Hi fellow Bloggers,
For those who read my last post on the event I had to organise for the company, here are some feedback.
So first of all, everything was meant to happen with perfection.
Media kit was done, approved by the shop owner, burnt on a Cd, ready to give-away.
The caterer was on time and the food looked delicious. Even thoug it was last minute as my previous caterer had let me down 2 days before my event, I managed to somehow find another caterer just in time.
The hostesses were looking beautiful and ready to welcome the guests.
The music and the set up gave the exact ambiance I tried to give to this cocktail.
The shop owner, his wife and their three daughters were all dressed so smart standing in front of their shop looking very proud.
I did my best to look the most professional in my clothes, and I was waiting for the first guests to arrive...
Well guest what???
only 25 people out of 100 guests expected, came!
only 1 news agency came even though I phoned each news agency in the morning to have a confirmation they would cover the event.
none of the other shops owners, who had also confirmed, came.
the worst part was, none of the staff I work with came to my event. They didn't even bother calling me to ask how it was going, if I had any problems or If it was going well...
I have been thinking on and on where I went wrong...
I had put so much of myself into this event, I was very disappointed. So was the shop owner, even though he had thanked me a thousand times.
Tough times!
6 comments:
Hi Viger,
Im sorry to hear your event was not the huge success you had hoped! I guess it just goes to show that sometimes even though you may have everything in place theres just some things you cant control: primarily other people! Did you contact the people who did not show up to get some feedback about why? This may help you when planning events in the future.
I hope the rest of your experience is enjoyable to make up for it!
- Vanessa :)
Hey,
I worked with events a lot in my internship and I know a few other people did too. I am really sorry to hear that it did not go well!
What did you do at the event?
I agree with Vanessa that it would be good to get some feedback from the people who didn't attend to see what the causes were.
I hope you don't let this shake your confidence!
Tonya.
Hi,
I'm so sorry to hear that your event did not turn out as you had hoped. Unfortunately (as Vanessa mentioned) it is very hard to control the actions of other people - even when you have done everything within your power to cater to their needs.
However, it sounds like you put a lot of work in to this event and I'm sure that you will have learnt many lessons from it that will benefit your next event!
Good luck with the rest of your placement and for many great events in the future :)
Samantha
Hi Viger,
I feel sorry to hear about your experience. I think there are always some unexpected issues happened in an event. But at least you've got everything in place for the event and the shop owner appraciate it.Good job!
Now it's time to look back to the event and do evaluations for it. Doing follow up with both the attended guests and those who didn't come, asking for their opinion of the event. Please be nice to those who did not come and invite them to join the future event.
Hopefully you can learn some useful knowledge from this event and have a better one next time!
Hi Viger!
Sorry to hear about your experience with your event, it is heartbreaking when putting a lot of effort into something when it don’t end the way we wish for it to end. Specifically daunting I guess when we are so new to the field and so much want to do the right thing. Unfortunately I believe we have chosen an occupation where it is extremely hard to forecast the success of those thing we do and believe in. Take for example your event, the reasons for people not attending are probably way beyond your control such as unforeseen events, other events occurring at the same time etcetera. It is really hard as I guess the same event can be held one day and be extremely successful and then the exact same event could be hold another time at another venue and it could be completely different. But I guess this is a bit of the charm and exciting part of Public Relations and event management..No days are exactly the same! At an event I held through my internship I was in a conversation with a lady who has been an event manager for 40 years – she told me she is yet to not be surprised of the outcome of almost every single event she arranges….
I guess what I am trying to say is that most likely it was not your fault! Hope you have had a great internship – I just ended mine on Tuesday…
Good luck with handing in your report if you haven’t done so already!
Nina
events always have an uncontrollable edge to them, I've had the experience a lot of times before, not during this internship as such, but for many other functions I've undertaken. people sometimes just don't like to say no even when they know they won't make it.
you should not feel bad about it because as a PR person you did exactly whatever you had to.
what I usually do when these things happen is that I take the most out of it, change a little the running schedule and fit it to the number of guest present, because not all the activities that you projected to do with 100 people would do well with just 25. that's when we can show we can be reactive, that we know how to manage crises and above all how much inventive and creative we are.
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