TEDxDBSOrganisersManual

Event Team:
Team Lead - George Brown
Marketing and Social Media - Marta Alonso
Event Planner, PR and Sponsorship – Rebecca Connelly
Marketing and Social Media - Jennifer Gordon
Ticketing and PR - Rachelle McSharry
Catering and Logistics Mariam Denloye
TEDx Moderator - Diego Heredia
Event Operations and Logistics – Dennis Ampuero
Production team:
Production Head - Susan Sweeney
Film editor and Producer - Molly Gamache
Film and Photographer - Sarah Shatas
Marketing and Social Media Specialist - Aisling Dilworth
Production Assistant - Emily Crowley
Event Operations lecturer:
Emma Olohan.
Moderator:
Alan Morgan
Program leader:
Anne McGlynn.

INTRODUCTION
What is a TEDx Event? TEDx is a programme of local, self-organised events that bring
people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and
live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connect with a small group. These
local, self-organised events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED
event. TEDxDBS Live must be wrote and displayed in this way on all media and
correspondents about the event.
HOW TO GET A TEDx LICENCE
A lecturer at DBS must apply for a TEDx license. We suggest that this is done as early
as possible as you need at least 6 weeks to organise this event. You cannot do
anything without the license so you must wait until it has been issued. Refer to the
TEDx Manual about the application process.

SPEAKERS
By Rebecca Connolly
There was two sessions that we were able to choose from. Each session had a different
theme and different speakers. We chose the session that we felt would appeal more to
our student audience. The session theme was Radical Repatterning and included the
founders and CAO’s of AirBnB and Uber, as well as Adam Savage from Mythbusters.
As this was a streamed event, we did not have to choose the speakers ourselves.
On the official TED website they give biopsies of each speaker, giving you an insight
into the industry they come from and their career history. We used these biopsies and
reduced them to give our attendees a brief insight into who each speaker was.
Top Tips
● Choose speakers that your audience will know which will encourage them to
attend the event.
● Make sure you tell the attendees about each speaker so event if they do not
know who they are, they might be interested in the industry they come from.
● Make sure to inform the students before the event that the speakers will not be at
the event as it is streamed from the USA.

EMCEE
By Rebecca Connolly and George Brown
An emcee is a master of ceremonies who is the official host of a staged event. They
present performers, speak to the audience, entertains people and generally keeps the
event moving.
You need an emcee for the event in order to spark discussion in between each speaker.
As part of TEDx they want a short video showing your TEDx event and included in this
must be discussions with the audience. We chose to use a lecturer from the college
who we felt could start discussions and generate opinions within the audience.
We also had two students who were apart of the organising team to introduce the TEDx
event and make any necessary announcements. They introduced the whole day, telling
everyone what to expect, the house rules (such as no leaving the room while a speaker
is on as the event is being recorded) and pointing out emergency exits.
Top Tips
● Choose an emcee who is respected and liked by the audience and who can also
effectively generate discussion.
● Have a laptop as backup in case there is a problem with the desktop.
● Have music ready for the breaks and if there is any connection problems.

CONCEPT AND THEMING
By Rebecca Connolly and Rachelle McSharry
A theme creates the setting of a venue for an event. The concept is an idea or invention
to help publicise an event.
The theme of the 2016 TEDx Global Live event was Dreams. The purpose of TEDx is to
bring TED to your community in your own way. Harnessing the creativity and
uniqueness of your own city, town, school or community will go far in making your event
special. So based on this we chose the Emerald Dream as the theme to our event. TED
encourages organisers to show off their country and local community, so we used Irish
decorations to dress up our venue. Anything and everything you would see on St.
Patrick's Day was at our event. An Irish flag, shamrock and leprechaun bunting, pots of
gold and a disco light. We had props for the final photo which included Irish flags, big
green dickybows and hair pieces.
TEDx wanted to know what our nation's dream was. We decided that instead of coming
up with one generic dream we would create a dream wall, allowing everyone who
attended to share their dream with us anomalously. We prepared green ‘dream bubbles’
or clouds, and we asked everyone to write down their dream and stick it into our dream
wall. This had a better reaction than we thought it would and was very successful
among all attendees. We took pictures of all the dreams and shared them on all of the
TEDxDBS social media accounts. We also sent it to TED who loved the idea.
Top Tips
● Incorporate Ireland into whatever theme you decide on. Make sure your theme is
clear and consistent.
● Create something fun, don’t get too serious.
● Your theme and concept should involve the attendees where ever possible to
create a fun environment.
VENUE

