ORGANIZING A CAREER CONFERENCE AND FAIR
Proposal to Organize a Career Conference and Education Fair
Legendary Event Planners (LEP) is interested in planning and organizing a career conference and education fair at Oxford Brookes School. This event is scheduled to be held at the Madison Conference Theatre in conjunction with the Business School at Oxford Brookes and LEP is pleased to organize the event on behalf of the Business School. Legendary Event Planners is an emerging event organizing company known for organizing successful events across major institutions. With a team of knowledgeable and experienced event planners, Legendary Event Planners is dedicated to offer clients quality event planning and management services and advice from a realistic, practical, and unbiased third-party perspective. The Company also provides extra information and tools to enable institutions to achieve effective outcomes from their events (New, and Quick, 2003). With the help of our event planning services, our clients are capable of achieving expected results at minimal risks of failure and costs (Davies, & Brent, 2004). The needs and requirements of the events dictate our event planning service delivery. We help our clients to optimize the outcome of their events.
Given the proven credibility of the company as the preferred event organizing provider, Legendary Event Planners is in a suitable position to deliver event planning services (Meredith, and Mantel, 2000) aligned with the needs and requirements of the Business School at Oxford Brookes. Our aim is to create a successful event that will be edged in the minds of the participants for long. The activities and sections that LEP will organize including the responsibilities, scope of work, and fees charged to students are described in the detail within this proposal.
Career Conference and Education Fair
The Business School at Oxford Brookes plans to host an annual career conference and education fair on December 1, 2012 from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. in the Madison Conference Theatre within the Business School Complex.
Approximately 1000 students from the business school and an estimated 500 students from other schools, and staff members are expected to participate in the conference and career. The event will be graced by several motivational speakers and successful businesspersons and entrepreneurs. Guests in the A-List include leading British Entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, Robert Kiyosaki, Donald Trump, and Bill Gates. The Business School at Oxford Brookes organizes the career conference and education fair once every year. The event offers great opportunities for students to develop networks, inquire information about careers, and learn about the recruiting needs of various companies and organizations.
Event speakers and other motivational speakers will offer insightful career tips and strategies for success in the career market. All participants are required to uphold professional etiquettes that comprise of business suits, polished shoes, and non-revealing clothing. It is highly believed that the appearance of a person speaks a lot about his/her character or personality. For this reason, dressing professionally enhances his impression and attracts interest from potential employers. Sponsors for this event are reputable companies and they expect to receive quality for their input.
Timeline of Events
Legendary Event Planners aims to ensure a successful event by organizing events and tasks occur within the specified time. To achieve these aims and objectives, preparing for the event is scheduled to begin 1 month earlier than the scheduled date (Kerzner, 2009). The preparation process will consist of holding discussion rounds with the relevant committees, receiving approval and confirmation of the responsibility to hold the event, holding meeting with the organizing committee, and event managers including the process of developing the management strategy, marketing, Public Relations, and among other facilitating aspects. The next step is the identification and prioritization of all goals for the event. Upon the executing of the event, an event report will be written to the Chairman of the Business School giving details about the project.
Reasons to accept the proposal
Uncertainty surrounding event planning and managing activities calls for the need for professional event planning services to strengthen the outcome and success of the conference and education fair. Depending on the needs and desires of the Business School at Oxford Brookes to obtain success in their annual career, it is crucial that it takes advantage of the high quality our event planning services and lighten the challenges of mixing administrative functions of the school and other event planning functions by partnering with LEP. LEP’s policy entails blending the collaborative aspects of the institution and the professional strength to suit the needs of the institution. Goals for increasing efficiency, expanding the capability to realize the goals of the career conference, and reduce costs should be achieved by outsourcing event planning activities to Legendary Event Planners (Harrison, & Lock, 2004). We are certain that our comprehensive event planning services will enable the Business School at Oxford Brookes to access high-end services and fulfil the overall goals and objectives. Whereas the management personnel of institutions are specialized on concentrate on the core administrative functions of their institutions, highly qualified event planners from LEP are trained to emphasize on event planning functions (Bradford, Tarcy, and Duncan, 2000).
Planning stages
The planning activities for the career conference and education fair will cover the following:
i. Invitation to A-list guests and participants- Prominent businesspersons and motivational speakers are expected to grace the career conference and education fair. Corporate sponsors are also expected to participate in the event and therefore, LEP intends to deliver VIP invitations to Robert Kiyosaki, Sir Richard Branson, Bill Gates, and Donald Trump. Majority of these VIP guests are renowned and accomplished individuals in their lines of business. Equally, LEP will be responsible for offering invitations to 500 other students and staff from other institutions.
ii. Conduct follow up activities on VIP attendees and sponsors for the event
iii. Publicity, marketing, and promotional activities- LEP plans to employ several public relation and promotional strategies to reach the audience and expected sponsors (Aaker, & McLoughlin, 2010). This also includes the preparation of media credentials to be distributed during the event
iv. Developing a timeline for the event that includes holding staff meetings with members of the organizing committee to specify the responsibilities of each planner. This also includes preparation of the venue in terms of security, and public address system (Austin, and Pinkleton, 2001).
v. LEP will hold mini events and talk-shows to familiarize students with the type of questions they should prepare to ask motivational speakers and VIPs on the A-list. The students and participants should also familiarize themselves with the format of the event.
vi. Programming system and design- this including designing the agenda of the conference, allocating the speakers specific topics, and drawing the budget for the entire event. Writing a script for the MC will also be done during this stage. Sitting arrangements will be designed such that VIPs and important guests secure the front seats. Making arrangements for photographers and still video will also be organized during this time (Nokes, 2007)
vii. Distributing tickets to college students and other participants, payment of preliminary bills, and updating the budget as the event nears.
