Appreciation Night 2007

As the title shows, Appreciation Night 2007 or AP Night 2007 was a night my friends and I organise last week for AIESEC in University Malaya. This blog is dedicated to all the weaknesses and improvement, not to forget the short comings of the event to remind myself and if you think that you can benefit from what I've got to say, then do read on...

As before the start of the event, our organising committee (OC) has make the GREATEST mistake in making a wrong decision which is estimating wrongly the number of guest. We should have gone through previous records or find out past year's attendance number which is the most crucial info especially in an event where you require guest who pays to be there. We only realise this mistake after we've confirm everything from venue and prices. I guess if we were on 'The Apprentice', Donald Trump would have fired the Project Manager for overlooking this crucial info. Another mistake was being over confident is away..The OC's which included me were so sure that we are making a night for all to remember because we had gotten great sponsors and I really do mean great sponsors as the ticket was beautiful, door gifts were fantastic (V-Soy, Drinks from Nescafe, voucher from DIGI&Domino Pizza, Cash voucher from a spa shop, even the bag itself was sponsored)..talking about sponsorship, our weakness was we didn't manage to obtain sponsors in cash which is crucial to an event. But to re-affirm, I believe in the time frame given, we did 'hell' of a job (maybe not me, the other OCs) in organising a night within one month; another weakness to mention, the OCs should have been formed earlier, at least 3months grace period if you expect something of standard. This scenario isn't something new in LCUM I guess since all application for Organising Committee President is always
delayed.

Moving on to the day but before the event, caution to all future projects, when it's already on the crucial day, make sure you are not late and don't delay your rehearsal as that is already a last minute thingy..anything delayed will eventually invite disaster. As the saying goes: If you fail to prepare, you're preparing to fail.. So as you would have guess, we did not manage to perform a full rehearsal which lead to a hysterical event flow, changing as we seem fit..

Since we did not perform our rehearsal in time, not forgetting not having sufficient time to change into our pretty and smart outlook, we ended late in receiving the arrival of our guest of honour which is like the BIGGEST mistake that day. Without many of the OCs knowing who he his, only I have seen him..He actually walked into the ballroom without anyone's notice..How embarassing!! Note to all future organisers, you (as in the President, protocol director and few 'big shots' of the organisation0 should know exactly who are you waiting for and at least be there waiting for him/her half an hour earlier before the said time and not forgetting, obtain his/her contact number in case s/he doesn't turn up.

For the performances, I would suggest if possible that you at least know exactly what their quality is like, especially if they happen just to be a friend's friend, if you know what I mean. Please don't mis-quote me though, I mean I appreciate what my friend did as it wasn't an easy task of getting your friends to perform for FREE!! However, sometimes you just need to be 'hard' and insist that you at least see their performance to know whether they are actually up to it. My case happen like this..The group was suppose to perform a gig but it turn out that it was his first public performance which is fine with me but the thing is he got so freak out and forgotten his lyrics..like totally gone!! As partially being in-charge for the event flow, I was shock to say the least. Their performance really made our guest felt uneasy and some were seen leaving to get a breath..However, the second performance which we have seen before was a blast as they manage to bring the crowd attention back. Thank God for that!! The MC for the night was also superb as she was easy to work with and she really brought 'life' back into the crowd. So, although I can say MC isn't the sole factor but it definitely is worth searching for a suitable candidates...

Well, as all not so good event goes..The most important part is the END because if your guest are able to leave with at least a smile on their face and had a good time, I guess in a way you can say that it was acceptable, not perfect but at least not a disaster. Solution is to know who are your crowd and what's their preference. We were lucky that AIESECers loves dancing especially square dances, so the solution was to play square dances and they naturally blend into the atmosphere..In a way, it somehow end well..

Hmm..so far I guess these are a few points that I can think of. If there is any comment or you somehow have experiences you would like to share, do comment here in my blog..

Will drop some thoughts here again when it's possible. Got to head back to my literature reviews now. 20 of it..Really a bummer!!!!