THE AFTERMATH

After the event I sent Gemma an email thanking her for her great talk. It felt great to have achieved such a big role for myself. I had been really nervous about letting my class down , but I got really good feedback from my classmates and received this email from Tim Hammond, the teacher at Bath City College.


Chloe,

This is just to let you know that we all had an excellent time at the event
that you and your team organised for us on Friday. Please accept our thanks!

The key to success I think was the enthusiasm and good humour of everyone
involved. It's great for me to be able to take my students out to places
where they can meet new people and ideas in a friendly, energetic
environment.

We also feel very privileged to have been spoken to by your two contrasting
speakers - equally informative and inspirational in their different ways.

If it were ever possible to do something for Bath Spa students using what we
have here in town, we'd love to return the favour. We have a big studio and
a number of very competent and reliable students more than ready to take up
positions as part of any production crew.

Keep in touch,



Tim


Not only was it a great experience, I felt i learnt a lot from the day too, and I'm glad all the hard work is over!!

THE BIG DAY

*PHOTOS CURTSEY OF LESLEY GITTINGS*

We arrived on the misty morning of the 8th , it was strange being at University so early, and seeing only the CMP class coming from all angles of the campus.




Everyone arrived and went to their separate rooms to set up. I based myself in MH 111 as this was where the first event was happening and I wanted to overlook the 'dressing' of the room. The Student Ambassadors arrived and i briefed them on the following day.



I was really nervous about my initial opening speech. I went through it a few times with various people in MH 111.
The Students were a bit late so I had to think about the Schedule, everything would have to be bumped forward, I started to realise how important timing is for this role and spoke to Carlina about the possibility to make the icebreakers faster. I had allocated 15 minutes to walk to their first room as well so I knew we could eat into that a bit as it wouldn't take that long.

The Students arrived , so we welcomed them in, and I began the speech, I had to keep reminding myself to not cross my legs when standing, as this would make the beginning speech not as powerful.
Our Epic/funny video was shown that Mike had filmed and edited, it was so funny to watch everyone! click here
Once I had done it I felt great, and it seemed silly that I had worried about it. Once this was out the way it was time to focus on the running of the event.




So Carlina took over to do the icebreakers and I sent of the people who were in charge of the activity rooms of to their rooms so they could be prepared for the arrival of their groups.

So the groups went off and started their activities! i realised whilst going round the rooms that I had not organised in which order the room change would go so I quickly ran to each of the rooms and told the 'walk around's' which room they were to go to next.

I was visiting each of the rooms and everthing seemed to be fine until I bumped into Lesley and she informed me that there was a hitch in the Green Screen room, I rushed up to find the technology wasnt working and the students were looking a little bored, and unluckily Tim the teacher was in this room ! I spoke to Ant and Simon and asked the severity of the problem and if we had to cancel this activity overall. I was racking my brains trying to think what to do, I pulled Mandy and James out of the room and said there was to be a change of plan.. instead the activity would be 'how to set up a green screen', i told Mandy to find a video on You tube about green screen and then have a game in which there is a flat image behind them ( this was all they could get on the screen) and get the studnets to act as if they were reporters having to relay some urgent news, to see how they would cope on the other side of the camera.
Just as I told them this Ant came through and said he had it working so we decided to do half the new idea and half the old.
It was hard working under pressure like that , but I was happy I had managed to come up with an idea there and then.

After the crisis had been averted I carried on my role of overlooking and answering various queries from my class and Student Ambassadors.
I edited the schedule as well as the event had been pushed forward and relayed this to the activity rooms.

A photographer named Llyod from Bath Chronicle came, I was delighted as this had been our brief to make this event attract Media attention. i took him around the various rooms and spoke to him about the event. It was so exciting to know that our class has organised something that was worthy of media attention.

Lunch came around, I set up, with the help from James and Claire, NAG03 ready for the afternoon speakers.
Andy Roberts arrived so James and I greeted him and then I met Gemma at her Car parking space which I had reserved. We prepared to room and spoke to the Guest speakers. When the Students returned I introduced the speakers and then listened to a great 2 talks which were inspiring for me as much as the BTEC media students.

Once the talks had finished it was great to see the work that the students had done on the projector, ( although sadly on the projector the lighting did not work in our favour) this really showed what had been accomplished today, it was great.

Whilst Ross was handing out the Evaluation forms I changed into the mortar board and Hat Lesley had managed to rent for me, I stood at the top of a flight of stairs awaiting the students, when everyone congregated outside I came down and awarded them with certificates. This was so much fun!






I felt so proud when the day had come to a close , we had managed to put on an event, and I for one had never done anything like this before. I really think we worked well as a class.

We had a de-brief after celebrating the end of the event, Lesley's feedback was positive which was great, I learnt that I should have given more time to the Event Pack in my initial speech as there had been so much effort put into it.
I learnt so much in being the C.E.O of the Event, and I was so happy that I had gone for the role as I really felt proud afterwards. It seemed worth the hard work on the lead up

THE RUN THROUGH

On the 6th I had organised a big run though of the whole day.

