Access

To Music: Student
Night. Hosted by Second
City Events
Evaluation
S12763802 Rhiannon Evans

Rhiannon Evans

Event information

Purpose and Goals

Date & Time

Location


Promotion

Budget


Team Work

Overall

Events Evaluation

Contents

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14

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Word Count (Including headings): 3,207

Rhiannon Evans

Events Evaluation

Access To Music: Student Night

Second City Events, on behalf of Access To Music (a music college located in

Digbeth), put on this music event called Access To Music: Student Night. This event
consisted of students from this college, performing in front of other fellow students,
college tutors and friends, as well as Higher Education students.
The whole event was not just to showcase the talent of these particular
artists and groups but to also let them know about the importance of social media as
a budding musician in the twenty first century. The headline act consisted of
previous Access To Music Students who performed as well as gave a little talk about
social media, as they had a good following on all social media platforms.
The event had acts that were split up by a presenter, playlists and drinks as
well as having a competition throughout the night for the best photo/tweet/status
about the night using a hash tag, #ATMStudentNight.

The event took place at The Spotted Dog, a pub in Digbeth on the 26th of
November between the times of 5pm to 8pm.
This was not just open to the students as previously mentioned, but to the
public, friends and family. The overall attendance was 58 people. 4 of which was
staff of Second City Events (including myself), 13 performers, and 6 volunteers from
Scratch Media and 3 volunteers/sound technicians and 3 tutors from Access To
Music. We had an overall spend of 11.50.
Alcohol was served at the bar and I.D was checked thoroughly by the pub and
us, and attendees that were 18 and over were given wristbands.

Rhiannon Evans

Events Evaluation

Rhiannon Evans

Events Evaluation

PURPOSE AND GOALS

Our initial purpose for the event was to make sure everyone was on social
media and that they interacted more with Access To Musics general social media
platforms so that those outside of the college, might see the sharing of videos and
content and are introduced to the college and what it does. We also wanted to make
sure that the students knew how to use it. We had Stephanie (participating student)
with a tablet at the event to encourage people to sign in and like the Access To
Music Facebook page.
However after further meetings with the client the first proposed idea for the
event changed. The idea for the event was not just to engage with the Access To
Music social media but how to engage with the audience on their own accounts. For
example making a Youtube or a SoundCloud account that they can share across their
media platforms for easy access for people to listen to it. Previous students from
Access To Music gave a talk about social media as they are active users and found
that it is a great platform to give people information about what theyre doing,
where they are going to be next as well as sharing what they already have.
Our goals when we first visited the client were
1) To promote our event through social media platforms among Access to Music
students.
2) To promote and increase interaction on Access to Musics social media
platforms.
3) To provide Access to Music Students with a night to showcase their work and
performances.

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Events Evaluation

4) To promote Access to Musics social media by getting students and others

involved during the event.

Our event definitely met these goals, as the night was a night for the students to

showcase their skills and we had six artists/bands that performed as well as one that
turned up to the event and asked if he could also perform, which added another
performer in our line-up. However, as previously mentioned during the planning and
the lead up to the event, we noticed that not many of the artists were interacting on
their own Facebook and Twitter accounts, and therefore changed the goals slightly
to engaging the artists to use their own social media to promote themselves and
showcase their talent and this is when our headliners gave a talk on social media.

DATE & TIME

The time of the event was 5pm until 8pm. When we first proposed our idea
to Access To Music, we suggested a later times of 6pm until late. However after
discussions and agreements we decided to bring it earlier to encourage people to go
straight from the college to the venue, and as it didnt finish late there was a better
chance of the students safety. We also had issues when in discussion of the time of
the event that if it was later that it would restrict under eighteens attending, and as
Access To Music suggested we shouldnt rule those out so we agreed to move the
time. We were then able to target a wider audience of students to perform at the
event.
The date of the event was set in stone from the beginning. We knew that a
Wednesday was a prime day to choose, as most if not all of the students were in the

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Events Evaluation

college that day, and the 26th was the next available date. So overall the date and
time of the event worked as people turned up from the college to support fellow
students after finishing their studies and because most people were in that day,
word of mouth promotion travelled the college to a wider range of audiences. If
doing this event at a similar time again, I would promote within the college a lot
more as the time was ideal for most students there and this would have encouraged
them to attend. I would also liaise with the venue to put on a drinks offer, especially
on soft drinks as we brought in more people than they would normally have at that
time, and hopefully they would been able to gain profit.

LOCATION

In theory, the venue on the night worked well for the event. The venue was

small, but the amount of attendees in the venue made it look quite busy, which put
performers and us at ease.

