Events - the Good and the Bad!

With my time at Pirate 88FM Fremantle soon coming to an end, I thought I’d reflect one of the more eye-opening experiences i've had - events. My experience with Pirate has definitely made me realise how fun, yet how hands-on events can be. I’ve always had an interest in events, and have even considered taking a course on multiple occasions specific to events, and my time with Pirate has definitely confirmed my desire to delve further into events experience or study. Having said this, my experience with events at Pirate has been very “tame”, you could say.

Although the events I’ve been involved in with Pirate have been small and manageable, they still taught me a few serious lessons. Back when I first started at Pirate, they had began organising their first ‘Pirate Sesh’ – which was to be a Sunday sesh held on the first Sunday of every month. The event would be run by Pirate and a local record label in Fremantle, and would see 6 local artists or bands come down to the Pirate office/ shed (the office back then was in a warehouse) to entertain whoever walked through the door. It was exciting to be involved in helping organise this event, however as I was new at the time, my responsibilities were minimal. I was to post updates on social media in the lead up to the event, try and help get the word out, and update social media on the day of the event (as well as try and drag as many of my friends along as possible!). I did my part, took some photos, and even helped interview some bands on the night.

Some photos I uploaded to Instagram at the first Pirate Sesh

The first event went swimmingly. Awesome music enjoyed by just under 100 guests, a real sense of team work and satisfaction, an awesome vibe, and plenty of profit from the night. We were stoked to run the next Pirate Sesh, and I was hoping to be more involved in organising the event. It turned out, however, there wasn’t much to be done – or so we thought. The record label would source the bands, we already had a sponsor to provide alcohol and food, Pirate already had all the equipment, and we knew what we were doing to run the event the next time. All that was left was to raise awareness and get people through the door. So, again, I updated the Facebook page every so often in the lead up to the event announcing bands, made a new Facebook event and invited tons of people, redesigned the tickets, and tried to get the word out. If we could get close to one hundred people to a brand new event before (in the middle of winter), we could do it again, easy, right?

Some of the Pirate team and myself at the first Pirate Sesh

Wrong. This time, a measly 20-30 people strolled through the door. We didn’t understand. We had a great lineup of bands, had been promoting the event for the last month, and had such great feedback the at the previous event. I can’t comment on the vibe of the night, as in the end I couldn’t actually make the event (long story short, burst water pipe at the house on a Sunday afternoon… took some time to get a tradie out!), but as far as I’m aware everything was set up just as before and prepared for an awesome afternoon and evening of local musical talent. The event barely made a profit.

Despite attempts to have an urgent team meeting after the event to discuss what went wrong, the meeting never eventuated (if you’ve read my previous blog post, you’ll know of the tendency of a lack of organisation and communication in the office…). It was decided the event would be cancelled until further notice, due to several reasons (mainly due to sudden plans to move the office into Fremantle). It’s a shame, because the event could have really been something. If I were to comment on the failure of the last event, I would have to say it came down to the inconvenience of the location (in the middle of industrial O’Connor at the time), and a lack of awareness. An event can’t simply be promoted through Facebook with the expectation people will turn up. We needed to put up posters, hand out flyers, talk to people about the event and get them excited. It was planned that this would happen, but it was never organised. Pirate has recently moved office space into the heart of Fremantle, so who knows, maybe the event will be brought to life again soon. We’ll see.

Another small event I helped organise and run was a Rock ‘N’ Roll themed quiz night, which was, thankfully, a big success. Yes, I know, it’s only a quiz night, it’s not hard to organise nor run. But the quiz night alone was probably one of the highlights of my time with Pirate.

When I started with Pirate, the idea for a quiz night was already planned, but was a whole big mess. Turns out the event was meant to be held months earlier,  by a group of events interns. Long story short, they didn’t organise much, failed to sell tickets, postponed the event, and then three out of four of them didn’t turn up anymore (sounds awful, right?). A new date had been set in September, but again, no tickets were sold and hardly anything was organised. The event was, however, still listed on Facebook. I was asked to step in and help take over the event – a task I was more than happy to take on, I love quiz nights! 

The last remaining events intern organised contra deals for tables and chairs, catering and alcohol, and got started on organising prizes. I got started on the rest. Spreading the word, inviting friends and family, getting them to invite their friends and family, and constantly pushing the event on Facebook. I wrote and voiced radio ads as part of contra deals, arranged some prizes myself, wrote an event schedule for the night, designed tickets and answer sheets, wrote quiz questions, helped source a live band for the night, and plenty of other little things. Unfortunately on the night a few team members didn’t turn up, so there were 3 of us running the event, and our manager acting as ‘Quiz Master’, so the night did tend to feel rushed from the get go! In the end, though, this only felt more satisfying. We had already sold a fair amount of tickets, and were pleasantly surprised when a huge number of last minute guests walked through the door. The little warehouse in O’Connor was packed. We had a great night with great feedback, made an impressive budget higher than our goal, and felt extremely satisfied to have turned this little disaster of an event around to a great success. Again, it was only a quiz night, but to me, it was a great accomplishment.

Some photos from the Rock 'N' Roll Quiz Night - check out my balloon raffle!

The satisfaction of an event running so well has made me want to learn more about events. As has the disappointment and frustration of an event failing. Although these were all fairly simple events, it has really inspired me. I’d love to be involved in larger scale events, where everyone works as a team, things are planned from top to bottom, and there is a real challenging aspect. Where you feel amazing when things go right, and seriously reflect, and hopefully rectify when things go wrong. It is this that I am disappointed not to have experienced more with Pirate, but I guess we all start somewhere. I can definitely see myself jumping into events experience after this internship!

My time with Pirate ends in 2 days – so until then!

Emma