Event Management student reveals secrets to organising a Christmas Fayre

This year saw our second annual Christmas Fayre, which was a great community event for local families to enjoy in the run up to the festive period. The event was wholly organised and run by our Event Management students, who started planning the Fayre as early as August this year! Visit our Facebook page to see the full image gallery.

We asked Level 3 Event Management student Serena Mall to explain what the process involved:

How were the roles distributed in your team?

This year we split into four departments: Internal, External, Marketing and Community. Internal liaised with all internal departments and designed the layout of the fayre, as well as decorating the areas. External recruited external stall holders, community encouraged community groups such as youth groups to come along, and marketing were responsible for the promotion.

I was in the internal team, so I was responsible for a lot of the internal decoration, and we worked on the layout of the Refectory which involved working with stall holders to meet their requirements.

What was the first step you had to take?

We did a lot of brainstorming at the beginning, because everyone in the team had different ideas, so we decided to put them all together. We had a look around the space we had to work with, then started purchasing things we needed such as Christmas decorations.

What was the most difficult part?

Time management was hard, because you don’t realise how quickly it comes around and lots of things happen along the way.

What did you enjoy most?

Probably being at the actual event and seeing it all come together, you get an overwhelmingly good feeling to see your work be a success.

What do you have to do post-event?

We do an evaluation of the whole event, including each other’s performances. It’s really helpful to know what you did well and what you can improve on for next time.

What would you do differently next time?

Probably start planning earlier, because it takes so long to do everything. It would be good to get things purchased a little sooner.

If you were to help someone organise a Christmas Fayre, what 3 things would you advise them to think about?

1. Target audience
2. Having a team that works well together
3. Stick to a theme

What one piece of advice would you give someone organising an event?

Be as creative as possible, and know that everything is doable.

What did you learn from organising the fayre this year?

Because the second years took the first years on board, I’ve learnt that I’ve stepped up as a team leader, and that my leadership and team working skills have definitely improved.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone at Eastleigh College!