Culture Shot2015

Post Event Report

Team Members

Alba MurlopAlex GassonBao-Ju, Huang (Alan)Yu-chen, Lin (Emily)Jennifer CardozOlga KravtsovaRyan HarveyYunzhuo Cao (Sissi)

 

2

Proposal Contents

1. About The Event Pg 3

2. Finalized Event Plan Pg 4-5• Original VS Actual and changes at the event• 5 Card Draw

3. Marketing PlanPg 6

4. SponsorshipPg 7

5. Budget Pg 8-9

6. Event Day – related Details Pg 10-13

• Final Activities• Production Schedule • Volunteer Management• Challenges• Achievements

7. Evaluation & Follow-up Pg 14-15

• Evaluation & Follow up• Charity coordination

8. Appendix Pg 16-9

3

About Culture Shot 2015

“Strength lies in differences not in similarities”Culture Shot’s goal was to host a premier multi cultural festival featuring games and activities from different cultures.

The main objective for the event was to raise funds for international students encouraging cultural diversity. Through the event we introduced different games and activities from cultures and countries otherwise unknown to those in attendance.

Event Details:Date – 25th April 2015

Venue – Jason George

Number of attendees – 85 attended, 103 tickets sold

Charity – George Brown Foundation, International Students Bursary Money raised for charity – 1,251$

4

Finalized Event PlanOriginal v/s Actual

  Our original event was based the idea of creating a cultural food and drink event at the Lakeshore Waterfront Campus at George Brown.

The event would have had different food and drinks from each country that was represented by each member of our group. There was also going to be international entertainment like for example live dance or music. There was also going to be international activities similar to what we ended having our event.

The event that we ended doing was an international game and social night located at The Jason George. People got to play games from around the world, try out international crafts and activities, take part in drinking games, take part in fundraising activities (raffle, 50/50,silent auction), and social with other people. In the end the concept of keeping it international changed the same but the actual event changed from food event to a games event.

The changes we made to our plan was to go from an event centered on food and drinks to having an event centered on games and social experience. No longer were we serving food we were now trying to give people the best international experience through games. Another change we made was our venue because we wanted to originally have our event at the lakeshore waterfront campus at George Brown but cost and logistics didn’t work, then we moved it to Silver Dollar Club but eventually moving it to Jason George worked out best for us – the location was convenient since it was very close to school, we got the space for free and the setup was very casual. Overall, what we changed the most was expectations for our event we wanted to simplify it and more enjoyable for the guests and our selves.

5

Finalized Event PlanFive Card Draw

For our five-card draw the elements that were most affected by our event were visual and touch:

• For visual our event being international we needed to make people feel the international experience. Event though each game wasn’t from different countries it was important to have the decor and the other activities represent different cultures. It was important for people to see this because otherwise it’s regular game night. We had flags, lanterns and multi cultural props around the venue to bring out the international vibe. We also had the photo booth that was extremely popular where the guests could take their photos along with them.

• For touch it was important that everything people came into contact with at our event represented our goal of our event. If we were going to have international game we must have the actual game board or cards for the game from that country. This gave our event more authenticity to what we were trying to do. So we had the asian crafts where people could try origami and making guns from chop sticks. The carrom board was a popular engagement for the Indian guests.

6

Marketing Plan

For our event the marketing and awareness was late and more reactive than proactive. Reasoning was the changes made from venue to theme which ultimately gave us a small amount of time to reach our target audience, create awareness and sell some tickets.

• Facebook:We created a “Charitable” Facebook group called “Culture Shot”. From that, we created our event “Culture Shot: Game Night Social”Admin status was granted to all event group members with posts and reposts of information being placed online. Sponsors were added as they came in and also reposted by group members in creating more eyes on our event. In total, our charity organization received 55 likes whereas the event garnered 50 people who addressed they went, 19 people selected a ‘maybe’ for attendance with over 1.7 K invited to the event. We had some great metrics coming back with multiple views and checks on the event and information within.

• Email: An email account was created cultureshot2015@gmail.com but was only used for connecting directly with potential sponsors as we do not have an email list to engage with.

