Centenary BBQ

One of the major events on the Centenary calendar, is the Centenary Staff Barbeque. This was my event solely and I was in charge of all the organisation of it.
Now most people would think a Barbeque was an easy event to organise, but when you are on a minimal budget and are catering for 900 people, it is quite a hard task.
I started organising 6 weeks before the event, this involved writing countless letters to possible suppliers asking for donations, as well as finding a venue, finding 2 barbeques and finding people to help cook and serve.

With a minimal budget, donations were the key to the success of the event, and after a week when I had heard nothing from most of the people I had approached, I decided to make some follow up phone calls, this was the KEY to getting my donations. I managed to get most of my sausages and drinks donated and all of my plates, napkins, buns and ice creams donated in full.

On the day of the event, Myself and Emily Reeve my fellow PR Professional Practise student, spent most of the morning setting up the Megazone, where the event was held, liaising with the kitchen staff and the staff that would be cooking the barbeque.

Everything was organised except the buns, I had a phone call saying that they were being delivered at 10.30, so I waited and waited and finally had to make the call to Bakers Delight (and of course they gave me an eastern states number), and for them to inform me that everyone who can help is in a meeting, so I thought I would leave it for another 30 minutes. At 11.30 I was in full panic mode. Finally at 11.45 the buns arrived - uncut - and we have 15 minutes to get 900 rolls cut and sent up to the Megazone. We had 10 people frantically cutting rolls, and we managed to cut them all!!

The event was a great success, even though at the end I smelt like a burnt sausage, it was worth it, as all the staff were delighted that we had put on this staff barbeque free of charge for them.
For me personally, the event was a great experience to go through, as I was responsible for the entire project from planning right through to execution.

The next major event that I will be involved in is the PMH open day on 4th July.