Guest blogger Produced by

Yi-Hsin Chen (Taiwan)

I am Yi-Hsin Chen from Taiwan. Studying Events Management as my master’s degree has provided me with a wider perspective on both the practical and academic side of events.

My favourite project

My favourite project on the course was ‘CarnivalU’, which consisted of planning, promoting and delivering a series of educational workshops at The Kia Oval in London last May. I was mainly responsible for the production aspects of the project. I produced the print media, edited all images and put them onto social media platforms. I also helped with online promotion on Instagram and on the website. Our primary sponsor was CEL (Centre for Excellence in Learning) from the University.

Preparing to host a live event

We learnt some project management skills at the beginning of the course and started to think about a plan quite early on. We began to promote our live event in the first stages of the course. Our group advertised our project through social media such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. I learnt many tips on how to run a professional social media account, including the layout on an Instagram profile, contents for posts and use of the hashtag. It was a really useful experience, as many companies use social media to do their advertising. We also held a publicity event on campus during the Council for Hospitality Management Education (CHME) conference in 2018, promoting ‘Carnival U’ to conference delegates.

It’s show time

On the actual day of the event, there were at least 100 attendees joining our workshops. According to the survey we handed out, most of the attendees were satisfied with the workshops and the comments were positive. Although we had several minor problems occur at the event, like unexpected noise or a speaker that could not attend, we coped with the situations well and completed our project perfectly.

I personally compare the hosting of an event to the description of a swimming swan: “no matter how hard its feet are working under the water, it always displays another side which is one of elegance on the surface”.

Yi-Hsin Chen, Taiwan, MSc Events Management, 2017/18