In planning for the upcoming Op Shop Ball Anglicare hosts a VIP Op Shopping Night for all the VIP guests and sponsors of the Op Shop Ball at the Fremantle Op Shop. This allows the VIP guests and sponsors attending to purchase their clothing and accessories for the ball to make sure they are ready for this exquisite evening.
Unfortunately hosting such an event is not as easy as just waiting for the shop to close, coming in and pouring drinks. There was plenty of preparation before the event and on the day it was a rush to get everything perfect. Two of our major sponsors of the Ball, Gage Roads and MYPORTFOLIO provided the alcohol for the event as they are the beer and wine major sponsors respectively of the Ball.
On the day I had to pick up the many cartons of wine and beer for the event from the cellars and also organise the glasses for the wine from the church that is thankfully located just across the road from our office. Shame the cellars weren't located nearby. Elise and I arrived at the Fremantle store 3.5 hours before the event was due to start. First we had to unload all the items we had and then it was time to shuffle the store around and make sure there was plenty of space for everything during the evening. This involved moving plenty of racks, furniture and other items to ensure all the clothing could be adequately showcased.
The platters also arrived from the catering company and then it was time to get the ice and get all the drinks and food items ready with only a short while to go until we were expecting our first guests to arrive. Luckily we were ready early as the first guests arrived 30 minutes early which took us slightly by surprised but we turned up the hospitality and jumped right into the evening of fun Op Shopping.
Unfortunately one problem that we did face is that the air conditioning in the building was not functioning correctly and therefore two large fans had to be sourced and used. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the evening so far even in the warm environment.
We had also secured a photographer from the Western Suburbs Weekly and these were published in todays edition of the paper in the Scene Out section. They spelt my name wrong but oh well... Jaret... James... very similar! Hopefully the photos in the Western Suburbs Weekly will help with the publicity of the event and next years event can be even bigger.
Once the room started filling up it was very easy to maintain a positive and exciting atmosphere. Plenty of people were dressing up, even having some guys in girls dresses and all sorts to have a good laugh. The drinks also added to the event being merry, unfortunately though this did lead to one glass being smashed, but one isn't too bad for an entire event.
Even when it came time to wrap up the event it took over an hour after the official finishing time to have everyone out the door. Once everyone was out it was simply a matter of packing away and going home.
For the event there was no real running plan or schedule of events as it was more simply mingling, having light refreshments, finding outfits and having some fun trying on simply bizarre clothing. The day before a short 5 minute team meeting was had where we discussed positions for the evening such as meeting and greeting the guests, food and beverages, stylists and people simply mingling.
It was very exciting to be involved in my first not for profit event and how successful it was. I am continually blown away by the lack of costs that Anglicare is able to achieve through its event from the generous support of the corporate and private community. The only items I ended up having to purchase and spend money on was soft drinks, bottled water, ice and napkins. This all came well under $100 for an extremely successful and enjoyable evening. I am glad I am getting all this experience but of course as I will discuss in my next blog unfortunately not everything is events. Going forward I am continuing on my PR plan for Op Shops, working on a bequests project and also continuing to work on the Op Shop Ball fast approaching. I might even put in a sentence or two in an upcoming blog about my visit to Curtin as I am assisting with the Client Brief for Marketing Professional Practice 300 next week.
Hope you are all having a great week and please stay safe with everything going on in the world at the moment.
Cheers! James.
2 comments:
Very interesting read as my placement is at a not-for-profit organisation also (St John of God Hospital Subiaco) and although there are a few events to be organised, I'm finding that most of the work relates to communication strategies both internally and externally.
Looking forward to hearing more about Anglicare in my Marketing Professional Practice Class.
Marija,
It really does depend on the time of year on what the focus is. Working in such a small team with just four staff all with their own specific areas certain items are prioritised.
During that period Op Shop Ball which is the largest event on the Anglicare WA calander is the most important and also the most labour intensive. We are certainly still communicating with many phone calls, newsletters, letters and other correspondance being made to guests of the event, sponsors, potential supporters and all other organisations to make sure the event is fantastic.
Now that the event is over it is back to a "business as usual" feel and I will be commenting more on my blog post that I will be making shortly regarding this.
Thanks for your comment Marija and hope all is well for your MPP class and assignment.
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