The Event - Mentor's Guide by MoCo Development Ltd

The Event

Mentorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Guide

The Event Thank you for offering your invaluable time to support the students on today‟s programme. „The Event‟ aims to help students work together to create and develop an idea. The day will engage the students, thinking creatively about different ideas and possibilities, whilst also needing to formulate a logical, structured and aligned approach. During the day the students will be asked to create, design, structure and market an event, to be run at a specific venue. The event can be ANYTHING they choose, from a disco to a dance competition; a flea market to a festival of colour; exhibition to entertainment. The sky (and the size of the venue) is the limit. The day will be split into three parts, each lasting one hour and forty minutes. 1. Idea Creation 2. Exhibiting the Idea 3. Presenting the Idea Your support will help the students to conceptualise, detail and present their various ideas.

Using this Mentor’s Guide This guide is designed to support you in mentoring the students through their day. Students will be working in groups of 5 or 6. During the day you will be working with different groups, supporting their thought processes and linking the challenges they are facing with real world scenarios. This program will help students to understand the importance and challenges involved in working together to create and develop a single idea. The creative process will lead to organisation & structure and finally the opportunity to present their idea to an audience. There is a competitive element to the day. “The Venue” can only accommodate one of these events. Eight „finalists‟ will be chosen to present their ideas in the final session and one of these will be selected as “The Event” to be held in “The Venue”. The teams will be competing for a prize at the end of the day. This prize is not necessarily based upon the event itself but on how well the team have created, developed and engaged other people in their idea. Teamwork is the key to success! Have a great day!

Starting Out Introduction: Each team will be provided with an information pack containing an outline brief for the day and a detailed brief relating to the first session. The outline brief reads as follows: “Congratulations. You have been selected to compete for a space at “The Venue”. This worldfamous venue only allows the very best of events to be hosted there. “Your day will be split into 3 parts. 1. Agree, as a team, what your event will be 2. Set up a stand promoting your event 3. Prepare a short presentation about your event “You are competing against the other teams for a place at The Venue. Your idea, planning, teamwork, preparation, financial analysis and ability to answer questions must all be of the highest standard. “Remember that you are working as a team. “Mentors, from the world of business, will be on hand to support, encourage, guide, question and possibly even challenge you!”

Starting Out Supporting Information: Allow the students time to read through the outline brief and take five minutes to introduce yourself to the group. This is simply to build rapport and break the ice with the students, reassuring them that you are there to ask them lots of questions about their ideas and to help steer them through the day. The ideas themselves will all come from the students, allowing them free reign to be creative. As a mentor feel free to ask them questions about what they are doing, but always allow them to make their own decisions. Making mistakes is as much a part of the learning in this day as getting it all right. This guide offers you support in working with the students at each point in the day. The real strength comes from your own experience so please feel free to go “off piste”. The guide will give you examples of questions you may wish to ask to help facilitate the students‟ thought processes during the day.

Part 1: Develop the Idea Introduction: “You have been provided with a floor plan of „The Venue‟. You must decide and agree upon what your event may be. You may choose to use all the area provided by the venue or just some of it. “Your first task is to agree upon the type of event you wish to run. This is entirely up to you. The following list may help with ideas but you can create your own idea that is not on the list.       

A disco A flea market A dance competition A craft fair A poetry contest A talent show A prom

      

A festival of colour A quiet area A dragon‟s den A themed meal A jubilee party A fashion show A cookery contest

Once you have agreed upon the type of event you are running you must plan ALL the details. Use the large paper and pens to create a mind-map of your event. You must ask yourselves lots of questions starting with these words:

What? When? Why? How? Which? Who? Where? and How much?

Part 1: Develop the Idea Supporting Information: Creativity and time-keeping are the secrets to success here! The students will have the whole of the first session to create and develop their idea. By the end of the session they need to have developed a mind-map of their idea, detailing all the important elements of their event. This session develops open questioning skills, using the questions on the opposite page. To help you help the students, the following questions may be useful ... “What is your event?” “Who are you targeting?” “How many people will you want to attend?” “Where will you find these people?” “How will you market / promote / advertise the event?” “How much will you charge?” “When will the event start / end?” “Why have you chosen this event?” “What makes this better than other ideas?” “Who, in your team, will do what?” “How will you know that the event is a success?” “What are your thoughts so far?” “How much will you make?” “How much will it cost you?” “Where will the money go to? .....etc

Part 2: Promote Your Event Introduction: The next stage of the day asks the students to transfer the ideas from their mind-map into a promotional stand that tells visitors all about the event. Materials will be supplied to create a stand that:  Creates a strong visual impression  Makes the details of the event clear  Ensure that all the figures balance Stands must include examples of:           

Promotional posters Event flyers Tickets Wrist bands for attendees Outline plans for a radio advertisement An example for a magazine / newspaper advert A press release (an article about the event) Your team name (event organisers) Details of individual responsibilities A safe on-line promotion plan Other literature that you feel is relevant

There will be time for you to view other teams‟ promotional stands when all the stands have been completed.

Part 2: Promote Your Event Supporting Information: This part of the day is very active. Students will be provided with a table, paper, pens, card, coloured paper, scissors, glue, selotape and various other pieces of equipment to help them create their promotional stand. This part of the day will test team-working skills and will require a collaborative approach. As mentors it is an opportunity to check that the thinking is joined up. E.g.  Do the prices on the posters, tickets and flyers agree with each other?  Is there consistency regarding times etc?  Is there a consistent theme (colour, logo, language etc)  Have all the important elements from the original mind-map been represented and brought to life?  Are ALL the team able to answer questions about their event?  How have team roles been allocated?  Any roles (leaders, thinkers, doers etc) predominating?

Part 3: Present Your Event Introduction: One team from each room will be asked to deliver a three minute presentation, to the rest of the year group, about their event. This three minute presentation must capture the attention of the audience and tell them why the event should be chosen by “The Venue”. Following the eight presentations a winning Event will be chosen by „popular vote‟. ALL teams will prepare a three minute presentation in readiness that they may be the team chosen from their room. Teams will have approximately 20 minutes to prepare their presentations, using visual aids from their stands. Once prepared, the teams will move to the main hall where the chosen teams will be announced and presentations made. Following the presentations, all students will be asked to vote for their favourite event. The winning team will be presented with a prize awarded by “The Venue”

Part 3: Present Your Event Supporting Information: This activity will start to get the nerves jangling. All teams will prepare a presentation on the assumption that they may well need to deliver it. As a mentor you can support them in several ways.  Reassure them that nerves are perfectly normal and that everyone else will also be nervous  Ask the teams which key messages they wish to convey  Encourage the teams to practice their presentations  Have they reached / stuck to their three minutes?  Is everybody involved in some way?  How will they use the visual aids from the stand to support their presentation?  Are all team members ready to answer questions about their event? Once in the hall, mentors will agree which teams will make the presentation. This part of the day will be facilitated centrally and the final judging left to the students.

Finally. Thank you for your involvement and support during the day. Having a mentor with â&#x20AC;&#x17E;life experienceâ&#x20AC;&#x; is a great benefit to the students when putting this theory into practice. During the day you have encouraged the students to think creatively about new ideas and then formulate them into a logical and practical application. All of the skills and behaviours explored in MoCo programs reach far beyond the school environment and into the world of work. Without your time, energy and experience today would not have been possible.

Thank you.

About MoCo Development

MoCo offers a wide range of „communication skills‟, „team building‟ and „personal effectiveness‟ programs. To find out more about MoCo Development Ltd visit: www.go-moco.co.uk