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Events Evaluation

However, I would change the location of the event if put on again. However
as Digbeth is an ideal location, as the college is located there and it is walking
distance for the students, it however was too small to cater for the acts that we had.
One band had a full equipment of drums and amps and took up most of the space
where we thought we would be able to stand. That band was also very loud for the
proximity of that venue, and when the band was playing we noticed that the locals in
the other room were wondering what was going on. Even though I did get a few
compliments on the music from the locals, they probably were not expecting a room
full of students playing loud music.
The set up took a lot longer than anticipated. We did have help from the
college students who were studying tech operations, which we were highly grateful
for, yet the set up of equipment took up a lot more room than anticipating cutting
off what could have been a great place for people to stand.


PROMOTION

Our publicity plan was to target the students on social media, as our whole
purpose of the event was to get students to interact on social media more, as well as
share their content on there. We had a Facebook event where students could click
attending and share it, and we uploaded information and content there. We
messaged Hayley Jordan, a tutor at Access to Music all the information she needed
and she Tweeted and used Facebook from their Access To Music sites. (Figure 1.)
We also had physical promotion, which consisted of A3 and A5 posters. A3 were
put up around the college and A5 we handed out as leaflets. (Figure 2.)

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Events Evaluation

We did not just have a plan before the prior the event, but we also had a plan for
during and after the event.
During we would make sure people were tweeting the hashtag
#ATMStudentNight as there was a competition, and the winner was whoever
created the best post. We also made sure that us as a company were using social
media throughout, also using the hashtag and taking photos for visual aids. This
helped anyone who wasnt actually there understand what was going on and to
catch up anything that they missed if they were unable to make it. The hastag also
was a way for us to see how many engaged with the event.
Post event, we had a lot of visual aids, IE Photos, radio interviews and a
television interview that is courtesy of BCUs Scratch Media team. We again made
sure this was shared all over Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep a buzz about
the event going and for those who again couldnt make it could catch up on what
happened. We also encouraged the performers to use social media to update people
on what they had been doing. (Figure 3.)
This method of promotion is not time consuming as you can do it from the
comfort of your own home, to when youre walking to work or travelling to college,
as most of it was online. However, as easy as online is we should have pushed the
physical copies. Although we had the poster online, having a physical copy may have
reminded a lot of people about the event. If it was put in a bag and pulled out when
they got home, there was more of a chance the students would have engaged more
with the event.
At last minute we handed out leaflets at the event, but it was too late of a
promotional strategy and should have been done way earlier. So if we were to do

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Events Evaluation

this promotional strategy again, I would definitely start a lot earlier as well as being
there as often as possible to hand out flyers physically.

FIGURE 1

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Events Evaluation

FIGURE 2

FIGURE 3

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Events Evaluation

BUDGET
Unfortunately our client was unable to provide us with a budget, however we

were fortunate enough to keep the costs to a minimum. Our venue, The Spotted
Dog, was free. After careful research it was found that this venue held events often
free of charge. It was a bit small, but chose the venue as it cut our costs down.

Using volunteers from Access To Music, also allowed us to not spend any

money on labour fees as we explained it would be for educational and experience

work. This was also explained to Scratch Media who provided their service for free as
they could gain experience and Scratch TV in particular used it for their weekly
episode online. (Figure 4.) This was clarified before hand in a brief that I wrote up for
the volunteers. This was beneficial as the volunteers knew exactly what we wanted
before hand and it was quicker to tell the information when they arrived as it was
just an overview rather than an explanation. (Figure 5.)

Initially we thought we were going to have to fund transportation of the

equipment from Access To Music, to the Spotted Dog however Access To Music were
kind enough to get a taxi for us which they paid for, leaving us again with free
transport.

The only thing that we had to spend money on was wristbands for the over

18s and the gift hamper for the winner of the competition, which overall came to
11.50.

As there was hardly a budget for our event, we came up with a hypothetical

one to enhance our knowledge of what we would have to pay for if we held the
event at Tunnel Club. A club located in Digbeth. (Figure 6.)

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In the future I would stick to staying with a low budget as it worked out
beneficial for us. However, if we did have to pay for a venue, to charge entry on the
door, as this will then gain us profit, or break even.

FIGURE 4.

FIGURE 5.

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Events Evaluation

FIGURE 6.

TEAM WORK

There were four of us in our group when planning the event, myself,

Stephanie, Maria and Charlie. We worked well as a team even though Charlie joined
later. We used Facebook as main point of communication. We were all active on
there, sharing ideas and responding critically and affectively to others ideas.

