Nature Play Day
Portfolio
EVENT PLANNING COMMITTEE: Kallie Eberling, Madison Hovland, Hayley Johnson, Sydni Kreps and Hannah Prigge
Overview After nearly five months of planning and organizing a family fun event for our client Heather Nesemeier, Nature Play Day was held on Saturday, September 24th, 2016. Heather emphasized the importance of creating an event for families and guests of all ages to get together, have fun outdoors and learn about nature. In accordance with the purpose for the event, the planning team outlined both SMART and soft goals. These goals were discussed with Heather as well as privately between the event planning committee. We aimed to plan an event that would have enough variety of activities to entertain guests of all ages, attract at least 100 people, and be free and accessible for all. Creating a space was key. The challenge we faced was hosting the event in an essentially empty field, as the main activity was planting trees for the future park. Through clear signage, creative boundaries, and carefully thought out arrangement, the area was made inviting and easy to navigate. After stopping at the info booth in the center of the field, guests participated in tree-planting for the Nature Play Park and also enjoyed the five other booths that offered refreshments and activities. These included face painting, leaf art, creating garden pavers, and interactive science demonstrations. We continued the theme of community by utilizing the skills of local Master Gardeners, NDSU and MSUM students and alumni, and Concordia student organizations and faculty at the event. With the help of the volunteers from the community and many donated materials and tools, we were able to put the majority of our modest budget into marketing. We employed a wide variety of marketing and promotional techniques to spread the news of the event. Through posts on social media, posters around the community, and promotion within Ellen Hopkins Elementary, we got the word out and exceeded our attendance goal. Over 150 people attended the event, and every single tree was planted within the first hour. Using the EHES Nature Play Park Facebook page we created and the email list that attendees signed up for at the event, Heather can continue to inform them of upcoming events in the Nature Play Park. With this event, we not only created one day of family-friendly, outdoor fun, but also established the Nature Play Park as an important place in the Moorhead community that brings people together and makes nature enjoyable for all ages.
Timeline May-July ●
Meet virtually every other week
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Choose activities for each station at the event
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Send Heather biweekly updates about the event
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Create Facebook page
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Create logo ○
Each group member sent a potential logo
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Event planning committee voted on the best logo
August ●
Meet as a group on a weekly basis
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Set-up a meeting with Heather in person ○
Discuss the event ideas and timeline with Heather
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Begin purchasing our supplies for activities
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Create proofs for vinyl signage
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Create proofs for aprons
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Create & update a detailed budget spreadsheet
September ●
Continue purchasing supplies
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Meet with Heather on an as-needed basis
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Schedule a time to print all of our marketing collateral to be used at EHES
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Hang up posters by the second week of September
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Begin social media campaign the second week of September
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Share the Facebook event page on all social media channels
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Create graphics consistent with event brand to promote the event on Facebook
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Draft an event venue layout one week before the event
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Send out press release to various local news stations and relevant websites
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Create seed card take-aways with the Coyote 4-H group
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Meet as committee for final preparation meeting the night before the event
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Set-up venue on the morning of the event
7 Steps of Event Planning 1. Research: Background Information a. Heather came to our Event Planning class during the first week in May to explain to us the concept of Nature Play Day. She gave us useful handouts for the future plan/layout of the park, and we also were able to go out to Ellen Hopkins to view the space for ourselves. During this initial meeting with Heather, we committed to planning her event and decided that the date of the event would be September 24th, 2016. i. The purpose of the event was a kick-off event to raise awareness and attain community support for the Nature Play Park. This was the first Nature Play Day community event in what will hopefully be a series of Nature Play events. Ideally, the attendees would enjoy the first event and want to attend more Nature Play events in the future! 