By Diego Heredia and Mariam Denloye
Risk assessment
● Write down the possible risk that can occur during the event and how to prevent
it from happening or reducing the risk of any risk occurring
● Check the venue to find out the emergency exits
● Find who the first aid officer is for the venue.
● Check the venue for possible changes in the premises that can be dangerous for
the people assisting the event.
● Make sure the staff knows about where the emergency exists, first aid kit and
emergency phones are.
● With this amount of people coming to the event, have trained staff in the
premises.
Top Tips
● It's important to do the risk assessment before the day of the event to make sure that the
emergency exit can be assessable and the first aid officer would be available on the day
of the event.
● Also to have someone prepare with an aid kit to prevent any injuries before the
professional staff comes around and takes care of the situation.
REGISTRATION

By Diego Heredia
The registration desk is the place where all the guests that came to the event get their
name tags. So there is a control over the people who attend the event.
From this experience normally not every person that had confirm his or her attendance
will come to the event. So you should have some blank name tags ready for extra
people that might attend in the last minute.
● Have the name tags ready in alphabetical order so it's easy to find the person's
tag.
● Keep the registration desk clear of people when they get their name tags
● Get a printed list of all the people attending the event
● Have more than one person at this desk at the start of the event, so the people
move more quickly into the auditorium.
During the talks a member of the organising team should stay in the registration desk to make
sure no one without a ticket comes into the venue or disturbs the speakers. The entry of the
event must be controlled at every moment, never leave it without a member of the staff
NAME TAGS
By Diego Heredia

First you must have the name list of all the attendees and the number that are going to
the event. Then write the name of the attendees in big words so that everyone can see
it. The purpose of this is to chat and also differentiate the staff from the people who are
attending the event and that they might want to know each other.
● Make no spelling mistakes in the name tags
● Have spare one at the registration desk there is always someone extra coming to
the event at the last minute
● Get them ready with the printed list of all the attendees in alphabetical order
● Go and buy the name tags with many days head of the final date and also have many spare ones.
EVENT PLANNING
By Rebecca Connolly

An event planner is someone who coordinates all aspects of professional meetings and
events.
A Gmail account was created so all of the emails in relation to the event were sent and
received in the one place. This also allowed us to have a Google Drive account to share
all documentation surrounding the event. The email address was
tedxdbslive@gmail.com and the password was simple. It was shared among the
organisers group. Any contact to someone outside of the group went through this email.
A Whatsapp group chat was also created so everyone was able to send updates to the
group easily and effectively. It also means everyone was kept in the loop.
Top Tips
● It is important to keep communications flowing with your group so a group email
and text group are ideal.
● Create a Google Drive account or Dropbox so everyone can share and access
the documentation for the event.
● Ensure everyone can access the account by using a simple password.
SPONSORSHIP
By Rebecca Connolly

Sponsorship is defined as financial support from a sponsor. In relation to TEDxDBS, a
sponsor offers non-financial support to the event, such as food.
Sponsorship is not allowed in a TEDx event, unless you choose to do a commercial
event. However, you are encouraged to supply food and beverages for your guests. We
decided to ask local coffee shops to help us with our event and in return offer them a
place at the event, to be thanked and noted that they supplied the food and beverages
and allow them to hand out any leaflets and student offers. Unfortunately we were let
down by our first choice but luckily had a relationship with a local cafe that were able to
help us out last minute.
Top Tips
● Contact multiple cafes and have at least two choices, keeping on as an backup.
● Always have a backup plan! Coffee sachets, tea bags and granola bars would be
my suggestion.
● Make sure not to have any branding of the sponsorship at the event as this is not
allowed.
MARKETING
By Jennifer Gordon and Marta Alonso

Social Media
By Jennifer Gordon
Social Media: forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking
and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share
information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos).
What TED Recommends
● You must follow the TEDx Branding Guidelines. The guidelines have been
created in order to maintain the quality and strength of the TEDx brand identity.
● Never use the TED or TEDx logo. Only your event's approved TEDx logo that
includes the TEDx tagline may be used. The required tagline is "x=independently
organized TED event". Your approved TEDx logo must appear on every page of
your website, all outbound communication and all marketing materials.
● Use the official TEDx logo template. Download the logo template from the
website. You may adjust to include your approved event name. You may not
adjust the letter spacing, alignment, proportion, case, or color of the logo
template. Always use Helvetica. If you do not have Helvetica, Arial is allowed as
a substitution.
● Always include the TEDx mission description. The official TEDx description (see
the TEDx website for copy) must appear on all outbound communication,
marketing materials and website.
What We Did

● Fill out your TEDx event page. Add as much information as you can immediately
after your license has been approved. Required fields include your event
website, your event date, social media pages, Twitter handle, venue location and
webcast URL (if you plan to do a webcast). We went onto Ted.com into our
account to start designing our logo using the Ted template given to you online.
● Always use your approved TEDx name online. The URL for your event website,
Twitter handle, Facebook page name, etc, may only use your approved TEDx
event name. We then proceeded to choose the banners we wanted for our
multiple social media pages as they all need to be the same.
● We created a Facebook page with all the necessary information and started to
invite everyone to share and like the page. We also created a Twitter for guests
to discuss their opinions and use a Hashtag that we created #TEDXDBSLive
● On the homepage of your website and websites tab in Facebook, there must be
a visible link to the TEDx Program page.

