Session Review 3: Event Planning

The following are notes from Dennis John Gaschen, APR, Public Relations Counselor, Professor, Cal State University Fullerton.

The most expensive birthday party- 16 mil

Most expensive wedding- 60 mil

Miley Cirus’s 16^th birthday bash- 1.5 mil

Start with a destination. Your event is the Vehicle that gets you there.

Base everything off of the overall goal.

Lessons from my mom, dad, realtor, builder and children:

Its all about people

It’s a war out there!

Location Location Location!- ie indoor beach party

Nothing goes as planed. Things take longer, cost more, brake and look different

Don’t expect a thank you

The Good- Unique opportunities, people love parties, parties provide a focal point, you make new friends at parties, and you learn things at parties.

The Bad- Parties take work and money, you always run out of stuff, no one helps clean, and you can not enjoy the party.

The Ugly- Everything will go bad, and you will be blamed.

So where to start? Determine a purpose,

Ask if and not what.

Determine funding & costs

The dance like M.J. ( meaning moonwalk- start at finish, back to start)

Ten Mistakes

1. Forgetting to check the dates- there is no master calendar, check religious days, sporting events, check last year, check before and after.
2. Don’t ever book a site before you visit- wait at least 6 months once a new place opens, go during the same time as event, watch for changes in management, guaranteed money asked for, charges for extra people?
3. Failing to promote event- never enough publicity, every event has competition, focus on benefit, not just speaker, event if its good make it SEXY.
4. Failing to plan- you cant start soon enough, don’t expect it to run smoothely, build in contingencies, build go/nogo days.
5. Put it all in writing- signed contract, function book, email confirmation, written bids, say no and mean it ( to extra expenses)
6. Neglecting to check references- vendor vs friend (not friends). Renter vs home owner, promises vs guarantees
7. Leaving things till the last min.- you’re a fire fighter at the event and there will be fires, you cant be too busy to put them out. You wont get them all, but you have to get the most you can
8. Letting someone else be in charge- everyone knows someone, under promise, over deliver, know when to go to plan b, say thank you, overall you are accountable for everything no matter what.
9. Neglecting Contingencies- what can go wrong will, you cant fool mother nature, have plan B,C,D, etc
10. Trying to save too much money- penny wise-pound foolish, negotiate, negotiate, negotiate, make 100% sure you know what your getting.

What skills will you need?

Bachelors degree, prior event planning experiences, excellent communication skills and attention to detail, ability to analyze data, strong organizational skills, excellent time management skills.

 

How to get experience?

PRSSA!!! Other event clubs, internships, volunteer, classes etc

Session Revew 2: Diversifying Your Donors- Donor/Fund-raising PR

The following are notes taken from Richard K. Martian. VP of Advancement, Lutheran Social Services of Michigan

Fund raising is one of US News top professions.

Fund raising is built on relationships

4 types of fund raising

1. Special events-usually to raise PUBLICITY not to raise revenue- friend raisers!

2. Individual giving- more money in individual giving than in foundations. Can be with

direct mail, planned and deferred giving, personal solicitation. Use of Software

such as IWAVE. Major gift officers only go after individual gifts of 6 or 7 figures.

3. Corporate giving- some companies have social responsibility to donate.

4. grant writing

Generational segmenting- Traditionalists, Baby boomer’s, GenX, GenY (were genY’s)

Gen Y is all about social media, long distance relationships

The profession of Fund raising- Professional practices, research and certificate.

Certified Fund Raising Executive is the certificate

 

Session Review 1: The Inside Scoop About Promotions- Radio Broadcast

The following are notes taken from a presentation by Ben Perez, Regional Promotions Manager, Greater Media Detroit

• Greater Detroit Media is a cluster of 3 stations (WCSX,WRIF, WMGC) and one of the only family owned media companies left.

• Networking is EVERYTHING in media! All of his jobs he received from knowing someone.

