Event Evaluation
Stakeholder Perpectives:
Designing the experience continued...
stand or lean on railings and were still highly engaged during the races. More seating in the centre and using the outer seating for more activities would have forced attendees to settle in the centre of the room and centrepieces would have been more effective in enhancing the theme (Monroe, 2006).
The response from the venue was extremely positive with the manager asking us to organise the event on a monthly basis. This was due to the greatly increased attendance as there would have been very little people had the event not taken place. Again unfortunately a feedback form has still not been returned by the venue but being asked to do it again is proof in itself that they were happy with the event.
Communication was an ongoing issue in the run up to the event, the venue management would be slow to answer e-mails and there was confusion about the free room hire when the managers changed. Fortunately no harm came to the event due to this but it did somewhat reflect badly on the venue.
Choosing a venue with a more organised team who are easier to contact would be a better option in future. From a suitability view the venue worked very well with the race night activities with the stage and lighting providing focus along with a large dance floor area that meant attendees could throw the dice without risk of hitting other people. The large open plan room with a long bar and well signposted toilets/facilities meant there were no bottle necks, queues or issues with people moving around the venue (Silvers, 2008).
Attracting volunteers was not hard due to a large number of second and first year events students wanting to gain experience so they were already motivated by association and reward (Bowdin et. al., 2006). But their positive experience is still important to build a good relationship it may mean they will volunteer again (Bladen et. al., 2012).
A large number of volunteers meant each could be assigned specific jobs and there were no major problems during the night due to them being briefed multiple times and them all being under constant supervision from organisers. A majority were Chinese students so communication was sometimes slow but all the volunteers were very capable and