The day has arrived!!!

The stress has filled the room. We started to prepare all the brochures that have to be handed out to all the attendees. Then we went to the hall to set up the bursary awards, reception table and the table for the awards. 

My job was to make sure the food is ready and the reception was assigned with a staff to take the attendance of the award recipients. I also needed to assign a person to make sure the flow of the event was monitored. I then went to label all the seats with the attendees names.

I then went to welcome the press and brought them to their assigned seats. I then went to play some light music and instructed the media where to fix their cameras and then I went to check on the attendees.

Once the attendees arrived, I made sure that all of them sat in their seats and I debriefed them of the sequence of the event. My Supervisor then received the Special guest and came up with the rest of the board members. The event started on time and everything went as per plan.

After the event, everyone went down for food. The event was a success and my supervisor commended me on my input and the success of the event. I am so happy!!      

  

A few Words From the CEO

Dear fellow interns,

Before I conclude with my final blog post for PR 393, please allow me to share with you a few thoughts on post-event evaluations.

HSBC Brunei has recently closed the chapter on one of  its life time events. The charity event called HSBC Walk Run Cycle (WRC) was an overall success with a 90% show up from its 10,000 registrants and additional patrons who came just to enjoy the carnival. Everyone from the communications, marketing, and corporate sustainability team thought that it was the call for celebration. 

Click here for event photos! HSBC Walk Run Cycle 2012

What happened during the event 
Soon was 11.30pm and as we are leaving from our event booth, standing there was our CEO who was expecting to have a few words with us.

From a CEO's perspective

1. I realised after the event that we did not provide enough disposal bins on the field, people have no where to throw their water bottles and they end up littering on the field. I think we can improve on this   so we can have our volunteers helping on other things as well and not worried about picking up litter. Internet response on WRC's littering 
2. I also hope that we can reuse the games and banners from the WRC carnival, its only been used once and it surprises me to find out that its missing or misplaced when we need it for our next events. 
3. Whats next? The major event has ended, and we have lots of unused prizes left from the game booths. We can utilise it. We can look forward to plan another HSBC event in the smaller suburbs; its important to recognise our local communities too; its part of our company values.

His insights summed up very interestingly for me, he evaluated the overall success of an event by stepping out of the box and viewing it from a wider angle. Although the basic aspects count heavily towards the success of an event too, like what most of us would see: the attendance, any injuries, enough food and refreshments, volunteers and paramedics and police force well distributed from starting to finishing line. 

That was the insight into my CEO's thoughts on improving an event. Have you ever experienced anything similar before? 

Wishing you all the best.

Xx Jasmine