Today i worked at my placement's final event for the year; the Melbourne Cup Luncheon, and lets just say it wasn't a great way to end the year. Up until now all the events ran very smoothly, the worst that has happened so far was that we were running a bit behind, so in a way, to get the most well rounded experience possible, it was good (for my placement, not for the company of course) that this event was a bit of a disaster.
It all started off with the fact that the hotel where we were holding the function had booked up every room for other functions so we didnt have a room close by for the models and the entertainment to get ready, they also double booked the foyer so when or guests started arriving there were already around 50 or so people in the foyer for another function.
Next, the auctioneer, who was supposed to arrive at 1.30pm to run through his item list before the auction began at 2pm didnt arrive until 2.15pm, so the whole auction process was very messy and we were left with a few items un sold and quite a few items sold under the reserve, being this was an event for charity, this was not good at all.
The band, who had not been seen by the organizer before the event, were not very good and inappropriate for our particular event, something that could have been avoided before today.
Lastly one of Momentum's sponsor tables got incredibly intoxicated to the point where they were yelling at one of the other volunteers, demanding to speak to the CEO and eventually falling asleep on their table at the event and had to be carried out by hotel staff, which looked incredibly bad for my placement company.
This whole day was a huge eye opener for me and I learnt a lot from the experience. How to deal with bad attendees, especially those that sponsor your event, how to avoid situations before the event day by being prepared and always checking your entertainment out before you agree to have them at your own event, how to handle the situation when someone quite vital to the events success doesnt show up and how to remain calm and collected through the whole day.
This was definitely the most unsuccessful event of the year in terms of money raised for charity and in my opinion successful in terms of pure quest enjoyment. This is definitely an event where a strong evaluation (one of my recommendations in my report) is needed to access the situation and see if the issues that arose today are things that can be fixed and improved on for next year.
Kirby Scanlan
15382007
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