supporting
research
supporting evidence
research A research book with supporting evidence of all of the work which I have done during my responsibility of finding and securing a venue for the Studio 204 Launch Night.
the walls
scale
restaurant 1539
different
VENUes contacted
CHESTER ZOO CHESHIRE OAKS THE CHESTER GROSVENOR SOUGHTON HALL THE HILTON, DOUBLE TREE HOTEL ODDFELLOWS THE GUILD THE GROSVENOR CENTRE PARADE COMMONHALL, THE LOFT THE TOWNHOUSE LEVERHULME SUITE THE WALLS RESTAURANT 1539 ABODE CHESTER CROWNE PLAZA EDGAR HOUSE SCALE (LIVERPOOL)
different
initial email
Once I had done my research into which venues there were in and around Chester which would be suitable for the Studio 204 Launch Night Exhibition, I then produced a generic email to send out to each one, which marketed the course and offered information on the proposal which we were pitching for the event we would like them to host for us. In the email, I made sure to be clear on who we are, what it was that we were wanting and what our launch night is in celebration of. I ensured that I put a marketing spin on it and made the venue aware that we believed it is a good opportunity for them as much as it is for us to host the event. This was my way of implementing my marketing skills and my copywriting skills to successfully communicate with industry professionals.
Good afternoon, I hope that this email finds you well. My name is Alicia Jones and I am a current third year student at The University of Chester, studying Fashion Marketing and Communication. I am reaching out to you today in the hope to talk to you about the possibility of our University course exhibiting our work within a space at ------INSERT VENUE NAME HERE-------. Your venue has come highly recommended and I would love the opportunity to speak with you further. As a final year group, we are wanting to install a creative exhibition space which will launch on the night of Friday the 19th June. Within this exhibition space we are going to showcase each student’s final project work for the public to have an opportunity to come and view. We see this as a really exciting way of not only marketing our students, but also a way of advertising the course and The University of Chester as well. We also see this as an opportunity to align the Fashion Marketing and Communication course at The University of Chester with the ------INSERT VENUE NAME HERE------- brand name, something which we believe is valuable for both ------INSERT VENUE NAME HERE------ and The University of Chester. The event will support the fledgling careers of soon-to-be-graduates in the fashion industry and we will be creating a strong PR campaign around it with both local media and some national media. We believe that hosting the event will drive additional footfall to ------INSERT VENUE NAME HERE------ as we are sending out a large number of invites to not only friends and family but also fashion industry professionals as well. Please let us know if this is something we could discuss in more detail together. I look forward to hearing back from you. Kind regards,
examples of
the responses
When I started to get responses back from the venues which I had contacted, there were a number of them which were unable to accommodate for our Launch Night Exhibition event due to different reasons. These are captures of some of the unsuccessful responses which I received.
Cheshire Oaks
The Guild
Soughton Hall
examples of
the responses
Although I got a number of unsuccessful responses, there were also venues which responded that wanted to find out more about the Launch Night Exhibition event and what it was that we were expecting from the venue which would be hosting. I continued to converse with each venue which successfully responded to me, however, whilst some of them were happy to talk further about the event with me, it quickly become apparent through the email conversations that they were over budget or fully booked for the week which we wanted to exhibit.
Leverhulme Suite
Chester Grosvenor
The Walls
option one
LEVErhulme suite
One of the successful responses that I got which seemed promising was from the event organisers at The Leverhulme Suite, based within the grounds of Chester Racecourse. These are examples of some of the emails which are a conversation between myself and Katie. Throughout our discussions I was able to offer more in-depth information on what we required from a venue, and we were able to negotiate deals between us which were feesable for both The Leverhulme Suite to accommodate and which were within our groups requirements as well.
option two
the walls
The second successful response that I received was from Sue at The Walls, which is another venue within the grounds of Chester Racecourse. The Walls hosted the Launch Night Exhibition last year for the Class of 2019, and it came highly recommended by the graduates. I was able to communicate with Sue back and forther over email and negotiate the same deal as what was offered last year.
venue
VIEWINgs
Once we had narrowed it down to two venues which we were collectively highly interested in moving forward with for the Launch Night Exhibition, I planned in a couple of meetings where I was able to go and view the venues. natalie and Becky, from the creative team, attended these viewings with me as they are responsible for setting up the interior of the venue for the exhibition. This viewings were really good for us to be able to get more of an insight into the spaces and what they were like in person, as well as giving us the opportunity to openly talk to the event managers, ask them any questions we had and gather all of the information we needed to feedback to the rest of the group.
leverhulme suite imagery taken by Alicia Jones
the walls
venue
confirmation
After viewing the two venues and taking back all of the information to feedback to the rest of the group, it was unanimously decided that we all thought The Walls was going to be the most suitable venue for us to hold the Launch Night Exhibition. Following this feedback meeting, I emailed Sue to say that we would like to go ahead and confirm The Walls for Wednesday 17th June 2020.
project-comms
agency website
As we have progressed with the logistics of planning the Launch Night, we decided that we wanted to create an agency out of the Project Management Team. This agency was a way of creating a branding for ourselves and showcasing our work as a team. The Agency is called Project-Comms at it is comprised of all six of the Project Managers. To give us some brand awareness and a professional space to share out work, I created a website for us as an online space to share our work and communicate what we have done as a team throughout the module.