● Created a twitter wall on TweetWally for a live twitter feed also used the website
Hootsuite to schedule posts on all social media sites at the same time.
● Posted quotes from speakers and sneak peaks into the event and what to expect
to create a buzz and excitement. YouTube Videos, link to TED website etc.
● Sponsor logos are not allowed on the homepage but may appear on other pages.
When displayed, they must be smaller than the TEDx logo.
Top Tips
● Post relevant content regularly – daily to keep guests interested.

● Link all social media pages together for maximize followers.
● Create excitement by posting unusual and interesting aspects of the event that
would entice guests to go.
DESIGN AND GRAPHICS OF POSTERS
By Marta Alonso Vicente
For TED, keeping an uniform image all over the world is a basic marketing technique.
That is why they are very strict when it comes to the design of your logo and your
poster.
Logo
Only three colours are allowed: red for “TEDx” and white and black for the name of your
hosting city or institution and background (organizers will be able to choose white or
black background). Helvetica (font) is part of TED image, if organizers have no access
to this, only Arial is allowed instead.
The name of the hosting institution cannot be written in capital letters except in case of
initials (as in case of DBS) and the size has to be the same as for “TEDx”. The tagline
“independently organized TED event” must be respected.
Poster
A poster template is provided by TED with specific spaces for your venue, time, logo,...
Using an editing program all this information can be included, trying to keep the image
quality to its maximum.
Top tips
● Strictly follow all TED requirements as your license may not be renewed if you
miss any instructions.
● Be clear in your poster: include only key data for attendees (time, venue,
contact,...)

● Modifying the poster template may be complicated without the needed tools or
knowledge. Looking for volunteers with specific information about design might
help.
Putting up posters
By Marta Alonso Vicente and Denis Ampuero
When putting up posters there are two major issues to take into account: visibility and
authorisation. Before starting, organizers must make sure they get permission so that
no poster is removed and fully respect indications received.
The objective of this process is to let as many people as possible know that a TED
event is going to be hold so organizers have to make sure posters are in visible and
accessible places.
Top Tips
● When asking for permission giving the name of a person related to the venue
(organising teacher, for instance) might be helpful.
● To get visibility posters should be located in areas where many people passes
by: lifts, stairs, corridors, halls, …
● Places where your poster is the only one will be better, as it will get more
visibility.
MULTILINGUAL MARKETING
By Marta Alonso Vicente and Denis Ampuero

TED is known all over the world as a global and multicultural event, that is why getting
to as many people as possible is so important. Different languages were used for
marketing with TEDxDBSLive with the objective to connect with potential audience in a
different level.
DIGITAL MARKETING
By Diego Heredia
Webpage
The webpage was created in the official site of the tedx webpage, there you could have
a look where the event was going to take place, the location in the map, the speakers
that are attending, the kind of event that will occur.
This web is constantly changing and adding facts about the speakers or the event.
The most important thing is to keep track of all the rules and regulations that TEDx
have.
Keep track of the media and the publicity because TEDx rules and regulations are very
tough, and you might lose your license.
● Print the rules and regulations
● Have a clear knowledge of the main errors that occur regularly
● Keep track of every move that the team does
DBS Moodle
By Jenny Gordon

A email was sent to Tom Foster asking if they could post about our Tedx event on the
DBS student Moodle page which would be a successful way to target a larger audience.
It was an easy way for the students to find out more information on our event with a link
to our Eventbrite page to register for tickets.
Blog
By Rebecca Connolly
The blog documents the whole process of organising the event, the day of the event
and after the event. It shows everyone your excitement and thoughts about the
TEDxDBS event. It also creates excitement and anticipation. Start the blog as soon as
you can, keep updating it and talking about the process. Share it on social media and
encourage those hoping to attend to follow the blog. This will create a buzz around the
event.
Top Tips
● Research previous blogs from TEDx events to get a feel of what to write about.
● Include photos in the blog. The branding that was used, the posters that were
created and even pictures from the day.
● Make it fun and readable.
TICKETING

