First year BA (Hons) Events Management students were聽tasked with a project to create an event concept for a real Bournemouth-based client.
This year the students pitched to Aruba, Westbeach, Urban Reef and Zim Braai in a 'Dragon's Den' fashion - presenting their research and ideas to their respective聽clients in a short presentation.聽
The project is part of the course's Event Innovation unit, meaning the event concepts also needed to have innovation at the heart of the idea.聽
Urban Reef is a restaurant right by the sea with聽a surfer feel. One of the groups that pitched to them created an afternoon tea event idea, incorporating the brand style and location by adding a surf lesson to the event offering.
The event was called 鈥楾ea by the Sea鈥� and they came up with the idea by using various models and theories to research the market, identify the audience and put together a rationale for their event idea. Incorporating a mix of video and presentation, the group successfully pitched their idea to the panel.
鈥淚t was a really good experience to pitch to a real-life client, and has given us great insight for when we come to start planning our live-events next year," said team member Sam Sayer
Fellow team member Bryony Owen added: 鈥淟earning these presentation skills this early on in the degree is really valuable as not only will it help for the rest of the degree, but going into placement and a graduate role.鈥澛�
鈥淭his project was definitely challenging, especially working in such a big group with lots of strong personalities, but it鈥檚 been a real learning curve and an insight into what it might be like when we do enter the events industry as professionals,"聽said Amy McMillan, who was also part of the team who pitched.聽
The 鈥楧ragons鈥� on the panel were BU graduate Matt Lawrence, who is Marketing Manager for Urban Guild,聽and Chloe Grant, who is currently Marketing Assistant for Urban Guild while on her placement year at 天美传媒, studying BA (Hons) Communication聽and Media.
Matt said: 鈥淭he students came up with some great ideas for Urban Reef, and we were really impressed with the depth of their research and concept generation. This is the third year we have been a part of these pitches, and we love hearing the students' ideas. It鈥檚 great to see them start to develop a creative thinking mindset and commercial awareness when looking at events.鈥�
Chloe added: 鈥淜nowing how they feel being a student myself, I thought they put across some great ideas and presented them really well. It鈥檚 really cool that they get the opportunity to pitch to a real client as it adds a bit more pressure to the presentation and allows them to hear constructive feedback from someone in the industry.鈥�
If you鈥檙e interested in studying BA (Hons) Events Management, visit the course page to learn more and read聽student and graduate stories.
