The purpose of this 2023 Launch Night is to professionally showcase our final projects as we graduate and progress into the industry, we aim to ensure the Studio 204 legacy remains strong. This book will introduce you to each member of Team 2 (who oversee the Launch Night and Alumni Reunion) and will cover my KPIs in detail, starting with my business plan and then a self-reflective report
We are the marketing and event organisation department for the 2023 Launch Night and Alumni Reunion for Studio 204. We are a collaborative group supporting each member of the team with our responsibilities for the planning and execution of the Launch Night.
My key personal indicators within team 2 include taking full responsibility to manage the allocated budget (£2,481.34) which I will be overseeing alone throughout the entire module. It was my role to communicate with the other 4 teams and calculate sensitively how much budget I could allocate where. The budget I was given needed to cover all costs, which included: the venue and all the amenities we required, decoration, zine prints, transportation, and hotels all whilst ensuring I had put aside contingency money in case of emergency
Furthermore, another key personal indicator of mine is viewing and securing a venue most suitable for our event on a convenient date. To begin, I suggested us using a Google Sheet to document potential venues alongside their address, link, and point of contact which we later divided up and designated venues between my team members. The Oak Field at Chester Zoo and Abobe, a hotel situated in the heart of Chester were the two venues I emailed and pitched our launch night to. Whilst my attention was originally focused on these two venues Keira and Freya contacted Storyhouse, Chester Racecourse, Chester Cathedral, and The Guild. However, as I will go on to discuss, I was heavily involved with the progress of these potential locations too.
I budgeted £1,000 to spend on the Launch Night venue, this cost had to cover the room, a welcoming drink, some providence of canapés or snacks, the accessibility to a TV screen/ projector, and a roaming microphone.
To begin, we had to rule The Guild out because they had a 21 and over rule I also ruled out a pop-up space in Chester Grosvenor Centre due to opening hours and Chester Cathedral because of costs.
The Oak Field at Chester Zoo was the first venue to respond (via phone call having received my email) and was the first venue we went to view; this space was a perfect location for us. Although this venue could provide us with a beautiful, professional, and spacious setting I wasn’t successful in negotiating a price that was within our budget. Having visited the venue and met with Katie Barclay (conference and events sales executive) I managed to get 20% off the room and we made some compromises to reduce the total cost from £3,000 to £1,500. Having been successful in drastically cutting the cost, this venue was still out of our budget and didn’t include some amenities we were after.
We visited Chester Racecourse despite having received their package deals which we knew to be over our budget. As understood by our experience at The Oak Field we wanted to discuss with the team personally to see if we can negotiate. We viewed two options and ‘The Paddock’ was a venue we deemed most suitable for the 2023 Launch Night; however, I didn’t love the space and it didn’t compare to our other contenders. It also turned out to be a venue over our budget.
Following a telephone call to chase up the email I originally sent to Abode, I was put in contact with the events coordinator (Frankie) and arranged a viewing with her. Having been shown three separate venues at the Hotel, I instantly felt as though The Conservatory was a perfect location for us. I managed to negotiate a cost (£894) within our budget and my peers and program leader loved the space. This venue was available on Friday 5th May.
Our next visit was to Storyhouse in Chester, we arranged a viewing with Elliot who showed us around the space, and team 2 instantly felt as though this space would be great for the 2023 Launch Night, having previously hosted the event there last year we knew the room could effectively accommodate our work and guests. Elliot passed my email in the appropriate direction so I could discuss costings and available dates with the venue. Having exchanged emails with Alex we arranged a cost (£841.80) and provisionally booked for Friday 19th May
To ensure a fair and united decision, I decided to present the two options in thorough detail to my fellow students, I wanted everyone to know what I managed to include in the deals before coming to an agreement. At the end of my presentation, we cast a vote and agreed on hosting our 2023 Launch Night at Storyhouse on Friday 19th May.
I assisted with two invoices’, a hire agreement, and completed the health and safety procedure for this venue, I arranged a second viewing with Storyhouse to carry this out.
Another key personal indicator of mine was to be given responsibility for the event organisation, I am a very organised individual and made all Google Sheets to share with my fellow team members throughout the module.
I decided to take on the role of organising the awards and speeches which would take place at the Launch Night.
Reflecting on the 2022 Launch Night, it was brought to my attention that not everybody was nominated for an award, and this felt unfair Therefore, I decided that everyone should be given an award on the night, I believe this would ensure that everyone felt included and a part of the light-hearted ceremony. I made the choice to make the awards more humorous by presenting them as ‘Little Miss ’ with a personalised croque. Once I had finalised 17 traits and ensured all students were happy with the options, I began exploring the best way to get my fellow students to vote anonymously, the verdict was Google Forms. I collated everybody’s email and sent out the Form for completion.
