As many of you already know, the Barbecue party of our association was pretty successful. Great music, good food, amazing weather, and lots of good vibes. It was a great opportunity for people to socialize and completely get rid of the exam stress. With many of us being economics students, we could finally take a break and truly get into the summer mood.
Pretty fun times, am I right? But what many of you did not see, is the stress and work that was put in to achieve the memorable event that we hosted, especially the hardship of marketing it. Me and Kristina, my beloved friend and coworker have been delegated to completely and autonomously organize the Grill’n’Chill – the last event of SBM for this semester. To emphasize the importance of this event and its success, John, our advisor, gave us ultimate responsibility. This did not only give me a feeling of importance but also a sign that I was doing something valuable for SBM. I have organized events before, like my gymnasium’s local Model United Nations – an occasion for students to train their diplomatic abilities, and other events at the boarding school. However, the main difference in this situation was the uncertainty of how many people would join. The Model United Nations was not a BBQ-party. Attendance was certain, as I had a very clear guest list. But you do not really invite each individual personally to a grill, now do you? Well, there was only one way to find out.
The organizing part was fun! Deciding on the activities, the playlist, the food – truly an adventure! I learned so much from cooperating with the other members on organizational decisions. We came to a clear recipe on how the event will be led and how it should develop. In the end, the entire team has contributed bits and pieces to organizing the event, even though it was just me and Kristina cursed by the ultimate responsibility label.
What was less fun however, was the advertising part. Me and Kristina put up flyers all over the campus. Approaching people with slightly desperate looks in our eyes we were handing them leaflets about what they can expect from our get-together. We tried to reach as many people as we could and advertised at most of the hot spots on campus. In my heart, I was so anxious that the event will be mediocre and that the people weren’t convinced by our enthusiasm and would not come. And, since we would be there anyway, we invited personally each of our friends to join us. I mean, is there any better occasion than a barbecue party to catch up with your mates?
The day of the grill had arrived, I woke up as early as possible to go to the office and get things started. Meeting the other members, we slowly started moving the props from the office to Nord Park – the location of the grill. We set up beer pong, our lounge chairs, multiple blankets and board games, a huge speaker as well as the most important things: the grill and ice-cold beer! Now, that we were ready to start things up, we took pictures and videos for our social media.
People started slowly coming, and when I say slowly, I mean it. The first hour was pretty dry. The music was playing, the sun was shining, but the people were…lacking. Still, we tried our best to keep everyone entertained through socializing, grilling and having a refreshing beer in this heat.
It was not too obvious, but both me and Kristina had doubts. Doubts, that the event might flop, that people are not having enough fun, that we will not hit our expected target. As these thoughts started to take over my other worries, I got lost in this wave of insecurity. It was my first event I organized at SBM, and its success would set up my reputation and capabilities for the future. I could not afford to screw this up. My brain was overheating as I noticed that our friends, whom we invited personally had arrived. As other people joined them spontaneously, the group was larger than expected. Out of nowhere, the fun had actually started. Our friends proposed to play volleyball, another group entertained themselves with beer pong, while others played cards, cooked for themselves or had nice conversations. Somehow, the friends we invited to tag along, were the ones who made the party entertaining. They brought life to the event and the next hours flew by unnoticeably.
Our initial thought was to hold the grill until 19, however people engaged in activities well into the night. Ultimately, we decided that it was time to wrap up and call it a night. The persons left were so in the mood to socialize that we even got help carrying everything back to the office! A team of initially 5 members became a group of at least 10 who contributed to cleaning and transporting our equipment back.
This experience provided me with valuable knowledge in the area of event planning and advertising and it also became a highlight of the semester. So, what did I learn from this? While visibility is important to generating participants, the keys to assure the success of an event are personal invitations and making our guests feel special and welcome.
