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Advertising is any form of message put across by a paid non-personnel through various medium (Bowdin et al, 2012 and Pride, Hughes and Kapoor, 2010). Advertising is effective unregards to reaching large number or small number of people (Pride, Hughes and Kapoor, 2010). But this type of promotion mix was lacking during the BAC fun day event.

 BAC fun day event was held at FCTVE by the hospitality students, who planned and organized the vent. Objective of the event was for attendees to get touch with their childhood. During the planning stages, all duties where delegated except the marketing role of the event. This was down to management taken a lot of responsibilities than the can handle. This meant advertising of the event resulted in use of posters and word of mouth, which was not effective as only few attended the event.

Target market being the youth, the best source of advertisement would have been social media. Use of facebook, twitter or WhatsApp would have gotten the message across and spread quicker.

Reference

Hughes, J.R., Kapoor, J.R., and Pride, W.M. (2012) Introduction to Business, 11th edn, United States, South Western, Cengage Learning.  

HEALTH AND SAFETY

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Health and safety is a major importance in any event. Management responsibilities are enormous. Any occurrence can reverberate locally and ruin the event (Bowdin et al, 2012) especially in a hospital. Hospitality students catered for Nyangagwe hospital’s patients with the objectives to provide them with a feel good meal but still keeping their client.

Regular meetings with the hospital representatives took place, informing the students about the health and safety regulation. Health and safety executive (1999) states:

·         policy implementation should take place

·         an organized management structure must be delivered

·         Monitor of performance which are in line with policy must be considered.

Contingency plan was required by management upon noticing that some wardens not safe for students to enter. Based on that situation a decision was made. That different wardens should be appointed.

With great praise from the hospitality representatives and the patients, the event was a success and future events with the hospital were welcomed.

Reference

Bowdin, G., Allen, A., Toole, W., Harris, R. & McDonnell, I. (2012) events managements. 3rd ed. Routledge. USA: New York

   

shutdown

SHUT DOWN

Shut down is a series of activities that take places towards the end of the event. Shut down plan is the implementation of those series of activities (Bowdin et al, 2012), these activities are planned during the planning stages.

A charity event was planned and organized by the hospitality students to give back to the community and exercise the student’s corporate social responsibility. During the planning of the event, a shutdown plan was made. Which included:

·         To collect and clean linen

·         Clean and return equipment

·         Thank services

·         Thank speakers

But all these activities were not implemented, due to competences of the event management. Lack of traits by the leader such as low confidence (pride, Hughes and Kapoor, 2010), meant some of the duties where not done. Requiring a better management team and delegation of duties effectively and efficiently would have ensured all aspects of the event would have been done efficiently.   

Reference

Bowdin, G., Allen, A., O’toole, W., Harris, R. & McDonnell, I. (2012) events managements. 3rd ed. Routledge. USA: New York

Hughes, J.R., Kapoor, J.R., and Pride, W.M. (2012) Introduction to Business, 11th edn, United States, South Western, Cengage Learning.

Customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction “is a marketing term that measures how products or services supplied by a company meet or surpass a customer’s expectation”. Customer satisfaction is vital since it offers marketers and business owners with the right tools that they can be utilized to achieve and increase their revenue (Beard, 2014). Customer satisfaction is the probably best pointer of whether the organization is likely to make customer return.

Adansonia hotel hosted a wedding for 700 packs. Banqueting, service and food and beverage manager were on hand to help bring the clients vision to life. Regular briefings were taken to ensure all aspects of the event were on point. During the event, shortage of cutlery was encountered, which did not please the wedding party. An organization has to be sensitive to customers’ expectations in regards to service provided which must meet those customers’ expectations (Clarke and Chen, 2011). Service manager failed to o his duties effectively. This issue could have been solved if the service department had done regular checks of the equipment or had outsourced cutlery.

Reference

Beard, R. (2014) Why Customer Satisfaction is Important (6 Reasons). [Online]. Available at: http://blog.clientheartbeat.com/why-customer-satisfaction-is-important/ (accessed: 01 April 2015).