2. Goals for the Event i. 100 Attendees – also a measure of success ii. Plant 30 trees in the park iii. Provide educational activities that give the event more substance than a typical carnival event iv. Increase name recognition and raise awareness of Nature Play Park v. Establish followers and increase community support 1. Distributed business cards and offered an email sign-up list at the info booth during the event b. Stakeholders: E HES students, teachers, and other staff; surrounding neighborhood/community members; Concordia, MSUM, NDSU; Heather Nesemeier; Kirsten Theye c. Audience Analysis: Our target audience were the staff, students, and parents from Ellen Hopkins Elementary. We also aimed to attract local community members and neighbors of all ages and backgrounds. 3. Conceptualize the Event a. In May, we held virtual meetings to begin brainstorming for the event (gathering ideas for activities/booths, set-up, themes, decorations, other organizations that could potentially get involved with Nature Play, etc.). As the summer progressed, we met at local coffee shops and distributed tasks for each person to work on between meetings (i.e., researching crafts/projects, price checking, contacting local/campus clubs to help with the event). Heather assisted us along the way by providing her own feedback via Facebook or Google Docs. As the event drew near, we began meeting with Heather in person to hash out the final details of the event. 4. Monitor the Delivery of the Experience
a. The event was held from 9-11 a.m. on Saturday, September 24th, at the south field of Ellen Hopkins Elementary School. b. Due to the immense help from volunteers on the day of the event, our event planning team was able to actively monitor the event throughout the morning. Most of our attendees arrived between 9-10am, and all 30 trees were successfully planted shortly after 10am. Although the tree planting was our main attraction at Nature Play Day, we had numerous other booths and activities for guests to enjoy. c. Bathrooms were available for attendees to utilize inside the school. These were farther away than we would have liked, but they were the best option at the venue. d. The event planning team feared that it would rain the morning of the event, but fortunately, the skies were clear. During the event, the winds picked up, and at one point, the tent over the information booth blew off the ground. We were able to use some boxes and toolkits that a volunteer had in her car to secure the poles of the tent down to prevent this from happening again. We did not have any other weather-related issues. e. A reporter from WDAY arrived around 10:30 a.m. to interview Heather and the principal of EHES. By that time, the event had somewhat died down, and we unfortunately did not make it on the news. 5. Design a Strategy for Implementation a. It was important to keep clear records of paperwork throughout the planning process. For instance, the invoice for the aprons that were purchased needed to be scanned and emailed as well as given to the purchaser of the aprons in a hard copy version. We also kept copies of all event receipts. b. Clear details of our strict budget were available to each member of the event planning team through Google Drive. The team consistently updated the budget based on purchases made throughout the planning process. c. A material purchase list was organized at each team meeting. Materials were assigned for purchase and team members were designated to purchase each item. i. Some materials, such as the aprons and gluten glue materials, needed to be purchased further in advance than others, which required careful planning. 6. Day of the Event a. A couple of days before the event, our group and Heather met to discuss a contingency plan. The weather at the time predicted rain in the morning, so we needed to decide how we wanted to handle it. i. Heather said that the event would continue as planned unless there was lightning. She didn’t think rain should scare people away from being outside and enjoying nature. b. Although we worried about having a plan that involves having attendees outside during a potential storm, we complied with Heather’s plan and continued to keep a close watch on the weather.
c. The morning of the event, we met at 6:o0 a.m. to begin setting up. We didn’t tell Heather she needed to be there at this time because it gave us an opportunity to make quick decisions without outside input. d. Heather arrived around 7:30 a.m. We set up the tables provided by EHES, filled the water reservoirs, stocked the food table with fruit, and displayed the event signage. e. The volunteers for our event showed up at the venue at 8:15 a.m. We did a brief volunteer training in which we took time to say thank you, explain each group’s duties, hand out aprons, and enjoy some breakfast together. We had all of the volunteers at their stations ready to work at 8:45 a.m. just in case we had any early arrivers. f. During the event, we all took time to walk around and observe what was going on. Maddie was in charge of counting attendees for our data while Sydni, Hayley, Hannah, and Kallie worked on making sure all volunteers and stations were being handled correctly. g. We checked in periodically with Heather to make sure she was happy with how the event was going and to ask if there was anything we could do to help her out. h. When the event started to come to a close, we started tear down. The vinyl signs, pennant flags, seed cards, business cards, and aprons were all for Heather to keep for future Nature Play Day events, and all of the leftover fruit was donated.
Location/Venue ●
Nature Play Day was held at the EHES Nature Play Park location, directly behind Ellen Hopkins Elementary School
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The venue was an empty field – nothing elaborate and 100 percent free
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We had to get creative with how to “create a sense of space” because the venue was a huge open field. The strategic placement of booths and the border created by pennants was an effort to combat this challenge.
