Open Day Closed for Now

With the open day planning over and the report presented, it's a great opportunity to reflect back our concept. I thought Shae did a great job as Project Manager for this campaign. The powerpoint presentation and the report reflects this. The Centralise Festival campaign was a hit with Kenley when we presented it to him. He was very interested in our ideas and I really liked that he had time for a discussion afterwards and was willing to listen to our ideas and wanted to know what we had developed further. The fact that they are going to use Centralise as the theme, is really positive.

After doing the initial presentation to the Marketing guys, I was really glad that Shae changed me and got Ariana to say the large and very important part. My Public Speaking in the formal sense really needs to be worked on, and I am committed to improving it and not saying 'Um' so many times. 28 is probably a touch to many!!!

Looking back on our concept, what I think I would change is just have the one street, instead of the T-Section. We should have people manning the area where people are coming in from the Cultural Centre to ensure they are directed to the street festival safely. By keeping it in a smaller area it makes the festival seem busier and keeps everyone together. Access to Building 1 still needs to be included to show off the gym and the mine, but entrance to the building would only be from Aberdeen Street.

The new building should be used to its maximum capacity, with every classroom and area showed off. However they will still need to be enticed by the stands along the road to get potential students interested. Using the building was mentioned, but I think we should have gone into more detail about the courses we would have inside. There is an actual beauticians that is up and running by the students with an entrance from the corner of William, as well as the Visitor and Student Information services centre to promote and inform potential students about the day.

Going out into schools with a professional video made to show high school students as well as the chatterbox will really get potential students interested in and talking about the Central Institute of Technology and what it can offer them after high school. I'm still unsure as how to target the mature age students. Coverage in the media and the rebranding of Central into a beneficial tertiary education facility will help to entice people. People go back to study when they are ready. Maybe discounts to mature age potential students could be offered and advertised in the papers to get them to enrol.

With the potential of rain we need to ensure the buildings are set up perfectly to keep people inside and happy. The coloured shirts in orange or preferably the portfolio colours, would be a great tool in leading people to the correct classroom to learn more. On the street a few large marquees, should be erected on the street to keep people dry and also create another visual element for the day, as tents are used at festivals.

I learnt a lot about putting on an event on such a large scale, things we needed to consider were road closures, sponsorship, advertising, media coverage and facilities. While I won't be a student at Central in August, I still very much plan to attend the Open Day to see how it turns out and what ideas of ours are used.