4. Target Market
• Local Community
• Staff and Students of DkIT
• Parents
• Local Groups/Societies
• People within a 20 minute drive of the
campus
• People aged 35+
7. List of Suppliers/ Sponsors
• Nathan Carter
• Nevin Maguire
• McM Surfacing
• Ruby’s Vintage Tea Rooms
• Barry's Tea
• Coby Jeweller’s
• Butlers Chocolates
• The Kearney Family
• Kerry Food Group
• Haribo
• Mc Brinn Prints
• The Sound Shop
• The Palace, Navan
• DkIT Hospitality Restaurant
• Houstons
• O’Neill’s Flowers
• Michael Curran Consultancy Ltd
• An Táin Arts Centre
• Market Fresh Fruit & Veg
• Oxigen Environmental
• Hanley Energy Ltd
• Hanlon Machinery Ltd
• After Sybil
8. Marketing Efforts
• The Argus
• The Dundalk Leader
• The Dundalk Democrat
• LMFM Radio Interview
• Facebook
• DkIT Times
• Posters
• Promotional Emails
• Website
15. Moments of Crisis
• Initial set-up timing
• Background Music
• Dietary Requirements
• More Volunteers
16. Magic Moments of Success
• Variety of Elements
• Broadened Demographic
• Ticket sales
• Media coverage
• Amount raised
• Variety of Food Served
• Event Itinerary Flow
17. Major Learning Points
• History of 1916
• Know your target audiences
• Finding the right date/venue/time
• Itinerary Changes
• Catering
18. Survey Feedback
• Positive Results
• 94% rated the event
excellent
• Scheduling and Timing was
rated at 86%
• The 1916 lecture and
refreshments were the
majority favoured elements
• Breakdown of event
exposure
21. Personal Highlights
“My personal highlight
would have to be...
Seeing everyone at our
event happy and
enjoying all elements
provided. It made me
realise that we
delivered a memorable
event!”
Christina White
"Our chosen
combination of
entertainment
provided me with an
enjoyable and
unforgettable
experience.”
Laura Woods
“The outcome of the
event was a great
achievement for us
and for doing it for
such a worthy cause
was amazing and I
would do it again in a
heartbeat”.
Roxanne Wall
“To have the
opportunity to raise
over €1,000 for such a
fantastic cause was
a great experience!
All of our planning
and hard work
thankfully paid off for
a successful
fundraiser!”
Rachel Curran
22. • Communication
• Effective teamwork
• Include a singer/ Irish dancer
• Entertainment dress code
• Designated Photographer
• Sell raffle tickets at an earlier
interval
• Bucket collection by
volunteers
Key Recommendations for the Future
Good afternoon and welcome to our event evaluation presentation, in which we hosted a “1916 Afternoon Tea” on 8th of March 2016.
Once again let me introduce you to our event team: Rachel Curran, Christina White, Roxanne Wall and myself, Laura Woods.
As initially planned we decided that all proceeds raised would go directly towards the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association. We are incredibly pleased that we raised so much money for a worthy cause. We were delighted to have Marie Reavey attend our event as a guest speaker and representative from the charity.
To recap, The Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association is:
The only organisation for people with Motor Neurone Disease
MND is a neurological condition
There is currently no treatment or cure
The damage is progressive
On average one person dies every four days in Ireland
Unfortunately Paul Lannon who suffers from MND couldn’t make it to our event as a guest speaker due to illness on the day, which highlights the severity of the disease.
Our target market was aimed towards the local community aged 35 years plus as well as staff and students of DkIT. We also aimed it towards parents and local groups and societies within a 20 minute drive from the college campus who would be interested in a 1916 event.
We were delighted to have VIP guests attend our event including Tóla Collier from the “Battle of Ashbourne 1916”, Anne Campbell the acting college President, Maria Roddy-Freyne, Fr. Paddy Rushe and Brianain Erraught.