It was my role to write professional speeches for the 2023 Launch Night. To begin, I spoke individually with students who were keen, confident, and comfortable hosting a speech Three people came forward and volunteered to be a part of this part on the night and so I made the decision for one student to host the welcoming speech and for two students to introduce the films together.
I believe I have been truly successful as a team player and upon reflection met all my KPIs to the best ability. I have been informed that this was the first time the year group has had two venues to choose from to host the Launch Night, this was rewarding to hear and highlights to me just how successful I have been in achieving my KPI. I am proud of myself for representing Studio 204 professionally and positively, all the venues we visited were keen to host our event and were enthusiastic about working with us to achieve an incredible night. Abode mentioned in their email “I hope everything goes well and I hope that you consider the hotel again in the future” which reiterated just how passionate the venue felt about the event and solidifies a connection I have made with the hotel and Frankie (the events coordinator) for future partnerships. Aside from Abode, my teammates Keira and Freya viewed all venue options with me, they were supportive in providing advice and their opinion on each location.
My confidence has flourished during this module, I had to push myself outside my comfort zone at the beginning when in the process of arranging venue viewings. I took it upon myself to call venues and chase up emails when I hadn’t received a response. I am glad I encouraged myself to do this because hadn’t I called Abode to follow up on my email, this venue may not have been a contender for us. Similarly, I had to chase Storyhouse on multiple occasions for a response, and had I not reacted accordingly we may have potentially lost the opportunity to host our event there. Alongside this, I reached out to the point of contact to confirm our arrival for the second viewing, I did this to ensure Storyhouse was still expecting us and to keep the communication between us clear of any confusion. I was good at acting promptly to emails, I knew how little availability Storyhouse had and how other groups were awaiting a date before beginning their tasks Therefore, most of my attention and time was devoted to the venue, and consequently, I secured and booked our Launch Night in an effective timeframe.
I originally delegated £1,000 of the budget to cover the venue cost. Myself, fellow students, and the programme leader were all pleasantly surprised and thrilled to find out I secured a deal well within my approximate cost. Alongside presenting two venue proposals, the cost was another proud and successful moment of mine during this module.
Unexpectedly, we had some additional costs to add to the venue a few weeks after the original invoice was paid but due to my budgeting skills, this was nothing to be concerned about. Although, at this time, Storyhouse informed me they couldn’t locate our original payment I remained calm and got in contact with the appropriate people to confirm the invoice was processed. After following up my on emails on multiple occasions, Storyhouse finally informed me that they had located the payment. I am proud of myself for looking into this matter in a professional and mature manner because the venue emailed me a new invoice will all costs attached when we had already paid. There was clearly some big miscommunication between their finance and events team and had I not been so organised a wrong and invalid payment could have been made.
Furthermore, the invoice included some amenities we did not request, and I had to ask for this to be removed. However, this was still not the only challenge I faced, due to the additional costs we later added to our 2023 launch night, I had to request a new hire agreement Communication with the venue was certainly a challenge, I thought it would have been best to visit and ask questions face-to-face but when we arrived a co-worker showed us around and couldn’t answer my questions, again I had to wait for an emailed response.
I was trusted to keep track of the money we had, £800 was mistakenly taken from the budget and I was confident in my calculations that this was an incorrect deduction. I informed my course leader, and we requested access to a payment breakdown, and I was correct in this judgement Throughout the module, I stayed well within budget and the course leader was always pleasantly surprised with the remaining money we had throughout the process.
I believe I was a successful team player by checking all my fellow students were happy with the ‘Little Miss’ awards and I gave clear instructions on how to respond to the Google Form I created. The consensus was that my form was easy to fill out and nobody experienced any issues. I knew that my teammate Freya loved to be involved with creative tasks and this is why I suggested she worked on ‘Little Miss’ croques.
This was the first time I have worked with a group on a module, and it was a pleasant experience for me. Team 2 have been strong and we have worked well together, we had regular group meetings face-to-face and added Team calls to ensure we were all kept up to date with everyone’s progress and could support one another when necessary. I took it upon myself to keep a log of all key events and meetings that occurred throughout the module, this was in case a member of the team was absent and needed to be updated on information.
Overall, I felt passionate about conducting my KPIs for this module and my roles have potentially identified career opportunities for me. It became apparent how organised I was and this consequently got me organising other students too, it was mentioned I should be a personal assistant one day. Alongside this, my love for events certainly flourished, I excelled taking on a project manager role, and as a result, I have questioned whether this could be a direction to explore once I graduate.