By Rachelle McSharry
TED suggest that organisers should select their audience carefully, choosing
participants from a wide variety of backgrounds who can contribute to the conversation.
We are very fortunate in DBS as we have students from many different countries,
therefore the invitation was put out to all DBS students.
GUIDE TO TICKETING
Step 1 Choose A Way To Distribute The Tickets
- We used Eventbrite to distribute our tickets. This site is great because there is no cost
if your event free to guests.
Step 2 Input Event Information
- Include the date, event start and end time, location. Add event image, visuals are
important choose a picture that makes your event appealing to guests.
We chose the official banner for the TEDx 2016 conference
- Cap the amount of tickets to avoid over selling. For our event there was a strict
attendance limit of 100 people maximum, which was a condition of our licence. We set a
limit of 1 ticket per person. Also, make sure to account for guestlist attendees. We
limited our eventbrite tickets to 80 and set aside the remaining 20 spaces for guestlist.
Step 3 Tell guests what to expect
- Add a description of the event; include information on the speakers and the
programme of the event. We described what our event entailed, the theme of the TED
2016 conference and the speakers involved.
Step 4 Create a registration form
- TED suggests that organisers should ask potential guests to fill out an application
form. Their effort to do so will show their commitment to participating in your event. We

created a customised form which required information such as first name, surname,
phone number, email address, gender, age, student number, course title and attendee
type i.e. student or lecturer.
Step 5 Final touches
-Make sure to include an order confirmation message. In our message we thanked the
guest for registering, reminded them what time they had to arrive, and informed them of
the theme of the event and asked them to keep their e-ticket as they will need it on
arrival at the event.
Step 3 Monitor sales
-This can be done easily through from the event dashboard on the Eventbrite site.
There you can see information such as how many tickets are sold and which
promotional tool are bringing the most traffic.
Top Tips
● Don’t forget to set the time and date for the tickets to become available, as it has
to be done manually.
● Release 10% more tickets than your capacity to account for the students who do
not show up on the day.
● Set the event page to ‘public’ otherwise the students will not be able to access
the page without an email or link.

(Above is a screenshot of our Eventbrite events page)

PRESS RELEASE
By Rachelle McSharry and Rebecca Connolly
A press release is an official statement issued to newspapers giving information on a particular
matter.
A press release was developed in order to gain media attention and to share DBS was
holding a TEDx event for the first time. Make sure to include all relevant information
such as date, time and event description. Sell it to them, make it sound interesting and
important. Include who the speakers names and a bit about them. TED requires that
you get approval for press releases. All press releases must be routed through and
approved by the head of TEDx media relations.
Top Tips
● Choose a strong headline
● Watch your grammar
● Make sure to send it early enough
Please see below for press release template

GUESTLIST
By Rachelle McSharry and Rebecca Connolly
The guest list was created to hold seats for important personnel such as the heads of
school, lectures, sponsors and other people who have helped make the event possible.
Bloggers who were contacted and invited to our event were also placed on our guest list
in the hopes they would talk about TEDxDBS and share their thoughts with their
followers.
Top Tips
● Invite bloggers and journalists who would be interested in the TEDx topic
● Keep in mind not all of your guest list people will turn up on the day
● Reserve some seats up the front for your guest list attendees

IT & Tech Support
By George Brown.
Once the license has been acquired we received an email from TED informing us of
how we can stream the sessions on that day. They also send a test video that should be
tested in the venue before the actual event, so that you know you will be able to run the
steam at a high quality.
Due to the fact that the session is actually aired in a different time zone it is unlikely that
you will be showing a live stream. When selecting the session it is important to check if
the recorded stream will be available at the time of your event.
We had arranged that a DBS IT staff member would be on sight for setup at 08:30. Just
to deal with any problems that arose. It is a good idea to remind DBS staff that they
have agreed to attend such appointments a few days prior to the event.
It is important to know exactly where to find the link of the stream, if the link is in a
email, know the password and exactly which email before the event.
Have music for the breaks, we used a selection of music videos from YouTube played
on the screen.
Top Tips
● Have DBS IT support on the day. The internet connection went down the day of
our event and changing the setup in the auditorium is slightly more complex than
a normal projector.
● Have a backup laptop connected to the Wi-Fi and learn how to swap the
projection from the desktop to the laptop swiftly.
● Watch the stream beforehand and note the timings of each speaker as the
stream can lose connection and reset.

