Megan Johnson

 And now for the moment we've all been waiting for!! The event was amazing! I'm proud to say everything went well even though the weather didn't corporate the whole time. It was a scary day as we set up because we had rain, hail, sun and wind all day but at 6:30 everything cleared up and the evening went very well. I think everyone really enjoyed the night and it was fun to watch the participants enjoy so much of our hard work and thought-out planning.  The best part of the evening was when we couldn't find one of the performers and a bunch of people ran off to try to contact them and it was up to me to stay calm and continue serving and helping the guests while everyone else fixed the problem! I was so proud that I knew what was happening enough to hold the event together! I learned a lot about the perseverance and struggles it takes to put on an event and it was nice to have first hand experience to something I'm so interested in. 

 I always thought things got more stressful as you get closer and closer to an event, but it turns out that it depends on what kind of planning team you have. This team has been amazing, I feel so prepared and ready for anything. Its easy to see how each member of the team does their job and is prepared for any type of circumstance. This week (as we are getting closer to the actual event) we are finally able to start looking up weather and able to have a final count of people planning to attend. The weather is looking great so far (which is very nice for our outdoor event) but we are prepared for rain or a ton of sun. I went to pick up the tents and shade covers that we will have at the event in order to be ready for anything.  Our event is next Friday! But in the meantime, I was invited to a separate event/dinner for all those who have helped to plan. It was great to get together with so many people who have been busy planning and who are ready to fully dive into everything n...

 Everything has been booked, decorated, purchased, and practiced. We had our final rehearsal with the performers and we walked though everything that is going to happen at the actual event. The tickets have all been sold so we are also done advertising. This week I went to the printing shop to pick up the signs we ordered. All the signs are for covid restrictions, 6 feet apart, wearing masks, and all of that. We will hang them up the night of the event, but for now I'll store them at my house. Everyone seems to be really excited, this has been such a fun event to plan because of the purpose behind it. This is a wonderful community full of families who are loyal to each other. You can tell everyone is exciting to look back at how far they've come. We have some youth coming to the event who have since graduated and moved on but grew up participating at Shine Performing Arts and everyone is excited to see them again. Its always exciting to plan a highly anticipated event where eve...

 I feel like Tiana from Princess and the Frog when shes about to open her restaurant. We are super super busy finalizing everything! I'm done with my social media side of this project since all the ads we are going to use have been created and scheduled. We are 3 weeks away from our event! Our performers are ready, we finished looking through the costumes and we worked on tech this week! This was a very new experience but I got to try working the sound booth! Although this isn't usually a task for an event manager, it was informational to try and learn.  After we attended the tech rehearsal for the performers we met with the caterer. The event participants will not be fed through the caterer, only the performers, volunteers, stage hands, etc. We showed them the venue and explained where and when things would be happening. We had our deadline for programs this week. This will be a pamphlet for people to pick up when they enter the event, in it you can find the available food tr...