Promotional Strategies
Realizing the event goals and objectives calls for the implementation of competitive promotional strategies. An annual event of this nature must be marketed very well. The first promotional strategy is the placement of adverts in media channels such as TV stations, Radio stations, and newspaper dailies that reaches the targeted geographical market. Second, social media is gaining popularity among students and corporates. There is an increased presence of online communities in educational institutions and business professionals seeking networking connections. Marketing the event using social media networks is certain to attract the targeted audience. The third strategy is the use of public relations and public awareness campaigns where the aims and objectives of the event will be communicated. Lastly, the use of flyers and catalogues providing the details and aims of the event will also be adopted as a promotional strategy.
With the upsurge the conference career and educational fairs, event planning companies should implement more strategies to enable them stay ahead of the competition. For this reason, qualified and experienced professionals and extensive marketing strategies and public awareness will be integrated to enable the event to register success.
During the day of the event
i. Mark headers for the each table and distribute name tags to be issued at the reception (Lewis 2006).
ii. Distribute the schedule and scripts to the event speakers
iii. Organize for possible interviews with the guest speakers
iv. The PR team should be ready to greet and welcome guests as they arrive
v. Develop a long-lasting impression using attractive yet meaning presentations by giving utmost care and attention to all protocols (Gregory, 2004)
vi. Vote of thanks and emailing thank you notes to the participants (Gregory, 2004)
Attendance Fees
The event aims to career conference and education fair aims to collect £1million from the event. The fees charged for event will vary depending on the budgetary allocation, profit estimates, and guest category. While the event is set to generate profit, the main aim will be to offer valuable information to the students with regard to the career development and industry needs. Revenues from the career conference and education fair will be used to cater for the cost of executing the project, implementation costs, promotion, and paying for consultancy or professional services.
Students will pay £50 as event entry charges and from 1500 students, the event will raise £75000. The sponsors will contribute an estimated £425,000, majority of which will be collected from the corporate tables. Each corporate table will cost £85000 multiplied by 50. The greatest volume of the £1 million will be collected from guests on the A-list. Their billionaire statuses, success, and involvement in educational projects is certain to influence their contributions. Their VIP tables will cost an estimated £500,000.
Evaluation of the event
The event is expected to improve the community around the business school. At the end of the career conference and education fair, LEP will collect information from the participants using several data collection tools (Creswell, 2003). The first data collection tool will be the use of questionnaires. Structured questionnaires will be handed to participants because nearly 30% will return. Questions can assist in the collection of huge data volumes because participants are at liberty of choosing the questions they are interested to answer (Easterby-Smith, et al. 2008). It is also suitable because anybody that attended the event can fill it. The strength of using interviews is that it will enable LEP to collect different reflections and experiences of the event. Interviews provide an in-depth analysis that can uncover interesting findings about the event. Focus groups will also be used to collect data by conducting it during refreshments (Easterby-Smith, et al. 2008). A moderator will select participants in group and ask them a series of open-ended questions while an assistant moderator will be in line to record answers. The information will be transcribed later after recording.
Conducting a summary approach whereby the event is evaluated within the context that it occurred. Every activity that happened within the event is evaluated because all activities were designed to serve a particular purposes. A simple logical program will be used to evaluate the outcome of the meeting. For instance, the outcome of the event is measured against the inputs that were used in preparing the event. Second, attendance is also another useful measure for estimating the outcome of the meeting. The total attendance record will be measured against the invited number. In terms of effectiveness, the outcomes of the event will be compared against the initial goals of the event.
Legendary Event Planners will prepare the final report concerning the event and submit it to the Chairman of the Business School.
Reference List
Aaker, D. & McLoughlin, D., 2010. Strategic Marketing Management: Global
Perspective. s.l.:J Wiley & Sons.
Austin, E., and Pinkleton, B., 2001. Strategic public relations management: planning
and managing effective communication programs. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.
Bradford, R., Tarcy, B., and Duncan, J., 2000, Simplified strategic planning: the no-
nonsense guide for busy people who want results fast Worcester, MA:
Chandler House Press.
Creswell, J. W., 2003. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed
Method Approaches, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishers
Davies, B. & Brent, D., 2004. Strategic Leadership. School leadership and
management, pp. 24(1), 29-38.
Easterby-Smith, et al. 2008. Management Research – Third Edition, SAGE
Publications,
London.
Gregory, A., 2004. Public relations in practice. 2nd ed. London, UK: Kogan Page
Limited.
Harrison, L. & Lock, D. 2004. Advanced project management: a structured approach. USA: Gower Publishing.
Kerzner, H. 2009. Project management: A System Approach to Planning,
Scheduling, and Controlling. John Wiley and Sons
Lewis R. 2006. Project Management. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional.
Meredith, J. R. and Mantel, S. Jr. 2000. Project Management: A Managerial
Approach, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2000
New, C., and Quick, J., 2003. How to write a grant proposal. Hoboken, NJ: John
Wiley & Sons Inc.
Nokes, S. 2007. The definitive guide to project management. London: Prentice Hall
