The college festival might be the only thing students are looking forward to, more than the education courses. These are great times for everyone to come together and break the monotony of the classroom. The stalls, the music, the celebrations, and the competition — a college festival encapsulates everything that you envisioned college to be.
As a student or staff coordinator, this person should know that they are working with a lot of moving parts. The simplest way to keep the boat afloat is to let these parts move seamlessly without colliding into each other. What looks like a celebration from the outside, takes months of planning, strategizing, and flawless execution.
This is like putting together any other event, but the advantage is that it is promoted by students, for students. This is the group that is tech-savvy and up-to-date with what's new. This factor allows you to play with current trends, pop culture references, and innovative online promotions. This is the only event you can effectively promote using memes.
Where Does One Start?
When it comes to student-driven initiatives, it's often a debate about who will call the shots. So before we jump into the details, there must be just one designated person in charge. A team of qualified students is the strength, but too many cooks can also ruin the broth. Let the students pick the representative. Fix the problem of mismanagement at step one.
Don't start your planning with the worry about sponsorships. Weed out the bad ideas, make a list of good ideas, and bring order into the system. Once you are aware of the festival's functioning, only then can you pitch this to more people. Set guidelines on what information is for internal use, and what can be shared outside.
How many opinions are too many opinions? And that is the beauty of college festivals; those who want their voice to be heard will find a way to get it out there. You will not have to go out of your way to chase ideas; most ideas will come to you over the course of the execution. Remember that some ideas will evolve, so keep room for improvisation as not everything can be planned to the beat.
Once you have an idea of what concepts and themes you want to chase, get to the drawing board, and get to work, here are a few tips and tricks to ensure that your festival is a mega success:
1. Create Branches
Keep in mind that this is a team event, and everyone needs to play to their strengths. Divide your work into departments. Place points of contact in each team and let each group play to their strengths—departments like logistics, music, security, marketing, sales, etc. Once the work is broken down into smaller chunks, it's easier to meet deadlines and work faster.
2. Video Promos
If you plan to make just a poster or share photos from past events, it could bear little results. The new wave of content consumption is videos. Try to bank more on videos for your promotions and announcements. They have better reach and are more engaging for the generation with low-attention-spans. For faster results, you can depend on a photo video maker free download application.
3. Use College Resources First
Before you add items to your shopping cart and exhaust your budget, stop and think — “Can this be done internally?” Colleges are a goldmine of resources. For example, if you need a jingle made for the college festival. Start by asking students to volunteer their skills to make this. Why spend big-bucks on music that can be made for the cost of a few pizzas and jamming sessions?
4. Reach Out To The Alumni
Every college has a legacy; some students who studied in your college and went on to become huge in the real world. Reach out to past students and ask them for help with your festival in any way they can. An emotional connection with the college is a great trigger for generosity. They are also an excellent source of hacks and tricks.
5. Make Invites Creative
Your invitation is the start of your festival journey. You should take time and effort on just this one factor. Be it an online invite to students, or members of another college; an attractive invite will make a lasting impression, and also the first one. Make your own invitations, and do not take inspiration from other sources. These can be easily made using free online tools.
6. Set Realistic Expectations
Do not eat more than you can chew. Keep in mind the length of the festival, human resources, reach, budget, and capacity. Don't plan a festival that is out of arm's reach only to become unable to envision it. Keep a small and concise to-do list and meet them all rather than aiming too high and missing deadlines. Take opinions of student groups and stick to ideas that have a majority backing.
7. Everything Is Written Down
A little discipline helps a lot. Sure this is a college festival, but formal methods help to keep things in check. Keep email threads, printed notes, and an extensive list of actionable tasks. Get all approvals from the college, vendors, or students in writing. This helps build a reliable system to work with. Keep records of everything –from accounts to personal information.
In Conclusion
When the festival comes to an end, don't stop yet. Make a post-fest-video. Make a small video of all the moments at the festival. Make short edits of the important memories from the days of the fest. These not just reinstate a sense of achievement to the team that worked hard for months but also work as great promotion material for the years to come.
Have Fun. That is an essential part of this process. In a few years, you will not look back at the accounts or the pitch meetings. What you will cherish is good times spent in a room making plans and meeting deadlines. Spending those days with friends and trying to build something significant from scratch.