During the event we all delegated our roles and we all took those very

seriously on the night. I was artist, volunteer and tutor liaison as well as being the
presenter of the evening. I feel I did well at this, as I had queue cards for when I
spoke to the audience to make sure I knew what I was saying. It also looked very
professional as we had our events company logo on the back of the cards. However
a little more preparation before hand on what I could have done to make performers
more comfortable during sound check is apparent.

All of us took our role seriously, especially Charlie who was on the door all

night checking I.D and putting wristbands on those who were 18 and over, as

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Events Evaluation

previously mentioned. However this made her feel distant from the rest of the event
and she wasnt involved as much as we hoped. If we ever put on an event like this
again, I will be sure to rotate responsibilities so no one is left out of feels like they
have little to do. If Charlie was to raise that issue on the night, we would have been
happy as a team to make her feel more at ease in her role.


OVERALL EVENT

In an overall perspective, I feel the event went really well. People turned up, we
had hardly any problems with performers except for one dropping out last minute,
and we had hard working volunteers and good feedback at the end of it.
One thing that went extremely well was the programming of the night. (The
order in which the artists came on, and when playlists were played.) The
programming of the event was important because it kept the audience engaged and
wanting more. Therefore, after attending gigs myself, I knew to leave the best until
last. I put Benj and Benji, (previous Access To Music Students) on last to finish the
evening. They also gave a speech on social media and the benefits of having that as a
platform to showcase talent. This was good because they were highly anticipated all
evening and then they created a great atmosphere for everyone to leave having had
a great time.
During the event I was the compere, where I introduced acts and thanked them
at the end of the set. I think this also worked really well as the audience knew
exactly what was going on, they knew who was coming next, and knew when to be
back for a performer. In-between the acts, a playlist was played with songs that I

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selected. This again created a good atmosphere between acts as it kept people
entertained with songs that were in the charts and fun.
Higher education and further education collaboration was a key aspect to the
event. All volunteers for sound technicians at the event where students from Access
To Music. We allowed them to gain experience in a professional setting and allowed
them to ask any questions we may have been able to help with. We should have
been more assertive with them whilst doing the sound check, as it took a lot longer
than we anticipated. However this was a great experience and great aspect of the
event as it kept the student atmosphere but in a professional setting.
Volunteers were not only from the college but fellow students at BCU, from
Scratch media also helped out with the interviews, audio and visual images captured
of the evening. It made the performers feel important and gave them a sense of
purpose there. All footage, audio and photography was sent to them so they could
use them for their personal use, and therefore using students allowed them to add
to a portfolio and college students to promote themselves within the industry.
Scratch TV however, came unprepared and their battery for the camera was dead,
but they had a contingency plan and put together a great video for the performers.
As social media was a particularly large part of the event, the interaction on it
was much more than we expected, especially on Twitter. This helped with the
competition. As previously mentioned the competition was that whoever uploaded
the best post using the hashtag #ATMStudentNight won a prize. We encouraged
everyone to get involved, but as not many people used Instagram, we chose a post
from that to win, as it shows that its not just Twitter that is available to them to

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showcase their talent. This was another great way of engaging them in the soul
purpose of the event, which was indeed to get them to interact.
Although there were good aspects to the event, there is always something that
can be improved upon and we would consider changing. Communication is key at an
event like this as there are so many people involved. One fault in communication at
our event was the moving of the equipment from the college to the venue. By
speaking to two members of the college separately made for mix message and
confusion, which was later resolved on the day, but learnt that on the day is too late.
We needed to know exactly when the equipment would be ready and what it was
getting driven in before the day of the event. To do this in future is to follow up
emails the day before and know exactly what is going to happen on the day and
make sure that you know exactly what is going on and what everyone wants from
you.
Another communication fault that could have easily been resolved was the
participation of the sound technician volunteers. I did not know until the day of the
even that they were helping us. I assumed that the lecturer of the college was taking
care of that for us. Another lesson learnt is that never to assume, always make sure
you know exactly what is happening by the simple means of communication.
Business engagement could have also been beneficial at our event. With
businesses that could have given us better musical prizes than we provided would
have benefited the students a lot more and would have given them a lasting memoir
of the event. However we left it too late in sending out emails and asking
independent businesses for donations to our event. Making a timeline of promotion
and business engagement is key when event planning.

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Finally, after emailing artists the time that they needed to arrive at sound check,
we still had a few that were late. One band in particular were very late, although this
is out of our control we did have a contingency plan in place in case there was a last
minute drop out which worked to our advantage. All acts turned up and contingency
plans were not needed.

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