Pilot program delivers much more than expected...

We’ve just wrapped up the pilot of our new 7-week intensive learning format for our event management training Foundation Program

What was the pilot?

Our new 7-week Intensive Foundation Program covers all ten modules of our online Foundation Program which event organisers can undertake at their own pace over 12 months, but the new 7-week format neatly arranges the modules into a short, focused online course.

The pilot gave us the opportunity to test this new delivery model and how well the content fits within this new format before we open the program live to the public. It was designed to ensure that we had it spot on for regional event committees, with the pilot’s participants offering ongoing and constructive feedback.

In return for the free course, participants were required to participate in all live sessions and provide constructive and honest feedback on the program (content type, flow, value, content amount, etc).

What is included in the 7-week format?

The course is broken up into these core learning elements:

• Live one-hour webinars held twice a week

• Each module includes three on-demand training videos

• Each module contains resources, case studies, and templates to help participants action their learnings

• Links are provided to further support and extend learnings, including readings, podcasts and blog articles

• Each participant is invited to interact within a closed Facebook group to allow for Q&A sessions, discussion, interaction, networking and involvement with other course participants

Who was in the pilot?

Participants in the event management training pilot program

Event organisers from 11 regional events participated in the pilot in February and March:

• Eden Whale Festival, Eden NSW

• Texas Country Music Festival, Texas QLD

• Spirit of the Land Lockhart, Lockhart NSW

• Chrome and Clutter Festival, Laidley QLD

• Gatton Cup, Gatton QLD

• Valley Vibes, Gatton QLD

• Mount Perry Races, Mount Perry, QLD

• Mundubbera Bluesberry Festival, Mundubbera QLD

• Dark Sky Awakens Festival, Coonabarabran NSW

• Miles Back to the Bush Festival, Miles QLD

• Uniquely Local, Wollondilly NSW

Outcomes and learnings from our ‘piloters’

Key take outs

Following is a snapshot of what the participants as a group outlined in our wrap up session when asked for their key take outs. Many of them said it was very hard to pick just three because they took away so many golden nuggets. Melinda summed it up by saying, ‘I feel like I’ve stolen lollies’ 😊

• The sharing of information and knowledge with other participants has been gold. We are so grateful for this opportunity!

• The post-event review is a critical stage to build a successful event

• I am now more confident to approach sponsors, and I’m no longer scared of risk management

• I never considered revenue streams outside of the event weekend – this is gold!

• It is important to have a strategic direction for your event and to keep your event fresh

• Have a specific coordinator for the post-event review

• The power of being organised in order to attract volunteers - it actually works!

• The importance of the budget, and the idea of building expenses first based on the event experience you want to create

• Death by meetings! We will no longer have meetings for meetings’ sake!

• Don’t be scared to delegate

• A marketing schedule will keep you focused

• How to create partnerships, not just sponsorships

• Break the committee and teams into small chunks to make it more appealing to prospective volunteers

• Put in the effort to establish systems and processes (do it properly the first time) – you will benefit in the long run

• Be professional in everything you do

• I LOVED the case studies and the ability to pick brains of other event experts. Thank you!

Advice for other event committees

We also asked the participants, “Having done the program, what is one piece of advice you would give to other event committees?”:

• Always have a Plan B

• Be prepared for anything

• You can’t do this on your own, even if you think you can!

• Always celebrate the wins

• It doesn’t have to happen overnight!

• Be kind to yourself

• Try not to re-create the wheel

• Enjoy what you are doing or hand it over

• Don’t let anyone steal your dream

What we learned at rEVENTS Academy

The pilot participants were wonderful in providing feedback on the content, the delivery of the content, and the overall suitability of the 7-week intensive program to help us to improve the experience for participants in future programs.

Following are the things that they recommended, which we have already put in place ready for the next intake (registrations are currently open):

• It would be the icing on the cake if we could continue to have access to the online portal throughout our real life event planning so that we can go back and revisit lessons when we are at each stage of the 10 steps.
  
  rEVENTS Academy: PERFECT! We are going to provide the option for participants to add this on if they would like so they can have 12 months access to the lessons and content after the 7 week intensive program is complete

• We love to have checklists, and the homework section of the online lessons has been a great way to remember what we need to do. Can we please have these as downloadable pdfs to tick off as we complete tasks?
  
  rEVENTS Academy: Too EASY. We are already onto creating these.
  

• Time. This is our most precious resource and although we absolutely love the live sessions getting to two live webinars each week is hard.
  
  rEVENTS Academy: We totally appreciate this and have been very mindful of people’s time commitment with this program, which is why we also offer the self-paced model. Based on this feedback we have gone back over each module in the 7 weeks and determined where we can merge some live sessions – consequently we have removed 3 live sessions whilst still offering the same value and content. WIN-WIN

Comments from the presenter on the pilot program

• I had an absolute blast – the live sessions were invigorating and refreshing. The passion and commitment from every participant gave me goosebumps every week.

• I am so excited that I have been able to create something that fills a gap and provides for a need in the regional and rural event sector.

• A big shout out to Cathy from Parkes Elvis Festival, Kath from Kingaroy Baconfest, and Anthony from Event Ops for sharing their expertise in events with the participants. It is so great to have the ability to learn from those working in this space intensively.

• After years of planning and fine tuning rEVENTS Academy’s training, I feel like we have nailed it. I can’t wait to welcome more regional and rural events into the program 😊