Perth Heat party

Hello guys

I figured I would write another blog entry to tell you about a few of the events I have been involved with at Student Edge. One of these was the Perth Heat party aimed at students. Perth Heat is actually our baseball team...I had no idea before I googled it! They play regularly at the Barbagallo ball park in Cannington.

Basically, the event was a TOTAL FAIL. I'll tell you why I think this was...

The marketing and communications executive had just secured a new partner in Perth Heat, meaning they would regularly give away free tickets and provide students with a regular discount on ticket prices. To launch this new partnership somehow, my exec decided to throw a bit of a party for over 18's around the licensed bar area.
I brainstormed lots of ideas for the event from how to control entry and ID checks to decorations and prize giveaways. Then I wrote up an event plan along with a schedule and running checklist for the day. I didn't have much guidance through this at all which I found quite disorganised and vague on Student Edge's part.
A couple of other interns and I visited the baseball park prior to the event to have a chat with some staff and have a look at the venue, bar and facilities.
Throughout the whole process I knew that the company had completely unrealistic expectations from the event. They wanted to draw a crowd and and create an event that could possible be ongoing if all went well. This is exactly where all the issues were!
Firstly, I really doubted that students would show up to a baseball game (not exactly very popular in Perth- I hadn't the slightest clue who Perth Heat even where) on a Thursday night to party at a venue which isn't known at all for throwing these kinds of events.
Secondly, the event was barely promoted at all. How can you expect a crowd to turn up when there has been no work conducted to even let people know that its happening? A few Facebook posts was a very weak attempt. They could have at least called up Xpress magazine and created a great poster for the event. Or targeted actual baseball fans by promoting the event at previous ball park games.
Thirdly, they had their target publics completely wrong. Student Edge wanted to attract young students in general. What they didn't seem to look into was how many children, families and older couples make up the main audience for Perth Heat games. Its just not the kind of crowd that would want to have a piss-up to house and electro music on a thursday night!

I mentioned my concerns during the planning process but Student Edge wanted to give it a go anyway and just see what happens....an approach that confused me coming from a well-established organisation.

On the day a few other interns and I set up- posters, marquee and all the other things. While the turn out to this 'party' was exactly as I expected (pretty much no one), I still had a great night watching my first ever baseball game with the office team and being fed hot chips by my exec.
Needless to say, the regular party idea was dropped instantly.

I'm going down south to Albany for a holiday over the weekend, but talk soon :)