melbourne cup event · web viewthe wbs has been split into the operational jobs and the marketing...

Plan in-house Events or Functions, Manage Projects, Manage Event Staging Components

Melbourne Cup Event

Holistic Portfolio

Amy Murray11-16-2014

1. You are required to complete the event brief/plan templates provided to your organisation for each event you are developing and implementing.

Our event brief outlines all the key points for our event which is why it is important to have, so someone can read that and know exactly what is going on. The Event is to celebrate the 2014 Melbourne Cup for the students and teachers on campus that day. We will have activities on the day from 12pm, including the Giddy up races, photo booth, best fascinator and tie competition and a horse shoe toss. We will also be selling sweeps on the day for 50c, $1 and $2. In the afternoon the race will be on the screens in the cafeteria, we will have someone judge the best fascinator/cap/tie and hot nibbles will be served.

2. How did you determine appropriate products and services for your event? Did you come up with any innovative ideas? If so, what were they?

We had to come up with cost effective products to use for our promotional stand for the event because we had a limited amount of money we could spend as it would be getting divided up between 6 of us. This included hiring hay bales from a local business and sourcing pallets from a teacher so there was no cost involved. We were also innovative and sourced what we could from the TAFE cupboard. The main prizes we got for the event were from Campus Central so we didn’t have to source donations or purchase prizes. We did this because we didn’t have a budget for the event and they had prizes from a previous event they hadn’t used.

3. Think about the different components of the events you are running. Complete a WBS for your events. Ensure you label who is responsible for what tasks.

The WBS has been split into the operational jobs and the marketing jobs that need to be done for the event. It clearly shows all the jobs and who is responsible for getting each one done. Since this document was made and updated, some of our jobs roles changed slightly as we decided on what activities we would be in charge of on the day and so the documents for that activity were given to that person to do if had not already been completed. For the operations team our jobs included doing the event brief, WBS, run sheet, bump in/out, risk assessment, timeline, communication plan and budget. We divided these jobs up between our

Amy Murray – Melbourne Cup Event Holistic Portfolio Page | 1

team and then had the other team split up and help with some of those documents as well, to get everything completed quicker and more efficiently.

Melbournce Cup 2014 – Project BriefDate: 4th November 2014

Client Name Campus CentralKey Contacts Diploma of Events - Pennie Purcell

Campus Central – Kane, JeneaneBackground to Project

Themed Melbourne Cup viewing event

Project Purpose Second Assessment Event for Diploma of Events students to gain practical experience on an event and meet assessment requirements

Related Business Goals

Our goal is to have a successful and enjoyable event.To build experience in working in a team environmentCreate an unforgettable experience for patronsPut into practice the skills we have learnt in the Diploma of Events class.Create a positive Melbourne Cup atmosphere using themed decorations, games/activities, music and televisions showing horse races throughout the event.

Scope On the day of the event in the Campus Central Cafeteria guests will be treated to:Melbourne Cup themed tables and environment, games throughout the day with prizes given just before the big race. Sky Racing shown on televisions throughout the day to create an atmosphere.Male team members participating in the event will be wearing Hunter TAFE uniform with a colorful tie.Female team members participating in the event will be wearing uniform with a fascinator and a Melbourne Cup sash.

Target Audience Our target audience for the Melbourne Cup 2014 event is everyone on the university and TAFE Campus including T-Vet students and teachers.

Specific Project Objectives

To host this event in the Campus Central Cafeteria, Diploma students will split into two teams- Operations Team – Team Extreme and Marketing Team – SMACK. Each team is responsible for various roles and responsibilities to ensure a flawless event.Our target audience will be students and teachers on


campus.The theme of our will be 2014 Melbourne Cup RaceThere is no budget for this event. Campus Central has provided food, beverage and decorations.The date of the luncheon will be Tuesday 4th of November 2014.Every component will be finalized on the Wednesday 29th of October 2014

Budget No BudgetMilestones Recruitment of volunteers

Briefings – class + volunteers from Cert IIIWBSTimelineGantt ChartEvent OrderRun sheetBump in/ bump out sheetFloor PlanDecorationsConfirmed music playlistConfirmed games/activities

Assistance Required

Disability accessSmoking areaToilet LocationFirst Aid

Project Team and Roles

The class formed two teams- Operations– Team Extreme and Marketing - SMACKOperations Team members:BecAmyKyleYona

Marketing Team Members:KatieCraig

MarietaSophie

The Marketing teams roles consist of:Theming & decorations for eventFacebook eventGames and prizesPosters and screen saversMusic playlistSite inspection & floor planPurchase of products for themingFeedback forms