• EventBrite:EventBrite account was created and we sold some tickets through that medium. Marketing wise we generated some traffic by browsers through the EventBrite domain, but nothing substantial or over 75 visits.

• Posters:We were able to place 5 posters throughout George Brown College’s St. James campus which generated some interest.

• Activation & Events:We shared pamphlets and information out front of the library to encourage our group to interact with students and share information about the event. With generating awareness, we also sold some tickets.We also attended events organized by the international centre and sold some tickets at these events.

• Word Of Mouth:By far, our strongest asset in generating awareness and creating ticket sales.

7

Sponsorship

• Our sponsorship was an issue from the beginning as we weren’t able to secure much information on the 5 W’s with our event. Because of that, initial sponsorship pitches were unable to be initiated by reason of wanting to know what we are doing before we try and sell it.

• The group did however generate some great prizes by reason of sponsorship. So in that way, we were a great success as our prizes ranged from1. Signed TFC jersey2. Signed hockey stick 3. Maple Leafs Kessel jersey4. Speakers and electronic gear from Future Shop, 5. Trip to Niagara falls6. Maple Syrup Tour X 2nos 7. Horse Riding Lessons X 2nos 8. Tickets to the Blue Jays home opener 9. Beer Sponsored giveaways. X 2nos 10. Alcohol giveaways 11. Gift Card – 50$ Square One12. Gift Card – 20$ MET13. Gift Cards – 20$ Yo Yogurt x 2nos14. Starbucks – 10$ x 5nos and a coffee machine hamper15. Consumer goods such as a coffee maker, cheese grater16. Cultural gifts such the Pashmina shawl17. Photo Booth for our customers to take a memento

home 18. Cash Sponsor

1. Individual Donor – 100$2. International Language – 50$

8

Budget

The total revenue generated from Culture Shot 2015 was $1,545.

• This includes tickets sales (online and physical copies), fundraising activies onsite and sponsorship.

• Ticket sales - 86 physical tickets and 22 online tickets.

• We raised $315 from the raffle, silent auction and 50/50 draw.

• Sponsorship - $100 from Lino Fera and $50 from Assist On International Student Agency.

• Our total expenses is $293.1 and most of the money was spent mainly on Decor. We spend extra $45 for the people who forgot to pay their bill.

• Our estimate goal was to rasie $500 for the charity and eventually we managed to raise $1,251.9 at the end. This money will be donated to the George Brown Foundation – International Student Bursary.

• Having the venue Jason George as a sponsor was the helped keep the expenses down. We also managed to get a great set of prizes for the evening.

Estimated Actual$0.00

$200.00 $400.00 $600.00 $800.00

$1,000.00 $1,200.00 $1,400.00 $1,600.00 $1,800.00

Total income

Total expenses

9

Budget – Revenue & Expenses

10

Event Day DetailsList of Activities

Final Activities:

1. Asian Crafts1. Origami2. Make a chopstick gun

2. Card Games from around the world1. Spain2. Russia3. India4. Canada

3. Board Games1. Monopoly2. Carrom3. Dart Board

4. Drinking Games

5. Culture Trivia

6. Photo Booth

7. Rock Paper Scissor Championship

8. Raffle Draw & Silent Auction

9. 50/50 Draw

10. Entry Ticket Lucky Draw

11

Event Day DetailsProduction Schedule & Volunteer Management

Production Schedule (schedule featured in the appendix)

Since we had simplified our event execution we managed to stay on timelines and no particular issues with any onsite completion. The team arrived in time with all our prints, prizes and decorations. We had a team lunch at the venue and then got to setting up the place – hanging lanterns, signs, raffles table, gaming zones, registration etc.

Volunteer Management (Time Sheet and Responsibilities in appendix)

We were very thankful to our set of volunteers that consisted of GBC students, International students and friends of the team members. Closer to the event we noticed a lot of drop outs from the first semester students but we realized that in time so we could manage to collect enough and more volunteers closer to the event.

We tried to give them an opportunity to choose what they wanted to do and gave them the scope to enjoy the event while they worked. The game hosts enjoyed playing their games while they made new friends at the event too. The registration process was super smooth in spite of having big groups coming at a time with multiple elements given and explained to them. We let them have a break during the event and gave them a choice of eating after the event shift. We completed on time so they could leave and not stay back till late.

