As promised in my previous post, this blog is going to be a little bit about the T.A.G Hungerford awards night that Fremantle Press is involved with.
So firstly, what is the T.A.G Hungerford awards? Administered by writingWA, the award is a $12,000 prize awarded to an unpublished manuscript by a previously unpublished Western Australian author. Alongside the prize money, the winner gets their manuscript published by Fremantle Press.
The winner for 2015 was Madelaine Dickie and her manuscript, Troppo.
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Winner of the T.A.G Hungerford Award, Madelaine Dickie
Held at the beautiful Fremantle Arts Centre, the setting was perfect ... But as many of you know all too well, anything that can go wrong will go wrong for an event! Claire and I were joking about this on the day, exchanging stories in the car as we set off in the car to drop some things off and begin setting up the event.
The Fremantle Arts Centre was the perfect venue to host the awards
Claire hadn't heard from Madelaine all morning, and we were both growing a little worried ... she was coming to Perth from Broome, and we knew that flights had been delayed because of torrential storms up North! This wasn't ideal for any shortlister not to be attending, especially the winner. Her plane was set to land around 2pm, and we didn't hear from her until around 4.30pm ... it is safe to say we were a little relieved when the text came through that she had arrived in Perth.
As we began setting up, we realised that The City of Fremantle hadn't dropped their pull up banner stands off. Seeing as though they were a sponsor, this wasn't ideal. Setting off in the car once again, we had to call them on the way and have one run down stairs at the town hall as Claire raced in to pick it up. Drama averted.
Back at the office we were finalising last minute things, including the guest list, name badges for the board members of Fremantle Press, and the media kit. Claire thought it was a little odd that she hadn't heard back from their usual flower company where they source bouquets for the winner from so gave her a call ... The florist had a wedding on that day and had completely forgotten! With a few hours up our sleeve, she promised to have the flowers delivered in time. Drama averted again.
Getting to the venue, I was posted at the front desk and was in charge of greeting guests and ensuring that all board members got their name badges and the judges had their assigned envelopes with the running order inside. It was then that I realised I had forgotten one of the name badges ... not the end of the world but when there are 8 others and one person missing I thought that it wouldn't look great! I had five minutes before guests were set to arrive .. armed with my clipboard, I raced down the street (thanking that our office was so close!), printed off another name badge, ran back up the hill (easier on the way down may I add) and got to the gates catching my breath and trying to look calm and collected as I rounded the corner and saw the start of our guests waiting at the closed gates... it was 5.58pm, and showtime!
Despite all of these little hiccups in the day, the night was a great success!
This blog post wasn't to criticise or point out or the flaws in the evening ... it was truly a successful night and everyone that came complimented Claire and the team and thanked us at the end of the night. I even got thanked in one of the speeches which was a nice, albeit unexpected little shock, hearing my name amongst a crowd of one hundred plus guests!
We did put time a lot of time and effort into the night, and it paid off.
I wanted to use this post to point out that no matter how well things are planned, there is always something that will go wrong ... it just depends on how well you handle these curveballs!
I remember from my PR Techniques class, writing running schedules and putting together media kits and having everything ticked off the list, thinking 'well this is perfect! Nothing could go wrong'
- this awards night was a real life example of how you need to be prepared for the unexpected, and that you need to be flexible when things don't always go to plan!
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Mayor of Fremantle Brad Pettitt announcing the winner
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Madelaine with her certificate
Has anyone had similar experiences when interning at an events company? Or perhaps running an event for the company your interning at like I did? How did YOU deal with an unexpected surprise on the day of something important? I would love to hear about them in the comments below!
Thanks for reading,
Anouka
Interning at Fremantle Press,
Marketing and Communications Assistant
4 comments:
Reading that got me on the edge of my seat! It is amazing how everything seems to be going to plan only to get thrown into the wind on the day itself!
While my internship with Crime Stoppers doesn't involve many events, we did have a communication error with one of our partners/sponsors who were in charge of website design.
The issue with sponsors is that they are providing a free service, hence pressuring them to meet a deadline without sounding passive aggressive was such a challenge, all the while trying to maintain a healthy relationship between the both parties.
Reading this post shows how important the backend staff is to any organisation. Specially to such a big event like an awards night!
Look forward to hearing about the rest of your journey with Fremantle Press Anouka!
Thanks Jarret.
As we are a NFP organisation, I know what you mean about having to rely on sponsors and the tug of war for asking what you want without sounding greedy! its a delicate balance I have come to realise and so much more goes into it than a simple 'We need money'!
Hi Anouka
I understood your post immensely...no matter how hard we research and prepare for an event something is always bound to go wrong but its how you deal with the problem is the real success.
I love reading your post It has the same theme Im just about to write about my internship. Im working at Beaufort Street Network and in January we had our 1st sundowner event which we planned for months before and as our guest speaker was talking in front of a huge crowd a shoplifter ran through the crowd nocking people down and yelling horrible things ARGGHH luckily we pulled the people involved around the corner out of the view of other guests while police came and the show went on!! Goes to show you can never predict ANYTHING!
All the best for the rest of your internship and looking forwards to hearing about more events from Fremantle Press
Hi Alexi
Yikes a shop lifter! That would have been a nightmare. I know i think it just goes to show we have to 'prepare for the unexpected!' Glad to hear that it still went according to plan though!
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