Chen,W. ,Clarke, A.(2007)International Hospitality management, concepts and cases,1st edn, New York,Routledge

communication

COMMUNICATION

Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) had a dinner for their employees which was planned and implemented by Andansonia hotel team. Which included banqueting manager and service manager. Lack of communication between service and food production resulted in table set up changing constantly. A matter that could have easily been avoided if communication was there, as stated by Bowdin et al (2012) communication needs to be provided seamlessly with other departments of the event.

Perhaps this matter was done due to lack of motivated staff. Unmotivated staff tend to waver to inform management about matters affecting the event (Bowdin et al, 2012). According to Erichsen (2015) “You have no unmotivated employees – they are actually always motivated. Sometimes they just happen to be motivated for doing something different than what you want them to do in a given situation”

 Furthermore theory X used by management was ineffective and wrong choice, looking at how unmotivated the employees were. Use of incentives would have been a better approach.  All these problems lead to the event starting late and change of the menu without clients concern, resulting in customers not being satisfaction.    

Reference

Bowdin, G., Allen, A., O’toole, W., Harris, R. & McDonnell, I. (2012) events managements. 3rd ed. Routledge. USA: New York

Erichsen, P. K. (2015) Unmotivated employees the arrow is pointing at you. [Online]. Available at: http://implementconsultinggroup.com/knowledge/articles/unmotivated-employees/ (accessed: 13 March 2015)

Sound

Sound

 Sound gear for an event is particularly vital when guest presenters will be delivering a speech to event audience, notices must be received over the large commotion from the audience. Normally bands and DJs often bring with them the own sound kit to work their skills, halls, outdoor events (events management, 2015). In a conference, sound is needed, which was what happened at an event hosted at Adansonia hotel.  

Adansonia hotel had a conference wit expected guest to be around 500. Banqueting manager was on call to set up the hall in a manner that will suite all aspects of the conference. The conference hall layout had the stage upfront with speakers alongside the wall (as shown o figure 1). This layout caused problems for the audience as they felt the sound was too loud and also the echoing of the room.

 

Figure 1

The event did not go as planned due to customer’s complaints. The conference hall layout should have had the speakers next to the stage. All so the acoustic materials of the room were not considered, hence the echoing of the room. Sound absorption materials cud have helped, as stated by Bowdin et al (2012) draping or thick materials hanged on the walls would have ease the sound.  

 

Reference

Bowdin, G., Allen, A., O’Toole, W., Harris, R. & McDonnell, I. (2012) events managements. 3rd ed. Routledge. USA: New York

Event management (2015) sound. [Online]. Available at: http://eventmanagement.com/planning/sound/ (accessed: 22 March 2015)

Decoration

Decoration

February 14^th Botswana Accountancy College (BAC) students planned and organized the valentine dinner, which hosted 80 packs doubles and 40 packs singles. Banqueting and service manager came together to come up with a layout and decorations that best suited the occasion (Bowdin et al, 2012). 

Decorations at an event are essential for setting the mood, bordering the feeling and underlining the significance of the event. From crepe paper flags to professionally-designed shows of color and aesthetic, decorations normally operate within a theme determined by event sponsors and coordinators, setting the stage for the bulk of the event proceedings (events management, 2015).

The use of decoration at hand such as candles, pedals and linen help give the guests a feeling of being in a romantic atmosphere.  Both banqueting and service managers adopted the democratic management style during planning which worked well as all involved raised their points and they were considered. But during implementation this management style showed it was not applicable as waiters began to undermine the manager. A combination of management styles would have been a better option, as both managers would be able to address different situations accordingly.

Reference

Bowdin, G., Allen, A., O’toole, W., Harris, R. & McDonnell, I. (2012) events managements. 3rd ed. Routledge. USA: New York

Events management (2015) decoration [Online]. Available at: http://eventmanagement.com/planning/decoration/ (accessed: 06 April 2015)