Started with event planning difficulties:
- I found it overwhelming to keep up with the many considerations, so I updated a Notion template (created by the founder to help consider all aspects of planning an event, e.g. promotion, tickets etc.) with any extra questions to organise my thoughts.
- To collaborate with BF we required a venue with a screen but this was tricky considering expenses. I communicated with BF post-meeting through email, having to reiterate IH’s model (non profit) and lack of budget after having mentioned this prior, and during the meeting. I updated the founder and we were mutually confused, but I remained professional, focused on venues.
- Additionally, after event scheduling clashes with BF, our team had multiple conversations on how to move forward:
- Postponing
- Cancelling
- Doing it without BF as a host, just background support
CC 2nd meeting:
- My co-host created an event schedule. I asked CC if it was possible for their team to take a look in advance to our next online meeting = save meeting time and focus on other vital considerations.
- Myself and my co-host introduced ourselves to the full CC team, gained schedule feedback & progressed on promotion and tickets:
We could focus on social batteries.
- Originally we thought the event could be split between those who want to talk and those who don’t, to cater to our audiences. But a focus on levels of social battery was better.
- However, my feedback from the founder was that we needed more information on the promotional post, which I’ll take away for future collaborations, especially as I think this led to later complications with timings.
I used Eventbrite for the first time:
- In navigating it, I felt dissatisfied and asked the founder to check it over because of my unfamiliarity with it
- I used past descriptions to guide extra information in the description e.g. “doors open at…” “no experience needed”, to better align with our audience. I reformatted the description to create the Instagram caption, considering past captions’ style e.g. “where” “when” “tickets in bio”:
CC ‘Craft & Conversation’ event – first hosting:
- This event was craft-based, allowing attendees to pick any or all craft options
- Considering the need to speak to everyone, welcome everyone, take content, participate in our activities, promote IH etc. I was overwhelmed. But, I learnt as I was going e.g. I was too promotional of our loyalty cards at first, realised, stopped and let my co-host continue. Once everyone was settled, I was calm.
- I found it effective speaking with each attendee, viewing their creations and taking content at the end
- My co-host and I thought that we’d decide if we should cancel/postpone/do the BF event ourselves with their support after hosting this. We concluded the latter.
- I updated the founder about my personal experience and she advised:
The biggest lesson is flexibility, people join and end up doing something else. You guys are a good team.
Edited Reel for this event:
- Decided to make another ‘Come with me to…’ video considering the reception of the last
- Created graphic for the introduction, similar to the promotional post (like Steep & Stroll) for recognisability
- I asked for feedback as the font looked off:
Try capital letters.
This is so cute are you able to change the colours of the logos.
- This was to align with the original post and feed
- Because of the feel of the video, I felt a CTA didn’t fit, so I also asked if keeping it in the caption would be ok and sent the final video
My favourite Reel of ours, you’re so fast as well to make it.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DR1nJQLiCE9/
Ended the month with further BF collab issues:
- After deciding to host with just the support of BF, there was a lack of specificity and care in BF’s responses, despite having agreed and suggested this dynamic as an alternative option. So before locking in the event, our team further discussed, deciding to postpone and replace it with another winter event. However, it’s risky:
- Our audience will likely be away for the holidays
- We don’t have a large audience yet
- We decided to go ahead with planning, to promote as soon as possible, and avoided spending our resources until we knew our numbers
