As Covid has changed many of our plans, one positive outcome of this semester is the ability to plan an in-person event for the students at St. Joe’s. Even though our group has been working together virtually over Zoom, planning an in-person event online doesn’t have to be as hard as you think. After weeks of planning for our community partner, The Mark Dombroski Foundation, the Beautiful Social Research Collaborative and The Mark Dombroski Foundation are putting on a fun walk this spring. We have compiled a list of tips that will help guide you in planning your in-person event while your whole team is planning online.
Hold weekly meetings with your team
By holding weekly meetings with your team you are able to see the progress and continue with a steady flow of ideas and goals. Each week you talk about what you have completed and what needs to be completed before the next meeting. This also ensures that people are doing their part in the group and you are on track to successfully coordinate the event.
2. Communicate frequently in a group message
Communication is key for any group setting. When working with an organization to plan an event, you want to make sure you're representing them to your fullest ability. If you don’t know something or forget, it is important you communicate that to your group rather than not say anything and to negatively affect the group. Communication within the group also allows for yourself to be heard as well as others. GroupMe and Slack are great platforms to stay in contact with other group members and are a professional way to stay in touch with your community partner.
3. Research the foundation you’re working with to best fulfill their goals and objectives
Researching the organization you're working for is a must. This step cannot be overlooked or else you may do all of this planning for an event and realize you are not representing the organization to your fullest ability. Things to look for are their mission statement, social media like instagram and facebook, and any other information about them such as an article written about them from another source. It also helps to talk to your organization and ask them what they stand for, or if they have a background story of why they are doing what they do.
4. Find a way to promote engagement
Finding a way to promote engagement can be difficult especially through Zoom and other forms of online engagement. One way we worked with this was creating an environment to promote creative ideas and putting ourselves in the shoes of people we wanted to communicate our message to. In order to get that engagement, we decided to market our event in a way that highlights inclusion and gives a sense of community. Everyone likes to feel a sense of belonging and something like a walk is a perfect way to engage with others while also working for a good cause.
5. Have fun activities planned for your walk
In order to get the most out of the event, you want to give people a reason to show up. Of course many will be there to celebrate for the purpose of the event, but some other people may need a little push to sign up to participate. It is important to have things that will gain attention such as food, merchandise like t-shirts, as well as a variety of entertainment options to keep people engaged while at the event.
6. Be sure to promote your event on social media to create some buzz
Social media is a huge part of promotion in the modern world. It is an extremely important and efficient way to get your message out to the most people possible. It has really made the world of advertising and promoting much easier. People can come across information on social media and this encourages people to become involved within the community as well as outsiders.
7. Create a special hashtag or hashtags for your event
Creating multiple unique hashtags will allow you to promote your event on all platforms. A consistent hashtag used on all the posts will allow your images to be grouped together with the opportunity to scroll through any posts, even after the event, with this hashtag. This provides a sense of organization and cohesiveness within our group.
8. Email and contact people who have also put on events at your location to get some advice
Researching and analyzing other groups and/or organizations who have put on similar events are a great way to understand a sense of how an event should be run. These organizations can suggest how to advertise the event, ticket attendance and prices, the creation of a website for the event and other small marketing ideas you may forget on your own. It is wise to learn from those who have similar experiences.
9. Find clubs and other organizations to get more people involved
Targeting certain groups on your campus can be beneficial in gaining more participants, fundraising and getting the word out about the event on social media. Since our event revolves around athletics, it is important to have the sports teams to be involved to encourage others to sign up and participate. It will also help get the word to spread that people should get involved with the walk.
