16th October 2014
I’m pretty sure everyone has had a touch and
experience of organizing an event – be it a small-scaled one such as a birthday
party or a large scaled roadshow. So you will know when I say that organizing
an event requires paying attention to the smallest of detail and having it
planned in a systematic order in order for it to be a success.
This is true for me at least. I was tasked to
help organize and coordinate the Bethanie Medallion 2014. Bethanie is one of
Devahasdin’s largest clients –the company currently stands as WA’s largest aged
care provider and we at Devahasdin, are in charge of taking care of the media
and public relations aspects of the organization.
The Bethanie Medallion is an annual awards
ceremony that honors individuals or organisations that actively contribute to
the delivery of exceptional service within the aged care sector in WA.
The Bethanie Medallion 2014
The entire conceptualization of the event is
indeed a tiring but eventful one. Planning an event is never an easy task. The
amount of effort and planning that goes into planning an event is enormous!
Talk about the running sheets, the emcee notes, event task lists to RSVP lists,
the list just goes on and on.
The one thing that I have learnt about planning
an event is to always envision that there will be some element of it that will
fail on the actual day. I’m not trying to be negative here but having the
possibility of the event failing at the back of your head allows you to plan
and have measures in place for contingencies to counteract the possibility of a
unforeseen screw-up. Tiny details such as having a back-up wireless microphone on
standby or having the powerpoint slides for the awards ceremony in a flash
drive might seem like minor things but these seemingly little setbacks can
definitely ruin an event.
During the actual day, I was given the
incredible task of coordinating the entire event from the back-end, controlling
all technical aspects of it from the slideshows that is to be projected up, to
the coordination of the music with the audiovisual expert. I know some of you
might think that this is a minor task but let me tell you it is incredibly stressful
for I had to be attentive and be in synchronization with the emcee to change
the slides shown accordingly. I was glad that everything went well without a
hiccup and I couldn’t help but feel a sense of accomplishment and pride seeing
all the happy faces of the audience who commended the event – saying that it
was extremely fun and well organized.
So I hope in the future, always take my little
tip of paying attention even to the smallest of detail and contingency planning
is extremely IMPORTANT for any event in order for it to be a success – be it large scaled or small. Happy event
planning in the future!
My Little Technical AV Workstation
The Bethanie Medallion in action!
Nicholas Cross
ps. did I mention that it was covered by Channel 7 and Home in WA? Do check out the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI_wvjJHNGA to get a glimpse of the event!
