Open Evening Evaluation
Evaluation:
Before the open evening event our class altogether came up with our own individual ideas of what we could do to make open evening more enticing and informative for parents and children coming to the college. The ideas we came up with were to create a Graffiti Board so that students and children could write on it about how they like the college, experiences act..
We then decided upon getting bands and DJs together to preform on open evening to advertise the music courses and to welcome people into the college as it will be the first thing they can see when walking into the college. Originally the bands were agreed to preform on the platform where the library is however we then realised on open evening this would be an issue due to setting up the equipment and techs decided to have the bands preforming in the canteen and djs in the entrance to the music room.
We also agreed to make a map of where different people from the college traveled from, we felt was a good idea as it would give parents a view on how lots of different people from around the world have wanted to come to this college to do a pacific course.
Another idea we decided to do was a photo booth with props and the MET logo as the back-drop and a photographer so that if children wanted to get involved they could take a picture and it would be sent to them as memrobilia of the college.
The last few ideas we had was to have a few students possibly from drama to give parents tours around the college. and to have posters put up to show people where to go.
Overall this project went well for the first event that was managed by us and was a very good learning experience as now when creating other events I know myself what things to focus on and what things work well already.
What went well:
In conclution I feel the positive things that went well with the open evening were we all worked together as a whole class in organising and setting up the whole of open evening on the day and other students in the college also helped in setting up and participating in the activities we had set up.
Once everything was set up we had some students in the college writing on the graffiti board before open evening started this was good as it made the graffiti board look less blank and it also had some students links to Instagram and Soundcloud so that others could have a look at the work from people in our college which is very interactive. During open evening the Graffiti board also went very well with children coming to the college as lots of people were getting involved and by the end it was full of lots of different messages, drawings, links that we could take away with us.
Other things that went well during open evening were the DJ set that was preformed by Charlie, he continuously played appropriate music for the day which was inviting and overall were no problems.
Some bands that played were really enjoyable to watch and listen to and had quite a few parents, students and children take time to stay and watch.
People from our class took responsibility to take parents around the college to show them classrooms as drama students ended up not partaking in tours, this was very professional and gave parents a perspective from the students at the college as apposed to a teachers perspective.
The map that was made went well and had regular people looking at it however if we were to do this again we would make the map bigger and put up on the wall so it was more noticeable as some didn't realise it was there.
lastly the video clip of around the college was very interesting however again if this was to be done again we would put it on the tvs around the college on a loop so It didn't have to be constantly played and people could just stop and watch for a minute if they wanted to.
To improve:
To summarise if we were to do this whole project again the thing that would need to be improved are:
Firstly when opening evening started the first band came on and the sounding was too loud to a point people were shouting to be heard, the bands music type was also not acceptable for the day and they were very unprofessional, to resolve this before open evening started there should have been a practice and direction so that techs could get the sounding right and so we as events managers could direct bands as to what genre of music is acceptable, I also think that the DJ set would have been better in the canteen and the bands in the music room instead.
I also feel that our course in itself wasn't advertised to parents and children coming into the college and I feel that when coming up with ideas for open evening when dressed we should have made an idea to represent our course and let people know that we helped in creating the Open Evening.
The photo booth didn't have many participants partaking in the activity which meant students were just waiting with not much to do so to improve we could have maybe moved the photo booth to somewhere else in the college where possibly more people would get involved.
Secondly some students were a bit lost in direction and felt as they weren't sure what they should be doing once everything was set up and open evening was partaking this resulted in most students sitting around waiting for open evening to finish so that equipment could be packed away.
When taking some parents around on a tour I realised that part of the college looked closed and not inviting for those who wanted to look at classrooms I also realised myself I wasn't sure on where everything in the college was even though I had been here for 2 years I have always been mainly in the music rooms so I didn't have much direction on showing parents places they wanted to see, however I still kept this professional and explained this and showed them areas I was aware of as-well as pointing them to teachers that could help them with this. again I would next time make sure that there was more communication between others in the college so that our course could make sure there were people available to give tours.
Lastly another improvement that is key was making sure health and safety was recognised even though there were no health and safety problems as events managers we should have made sure there were no trip hazards with equipment and that fire exits were made aware of incase of an accident and were clear and accessible.
Here are some posters I designed for open evening the idea of doing this was to give directions to the public as to where different activities were in the college. The first design was more dark as I felt this gave an atmosphere of in a club listening to a DJ set contracting to this the second poster was more bright and fun to give the impression of what a photo booth is like silly and inviting.