Event management- more than meets the eye

Hey guys,

Ben here with my second post. Today I wanted to talk about events management, fundraising and speech writing… all of which I worked on for a fundraising event for Rocky Bay. The particular event I was working on was called the AHG (Automotive Holdings Group) corporate golf day. The golf day has long been one of Rocky Bay’s major fundraising events. What makes the event even more fantastic is that it was the initiative of AHG managing director Bronte Howson. Bronte’s vision was to raise $1million in 10 years. With this year being the eighth year, AHG and Rocky Bay could see the potential for that target being reached in 8, as opposed to Bronte’s previously envisaged target of 10 years.

My first day at Rocky Bay saw me attending meetings with Joondalup Resort representatives and the AHG PR team. As a first day, I could not have asked for anything better. Firstly the networking was an invaluable experience. Secondly and more importantly was the sense I got of how much work goes into an event like this.

Over the coming weeks, my role was based more on the publicity elements of the event. Many of the ladies I work with have a lot of experience with marketing and fundraising but not as much with publicity and promotion. My roles included developing and improving the media contact list as well as writing a press release promoting the event. I would also be involved in further meetings with the AHG team regarding the auction on the night, which allowed me to meet the MC and auctioneer on the night, David Christison. David is the former news director at Channel Seven and also presented the sport for a number of years. Being from a journalism sided PR background, the chance to meet David was very exciting… again the networking was great.

One of the more exciting assignments I was given in organising the event was writing a speech for the CEO of Rocky Bay. Given that I am only doing 1 day a week, I was effectively asked to write a speech for the CEO on my fourth day- daunting but very rewarding to have the team put their faith in me. My expectation of what would be read out on the night was something that drew on what I wrote but wasn’t essentially my words. To my surprise, the CEO did in fact read out my speech. To this day it’s probably the most satisfying moment of my internship.

All in all the event went smoothly and we did hit the $1million mark by raising more than $180 000 on the night alone- the most raised in the events eight year history.

Until the next post,

Ben