Evaluation of the Christmas Cracker Pub Quiz Event
The purpose of this paper is to show how the Christmas Cracker pub quiz event came to be, the event’s expenditure, funding, and the roles of the individuals who were involved in the event. Before the analysis is done, Information about Bloodwise organisation is reviewed with the aim of understanding getting and overview idea why the organisation was deserving the money that was raised in the Christmas Cracker pub quiz event. Moreover, the analysis of the event will be based on the information about the team members who were involved in the event by looking at the rationale and contribution of each member. Finally, the analysis will look at the problematic factors that influenced event outcomes, in particular the microphone problems.
Christmas Cracker pub quiz was a charity event put on by a group of University of West London students to raise money for Bloodwise organisation. The event took place on Tuesday, December 6, 2016. The event was held at 7 pm, where the planning team viewed this as the most convenient time for the event. The events venue was Freddies Bar, which is in the University Student’s Union Office. Through a better planning process, the University of West London students took an important task of making the Christmas Cracker pub quiz fundraising event the best as it could have been. Spurred on with the goal of raising the awareness and raising fund for the Bloodwise organisation, the group of the students taking the initiative divided the event task accordingly.
The team was made up of six members, and each person had a varying role to play in the planning and execution of the event. This is to show that many people became involved in the event right from the beginning. The team leader in the event had a number of roles to play. According to An Der Wagen and Carlos (2009), most of the event staff expects to enjoy themselves at the event and most of them look forward to joining an event that has affirmative action as lead by competent leaders. The leader was also the deputy marketing manager and the health and safety officer. The director, Jackie Halevy was assigned to senior roles such as directing the team in all section of the event and to make sure that each person plays his or her role efficiently.
The team leader had broader responsibilities in which she was assigned to other tasks such as improving teamwork in the group, negotiating with other groups about the marketing of the event, and facilitating the health and safety functions. In this case, the leader ensured that the aspect of insurance and license are in order so that the event can run in a safe and healthy manner. From the roles that were assigned to Jackie Halevy, the leader of the event, it is apparent that the leader had to deal with time and stress management. The two elements of event management were significant to every person who was involved in the event and the way the leader approached them determined the success of the event.
The deputy manager who was the assistant team leader was assigned to the role of identifying the most efficient marketing strategy. This was relevant to the group involved in the event because if the leader herself was not in a better position to carry out the overwhelming roles, the deputy leader would stand in for her and take the responsibilities so that the group would attain its goal. Robinson, Wale, and Dickson (2010) say that when two leaders manage an event, this is significant, as the leaders can shift their roles and ensures that events is carried out in an orderly manner. This means that in the event the aspect of recording all incidents and carrying out follow-up will be executed efficiently, where leaders will work by helping each other, especially dealing with anything else that may arise. Other members in the event were set to carry out tasks such as logistic management, promoting the event through marketing tasks, and planning the layout of the venue where the event was hosting some guest together with the other team members.
The finance or the evaluation manager was another person who played crucial roles in the management of the event finances. Bladen, Wilde, Kennell, and Abson (2012) reveal that financial management in an event is vital to the success of an event and determines the competence of any event manager. Thus, with the Christmas Cracker pub quiz event having a financial manager who understood his roles, the event finances were presented appropriately and interpreted according to the event needs and tasks that were carried out by the group. The role of the finance manager at the Christmas Cracker pub quiz event was to present the financial documents that were required by all members in the group, the manager, and to write the financial documents so that members can read the financial figures reflecting the event spending.
The issue of budget and funding are essential to any event either it is event for profit making or non-profit making organisations. For the event that was set to raise money for Bloodwise Charity Group, the aims was to work under minimum spending and generate as much money as possible. For the event to spend as little money and gain increased return, the finance manager prepared a detailed budget plan that was set to define the group expenditure and the revenue the group targets to acquire or gain (Shone and Parry 2004). Analysing the event budget and funding is important to the group members as they can use the findings to estimate the cost of the whole event and to sum the money that the event will require (Chaturvedi 2009). This implies that for the Christmas Cracker pub quiz event, the setting of financial planning was important to the entire event and the key to what the members who were participating in the event, as the used the financial planning to know what to do financially.
When one looks at the expenditure document, it is clear that the group the total expenditure was £0. The reason why the group did not spend any money to facilitate the event is that most of the materials that were needed for the event were procured free of charge, whereby the group members did an onsite contact to University of West London Students Union and the Bloodwise charity association. One way that the group used to generate the revenues is selling of the quiz and raffle tickets for the people willing to join the fundraising event. The money that was generated was given to Bloodwise Association, as this was the primary purpose of the event. The group expenditure planning was £872.00, but since the university together with the Blood wise organisation supported the group in the procurement and logistic of the items for the event, the group did not make any payment to the item. The income gained by the group was £170, where the group sold 40 tickets for £3.50 while for raffle ticket the group raised £30 with the sale 15 ticket at £2 per strip.
The sponsorship that the group managed to acquire had positive implication to the concept of group’s budgeting and funding. The sponsorship groups assisted the group to procure the venue, hiring the staff, equipment hire, advertising, and getting drinks free of charge. In the quiz prize category, the University of West London Students’ Union donated £50, and in the similar category, the University’s Directorate donated two chocolate selection boxes that were part of the event activities. Johnson Smith Bookshop also contributed to the generation of the event income, where the group gave out vouchers worth £50 and ten notebooks of different size worth £9.99 and £12.99 each. The other sponsorship groups that assisted in the procurement of materials for the event include Elior Catering, where the group gave out a shopping hamper voucher and Bouygues Property Services group, which gave out two bottles of wines for the event.
The above analysis is showing that different people and sponsorship group assisted the group in the purchase of event items, and therefore, helping the group meets its expectation. From the analysis, it is indicated that the group expenditure was £0, meaning that the money that the group made through the selling of the tickets and donations of the people attending the event was transferred to Bloodwise group. Thus, one can say that the group perfectly conducted and arranged the event. To conclude on the issue of budget evaluation, it is apparent that the staffs and the group members who participated in the event were helpful and useful, as they made the event a success with their contribution.
Finally, this evaluation looks at the unforeseen activities that happened in the event. Despite the much preparation and management of the event, some abrupt issues happened. The microphone problem was one of the unexpected problems that happened on the event day. As the event involved many people, wireless microphone objects facilitated the communication tasks. However, with the benefits that the microphones have, on the day the event was being held, the microphone went off at some moment, and this had a negative impact on the success of the event. The problem occurred due to the fact that the group has managed to acquire a system receiver that cannot support two microphones. The microphone breakout, made the event planners look inconvenient, but the problem was solved as soon as possible where the University’s audio people or staff were called to fix the problem.
The other problem that happened in the event involves the failure of the sound system. At some point, the sound system did not function as the event planners were hoping. From the event planner findings, people tripping over the communication system wires caused this problem. In addition, some of the VIP’s or dignitaries member did not arrive on time, which made it difficult for the group to deliver the speeches as planned. This lead to cancellation of some speeches that were set to be delivered by some dignitaries from other groups, hence making it difficult for the event planners to disseminate that the event was actually successful.
Bibliography
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Bladen, C., Wilde, N., Kennell, J., and Abson, E. 2012. Events Management: An Introduction. Hoboken, Taylor & Francis.
Chaturvedi, A., 2009. Event Management A Professional & Development Approach. Global India Pubn
Robinson, P., Wale, D., and Dickson, G. 2010. Events Management. Wallingford, Oxfordshire, CABI.
Shone, A. and Parry, B. 2004. Successful Event Management: A Practical Handbook. London, Thomson Learning.
