Anna Bevilacqua 1702504 Contemporary Fashion Business AD6607 Project Management Team – Personal Business Plan – Industry Contacts, Industry Invites and Management of Contacts 4.3.20
June 17th 2020 will see the celebration of our Fashion Marketing and Communication’s ‘Studio 204’, Launch Night into industry. The event will take place at The Walls Bar at Chester Racecourse and will be a joyous, memorable evening to mark the achievements, and the final outcomes of our Final Major Project’s; work that will lead us on our next steps into industry, and pave the way for the start of our careers as Fashion Marketeer’s and Communicators. Additionally, Launch Night will be an unveil of our ‘Studio 204’ course Zine, and see the launch of our newly branded media channels. This Contemporary Fashion Business module, was a time and opportunity for everyone in the group to collaborate together to create this event, and to also shine a spotlight on and practice solidly on our own skillsets. This was in order for everyone to bring their skills together to create a truly special evening; organized, planned and curated by L6 at ‘Studio 204.’ Launch Night will however, also be a time to share the moment with our friends and family, and with industry contacts also, so we can have our work supported by those who have supported us over the past three years, and share our pride with them. Our event is a time to very much reflect and put on a pedestal the strength of our ‘Studio 204’ Fashion Marketing and Communication brand, to not only demonstrate to Universities, Fashion courses and industry elsewhere that we have a highly successful, multidisciplined, future thinking, powerful course, but also to leave a huge legacy to L4 and L5 when we graduate, so they can follow in our footsteps and keep growing the developing on the strong ‘Studio 204’ brand. The Launch Night needed to grow and develop from the previous year’s Launch Night in order to keep things evolving and moving forward. These factors are all things we had to consider when splitting into the two groups; the Creative group, and the Project Management group, so everyone could work to their strengths to create and plan a successful, powerful Launch Night to hit the points mentioned above, and to make a great impact to everyone in attendance. For myself personally, when dividing into the two teams, Creative and Project Managers, to plan and organize Launch Night, I felt the best fit for me was to be part of the Project Management team. As I discovered from my Concept Direction and Development research, I am a less creative, visual individual, but much more of a business – minded, analytical, organizer, planner and thinker, and I am rather methodical in the way I conduct myself and my brand. Therefore, being a member of the Project Management team was an easy choice, as this is where I believed I could push and practice my skills further, to use my knowledge and skills in this field, expand my understanding and expertise also. There were a number of different job roles within the Project Management team, including; finding and booking the venue, securing sponsorships, managing the budget, finding transport and creating an industry contacts spreadsheet and being responsible for sending out invitations to contacts, and managing these contacts and invites. I chose to take on the role of creating an industry contacts spreadsheet, and to send out invites to these contacts informing them of the event, and sending out a ‘Save the Date.’ Moreover, my job role also includes keeping industry contacts updated on the workings of the event and providing them with all the PR and promotional material for the event, to keep them engaged and happy with the running of the event, and to excite them and to entice them to come and spend their evening supporting us and being a part of our event. Sending out RSVP’s, and managing the numbers and plus ones for the event once contacts have
confirmed their attendance is also my responsibility. In addition to this, I will also be managing the sponsors for the event once they have been negotiated and confirmed by the team member responsible, and providing them the same information and updates as the industry contacts to also keep them engaged in our event and make them feel comfortable. I feel that having this job role in the team has been perfect for me, as I have very much been able to expand my skills in this area, and develop upon the strengths I learnt at my placement last year at Tallulah Tennant. There, one of my job roles was to find and create spreadsheets with target magazines in and collate target companies for the brand, before sending out articles I had written for the brand to these emails and companies. Managing the spreadsheets, industry contacts, invites and numbers has given me another opportunity to very much further my practice of project managing, thus setting me and preparing myself and my personal branding for my next steps into my chosen career path. The career path I wish to pursue is Fashion Journalism, Editorial, Creative Copywriting or Written Content Creation and Marketing, within the luxury sector; be that in a luxury brand or publication. From my role in the Project Management team I have learnt and highlighted a number of skills so far in the project that will be highly beneficial in my career path, and these skills will continue to grow as we progress further in the project right up to the Launch Night on the 17th June. Firstly, from completing my part of the Business Plan Module, my networking skills have grown, as has my confidence with networking. As I have had to find, and seek out over sixty industry contacts to invite to the event, this is giving me the opportunity to discover