Creating moments that matter through events...How did we do it?

'I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.?I learn by going where I have to go.' - THEODORE ROETHKE

People, colors, texts, shapes, learning, food, choice, decisions- it's a cacophony of resources in an event. Most of us who participate in event organising/management go through all these keywords and share vibrant experiences with different viewpoints. No wonder I had to go through the same. In my 6.5 years of career in communications, I have organised and facilitated more than seven national and international events for local and international organisations. Obviously, there were immense learnings from these events about content, logistics management, organisation, procurement, planning, monitoring, controlling, and every other buzzword that we come across whatever is needed to make an event successful and resilient. However, my intention is to share some humane stories about the key takeaways keeping the buzzwords aside.

Last year, from October to December I spent a life swarming with loads of work that I love. Events, design materials, campaigns, media kit, communications, advocacy- altogether the months turned into a spicy pot boiler high with challenges and rich with learning. How did the busy months start? Any communication enthusiast should be interested in the unique processes and hurdles one has faced during organising events of such scale. Therefore, I am confident my experience may become fruitful for many.

There were a series of events focusing on issues such as child marriage, community clinics, and quality education. I will be sharing some from the child marriage event here. The purpose of the events was to create a dialogue between civil society representatives and government officials on the issues.

However, due to the nature of the events (due to time constraints and extent), it was not possible to rely on expert agencies for the execution of the event. Rather, it totally became our job (the comms team) to take lead and beat the ground. As a result, the harmony of the teams in between and within must create a synergy that keeps the distinct efforts connected.

The program team started figuring out what to produce while we were looking out for executing and whistle-blowing. As a draft outline appeared, we started working instantaneously on designing the event. Questions, and questions! We had to find answers to all these questions and solve them in the most effective way that meets all the ends.

Questions

1. What are the objectives of the events?
2. What should be the brand guideline?
3. What kind of content should we produce?
4. What kind of media kits are we thinking of for the participants?
5. What should be the event flow?
6. How about the sitting arrangement? Should it be a seminar pattern or a round table? A horseshoe maybe?
7. What are the types of audiences? Can we scale up the event to adjust with every sort of profile?
8. Where should we place the design materials?

We sorted each of the questions through teamwork and followed a wholesome approach in execution. The program team facilitated the answers to the majority of the questions regarding the purpose and objective of the event while the communications team was working on the pragmatic reflection of the planning. This is the way, as the Mandalorian says in a web series about the lifestyle prophecy of a space-based nation. The program team decides and plans while the communications team propagates and executes the event. Of course, there are several recommendations from the communications during the planning of an event such as the selection of colors, texts, and positions of the visual materials (eg. banners, signages, and media kits).

After deciding upon what to do along with the why, we jumped on the 'how'. Then came the execution part. I started designing the banners, x banners, Roman banners, cutouts, and signages as well as the messages. Moreover, there were several publications we needed to design for the participants, mostly media kits.

An inspection of the venue took place just one week before the event. We discovered challenges such as where to post the printed visuals, what should be the ideal sitting position of the participants, and how to accommodate the participants of such number and such weight (not physical, rather regarding honor) in the most ideal way, etc. The team decided unanimously that we should follow the horseshoe sitting pattern. Because this orientation allows the audience to take part in face-to-face conversation and leaves the last row open for movement. In addition, there would be chairs of honor at the very front of the space to distinguish special guests. Altogether, the U shape won the election.

You can see, it worked well from the picture above. With a colossal banner behind it, we could show the main propaganda of the event to the participants and to the viewers who were waiting to see the after-action report of the event.

Literally, a few colleagues including me, spent the night before the event at the venue to post all the design materials in the best possible way. This was the toughest part as you see the result of your designs on giant prints, sizes determined by you. If there's something wrong, you are the one who will be given the spooky look. And of course, if things work out well, you get the applause.

I designed eight Roman banners, 8 full-sized x banners, three cutouts, and four square boards with a height of more than 8 fits all by myself. You can imagine the pressure when the printing vendor rolled out the banners and other props while I was looking for typos, design flaws, and technical glitches. I nodded with a sigh upon being assured that everything was fine. And mind that, it was only the night before the event, there were much more during the event. However, the event went well the next day and it was a great success.

As you already know, besides managing the event I produced some design materials to propagate the event effectively among the participants. The event took place to form a common ground for advocacy between civil society representatives and the government and local government officials. Therefore, it was our duty to make the event informative and establish a weather about the issue all across the venue.

• Cutouts with infographics: The intention of these cutouts was to communicate the urgency of the issue for voicing out with priority. Numbers and pictures speak more than words. Combine them together, it will shout out aloud. We posted the cutouts beside the entrance doors to the venue to give the participants an informative first impression. Our motive was to set the mood from the beginning.

• Roman banners: Roman banners are hung from the ceiling by the walls of a banner. It creates a rhythmic vibe through repetitive colors and designs. Moreover, it creates certain tonality at the venue that helps to position the event as per planning and through brand materials. However, the main focus remains inevitably on the messaging about the issue.
• Square boards: Imagine you have been quoted on 7 feet high square board with compelling designs. How would you feel? Exactly! It will boost your avidness toward the subject matter. How will it affect your peers? Do you think they would be motivated as well, maybe in a different way? A peer pressure to get the spotlight at least? Maybe or maybe not. One thing is for sure it creates awe in the audience. We know how happy they were, to see one of their own in the spotlight. It's necessary, especially, in an advocacy event like this and of this scale.

Moreover, there were extensive media kits and publications on the event to elaborate the background of the event. The most interesting among them was the position paper summary. It contained a brief narrative on an elaborate study of child marriage.