12

Event Day DetailsChallenges

Challenges

• Prior to the event we had issues closing in on the venue. Which worked out well by the end when we selected Jason George.

• Within the team we had we were imagining the event to pan out very differently, the challenge was the incorporating everyone's expectations and not having any person or culture feel left out. After various heated arguments we managed to talk it out and have everyone adopt the concept.

• The venue was getting over crowded at the beginning of the event, we tried to engage people and get them to move around and try the various activities. Once we had the right vibe in place we started playing the impromptu drinking games and Culture Trivia.

• The service at the bar was not very prompt so we had to keep following up with the team to ensure that everyone receive their orders and not have people complaining about their orders. There wasn’t much that we could control on that front but help in as much as we could and work with the team to speed things up.

13

Event Day DetailsAchievements

Achievements

• Keeping in mind we had a majority of international students in the team we were ecstatic that we managed to sell 103 tickets for the event. Most of us haven't lived in the country for more than a year or two so we do not have an extensive network to tap into.

• In spite of not having a strong network we managed to get lots of prizes and raised more than $1000 which was above our expectation.

• We put up an event that everyone enjoyed thoroughly, we had 60% of the people who came in at the beginning of the event stay all the way till the end of the event. We received some amazing responses from our class mates and Margery who was at the event too.

• Culture Shot managed to stay true to the theme of a being a multicultural event though we wished we could have incorporated the food aspect to the event make it a wholesome experience.

14

Evaluation & Follow-up

We had an online survey link sent to the attendees to better evaluate the post event responses. The key observations are mentioned below with the survey (List of questions and analysis featured in the Appendix)

• 81% of attendees were international students which matched our main target audience.

• Amongst all the activities, people participated in Asian craft, board games and card games equally but drinking and impromptu games drew better responses.

• The raffle and prizes helped Culture Shot engaged audience and spent extra money on raffle. 80% of the survey people spent money over and above the ticketed amount. This also made them stay until the event finished. 91% of the people felt that the raffle prizes were great!

• 91% like the venue location, 81% loved the ambience while 36% felt the service could have been better. Coat check and bartenders should have been considered in the plan.

• 50% felt that the ticket pricing was low and 50% felt it was fair while no one felt it was overpriced for what was being given to them. We felt that the tickets could have been raised up to $15 and provided better service in food or extra space for the attendees.

• 100% of the responses felt that the charity was a perfect fit for the event.

• Overall the response of guests mentioned that it was a fun event while one person also asked whether there would be another installment of the event. We had many people checking our facebook group too and enquiring for a website to the event.

• We sent out Thank You messages/emails to the attendees whether they were through our FB event page, posts on other pages, personalized emails to volunteers and sponsors.

15

Evaluation & Follow-up Charity Coordination

George Brown College Foundation – The international student bursary was our chosen charity because the Foundation supports the College’s mandate of accessibility by raising money for international students through scholarships, bursaries and awards.

• Trinity Zhang from the foundation attended the event and spoke about the charity and was very excited about our event. She also helped us connect with Hom Shrestha a past scholarship student who was at the event and thanked us for our contribution to International student bursary. They also picked winners to the raffle prizes.

• Ashley Sullivan from International provided us with the decorations, helped us to promote our event through the George Brown International Student’s Facebook page and helped us with selling tickets at international events organized by the international centre. Moreover, she also helped with booking of spots to selling tickets which helped us raise awareness about Culture Shot closer to the event.

• We will be providing them the cheque next week and they plan to run an article for the newsletter when with our story.

• It was a great experience working with the team and the cause which was very close to our heart. We would love to work with them in case we plan on putting together another installment of Culture Shot in 2016!

Appendix

• Charity Letter & Contact

• Sponsorship Docket

• Sponsor Letters

• Budget

• Event Pictures

• Venue Layout

• Survey Questions and Analytics

• Production Timeline

• Volunteer Time Sheet

• Event Flow

• Creatives – poster, ticket, FB snapshots

17

Sponsor Letter