Event Budget TOTAL BUDGET
$500.00
PUBLICITY Posters (50)
$82.27
Business Cards (300)
$51.24
Labels (900)
$59.97
Facebook Sponsored Post
$31.94
TOTAL
$225.42
ACTIVITIES Stamps & Ink
$27.02
Tarps, Pails, Gloves & Stakes
$67.00
Cement
$15.00
Paver Decorations
$20.00
Pans for Pavers (68)
$18.50
Paint Brushes & Glue Containers TOTAL
$3.00 $150.52
DECORATIONS Vinyl Banners/Signs (2)
$82.93
Outdoor Pennant Banners
$20.33
TOTAL
$103.26
FOOD Cups TOTAL
$10.00 $10.00
TOTAL EXPENSES
$489.20
REMAINING FUNDS
$10.80
Logo & Event Branding
Social Media Campaign (Pre-Event) ● ● ● ● ●
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Chose Facebook as the primary social media site for promoting the event due to the target audience Posted updates of event planning and Nature Play Park progress in the weeks leading up to the event Included photos in all posts to draw attention Shared all posts on Nature Play Day Facebook event page and EHES Nature Play Park Facebook page Promoted event on Concordia’s Student Environmental Alliance page and in several Moorhead Facebook groups Created a sponsored ad on Facebook that ran for the two weeks prior to the event and was designed specifically for our target audience
Facebook Sponsored Ad
Non-Social Media Marketing ● Designed and distributed 50 posters on Concordia’s and MSUM’s campus, Ellen Hopkins Elementary and Probstfield Kindergarten, and local community venues ● Handed out fliers in the neighborhood surrounding the Nature Play Park ● Distributed 2,100 fliers in gift bags at a RiverKeepers event a week prior to the event ● Sent home fliers with EHES students and staff twice – a week before the event and the week of the event ● Sent EHES students home with neon “reminder” stickers the day before the event ● Contacted several local news stations and community websites and distributed the event press release ● Created and distributed business cards at the event to promote the Nature Play Park ● Covered in an event preview article for The Concordian ● Published event previews in The Forum and on The Arts Partnership’s community calendar: http://www.inforum.com/news/4120411-nature-play-day-sept-24-moorhead-school http://theartspartnership.net/event/13317/
Social Media Campaign (Day of Event) â—? Posted photos to the Nature Play Day event page of the venue and activities before and during the event â—? Asked volunteers to post photos to the event page during the event
6 Dimensions of Event Planning Anticipation ● A couple of weeks before the event, we started an aggressive social media campaign on Facebook in an attempt to get the community excited about the event. We used different images incorporating our event brand to create recognition and familiarize the community with the upcoming event. ● We created 50 professionally printed color posters to hang around the community in highly trafficked areas. We chose places where we felt our target audiences would see them the most. These places included Family Fare, Hornbacher’s, Concordia’s campus, Cobber Kids, Nail Salons, Elementary Schools in Fargo, and our places of work. ● We printed smaller black and white fliers to hand out at Ellen Hopkins Elementary School. We did this on two separate occasions: once a week before the event, and once the week of the event. There was a River Keeper’s event a week before ours, so we put fliers in 2,100 goodie bags at that event. ● At Ellen Hopkins Elementary, they give reminder stickers to students the day before an event for their parents to see. We took advantage of this by using some of our budget to print and distribute neon-colored stickers. Arrival ● We wanted to ensure there was a clear entrance for the attendees to walk through. We created an entrance by using our vinyl “Welcome to Nature Play Day!” sign and an opening in the pennant flag perimeter. ● At the entrance, we had two volunteers wearing Nature Play Day aprons and greeting any attendees that walked through. They highlighted a few activities and informed attendees of the information booth in the center of the venue. ● We had a “Restroom” sign right by the entrance of the event, ensuring all attendees knew there was a restroom available for them to use. The bathrooms were not in a great location, but we did the best we could with the resources we had. Atmosphere ● The atmosphere of the event was very calm and productive. We were initially concerned about not having music to fill any quiet times, but since we were outdoors, it seemed okay to do without. People were making great conversation and being so productive that music was likely not missed. ● Decorations were very simple for the event. We tried to show off the logo as much as possible during the day through posters, business cards, and our aprons. The more people see the logo, the more they will start to remember it and associate the cause with it. The signage we painted to identify the different stations was handmade. We designated each activity a specific color and a specific shape. We did this because our
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target audience was primarily children, and we wanted to make the signage basic so they could easily understand. The colorful pennant flags around the perimeter of the event was a small decoration and helped create space and make the field feel busy and full. In order to ensure the guests felt welcome, we made sure to remind our volunteers about the importance of smiling and greeting everyone. Making people feel welcome helped foster an atmosphere of positivity and community-building.