We started with the green screen, there was lots of technical difficulties and it was looking like a bit of a risk. It looked great with the green screen and light all there but it was taking a long time to set up.

Whilst the technicals were still sorting out this, the Shoot out took stage and we sat and watched their activity. It seemed like fun , but there was still a lot more work to put into it. The Event is two days away and worry is starting to kick in.

After the Shoot out he Big Draw was set up. Patrick was a really good speaker and this activity seemed very controlled. There was some really fun elements to it using 2D and 3D and little films to inspire the students as well. This looked great.

i spoke to Ant afterward and he said that the technical side would be okay and is now under control.
All the teams are going to meet up tomorrow to finalise their activities.

It looks like its going to be hard work. We have a strong structure for the day and I think with good time keeping and enthusiasm it going to go well.

Ahh its in a day !

5th April. The Speakers Practice

Today went really well, Lesley came too and we all went over our speeches and helped each other to make them sound better.

We found out today that we had to ask technical east to come and open the projector for us. I'm so glad we found this out now and not on the day when it would be too late.

I had found out previously that we couldn't have this room for the whole day anymore so we will change to NA G03 for the afternoon. I also had booked STG03 for the Big Draw as I think it would be too long to walk between the Main House and the other side of the campus between each activity.

4th April. The day before speakers practice

In preparation for tomorrow I Wrote out things that the speakers of the event need to include in their talks , as they are in charge of the room and with that the activity , it is important they cover all bases so the students can follow instructions clearly.

Tomorrow is going to be in MH 111 so it will give me a chance to see it again and also think about how the room should be set.

4th April

Today Brad and I Went to 'The RELAYS' (Regional Educational Legacy for Arts and Youth Sport)project.

This project seeks to engage young people in the South West in sporting and cultural events in the run up to the London 2012 Games. Led by Universities South West, through a network of regional universities and cultural organisations, RELAYS aims to blend youth sport and cultural in a vibrant mixture of activities across the region in the build up to the 2012 Games.
It is funded by Legacy Trust UK, an independent charity that has been set up to help build a lasting cultural and sporting legacy from the 2012 Olympic Games and HEFCE (The Higher Education Funding Council for England).


Brad and I had decided to come to see how a media event pans out. There was so much organisation involved, the children were split up into groups and revolved around different activities. This is very similar to what we are doing, so we took notes.

As Brad and I were filming, we were 'the media' so it was interesting to see what would be attractive for the media, this would give us more of an idea how to entice media to our event.

We noticed it was sometimes hard for them children to concentrate for the whole time , so we have to make sure that we create activities that are fast paced,not to ambitious and fun.

This was a really great day and really helped get us into the mindset of organising an event.

the 30th

I had organised a Run through of the other two activities today.
The Big Draw and the Green Screen activity.

I was slightly nervous about today , because this was the proof that we could get these activities up and running and that it would be possible on the day.

James and I picked up the equipment and set it out to practice.

We hadn't got a Green Screen yet, we are only able to get that on the full run through on Wednesday 6th and on the actual event, Friday 8th. With this in mind it was much harder to see technically how the green Screen activity would work, but Ant managed to download some programs which work well with a moving subject.

The Big draw was being timed and Leonie and I practiced drawing a tree, Brad Leonie and I practiced ways in which it could be made more exciting and time efficient. By making a strict and fast countdown till one had to jump out of the frame to take a photograph made it much more lively and kept everyone to a consistent schedule.

The Green Screen was taking shape and they seemed confident for the day. I spoke to both Simon and Patrick about how they would structure their speech and what videos, if any, they would show to bring examples of professional work to go along with their activity.

Mike was filming for the Epic/Funny Video, it was fun seeing everyone's little scenes. I think this brings more of a group feel to this project and its something we can take away with us and remember. It was really fun doing the scene each and thinking of a way to make it funny.

I had a talk with the big draw people and Esther, and in a group we had a talk how to make the activity more tangible and how to use the time allotted more effectively. We came to the conclusion that there should be two different types of animation , pen on paper, and using objects. This gives the students a chance to practice two completely different types of animation. Claire and Esther are going to ,over the coming week, think of what objects that could be used, e.g. plasticine etc.

I feel today wen't really well, everyone was involved and seemed to be enjoying what they were doing. Everyone was discussing ways to make the event better, or improving their activity, I think seeing this group work today made me less nervous about things working on the actual day as everyone seemed to want to be involved and there is such a mix of skills in our group it seems if someone can't do something, another person can help.

I enjoyed working with everyone together instead of in small groups at a time as this also showed what it will be like on the day.
I spoke to Annie about how each of the activities would be structured and she is going to write up a detailed schedule of each activity. It feels like all the organisation is coming together,and the event feels more real now!