Our chosen target market was successful since we sold out before the event and there were still enquiries after we reached the full capacity of fifty attendees.
Roxanne will now discuss the relevant planning data.
For our event we carried out a detailed risk assessment to see if any possible risks that could occur at our event. After distinguishing these, we implemented policies and procedures to deal with any possible incidents. However, we had incident report forms at the ready if any issue did arise, but luckily enough we did not have to fill one out. By hosting our event on DkIT’s premises we were covered by their insurance as our insurance form was passed by the relevant body.
Here is a list of our suppliers and sponsors. Without the generosity and help from these businesses our event would not have been so successful. Such sponsors include McBrinn Prints who sponsored our tickets and O’Neill’s Flowers who sponsored our shamrock favour pots.
We carried out a number of PR and Marketing activities which included:
For Pre-Event:
We sent out an immediate press release to local newspapers (The Argus, The Dundalk Leader, and The Dundalk Democrat) and to the college newsletter (the DkIT Times).
We set up a Facebook page to promote our event which we updated with over eighteen scheduled posts. We set up our own website with all event team information, information on how to purchase tickets and all relevant event details was readily available.
We also distributed posters all around campus to gain the attention of DkIT stakeholders.
We were delighted that LMFM radio station gave us a ten minute slot to talk about our “1916 Afternoon Tea” and the charity that we were fundraising for on their mid- morning show on 8th March. This gave us a great chance to make people aware of what we were doing and why we were doing it.
For Post-Event:
We distributed an immediate press release to indicate how successful this fundraiser was and we were delighted with the coverage that we have got in the local print mediums. We got front page coverage from “The Dundalk Leader” and as you can see from the slide, a half page article in “The Dundalk Democrat.”
Facebook Activity
As you can see from the slide our Facebook page was very active during both pre- and post-event. We gained over eighty likes and many of our posts had a reach of over three hundred users.
The catering for this function was a group effort. Myself and my colleagues made numerous baked goods including fresh cream sponge and fruitcake.
We hired “Shane’s Catering” to make an array of sandwich platters.
DkIT’s Hospitality Restaurant supplied us with all our condiments (such as butter and jam) on the day this was very much appreciated.
This is an example of our menu.
Here you can see some of the raffle prizes we received in this picture collage.
Three of the top prizes included:
A Signed Rugby Jersey by Rob and Dave Kearney
A Signed Nevin Maguire Cookbook and
A Signed Nathan Carter CD
On the event day we had two guest speakers in attendance.
Marie Reavey, the Regional Development Officer with IMNDA. She is pictured on the left and Tóla Collier a representative of the “Battle of Ashbourne 1916” who is pictured in full military uniform on the right.
Both representatives gave a brief presentation on their respective areas and really captured our audiences attention.
We feel like we provided a variety of entertainment elements on the day including:
Francie Duffy who played the accordion
DkIT Music Students who played a number of traditional pieces from the 1916 era in the pre-function area as guests arrived.
Sean Brown who piped us out with the national anthem.
The Lordship Set Dancers who performed a number of ceilí dance routines.
And a 1916 themed photo slideshow presentation created by our very own team member, Laura Woods.
Haribo kindly sponsored us with approximately forty packets of their signature sweets. Collectively we sold them around the campus to fellow college colleagues and raised €85.00 from this activity.
Rose Leonard, one of the Culinary Arts lecturers kindly donated an Easter chocolate chicken, as pictured in the middle. We raffled this by selling tickets on the campus to mostly DkIT’s staff members and raised another €52.00.
This were additional fundraising activities undertaken by us in an effort to raise additional funds for the chosen charity.
Moments of crisis for our team included:
Initial Set up timing – Here we felt a bit of pressure to turn the venue around within an hour.
The background music for some was louder in certain areas of the room due to speaker placement.
Dietary requirements – We had to cater for a coeliac and a vegan at our event .