The two things you need to keep in mind at all times-

1. How do I promote and market the radio successfully?
2. How do I promote and market the clients needs successfully?

Most popular ways to promote the radio station

1. TV marketing- usually only if they are hanging format or big promotional events
2. Direct Mail- Usually have a coupon. Can be for client of station
3. Web Devp- weekly eblasts, to give people advantages
4. Street marketing- Cheap and one to one.

Radio events are usually for sponsors and public.

So how do you make an event cool?

Music, Air talent, Games and prizes, greater media set and display, refreshments

Donate for Life Event

Tommorow WIU PRSSA will be sponsoring an event for Donate for Life. It will be held in the Union Sandburg theater at 6:30 p.m. The event will have FREE food and beverages provided by Sodexo and feature live speakers, WIU survey results, and the movie “Return to Me.” Come and see how you and those around you are affected by organ donation!

ILLINOIS COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY STUDENTS UNITE For LIFESAVING COMPETITION IN SUPPORT OF ORGAN & TISSUE DONATION

  

Western Illinois University P.R.S.S.A. Working to Save Lives Through Registrations

 

 

Macomb, Ill. – Having settled in for a fresh school year, college students across Illinois are uniting to take action in support of the 4,700 Illinoisans and more than 99,000 people nationwide currently in need of lifesaving organ and tissue transplants.  

 

October 1 marks the launch of the second annual Donate Life Illinois Campus Challenge – a friendly statewide lifesaving donor registration competition between students at Illinois colleges and universities. The six-week Challenge ends on November 14 and is intended to call attention to the nearly two-thirds of adults in Illinois who are unaware of the need to re-register to join the state’s first-person consent registry and ensure their wishes as a donor are honored.

 

“Last year, twenty schools participated in the Campus Challenge, helping register over 2,500 Illinois residents as donors,” said Joslyn Osten, Donate Life Illinois member and public education coordinator at Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network. “We’ve seen great response from students getting their schools involved with the Challenge again this year, and we hope to have an even greater impact in registrations resulting from this effort.”

 

An array of student groups at different campuses have agreed to help with outreach efforts including Students for Organ Donation chapters, Public Relations Student Society of America chapters, pre-med and nursing student groups, honor societies, and health or community service-oriented organizations.

 

Though each school’s approach to encouraging fellow students, faculty and alumni to register will vary, Western Illinois University will host campus and surrounding community registration drives and spread the word online via social networking sites such as Facebook.

 

“College students often overlook the critical importance of registering to be an organ donor and the drastic impact one person can have on helping save the lives of others in need of transplants,” said Megan Yockey, PRSSA president. “We’re hoping that our registration drives on campus and online outreach through sites like Facebook will help students realize how easy it is to register and encourage others to do the same.”

 

Currently, student groups and students from seventeen other colleges and universities have signed on to participate in the Challenge, including: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Northwestern University, Northern Illinois University, Eastern Illinois University, Southern Illinois University (Carbondale), Illinois

 

 

- more –

 

 

 

 

State University, University of Illinois at Chicago, Illinois Wesleyan University, Loyola University, Illinois Central College, College of DuPage, Knox College, Augustana College, Millikin University, Midwestern University, Lewis University, and MacMurray College.

 

“Most Illinois students are still quick to assume that signing the back of your driver’s license is adequate to ensure your wishes as a donor in Illinois,” said Diane Eikenberry, Donate Life Illinois campus campaign manager. “This is no longer the case, and the Challenge will help students realize it only takes 30 seconds to join the registry and make a lifesaving difference.”

 

Students, alumni, faculty and all Illinoisans can join the state’s donor registry by visiting the Donate Life Illinois campaign site at www.DonateLifeIllinois.org; visiting any Illinois state driver’s license facility; or by calling the Illinois Secretary of State Organ/Tissue Donor Program at 800/210-2106.

 

About Donate Life Illinois

 

Having launched in January of last year, the Donate Life Illinois campaign is seeing great progress toward its goal of registering 5 million residents in the state’s new registry by April 2009 with currently 3.5 million Illinoisans already signed up.