The Operations Teams roles consist of:Event briefSite inspectionTimelineGantt ChartWork breakdown Structure (WBS)Risk assessmentRun sheetBump in & out scheduleBriefingsApprovals

Work Breakdown Structure for Operations


And Marketing

4. Who do you need to communicate with throughout the event planning and implementation?

The communication between people when planning an event is very important as it will ensure the event is properly organised and all the details have been properly managed so the event runs smoothly on the day. Communication helps with booking the event, organising the event, managing the event on the day and gathering feedback after the event. Different types of communication is important to have a successful event, such as in person allows details to be easily negotiated and by email details can be reconfirmed and recorded. It is also important to use the right type of communication in different situation to save time and make the communication more effective for the final outcome, such as it is best to meet in person if there is a lot to discuss about the details of the event, but to see someone in person just to reconfirm event details might be a waste of time so it would be best to send an email. If it is a big event finding the event manager to ask a question will be hard and so having mobiles in place so everyone can be easily contacted is important for the


running of the event. These are the two main people we will need to communicate with to plan the event.

Campus Central – the main person we will need to communicate with is Jeneane, so we can organise and plan the details for the event. For marketing purposes we need to communicate with campus central to find what we can do to market the event such as where can we be putting up the posters and the screen savers. Also to get most of the printing done for the event will be done byCampus Central. We will also go to them for some things involving the cafeteria. We will need to communicate with campus central to plan the sweeps and the giddy up races as they already have somethings in place for those activities to run.

Kayne(cafeteria) – we will communicate with the cafeteria to plan the event on the day, this will involve the decorations we are putting up, the music, how the race will be shown and where we can put up posters in the cafeteria. Also prior to organising the event we will need to communicate with them about the promo display, to discuss where we can set it up.

5. You must complete a timeline for events you run highlighting any milestones. This is usually completed in the form of a Gantt chart.

The tasks that are listed are all milestones because it covers all the major things that had to be done so the event could run. Some of the tasks listed covers more than one job such as entertainment covers organising the music, games and sweeps and advertising covers the time the posters and screen savers were up for. All these tasks are the main jobs that were required for the event from sourcing the volunteers, doing a risk assessment, completing the WBS, the marketing and organising the entertainment for the day.

Event Gantt chart


6. Why are documents such as Event/Project Brief, WBS, Timeline and communication plans important to running an event?

These documents are important to run the event because they outline all the details that are needed to make the event run smoothly on the day. The timeline keeps all event staff on track for the planning and running of the event, from who is picking up the supplies before the event to who needs to pack the chairs away at the end, these documents are needed so no thought has to go into organising those jobs on the day of the event. Documents such as the event brief and WBS allow for more careful planning to be done so nothing that needs to be done is missed. These documents are also important as they give an outline of the event to any stakeholders that are interested or need to know details of the event for the day.

7. For your event create a spreadsheet and record any correspondence/ contact as per the below headings.

Communication Log


8. You will be required to make bookings with suppliers for your events. To do this you must put it in writing to ensure accuracy.

This is one of the first emails that were sent, informing the head teacher of our event and budget.


Here is the email sent reconfirming a phone call that was made to Bunnings Tuggerah requesting a donation of artificial turf.

These two emails are requests for venue and supplies for the head teacher and Bunnings who agreed to donate some artificial turf. These emails were to follow up booking supplies in person or by phone.

9. If you don’t achieve the expected number of people attending the event, how could you ensure profitability?

For this type of event a way to ensure profitability would have been to market the event in person more on the day, by going out and asking anyone on campus to come and join the event so we could get more people to the area we were holding the event. By doing this we would possibly talk to people who didn’t know about the event that may have been interested and it would not cost anything to do. If we had of needed numbers to ensure profitability for the event we could have really promoted the Facebook event and been regularly making updates for the event to remind everyone and to keep them involved.

10. A number of documents are produced for events for a variety of stake holders.

By making these documents it ensures minimal confusion for people on the day as there are the documents to inform people of their jobs, so they can keep on track and know schedules, layout etc.

11. Explain why the venue chosen suits the needs of your event. Include any key features or products to justify your answer.

The venue we used for this event was suited for the purpose of the event as it is a central area of the campus and therefore attracted the most amount of people to the event. It was also a good size area for the event we had planned with a regular amount of attendees. There was also a place well suited for people to watch the race and where we could set up activities that was close by but not in the way of main entrances of main walkways. The venue could also be made to suit both wet and dry weather conditions on the day as there was enough room to host the event undercover and inside if we needed. The venue was also a central area for us to access as well as campus central to go to as we were working together. This made organising and planning the event easier as


well as bump in and bump out because we had all the stuff we needed nice and close.

