Figure 2.2
The role of marketing director required exceptional communication skills. According to my psychometric test “Type dynamic indicator” I am an improviser. This signifies I am good at developing relationship, working with other, communicating, creativity, and energising others. Undertaking this role enabled me to develop these skills and employ them into practical situations. I expanded my written communication skills and gained the ability to write successful press release, newspaper abstracts and articles, and communicate with various media and press companies, liaison with businesses, create and run various online marketing sites and an event Twitter and Facebook account, and create marketing material.
This therefore meant I had to advance my communication skills, foster self-management skills, and professionally use IT as a source of communicating. Team skills were also essential in this role because I had to liaison with the operations manager to ensure what I was communicate the correct information about the event including timings and details and the finance manager about budgeting and negotiated prices.
Like every event, Sheffield World MenCup 2014 went through a bumpy path to get to the finish result, challenging the teams problem solving skills throughout the process; from not having enough teams to run the orginal match plan, referees dropping out last minute, weather conditions, to unmotivated volunteers. I learnt to always have continuency plans and back up that can step in if need be. When the team was told the night before that our referee was unable to attend, panic and stress flooded our faces. We had to call every single contact we knew and ask places we thought may know one such as the gym and University sports department asking for a referee. Fortunately through demonstrated Matthew's (2007) Habits of an Effective Event Producer: single-minded purpose, Ability to devote the necessary time, ability to block out interference, ability to address challenges, and the "show must go on" mentality , we were able to recruit another referee for the event.
Fundraising before the event, creating budgets, calculating break even, cash flows, and financial analysis of the event have all enabled me to refresh my numeracy skills and apply numerarcy in a practical situation. This is another skill that NUS state as essential for graduates wanting to break into employment.
Human resource management theory was used during the event to strengthen my ability to lead the volunteers.House’s Path Goal (Evans, M 1996) theory discusses that leadership is increasing a group’s performance through motivation . Path goal theory is a contingency theory, proposing that effective leadership is contingent on the leader's
adopting a particular style of behavior to match the needs to the subordinate and the situation in which the subordinate is working.
There are four types of leader behaviour including; directive behaviour, supportive behaviour, participated behaviour and achievement orientated behaviour. I applied these approaches by being friendly and approachable to the volunteers. During the event I asked the volunteers what type of area of events they were interested in and what they needed to develop then provided them a role based upon this in order to make them feel motivated and valued. Mullins (2005) identifies human skills such as; interpersonal relations, motivating staff, and effective team work and leadership skills, essential to being a successful event manager.
Through undertaking this project I have been able to develop in all the areas addressed by NUS, gain a greater understanding of the subject of events management, build business awareness, and use the theory taught on the course in practical situations, this has supplied me with the ability to differentiate myself from other graduates through the experience and achievement I have gain.