 

Donate Life Illinois is a coalition of agencies responsible for organ, tissue, eye and blood donation, as well as donor registration and education in Illinois. It is one of 45 regional coalitions and 50 national businesses or associations making up Donate Life America, a not-for-profit alliance that serves as a national voice and inspires all people to save and enhance lives through organ, eye and tissue donation.

Currently, Donate Life Illinois is working on a campaign to register 5 million Illinois residents in the state’s registry by April 30, 2009. To date, more than 3.7 million Illinoisans have joined the state’s registry since Jan. 1, 2006.

 

Donate Life Illinois member organizations include:

• American Liver Foundation-Illinois
• Biological Resource Center of Illinois
• Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network
• Heartland Lions Eye Bank
• Illinois Coalition of Community Blood Centers
• Illinois Eye-Bank
• Illinois Secretary of State Organ/Tissue Donor Program
• LifeSource
• Mid-America Transplant Services
• Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation
• National Kidney Foundation of Illinois
• National Marrow Donor Program

Activities Fair

The 2008- 2009 season of PRSSA is on its way at WIU. Come visit us and learn somemore about PRSSA at the activities fair from 2-4 in the grandballroom at the Union. If you are unable to make it please contact Megan Yockey chapter President, or stop by our first organizational meeting a 4:30 in Simpkins Hall. See you all there!

Usability Survey

Hey guys, if you have time PRSSA would really appreciate it if you could take this five minute survey and give us some feedback on our site. Just post your answers in the comment section. Thanks!

1. What information were you looking for on the PRSSA website? Did you find your information?
2. How easy was it to find out PRSSA meeting times and place?
3. How were all the links helpful and consistent with the overall PRSSA theme?
4. Was having the PRSSA pictures run through flickr easier to view and upload? If so how? If not, why?
5. If so what accessibility problems did you come across? How can they be improved?
6. How is the PRSSA blog useful?
7. If a word-press member was it easy to comment on a blog? If so how easy? If not, what problems did you come across?
8. What is your overall opinion on this site?

Blogging and Commenting

So here’s the deal only E-Board will be able to blog. The blog is used to communicate to our members important PRSSA news. However members will be able to comment on the blog so you still have a way to get your messages and ideas across. All you have to do is;

1. Set up a word-press account

2. Subscribe to our blog

3. Comment you little butt off

Let me know if your having problems. E-board I need your email’s that were used to open the word-press account so you can blog. I have Megan Yockey’s email and she already made her 1st post!

Survey Results finally averaged!!

Hey PRSSA!

The SGA surveys have been organized and analyzed!! There were a total of 83 surveys.

In the study there were:

• 16 freshman
• 17 sophomores
• 23 juniors
• 19 seniors
• 5 grad students

They heard of SGA through:

• 26-friends
• 23-Western courier
• 20-word of mouth
• 15-hall gov, LASO and other forms
• 6-facebook

65% of those surveyed knew what SGA was.

39% of those surveyed knew where and or when SGA met

on a scale of 1-10, ten being the most, the average of those surveyed said they thought they were affected on a personal level at a 5, and that SGA was important to them at a 4.

looks like we have our work cut out for us!

See you all tomorrow at 5:00!

-Megan Yockey

Meeting 11/28/2007

Please make sure to attend the PRSSA meeting this Wednesday (11/28/07) at 4:30 p.m. in Simpkins room 20 at 4:30 p.m. Members who paid their dues this semester will receive their memberships certificates, membership cards, and membership guides. Pizza will be served.

Those who have signed up for December 5th trip to Springfield and have not yet paid their $10.00 should also bring it to the meeting.

All PRSSA members in Siddiqi’s classes who expect to receive extra grade must attend this meeting. No exceptions. Please remember to turn in, by December 4th, a written summary of your experiences as a PRSSA member, including the number of meetings you attended, what did you gain by being a member, and what you did not get that you had expected.

This, I think, is going to be our last meeting as many of the officers will be travelling to Springfield on Dec. 5th.

The Bateman group: Please make sure you attend this Tuesday as well as the Tuesday of next week.