Team Lead & Work Breakdown Structure
By George Brown.
There was a large array of tasks identified at various stages of planning. Utilizing a work
breakdown structure allowed the group as a whole to see the full list of tasks to be
completed and who was on each task.
Using Microsoft excel to formulate the WBDS, it is easy to track the progress of each
task. They were broken down into either PENDING, ON-GOING or COMPLETE.
With the aid of the WBDS I was able to keep track of the workload of members of the
team and as such the workload was easier to spread out so that everyone had a similar
amount of responsibility.
Top Tips
● Have the WBDS ready to be viewed at the start of each meeting so you can
prioritize tasks that need to be addressed.
● Be quick to highlight issues that need to be completed fast in order to progress
as a whole.
● Some tasks require other tasks to be completed first, liaise between the
members to ensure they have everything they need in order to complete their
own task, which will in turn allow other tasks to progress

VOLUNTEERS
By Mariam Denloye
Volunteer are important for any event especially an event like Tedx , there might not be
enough people in the group to cover all the bases in the event. Volunteers that was
need for the event where Audiovisual, Graphic designer and digital media volunteers, as
no one in the group had the skills for audiovisual, Graphic designer and digital media
and we needed volunteers with those skills to help with the section of the event.
● Decide what volunteer job is needed and advertise for it through social media
and posters
● Get poster and social media approved before advertising
● Make sure the right information are advertised e.g. title of the job, date of the
event, who to contact and what the event is about.
● Choose the right volunteers for the job required
● When the right volunteers have been chosen explain in more details what their
job entails and expand more on the event itself.
● Update the volunteer with the process of the event so far and whom they would
be working with.
● Give them the rules and regulation of the event and whom they have to report to.
● Schedule meeting with them to know the progress of their work and they update
you on their progress till the day of the event.
● On the day of the event make sure the volunteers know what their job are about
and give them the schedule of the event.
Top Tips
● Volunteers should be done early in the process of planning for the event.
● Set up meetings to monitor their progress so that there is no confusion or
mistakes made.

CATERING
By Mariam Denloye
For the Tedxlive the college provided tea and coffee, the team provided the snacks. We
couldn’t have any sponsor has Tedx didn’t allow sponsors for the event this was part of
their requirement. The budget was send for approval twice before the final budget was
agreed on.
● Know the budget for catering
● Have an estimate amount of people attending the event to make sure there is
enough food for both staff and attendees.
● Write down items needed for catering
● Price the items to make sure not to go over budget
● Get the budget approved before getting the items
Set up for catering
● Pick a section in the event venue to setup for catering.
● Put a table there and decorate with the theme of the event (if it’s a themed event)
Top Tips
● Know the exact amount for the budget before pricing any items and list the items
and quantity needed for the event. Send the budget for approval before deciding
on the final budget.
● Arrange the catering items to make it easy for the attendees to assess

REGISTRATION
By Mariam Denloye
Registration is use to know the amount of people that will attend the event also to see
amount of people that will actually attend the event, from experience not everyone that
register for ticket attend the event.
● Get names of all the people who are attending the event
● Print the names out
● Write each name and put them in a badge
● On the day of event have a setup section for registration
● Have the list of names and name badges ready
● Has each person shows up for the event get their name or registration number.
● Check if their name is on the list then give them their names tags and the
program schedule for the event.
Top Tips
● Print out the names list to make it easier to check for people that register for the
event
● Have enough people at the registration stand to register people showing up the
event.
● Make sure the people at the registration stand know enough about the event so
that they can answer any questions raised by the attendees

NAMETAGS
By Mariam Denloye
In conference event the purpose nametags is to help attendees address one another
and also to be able to differentiate the staffs from the attendees
● Print list of names of the people attending the event
● Buy tags and white labels
● Write down each name on the white label
● Then place in the badges have it ready for registration day
Top Tips
● Have enough white labels for the names and extra for people who want to attend
the event on the day of the event.
Lecture Communication
With the process of the event it important to communicate with your lectures to make
sure no college rules has been broken, also to make sure everything is been approved
by the lecturer before proceeding with the event e.g. posters, budgets, and the right
people to contact in the college that could help with the process of the event.
Safety
Be sure to have caution sign for hot water, coffee and tea, for any heavy items make
sure there are people around to help with any heavy lifting. Label electrical areas to
keep guest safe, have warning label for any expose cables in the venue.

