As a student, I've never really been in to the whole "leaving it to the last minute" thing. I've always tried to stay on top of everything that's in front of me, or is going to end up in front of me. Now that (for the time being) I am in the "real world" working I didn't expect to be the one trying to fix things when everything has been forgotten about, and left to the last minute, or day rather...
I'm working at concert promotion company, a booking agent basically. They organise concerts for local, Australian and international bands in Perth. They have a good reputation, and from what I know about them they are usually on top of things. There's a few basic things they do every time to promote concerts, these include advertisements in street press (Drum, X-Press etc), posters in all the places you would expect, flyering at other events and the new way of doing things that involves very little work, Facebook events.
This time however, given the public holidays in recent weeks, the deadlines for Advertising in the street press this week were missed, and there were still a lot of places to put posters up that should have been done weeks ago. The Facebook event was doing its thing, but they aren't always a reliable indication of how the turnout will actually be.
Now the band in question aren't really an unknown band, they have a fan-base who will come to support them whenever they are in WA. They are making a long trip over from Auckland, New Zealand. The band don't have any new records out since the last time they were here, so they aren't really a talking point in this "scene." The show is in two days, there's a lot to be done to make sure the concerts are a success, that there are good turn outs at both the concerts and most importantly that all costs are covered and everyone gets paid.
Working with the director of the booking company, we came up with a plan for last minute promotions for the concert. I did up a last minute press release that was sent to an internet radio station that is popular in that scene, Triple J's Short.Fast.Loud radio show, a few "what's on in Perth" type websites, the venues, and a few other relevant contacts the company already had. As a group effort Posters were thrown up, covering all the places that were forgotten and a few more prominent spots for complete exposure. Flyers were handed out in the city (to those who look like they would be interested, and those who probably weren't at all) and placed in a few shops and cafes. Now the Facebook event was still going along doing what it does, we made sure all forms of social media were covered, Twitter, Tumblr etc. Some people may have found it annoying, but at least they knew it was on.
Learning from past mistakes, I know how to get things done at the last minute. Something I've tried to move on from to ensure I'm never in that situation again. Never did I think I would have to deal with this again post-university life. We came up with a lot of good ideas and we got it done. The shows turned out to be a success and turnouts were much better than expected, especially given one of the dates was an all-ages show on Good Friday, one of the most painfully quiet days of the year in Perth (no offense to whoever may take offense). The Saturday show was HUGE and the band was that popular they ended up doing a second "secret" show after the Saturday night show at a nightclub in Perth. This was their third or fourth trip over from NZ and given how well the weekend went it certainly will not be their last.
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