- alicia’s page
- anna’s page
- JANE’s page
- LUCY’s page
- DEMI’s page
- DEENA’s page
team
problem solving
Throughout the duration of this module, I have had to do some problem solving to overcome issues which were affecting me from carrying out my role and responsibilities to exactly how they needed to be. Within these current unprecedented circumstance which we have found ourselves in, we are now unaware of what the future of the coming months are and whether the event will be able to go ahead in June after all or not. To prepare for the worst case senario, I have reached out to Sue a couple of times to ask about the possibility of post-poning the Launch Night event to a later date if we need to. These are copies of two separate emails which I have sent.
Good Afternoon Sue, I hope that you’re keeping well and staying safe! I just wanted to get in touch regarding the exhibition event for The University of Chester’s Fashion Marketing and Communication Launch Night which we had scheduled in for The Walls on 17th June 2020. Obviously in the current unprecedented situation we are sitting in with Covid-19, all of us are in the unknown of what is going to be happening in the near future. We just wanted to clarify with you that if it is not possible for this event to go ahead on the 17th of June, would we be able to postpone the date with you for later in the year when everything, hopefully, starts to get back to normal? Many thanks and kindest Regards,
Good Afternoon, I reached out a couple of weeks ago regarding an event which we have booked in at The Walls on the 17th of June 2020. It is a launch night exhibition for The University of Chester’s Fashion Marketing and Communication course. I just wanted to send a follow-up email to see if you are able to offer any more information on our event in these uncertain times. We just wanted to clarify with you that if it is not possible for this event to go ahead on the 17th of June, would we be able to postpone the date with you for later in the year when everything, hopefully, starts to get back to normal? As students are currently not in University and many of them have moved back home and away from Chester, the situation has changed a lot for us in terms of how this event was originally supposed to go ahead. Speaking collectively, we have decided that if there is a need for the event to be postponed, the months which we would be preferably looking at would either be early October 2020 or January 2021. Is this something that you would be willing to negotiate and accommodate for given the current circumstances? Many thanks and kindest Regards,
On April 30th, I had my first response back from The Walls since I reached out to them, and thankfully they seem to be open to the idea of accomodating our launch night exhibition later on in the year, if we wish to postpone due to the current situation. After therse emails were exchanged, I spoke to both the Creative Team and the Project Management team and it was unanimously decided that we should try to reschedule the event for October if possible. Moving forward, I will continue to stay in communication with The Walls during and together we will arrange and confirm a new date for the event, which works for both Studio 204 and the Venue as well.
Management Teams
The Walls
In these recent weeks, we have really come together as a team to problem solve in order to achieve the same outcome of work required, just in a differently formatted way. Throughout the course of being in lockdown and being unable to see each other face-to-face on the run up to the Contemporary Fashion Business deadline, the Project Management Team have been holding regular video meetings online via different software’s such as zoom and messenger as way of keeping in contact and updating each other on where we are up to with our roles and responsibilities. This has been a really good way for us to stay up to date as a team and continue to communicate with one another even when we are not in University. As well as this, we have also created a group presentation by filming our sections at home and editing them together. This has been our way of solving the problem that we were unable to do a physical presentation which was originally required for this module, due to current circumstances; we used our initiative and worked as a team to still produce the required work.
video presentation
reflection
To keep us working well as a team to successfully deliver results on all of our roles and responsibilites and to give everyone an equal chance with producing a similar work load for the Contemporary Fashion Business deadline, we needed to ensure co-opperation from each team member. This is a copy of the email which five member of the Project-Comms agency put together to send to one member which we had a lack of communication from over the course of being in lockdown. We wanted to let her know that we were there to support her as a team and that we wanted her to be included in the group collaborations that were producing, such as the agency book, the presentation video and the website, for our hand-in day on Friday 1st May 2020.
To Demi Jones, We understand the pressure of the current circumstances however we have decided as a collective to send this email in regards to deadlines for work before hand in for the business module. As a group and fellow classmates we want to support you and ensure you succeed in this final submission as best we can. Over the last few weeks we have received a lack of communication in regards to respones to messages and video calls from the group and so we are wanting to clarify deadline submission dates for this project. If Deena has not received a five minute video presentation by Wednesday 29th April at 4pm you will not be featured in the group presentation video. If Lucy has not received your presentation slides and 800 word reflection by Wednesday 29th April at 4pm you will not be featured in the group agency document. We hope this is understandable within the current situation however just to clarify, not adhering to these deadlines will have no impact upon your individual grades or marking. The only impact would be that your work will not be featured in these group collaborations. Hope you are well and are able to respond to this email as soon as possible. Kindest regards, Project Comms. Alicia Jones, Anna Bevilacqua, Lucy Cartwright, Jane Berry & Deena Walker.
Alicia Jones