FILMING AND PRODUCTION
By Molly Gamache, Sarah Shatas and Emily Crowly
Overall the film aspect during the Dublin Business School’s TEDx live stream was very
successful. However, there were a few changes that could have been made to increase
the outcome of the final video. The lighting was an issue for a while and the audio was
low. Possibly putting a mike on the speakers next time could improve this aspect.
To complete a successful video aspect to the live stream, the team must have a
designated pre-production team that works on making a promotional video prior to the
event that includes all the information of the time, place, and other key material about
the event. There should also be a post-production team that consists of two or more
people that will film the event as well as edit it. This requires some sort skill towards
camera work and editing software, whatever it may be. The post-production team is
required to have these when filming the event: appropriate lightening, mikes and audio
equipment, multiple HD film cameras for different angles and close-ups, tripods,
batteries, and a hardline. A personal tip from working this event is to have a game plan.
Make sure you know what your team is filming. For example, have someone filming
close-ups, have someone filming a wide shot, and have someone focused on the
interaction of the speakers and the audience. This will ensure the whole event is
captured and nothing is missed. The key to filming this event is the audience
participation. Have a moving cameraperson; following to all the different audience
members will also make the editing smoother and the video look better.

PERSONAL REFLECTION
Reflection of Rachelle McSharry
Through my participation in the planning and implementing of TEDxDBSLive event I have learned a lot.
We had a limited amount of time so it was important for the work to be done efficiently and effectively.
We had a time span of 2 weeks as opposed to the recommended 6 weeks. To complete the tasks it was
important that we pull together as a team to get the job done.
I was presented with the opportunity to set up an Eventbrite page to distribute our tickets. I put myself
forward for this role as I was very interested in building my skills in the area, and familiarising myself
with this ticketing tool. Using Eventbrite was tricky at times as the site can be hard to navigate through
the editing process. Attention to detail was vital, it was important that the registering process be easy, and
look professional to stay within the high standards set by TED.
We were limited to a maximum of 100 people. We had originally allocated 20 spaces to guest list and the
remaining 80 for students on Eventbrite. Once released, all student tickets were sold out within 2 days.
We were then waiting on attendance confirmation from various bloggers and college personnel. To ensure
we would not be left with empty seats we released an additional 10 tickets on Eventbrite.
On the day of the event we had a smaller turnout than anticipated. Many of the college personnel and
lectures did not turn up due to a problem with the college’s Moodle network. Further to this many of the
students who registered did not arrive either. As a result we had some empty seats,which was worrying as
one of TED’s rules was “no empty seats”. This was an unfortunate situation as there were many students
who wanted to attend but could not because there were no more tickets remaining. We had put steps in
place to help ensure only people who were serious about attending would register. This included a
mandatory registration form. Due to the empty seats we pushed back our start time in the hopes more
people would come. In the end we told attendees to text their friends to invite them.
From this experience I have learned that you cannot rely on the students attending. If I were to do this
event again in the future I would change the start time of the event the time of the event to later in the day
as early start times are risky when it comes to students. I would also recommend releasing 10% more
tickets than capacity to account for the no shows. Furthermore when all the tickets were sold out I would
encourage students who did not get tickets to show up on the day and we will accommodate them if we
can.
This has been a very interesting experience. I feel I now have a better insight into what would be expected
of me out in the industry. I will ensure to bring forward what I have learned to help me in planning future
events Rachelle McSharry

Personal Reflection ofJennifer Gordon
My role for TEDxDBSLive was social media manager. I was primarily responsible for planning and
executing effective social media strategies for this event. I was involved in the reporting and was
responsible for tracking the social media efforts including overall buzz, reach, shares and views and
conversions based on social campaigns.

Two weeks prior to our event we began the social media marketing campaign, I started by
creating the Facebook and Twitter pages alongside my colleague Marta. I felt under pressure in the first
stages because we had such a limited of time to create awareness of our event, which would be something
that I would change in future. Next time, I would also recommend using Pinterest and Instagram to target
a larger audience. We invited friends to like our page and the word started to spread. We were determined
as a team to post relevant content consistently to keep people aware of our event and to advertise for
ticket selling and sneak peeks of what to expect from Ted. We discovered that majority of our ticket sales
was trafficking from our Facebook page which proved to be a success. A tweet wall on tweetwally was
created for a live twitter feed for guests to discuss opinions throughout the event. I created the hashtag
TEDxDBSLive which got a huge response as can see above in the manual the reach was 42,713. The top
tweets of the day are also shown below.
Apart from the digital side of marketing I
also helped with the more traditional side such as
creating the poster for TEDx event. These posters
were hung around the college with the aim to get
students aware and excited around our unique
event. For these reasons, it is was important to
create eye-catching images for our social media and blog posts as well as being spread throughout the
different buildings.
Overall, I had a great experience from being apart of this event team because I learnt a lot of
fantastic tips out of this experience. This event gave me an insight into the world of events operations and
what would be expected of me in the future. Moving forward, if I was in charge of a social media
campaign again I would be able to tackle it without any hesitation from this class assignment.
Jennifer Gordon

Reflection of Marta Alonso
Before we organised this event, my contact with event operations had only been theoretical through
assignments and case studies. Although those are very helpful, there is nothing like working on something
like TEDxDBSLive to get an idea of how this industry works. To be involved in this activity has taught
me a lot and changed my perception of event organising.
One of the things that surprised me the most were the speed you have to work at, we were working with
less time than recommended for an activity like this so many things needed to be done quickly. My work
was focused on marketing and social media and both this fields had to start working as fast as possible as
we needed to get as many people as possible to know about the event.

