MOST OUTSTANDING SOCIAL EVENT NOMINEE
Ole Miss Vietnamese American Student Association
OLE VASA SUGAR FACTORY FORMAL
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.), and marketing techniques.
We had a formal event on October 12th, 2019 at the Jefferson Oxford. We had about 145 individuals attend this event. The purpose of formal is to put on a night where members and their guests can dress up and have a good time! Our goal with this event was to have an opportunity for people to come together in a way they don't normally get to in formal wear. For this event, we reached out to a popular venue that has a great interior and great views. We had a photo wall, drink station, food, candy, and sweets that were delicious and great for members to remember the night. We planned extensively for this event. We went to the venue multiple times to plan for decorations and set up. We also reached out to our local resturaunts to get some donated pastries and other goods. At this event, we had multiple areas for attendees to interact and really enjoy themselves. For marketing techniques, we used our social media outlets to their full potentials, with multiple flyers and videos to encourage guests to get their tickets and to get them excited for this event.
What efforts were used to motivate and involve the organization's members?
We motivated and further involved our members by allowing them to sign up for decoration and clean up commitees so they could see behind the scenes of the event before and after it happened. With this being the biggest social event of the fall, there is an organic source of excitement among the members, which allows them to feel more connected to each other. Everyone is always excited to get their formal wear and show out in front of their peers. At this event, members really felt like they were getting a luxury experience with our new venue. The graphics created by our PR chair also created a sense of mystery before revealing our theme, making the experience that much more enticing.
Did the organization overcome any challenges that arose while planning and implementing the event? How?
While planning this event, our original venue plan didn't have any availability for the date that we had settled on. We then decided to look at venues that were used for other school organization events and the Jefferson Oxford came up. We decided to visit this location before making any decisions, and when we saw it we had to have it! At first this venue was extremely out of our price range, but after negotiating with the manager and telling her how important this event is our organization she gave us a discount that allowed us to book the venue for our event! During the event we had some logistical issues such as lighting. We made the decision to turn off the lights but then the people who were making drinks weren't able to see what they were doing. We overcame this problem by using the flashlights that we have on our phones to be able to see what we were doing. We also had an issue with the venue manager, who did not disclose prior to the event that people could only enter the venue once. Once we found this out, we quickly alerted our guests so that we wouldn't have any unhappy attendees.