5. Events and how to run them (safely and effectively)

i. When to hold an event

College is stressful, life is busy, clubs/societies are meant to be fun, nobody is paying committee members to host events, and nobody is paying anyone to attend. The key to club/society events is understanding that everything surrounding them requires people being willing to give up their free time.

Some clubs/societies host meetings every week and some only hold a couple of big events every year. Some do both.

What is important is that the quantity and variety of the events your club/society hosts is based on what people actually want to engage with for your particular club/society- otherwise you’re just wasting your time and energy.

Every event starts with an idea and a decision to make that idea reality. How you do that varies wildly, but a good start is to figure out the following:

  • What is my event?

  • Who would be interested in it, and how many?

  • When is a good date/time to hold this event?

  • Will there be external factors (i.e. exams, life stuff) that might affect my ability to work on this or people’s ability to attend?

  • What do I need to accomplish/prepare before this event, and how long will that take?

  • How will I promote the event?

  • Will this be a fun thing for me to do?

Understand when attendance will be low. Avoid doing events near deadlines if you can, and understand fewer people are around in the second semester.

Regardless, make it worth their while! Your club/society has a budget for a reason – incentives like free things & snacks can help new people attend your meetings or events. Consider charging a small ticket fee at bigger events so people feel like they have more of an obligation to go, having spent money.

ii. What you need to get ready to get ready

When planning an event, it is absolutely essential to consider the capacity of your committee itself. If there are just a couple of people running everything, you have less manpower and thus can do less. If you have a big ambition and small team, you’ll need to adjust for that and plan harder and give yourself longer.

  • When working with external resources, you have no guarantee of urgency, quality, or availability, so get these things sorted as soon as possible.

    • Where you host an event is more important than anything else, especially because if you lose that location, you have no event. Booking a room/venue should be your first priority. Consider how much the rental fee will be, how close it is to transport links/college, whether people will want to stick around past a certain time, whether people like/dislike the location.

    • Events take people, and that manifests differently depending on the event. A music/performance event will usually need acts booked before you can promote it, whereas a regular meeting just needs a couple of committee members to supervise. If the event is big enough, an events crew is essential, even if it’s a small one. Spreading out the workload of planning an event, and ensuring you have people around to help carry equipment, scan tickets, answer attendee questions, ensure everyone is safe, isn’t just about making things easier, it’s also about doing things properly and safely.

    • Equipment specifically can be hard to work with, as who you borrow from (such as the Students’ Union) will determine a lot of how you can use it, for example you might have to hire a sound engineer, or have it in a specific location. Find this out as early in the process as possible to plan accordingly. If you damage someone’s equipment, it is your responsibility to fund replacement/repair, so avoid this by ensuring anyone using the equipment is trained to do so.

  • For people to attend your event, people need to know it’s happening, what means advertising.

    • Include all relevant information as clearly as possible. What the event is, when it is, where it is, any perks (i.e. food, raffle, etc.) of attending, and any cost (i.e. ticketed or free).

    • Visually striking social media posts, especially with a face in the image, do best.

    • When putting posters around campus, try make them stand out not just in design but in placement.

    • Reels are promoted more in the Instagram algorithm, but they need to be snappy and fun to be effective.

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4. Working with your budget