new contacts for not only myself to network with in the future who could be highly helpful and beneficial with my career, but also contacts who can support our Studio 204 brand. Interacting in a professional, friendly, competent manner with the contacts was important when sending out the invites and replying to their emails, and will be important when socially interacting with the contacts on Launch Night. As someone beginning a career in Fashion Journalism, learning and practicing networking at this point will serve me well in the future, as making a positive, strong impression with industry contacts may lead me to opportunities going forward, and will also help me to network successfully in the future. Organizational and time management skills are significant, key factors I have practiced in my business job role. From creating a detailed, organized Excel Spreadsheet that charts each industry contact or businesses’ name, role, email address, and records whether they are in attendance or not, are bringing plus ones, and whether further PR updates have been sent out to them, having this method of organization has created a simple way to see who is attending the event. The element of control and structure was also a large part of my personal branding research, so having this spreadsheet as a way to control and manage the contacts helps me to project my self-branding skills to the Launch Night business planning. Being conscientious, and aware of who I am inviting also plays a part in the organizational skills used. Time management was also an important element I had to consider when sending the ‘Save the Dates’ invites to contacts in plenty of time in advance of the event, and moving forward from this point, time management skills will also be needed to send all of the updates to contacts on time, and the PR letter also. Organization and time management skills are
essential for a career in journalism; to meet deadlines, to control topics and connections, to plan interviews and meeting and to keep on top of emails and updates. Collaboration between myself and members the Creative Team was also demonstrated in this business module thus far, and will also be demonstrated moving forward onto Launch Night. So far, I have collaborated and cooperated with the individual whom created the Studio 204 branded ‘Save the Dates’ in order for me to send them out to contacts within the timeframe, and also so far I have collaborated with the member of the Creative Team producing the PR letters, so the relevant, condensed information can be put onto the branded letter to be sent out to contacts. Developing on from this, once the industry contacts begin to reply to confirm their attendance, I will need to keep the member of the Project Management group managing catering updated on the number of people attending the event, and in term of the sponsors, I will also need to collaborate with those once they have been secured, to send them the relevant information. For a Journalist, or Editorial Writer, collaboration with team members performing different job roles is essential for the job role, and is essential for producing a successful, coherent project or plan that has great effect to the target audience. Although diluted, the collaboration skills learnt now are transferable for my career path. When producing the text copy for the emails, to be sent out alongside the ‘Save the Dates’ my writing skills were highlighted, as I had to put together a competent, persuasive paragraph that, through the lexis I used, explained fully the prominence and influence this event will have on our group, to convince industry to attend. The tone of the email had to be correct, and furthering on from this, the tone of the email will need to be adapted to persuade contacts at University to attend and show their support at the event. Writing in different tones, styles, genres to make an impression on the intended target audience is something I have practiced in the past and using these skills further to aid and help create our Launch Night will help me in a career in Journalism or Copy Writing as my writing and analytical skill set has been expanded. In moving forward with my job role for the Contemporary Business Module, as I have mentioned previously, at this point branded ‘Save the Dates’ have been sent out to over sixty industry contacts, with contacts ranging from Photographers, PR and Creative Agencies companies surrounding Chester, Fashion brands in and around Cheshire and Manchester, local magazines and Press, and members of established places around Chester including Managers from The Story House, The Museum and Chester Zoo. Once replies being to come in through the ‘Studio 204’ email, I will collate the numbers and the plus ones in attendance and pass this onto the catering member, and will manage these contacts by keeping them engaged in the event by sending them PR letters, updates and interactive branded invitations, to reiterate the strength of the ‘Studio 204’ brand. I will do the same also for the sponsors. On the night, I will ensure the industry guests are looked after, greeted, and taken around the work on offer. The message that we are highly grateful and appreciative of their presence and support will be shown, in order to make Launch Night a special evening, enjoyed by all; students, staff, friends, family, sponsors and Industry Contacts.
Image References in printed book Images of the Walls Venue on pages 3,7 and 8 – Alicia Jones’s personal images Image of Launch Night ‘Save The Date’ – ‘Save The Date’ put together by Shannon Evans Tatler Image on page 12 – Image taken from eBay -
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tatler-Magazine-February-2018-MBox96-Modern-Style/283627242870