Event Review

Deadline Festival, Evaluation

In my opinion this event was good but one that could have been better. There was plenty of really good things going on at the event but some things just let it down. In this evaluation I am going to talk about my own role within the event and my opinion of the whole process. 

The role I was given after filling out a job application form was site marshal, this was great as it was what I originally applied for in the form. This role entailed making sure everything was safe and that everything was as it should be. In preparation to the event I had done a risk assessment and one of my companions Mitch who was also a site marshal had produced some posters highlighting the do’s and dont’s of the venue, this included keeping fire exits clear ect. I carried out my role throughout the day between myself, Andy and Mitch by standing close to exits and making sure there was no one or something blocking them and by making people abide by the rules and regulations of the collage such as trying to stop people smoking where they shouldn’t and people being where there not supposed to be. There was only one major hazard of the whole day really that was the smoke machine setting the fire alarm off which was out of my hands completely and everyone followed collage protocol and went outside to the fire assembly point. I found the job as site marshal quite boring really as there wasn’t that much to de done other than moving people on from places they shouldn’t have been. I am satisfied with the job I did at the end of the day and between myself and Andy in and around the theater I think we did our job well for what had to be done.

Here is a print screen of my risk assessment. Things I would have done differently throughout the event as Site Marshal would be to have more signs telling people before they entered the venue, this would have prevent people being where they shouldn’t have been. If I had planned ahead better these things could have been implemented and the delivery of the methods over the gig could have been a lot better. 

This is a diagram outlining some areas of health and safety to think about when setting up and running a event. 

I am now going to talk about the event its self. The successful part of the event I would say was the time keeping and running order, over the 6 hours that our class had the venue to run we kept to time and finished the event at the specified time of 10.00. What I think could of been better is the management of where the bands would be before they was to go on stage, there was a few times where bands would be in the canteen just before they were supposed to go on stage or one member of the band somewhere else. The way I would have solved this problem is by telling the artists and bands that they should be in the changing rooms to the side of the stage 5 minutes before they where to go on stage and make sure that all bands and artists have a copy of the running order. The outcome of these considerations would result in the artists knowing where to be and what time to be there, this would involve the artist relations officers to have some input into making sure each artist or band had the rite paperwork starting times and places when they turned up.

My analysis of the whole event would be that there was much more planning that needed to be involved with each aspect of the event. For example I have already said that my role of Site Marshal could have been done better with more planning prior to the event. Another aspect was the organization of bands and where they should be like I mentioned above, the major thing for me that I felt could have been done better is the event promotion. My involvement in the promotion side of things was purely down to myself wanting to promote the event as this wasn’t my job role at all. 

Here is a print screen of me promoting the event on Facebook. 

The promotion of this event was very hard to find in my opinion and to make maters worse the event page wasn’t even set up by a student with the role of promotion but that of a external band member. This to me says that the promotions team didn’t do there job properly and as a result of this the event could have been much better. The considerations of if this event was promoted better could have been much more prosperous and have made the day a lot better. If I were have been given the job as promoter I would have given myself an action plan of promotional strategies that could be done. These would include an events page on Facebook, flyers, posters, shout outs on local radio and utilizing the collage system by sending a text to every student member of the collage which I have been told can be done. The result of this would have an impact on the reach of people who would then know about the event and in return maybe attract more attention to the event. 

There was one thing that was a good piece of promotional activity, this was having the event poster streamed to the big TV screen in the atrium throughout the day. I don’t know whether this contributed towards the amount of people at the event or not but it was a good type of promotional activity that was sourced and used to our benefit. Here is a picture of the TV screen and the promotional advert. If I was promoting the gig though I would have tried to have put this on the screen for the week running up to the event and try to generate some interest in the gig. This may or may not have worked but In my opinion would have been worth a try, there are a few hundred people walk through the atrium every day so even if one person a day took some interest in the gig it would be beneficial, as it is not only about the event day it’s self but the run up to the day that counts.