One of the first things we needed was the logo for DBSLive because it has to be present in all the
marketing material. It is interesting how strict and serious TED are with their logo. It is a very important
symbol for them so they take care of every detail: font, colour, position,... It was a challenge to take care
of every single detail. Also working with the poster was hard: the given template has a very good
resolution and we did not have the appropriate tools to make a good work so we decided to get a
volunteer to get the best image possible.
On social media I was lucky enough not to be alone, I was working together with someone else in the
team and in my opinion that was a good decision: social media is a demanding activity, many updates
have to be done in different moments and in different platforms and sometimes it can be confusing. I
expected social media management to be easier: at the beginning we were not getting enough followers so
the impact was not being as good as needed. To solve that we asked for help: college marketing staff
started sharing our material and that was an important factor in getting more audience.
In general, it was an intense process where many things had to be done to keep everything under control
and despite all the work done I discovered some things are difficult to predict: technological issues like
connection can fail or attendance can be not as good as expected. To solve all this kind of situations I
realised two factors are important: fast reaction to unexpected changes and teamwork. I have learned a lot
from this experience and I got valuable knowledge to use in the future in organising events.
Marta Alonso Vicente
Reflection of Mariam Denloye
Organizing the TEDxDBSlive have learn a lot especially when there is specific rules and regulation that
comes with the event which is interesting as I get to learn more about event planning and the process
involve in planning an event with rules and regulation that can't be broken.
With the TEDxDBSlive event my group and I organized there was a lot of planning and meetings. This
helps us decide on the way we wanted to organize TEDxDBSlive event that student will be interested in
going, also the venue, amount of people we wanted at the event and making sure that we didn’t go over
the required guest allowed, volunteers, where we wanted to advertise the event and while planning the
event also making sure no rules were broken, also making sure we talked to the right people in the college
to make the event possible.
I focused more the catering, registration, volunteer part of the event which involve posting posters for
volunteers and making sure the right information was on the poster also sending it for approval before

posting it online and in the college Moodle page, I also did the budget which was redone more than twice
and I went over budget after redoing the budget I finally did the right budget which was approved and I
was able to get the items for the catering.
The event to me was successful even though I and my group have not had the
Opportunity to plan a conference like TEDxLive before I felt that the event went well even though we
didn’t have enough time to organize the event and didn’t start on time due to the availability of the venue
it was still a success. Communicating with the staffs in college for help wasn’t easy but with the help of
the lecturer we were able to move forward with organizing the event and rectify any rules that may have
been broken. There was good communication between the group has we had meetings every week up to
the event which was helpful to see how we were progressing with the event, the lecture was helped in
making sure we were able to communicate with the right staff in college
In future I would makes sure there is a lot more time to organize the event more time to be able to get a
lot more things done and communicate with the college staff ahead to give us a lot of time to change
anything that needed changing also to be able to give attendees more time to register for the event and put
a lot more ticket out for the event.
Mariam Denloy

Reflection, George Brown.
Throughout my college career I have always loved practical assignments rather than essays
based on research or theory. As team lead I saw all the individual tasks of the event come
together one by one to make the final product. This differs so much from the theory based
assignments as you can feel the energy, excitement and panic at times in the team meetings.
I love all aspects of organising events and this event in particular gave me great experience in
roles such as team lead, EMCEE, IT and managing the work breakdown structure.
Once we had confirmed that we would do the event we had a few short weeks in order to get
everything done. There was a huge amount of work to do. My first task was to talk to Saba from
ted to organise a programme for our event, and also to learn how the stream would work. I also
was team lead so I was in charge of updating the work breakdown structure as each task was
completed. Using this structure was crucial at times when I had to divide out tasks among the
group as it showed me the workload each individual had. One particular task I enjoyed working
on was the Eventbrite page, I had been hoping to use the website for some time in order to gain
experience before I went into the events industry, this TEDx event allowed me to do that.
Rebecca and I were the EMCEEs for the event. We introduced the speaker, Alan Morgan and
the house rules. Throughout the event I sat at the computer desk, managing all the problems
that went wrong with the internet and informing the audience of the next speaker, breaks etc.
One thing that is crucial for anyone controlling the stream is to have a backup laptop, without
ours the event would have had to been cancelled.
This event has taught me that a motivated and inspired team, each happily working towards
tasks they would naturally be good at, is the best resource you could have. Many times other
people in DBS, lecturers or students would disappoint us and not deliver what they promised,

