MOST OUTSTANDING NEW EVENT NOMINEE
University of southern alabama vietnamese student association
USAVSA Cultural Night Market
Provide a detailed description of the event and the population it served. Details MUST include: date of event, number of participants, program purpose (goals, objectives, etc.), use of resources (finances, community support, etc.), marketing techniques, and amount fundraised.
Date: April 6th, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Participants: 125+
Preface: This event was primarily organized by USAVSA, with a majority of the waivers, forms, initiation, coordinating, programming, and planning done by our organization.
Purpose: The goal of this event was to create a night of fun for all people to be immersed in the Vietnamese culture AND cultures from other ethnicities as well. The objectives of this event was so give people a look into our traditions, our food, our clothing, and more. In addition, we also sparked interest for our club on campus and other ethnicities as well.
Resources: We utilized our schools student center as a place readily accessible for most people and to target students on campus. We also made most of the food ourselves and stuck with traditional methods for them. We catered to people who were unable to eat meat or pork as well, since we had people of various ethnicities there. Lastly, we had a lion dance performed three times throughout the night, which everyone enjoyed watching and interacting with. The other cultural clubs on campus gave us their support and all the people who showed up really enjoyed their time with everyone there.
Marketing: We promoted this even through out instagram and through our school’s online emailing system. We also had two raffles at the end of the night to help get people active and involved (one of the raffle required a person to visit every booth and get a signature from one of their people in charge).
What inspired your organization to create this new event?
Since our organization was unable to execute our Lunar New Year’s Festival, we decided we should come up with another cultural event in its place. This event was inspired by “Night Markets” that offer booths to sell food and other items. We decided we could do something similar with other clubs helping contribute to these booths, so we could have variety.
What efforts were used to motivate and involve the organization's members?
To get our members involved, we offered free food to our volunteers and those who helped out. Our members. Prioritizing our members interests were important, so we made sure VSA played a major role in this event and having our culture be the main event helped get members involved.
Did the organization overcome any challenges that arose while planning and implementing the event? How?
A challenge that arose while planning this event was making sure the other clubs knew what was happening and coordinating their plans for the event. With time being of the essence, we had to be very tentative in sending out emails, signing waived and forms, and communicating with other clubs about what they need to do in order for the event to run smoothly. Another struggle was timing when people were supposed to run the booth. Some people had to work more than they should have, which is something we will prioritize tackling next year. We would like for more volunteers to be there so the same people aren’t spending too much time working, and more time enjoying the event.