Confirmation Letter

A confirmation email that was sent from campus central answering a query made in person.

Floor Plan


Event Team and Volunteer Briefing


12. There are risks associated with any project. Explain the various risks, regulatory and sustainability issues that relate to your event including liquor licensing, environmental impacts, contractors, physical constraints, safety issues, security issues, social and environmental sustainability credentials, venue appeal and waste management?

The risks associated with our Melbourne Cup event were:

Liquor – as there is alcohol being served at this event to a younger audience there are risks involved for this event. The way we will manage this risk is by having RSA marshals around while they were serving the alcohol, especially between 2 and 3pm where they are serving drinks 10% off for happy hour.

Environment – as there will be a large amount of people in this area, possibly more than usual, there will be more rubbish from general food plus extra from drinks. Rubbish could end up in the pond as it is very close to the event area. We will be managing this by making sure there are plenty of bins that are not already full when the event starts and that they are easily accessible to the guests.

Physical constraints – if we have the expected number of guests to our event the area will be crowded and hard to move in, we will manage this by having signs up for entrance and exit and we will have the area set up in a way that will reduce this risk as much as possible.

Safety issues – safety issues at this event are the decorations on the tables falling, we can easily move them if it becomes more likely when there are more guests in the area, to minimise this risk and also making sure they are secured before the event to minimise the risk of them falling or being knocked off the tables.

Security issues – to minimise the risk of security issues we have informed them of our event in advance so they can be on standby if something happens or we need them. It will be a regular day at the campus and so nobody from outside the campus should be coming onsite, therefore the risk of security issues are low and will be minimised.

Venue appeal – the area we are holding our event at is a central area of the campus and therefore the risk of there being low venue appeal is low although most students will have gone on break and therefore the cafeteria might not be being used as much as previous weeks.


Waste management – there is expected to be a large amount of guests in the area that will therefore create more rubbish. The way we are managing this risk is making sure the bins are ready to be used and not already full and they are in places that are easily accessible to the guests such as one near the way out so there is less risk of rubbish being left and ending up in the pond.

Risk Assessment


13. It is always important to conduct a post evaluation on the event, your team and processes as well as yourself.

From the guests verbal and written feedback it was a good event that ran smoothly where the guests enjoyed the atmosphere we created to watch the race in. As a whole the event had been planned well which allowed it to run according to the run sheet and as scheduled. I think I could have managed the volunteers a bit better, except that the outcome for the event was lower than expected which meant there was less to be done. If we had of planned for there to be less guests involved in our event we may have moved it into the cafeteria sooner than we did, as it is a smaller space and therefore not as much needs to be going on to make the room have some atmosphere for the event. On the day the team worked well together to run the event and came together to get their jobs done. The volunteers were harder to manage than expected mainly because there was a much smaller number of guests than planned for which meant not as many jobs to like we had planned it. Overall everyone performed well on the day and had an enjoyable day.

Feedback Form


Poster for Feedback Form

Feedback Form Evaluation


14. Explain how you managed yourself and the event/project during the timeframe to stay on target and take responsibility where appropriate

To manage myself leading up to this event I made sure I was actively helping to plan the event so I knew exactly what was happening through the planning, what had been done and what was left to be organised such as taking charge of talking to campus central and distributing the posters, also preparing the event brief. Leading up to this event I also ran a meeting with the ops team to manage the jobs we were responsible for completing for this event.

15. A run sheet is vital for running a smooth event.

Our bump in, run sheet and bump out schedule for this event.

Bump In


Run Sheet


Bump Out


16. List the planning and organisational skills you used to ensure the project/event was completed successfully and on time

To plan this event a big part of it was team work to make this event successful as it was a big job to just plan this event in ones or twos, so we all had to work together to have everything ready on time. Another skill we needed to plan this event and make it successful was good communication. We were continually talking to campus central and the people at the cafeteria to organise the details for this event. We also had to talk to a few outside suppliers for different things such as CRT and Bunning’s. A third skill we used was organisation to plan and manage this event and the volunteers. We held meetings before the event so everyone knew what to do to keep the event on track. We stayed organised by preparing the meetings and the documents so we knew what had to be done so we could efficiently organise the event and manage the volunteers.

17. Explain how you led and motivated your team throughout the project.

I led and motivated the team by planning and running a meeting to organise and plan for the event. By getting involved with the allowed me to help lead the team through different parts of the planning process such as communicating with campus central and the TAFE office. Also by getting the posters up around campus helped to motivate the team as the event felt like it was getting closer and that more people were becoming aware of it.
