further. This job role was one which was important to me and one which I was eager to undertake because all of the skills that are needed are ones which will be indispensable when progressing into a career in the fashion marketing industry.

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the skills Marketing // Communication // Time Management // Organisation // Team - Work // Problem Solving // Research // Decision Making // Pitching // Confidence // Business Acumen // Emailing // Copywriting // Client - Handling // Negotiation // Social Interaction // Interpersonal // Management // Leadership // Meeting Etiquette // Questioning // Feeding Back // Feeding Forward

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To begin the process of finding a venue, we held a meeting with both the project team and the creative team together, so we could brainstorm ideas and opinions. Doing this was a way for me to get an overall sense of exactly what the group as a whole wanted for the launch night venue. We discussed dates, times, location, aesthetic, cost, capacity and all other general queries that needed to be answered. Although people had different opinions on what they individually wanted, it was my job to take all of the ideas away, consider each of them and find a coherent solution which everyone would be happy with. I left the meeting with a general guideline that most people wanted the exhibition to be on Friday 19th June 2020, in a professional setting within Chester, with a venue capacity of over 100 people and all for the cost of less than ÂŁ500 total.

With this information, the next stage for me was to search for venues in Chester and compose a professional email which could be sent out to each one.

I took the opportunity to use this email as a way to not only ask about hiring the venue, but also as a form of marketing for the course, to explain why it would be beneficial for their business to host our launch night exhibition. It was my pitch to them for why I believe their venue was a good fit for our course, and vice versa. I explained that it was going to be a celebratory event which would drive footfall from industry workers and friends and family, that it was going to be promoted nationally and that their venue would be mentioned in all invitations, press releases and social media content published.

I sent this email out to a large number of venues in Chester in the hope that some would be interested in the offer and get back to me to discuss it further.

It was this part of the process which really helped me to develop my research skills, marketing and communication skills, copywrite skills, pitching skills and emailing to industry skills.

possible venues Cheshire Oaks // The Chester Grosvenor // Soughton Hall // The Hillton // Oddfellows // The Guild // Chester Zoo // The Grosvenor Centre // Parade // The Commonhall Loft // The Townhouse // Leverhulme Suite // The Walls // Restaurant 1539 // Abode Chester // Crowne Plaza // Edgar House // Scale

the responses When I started getting responses back from different venues, it was noticeable that we were going to struggle to find somewhere for what we wanted, and that maybe we needed to sacrifice something in order to make it work. A number of the venues I had emailed did not reply at all, but for the ones that did it seemed that they were all either already booked for the preferred date, were way over our budget due to it being a Friday night or did not have a big enough space for us to exhibit in. Out of roughly 25 emails sent, there was only two responses which came back some-what positive; The Walls and The Leverhulme Suite, both based within the grounds of Chester Racecourse. Both were happy to offer us space for the event, the only issue was that they could not do the Friday as it was a race day, but they did offer alternative dates.

So, to go to one of these, we had to agree as a group that we would sacrifice the chosen day and change to a day in the week instead. The initial talks of changing the day did cause some disagreements within the group, so during this time I really had to utilise my problem-solving skills, my team-work skills and my leadership skills, to ensure that the right decisions were made which would suit everyone. Other skills used in this process included interpersonal skills, negotiation skills and business acumen.

The walls, Chester Racecourse

Leverhulme Suite, Chester Racecourse

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Once it was decided as a group that the launch night was going to be held at one of the spaces at Chester Racecourse, the last part of my job role in confirming a venue was to arrange viewing meetings with the people I had been emailing. It was agreed that I would go to the venues, along with two people from the creative team, in order to get a feel of each space and to also discuss any outstanding questions we had. These meetings were both extremely positive and we left feeling like we had a choice between two strong options which would be great for hosting the launch night exhibition.

After the meetings with the venues, I went back to both the project team and the creative team and gave them all of the feedback (and imagery) from both venues. Each venue had different advantages and disadvantages, and as a group we discussed all of the details of each before coming to a final, unanimous decision.

The venue which we all chose that we wanted to confirm was The Walls. The reasons behind this were that it was more budget friendly, the cost of hire also included food and drink, the event space is beautifully furnished and looks very professional, it holds up to 180 guests and overall, we all felt as if it represented our brand more so than what the Leverhulme Suite did. Although we had to change the day to confirm this venue and the launch night event will be on the Wednesday instead of the Friday, it was a compromise which had to be made to ensure the success of hosting the event in Chester and within budget.

Now the venue is confirmed, I will be passing on the contact information to the people who are responsible for finance, so they are able to make the required payments, and also to the ones in charge of exhibition installation so they are able to arrange meetings moving forward to plan the layout of the venue for the launch night.

Throughout the course of arranging these meeting and making final decisions, I have worked on skills which include client-handling, time-management, social interaction and confidence.

studio 204

launching

At the launch night exhibition, we will be unvieling final year work projects from the graduating class of 2020, as well as the new branding for the Fashion Marketing and Communication course at The University of Chester.

This launch night is all about creating a powerful identity for the course and promoting the three years of hard-work and success that has been achieved by our class of 2020 graduates, who are getting ready to take their first steps into the fashion marketing and communication industry. Even though the event will be being held in the same venue as it was for the Class of 2019, this is our opportunity as marketers to show how the course has progressed and how the class of 2020 have kept up the same reputation and continued to build the brand name of Fashion Marketing and Communication at The University of Chester.

Not only is the launch night an evening where we get to present all of the student’s final year work to industry and peers, but it is also the night where we will be launching the new zine, the re-branded Social Media channels and the new branding of the course as a whole. With this task being my final major project, it makes this launch night such a special night for me and one which I want to be super successful. With securing the venue being my responsibility, it was the perfect opportunity for me to be able to find somewhere which really represented the branding which I am assisting on creating for the course. With The Walls being a space which is neutral toned, contemporary designed and in the heart of Chester, I feel as though I have successfully achieved this task.

During this process, I have had the chance to use and develop a large number of skills, including team-work, leadership, communication, problem-solving and many more, which will all be significant to add to my curriculum vitae, to help me advance into a career path of project or business management in the future.

Alicia Jones