Curtin Open Day 2011 - a success!

6 months of preparation, 2 months of internship and hundreds of thousands of dollars later - Curtin Open Day on sunday turned out to be a huge success!

17,000 attended the event and enjoyed the amazing atmosphere on campus. It's hard to describe the vibe, but there was certainly an energy about the uni that I've never witnessed before. People were highly enjoying themselves everywhere, all smiles! Whether it was lining up at the Nova tent to claim one of 5000 free pairs of sunnies, speaking to academics in the courses expo, entering competitions, having photos taken with giant galactic super beings on stilts, holding a pig at the petting zoo, watching student ambassadors breaking out into spontaneous flash mobs and exploring the facilities, the fun was endless!

This day was by far the highlight of my internship, seeing the months of organising and preparation finally come together. We were extremely lucky and very thrilled to have sunshine for majority of the day, particularly when the weather forecast didn't look too promising the week prior. As event organisers we were well prepared for rain and wind, but not at all were we prepared for a hot day! Visitors were requesting sun cream left, right and center and I found myself trying to hunt down free hats for people feeling the heat! The temperature ended up reaching 26 degrees, making it the hottest August day in 5 years! However the weather changed dramatically in the afternoon, bringing strong winds and a little bit of rain.

My duties as an intern were to help set up the fun zone and St John first aid as well as answer to any 'I'm lost' calls and guide them through the campus. Once these contractors had arrived and their activities were up and running I got to walk around and enjoy the atmosphere, as well as take part in the 'flash mob' routine as a student ambassador.

But of course in a large event like this there's bound to be a couple of things that go wrong. In the Fun Zone alone the power went out on the inflatable human soccer table causing it to deflate temporarily (in the middle of a game might I add) and the winds became too strong for the bouncy castle causing it to lift and resulting in the supervisor having to take it down until the wind became less forceful. Despite a couple of minor electricity problems through out the day the event had very positive feedback!

So while my internship may now be officially complete, the work on the event is not! Evaluations are currently underway with staff debriefing sessions, an online survey, website statistics and potential focus groups. The attendance number of 17,000 is a clear indicator of success, and an achievement of the goal (this was the attendance result last year too.) However there are always ways to improve the event for the following year.

Overall the internship gave me great insight into how much preparation goes into an event and how Curtin uni works as a large organisation.

Did anyone attend Curtin open day on sunday? What did you think?

I will certainly be attending Curtin Open day for many years to come, just for fun!

Thank you for tuning in,

Sarah Mullen
14308662
Bentley Campus