your team needs to be flexible and solve these problems fast. I was thrilled to work on a real life
event and I believe in the event management stream there is not enough practical work to put
into practice the theory we learn in class. Doing the practical events I feel is the only way as an
event management student you can really learn how to organise an event.
George Brown
PERSONAL REFLECTION - Rebecca Connoly
I absolutely loved being a part of a TEDx event and, even more so, the first ever
TEDxDBS event. There are so many guidelines to follow as TED has a very clear vision
of what a TEDx event should look like so it gave me a valuable insight into the industry
and what it would be like to work for a client. It was amazing experience that I will be
talking about in future interviews. It was a total wakeup call in relation to what is
expected of you as an event organiser in the industry.
I have always learned more from practical hands on work than lecturers so this event
was an amazing learning opportunity. My role was quite spread out over the whole
event. I was involved in the event planning aspect of the event, I was the emcee on the
day of the event, I organised the sponsorship, and I was involved in the concept and
theming of the event and many more aspects. I completely immersed myself in this
event and gained invaluable experience.
Here are some things that I would do differently next time; clearly state on all of the
posters that it is a live-streamed event so students are not expecting the actual
speakers. I would ask for a deposit of €10 from each individual attending the event,
which will be refunded once they register at the event, in order to ensure that they turn
up on the day as we had so many students who didn't turn up. Any money not refunded

due to people not turning up could be donated to charity. Also I would create a waiting
list of 20-30 people who I would encourage to show up on the day, after registration has
closed and just before the event was about to take place. This should ensure the venue
is packed and sold out. Most importantly, print everything out the day before the event
and have a backup plan in case the Internet and Wi-Fi shut down! The key factor when
organising a TEDx event is having at least 6 weeks to plan, market and generate
excitement. Make sure you get the licence as early as possible! Don’t forget to enjoy the
experience and become fully immersed...………………………….Rebecca
Connolly.
Personal reflection, Diego Heredia
The TEDxDBS event for me was one of the most exciting and good experiences that I
had this year. This is because I do follow the show and think that they are very
interesting with all the speakers and the things they tell you.
Even with the lack of time that we had to prepare and deal with all the troubles of doing
the first TEDxlive event in this college.
We had less time but at the end the event was done in a good and impressive way
nevertheless taking into consideration the troubles and hard decisions that we had to
make so that the event could take place in the college.
My personal and principal role was to moderate and manage the TED rules and
regulations, these are a big part of the event because TED is really hard to keep up with
all the small rules. One of the principal rules was to “Keep up with the spirit” and another
one is that “No co-branding of any type is allowed”.
Another rule was the amount of people that was allowed to assist the event of this kind
and there was only 100 tickets that the team with no publicity were given out in a matter
of hours.

Furthermore the risk assessment, registration, and name tags where done not only by
me but also by other members of the group, that is another thing to say, you have to be
with a great team to make the event work. This team was great and very helpful to me.
Finally I think that in the future this event has to be planned with more time and get the
college involve so that there are no inconvenient at the last minute like we had.
Diego Heredia
Reflection - Denis Ampuero
One part of our event operations course was to organise a live event. All students were required
to take care of different parts in order to create an event. Therefore we had some meetings
were we split the work and brainstormed about how our event should be. My specific task was
the online and offline marketing and the evaluation. The execution of the event was a part of
each student. Of course we all knew a bit of the other parts in order to increase the quality of the
whole work.
During the whole process of creating the event we held many meetings and uploaded new
content to a Gmail account that was accessible for the whole team.
For me it was a great experience to organise in a team a live event. You see and feel your
mistakes and moreover the personal feeling you have while organising this event with the other
students is completely different to the feeling that you have when you just write all down.
I think it is also really important to use all the tools like social media or event planning tools to
have the connection between what the lecturer is teaching you and how you use it in reality.
Theory is good but in real life there are always unpredictable problems that you learn to know
with experience and by solving them. At least I also think to organise such an event is good for
your cv as you can show some experience to your future employers.
For me personal it gave me the feeling that I am really organising an event. In the assignment
before it felt completely different to me. I like to see things and to have a live event with the
support of a great event manager and lecturer is something really good because you can see
how this persons works and you have a lot of ideas while you are holding the event.

Altogether, I think we were a great group, splitting the work fair among all group members and
all contributing in a positive way to this work.
Denis Ampuero

TEDxDBSOrganisersManual

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