We would have preferred a larger team of volunteers to assist with the set-up.
Magic moment's of success for our event included:
Offering a unique variety of elements such as entertainment options.
Broadened demographics as we targeted both students, staff and, the local community through our three fundraising efforts.
Ticket sales, as we sold out by 2nd March.
Extensive media coverage as previously discussed.
The amount of money raised for the IMNDA.
The variety of food served.
And the overall logistical flow of the event.
Major learning points for us were as follows:
Acquiring a greater depth of knowledge about the events and history of the 1916 Rising. The availability of this information was great and this was due to the fact that the centenary commemorations were taking place after our event in Dublin.
Really knowing your target audience does pay off. By targeting the different segments using different techniques this allowed us to raise as much funds as we possibly could.
Finding the right date, venue and time was vital for us and we needed to pick an accessible venue that would allow us to create an atmosphere and the correct date and time were we could cater for our attendees.
Itinerary changes were last minute and we had to adapt quickly to allow the event to flow easily
For the catering we realised that when providing food and beverage we need to take into account different dietary requirements.
The results of the survey that we issued on the day were relatively positive. For example:
94% rated the event excellent.
Scheduling and Timing was rated at 86%.
The 1916 lecture and refreshments were the majority favoured elements.
Parking seemed to be the biggest issue as it was a busy day on campus.
The following is a breakdown of how people heard about our event. As you can see word-of-mouth and a strong PR campaign was key for this function.
This is a breakdown of our income and expenditure for the event. As there was no budget allocation, we had to source as much income as possible. This was totalled at €1186.50. This was from ticket sales, the two raffles, sponsorship, donations and the selling of Haribo sweets.
Expenses only totalled €50.00. This was due to the generosity of family, friends, the event team and suppliers. So we were very grateful for their support.
And the final amount raised for the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association was €1,136.50. We are so happy to have raised this amount for such a fantastic cause!
As a group we all discussed our personal highlights and you can see our individual quotes on screen. However, the main highlight was that we planned and ran an event that was unique, with a great variety of entertainment, guest speakers, a raffle and refreshments. The amount raised was overwhelming and we really appreciate how generous people were, especially in this economic climate.
Some key recommendations for anyone running an event of this calibre in the future is to:
Have continued communication before, during and after the event
To work effectively as a team and divide tasks
We would have loved to had a singer or an Irish dancer at the event
We would have briefed the traditional group to acquire a more professional dress code
We would have employed a designated photographer
We would have sold raffle tickets at an earlier interval i.e. had a raffle stand outside the Whitaker in the weeks before this occasion.
We would have sought more volunteers so as they could conduct a bucket collection throughout the campus during the event to gain more funds and raise more awareness.
To conclude, we all thoroughly enjoyed the pre-planning that went into this event and also its execution. It was great to see all the months of planning finally culminate into an actual event. While the set-up on the day was challenging as there were tight time restrictions, everything ran relatively smoothly. Changes were easily implemented and adapted, with all team members informed beforehand. As a group, we felt that the occasion was great value for money for the attendees. While receiving an array of refreshments, there was also a lot of entertainment on offer. DkIT music students played a traditional set upon arrival, Mr. Francie Duffy and the Lordship Set Dancers also played a few songs, Mr. Sean Brown of Carlingford Pipe Band played us out with Amhrán na bhFiann and we had two wonderful guest speakers. There were also over twenty raffle prizes available on the day. While the financial outcome speaks for itself, the survey data gathered was also very positive. As a team we can't express the pride we feel to have raised over €1,000 for a fantastic organisation. We are delighted that the "Event Execution" module gave us the opportunity and responsibility to run our own event. While there were certainly elements we would change and mistakes we would rectify, in general this was an experience that will stand to us. A learning curve has been realised and we look forward to building on this and hopefully individually becoming successful employees in the Events and Hospitality sector. Thank you for your attention, we welcome any questions you may have.
