Springtime Event

 We held an event last week focused on the youth of Shine Performing Arts. This event is an annual event where the youth prepare performances and presentations to share with the community as well as their parents and other family members and friends. This event is sort of an end-of-year celebration to say goodbye to the graduating seniors, welcome in new students for next year and celebrate how far everyone has come and accomplished. 

The event was canceled last year due to Covid-19 so we already knew there was a lot of excitement going into this event. We wanted it to be held outdoors so that we could let the maximum people attend the event. Because of our location we were able to keep social distancing rules while people enjoyed the food and entertainment for the evening. 

Our biggest concern was the weather because it was the outdoor event, there were so many times where we thought the weather would come through, but as event managers and specialists, we came up with multiple backup plans. While it did end up storming that day, the day cleared up right before the event and everything went smoothly. 

This whole process started a few months ago. Its strange to think how an event can take months to plan and then only last a few hours. We met weekly for a while and eventually started meeting two or three times a week as things picked up. We worked on menus, decorations, presenters, performers, and the schedule for the event. I was also lucky enough to work with some of the advertising department to put together some ads for the event. We met with a lot of people and attended a lot of rehearsals, this helped us to be extra prepared and well informed on the day of the event.

My favorite part of the event was also my proudest moment, while the event had a huge team working on it, there were also things that went wrong, like any event. However I was able to keep a calm face and continue helping guests while fires were put out. I learned this is a huge part of event managing as you cannot keep an enjoyable atmosphere for guests if you are outwardly stressed and panicked. Staying calm is all part of the event!

Overall everything was well enjoyed by the performers and the guests. The food, the performances, the presentations, and the music. It was great to see it all come together and work so well.