Appetite ● Since our event was two hours long, we thought it would be nice to have some type of food and beverage station for guests to enjoy. ● We had a food and water booth that was supervised by a Concordia volunteer from SEA. A handmade sign was present along with a table that was overflowing with fresh fruit during the entire event. All of the extra fruit was donated at the end of the event. T he fruit (bananas, apples and oranges) were all donated by Ellen Hopkins PTAC. ● We were able to get two water reservoirs from the Concordia Alumni Office and Athletics department. We wanted to avoid purchasing water bottles because the event had an emphasis on sustainability, so the reservoirs and compostable cups worked well for what we needed. ● There were garbages, recycling containers, and compost buckets in strategic places around the event. We borrowed these from the Clay County Recycling Center. Activity ● Info Booth ○ The info booth was near the entrance so guests could see it upon arrival. It consisted of a tent, table, printed banner, and a handmade sign staked into the ground. On the table were the take-homes for the event and a notebook where guests could join an email list for more information about the park and its future events. The take-homes were on either side in matching baskets. One basket contained business cards with information about contacting the school district, as well as the Facebook page for the Nature Play Park and the event logo. The other basket held the seed cards we created with the local 4-H club. These were made of biodegradable paper with seeds attached with wheat paste and instructions for planting. We had at least one of us standing there at all times to answer questions and speak to guests. ● Garden Pavers ○ One activity station allowed families to create garden pavers that will be put in the Nature Play Park. The station had two tables, a tarp, sign on a stake, and supplies: quick dry cement, aluminum tins, decorative glass pebbles, plastic gloves, and water. We covered the tables in newspaper to protect them from the cement. Volunteers from Concordia’s Student-Environmental Alliance manned this station by setting up the cement and helping kids create the pavers.
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Science Academy ○ Concordia’s Science Academy operated a booth with interactive science experiments following the theme of nature. Dr. Wylie and four students facilitated the experiments. One was designing patterned leaves with shaving cream and food coloring, and the other was a chemical reaction between sodium alginate, calcium chloride and food coloring which created jelly worms. They brought all materials and both experiments doubled as a fun take-home for the kids. Leaf Art ○ Another activity station for kids was leaf art. This table was facilitated by an MSUM art graduate and her friend. It had two tables covered with newspaper, a poster board sign, and craft materials. The kids used the colorful fall leaves, wheat paste, and paint to create art that they could take home. It was a fun and simple activity that also served as a take-home. Face Painting ○ This booth featured two Concordia art students face painting designs on kids. There was a poster board sign, one table with vegan face paint and four chairs so that the two painters could sit and paint two kids at a time. This activity was the biggest success other than the tree planting. Tree Planting/Gardening ○ This was the area where guests could help plant the trees and gardens for the future Nature Play Park. We had master gardeners that assisted families through the process, and Heather was also there to facilitate. Tools were either donated or borrowed and the families got to work together to plant a tree. This was a significant part of the event, as ground was broken on the Nature Play Park and the community got to be a part of it.
Amenities ● The great part about many of the activities, such as leaf art, face painting, and Science Academy, was that they provided small takeaways for the kids that participated. ● The tree planting and the garden pavers were also small takeaways for guests, because from now on when they drive pass Ellen Hopkins or visit the park, they will see the visible impact they made on the space. ● Finally, we made seed cards for all attendees to take home with them and plant their own flowers. These were made specifically to act as our “takeaway.” They were a huge hit with the kids who were excited to continue their Nature Play Day at home with a small seed card.
Post-Event ●
Post-mortem meeting with Heather and event planning committee at Rustica Tavern on Tuesday, September 27th at 6:00pm ○
Discussed strengths and weaknesses of the event and any remaining event wrap-up duties
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Assessed status of event budget and plans for reimbursement of event planning committee
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Heather recruited a student group at EHES to write thank you cards for the event volunteers and EHES support staff
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“Thank you!” graphic + post-event survey posted on the Nature Play Day Facebook event page and the EHES Nature Play Park Facebook page
Post-Event Survey â—?
Distributed on Facebook event page and EHES Nature Play Park Facebook page
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Despite sharing the survey a few times, it only received 14 responses
Heather’s Feedback ●
Communication ○
Understood difficulties of summer class with all of us in different locations
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Happy with our use of Facebook and meeting the client where they are at, especially with unique timing of the event
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Publicity ○
The image/logo was so important
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Make sure vendors stick to quoted price
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Pleased with the printing process and how it worked with our time frame and budget
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Loved the use of social media, but maybe next time use more free digital media outlets
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Giveaways ○
Happy with how we worked with her to navigate giveaways ■
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Seed card collaboration with the 4-H group was a success
Involvement ○
Happy to have Concordia groups involved
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Would have liked more athletics groups, high schoolers, and other schools involved
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Give vendors feedback on experience ○
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Keep files on vendors
Loved the water coolers and compostable cups
Photographs â—? A local photographer volunteered to document the event for free