Organizing events for the community

As an active member of the cultural team anchoring cultural events in my community, I often get asked by eager mothers as to how their children could begin learning to organize cultural events on their own. I tell these enthusiasts that I really don’t know any secret sauce for this, but I can share some experiences that worked for me well in the past.

The first aspect of anchoring a cultural event management is that it is not just about gyrating and talking a lot on the stage. It is also not about putting ideas together and assuming it will happen on its own. Event anchoring, in my view is all about being able to hold the control of the entire event through effective communication, knowledge, wit, humor and spontaneity together with a solid understanding of the theme and purpose that the event has to achieve.

Here, I illustrate my points with an event that I anchored and event managed recently – the Indian Independence day celebrations in the gated community that I live in.  The whole event can be looked at from the following perspectives:

•         The “what”
•          The “Why”
•          The “How”

The “What” - There must be a theme for the event

The theme of the event has to be something that the anchor and the audience can connect well

The thought and the basic work for this event began two months prior to the actual event. The first few things that I did were to think of a theme that I believed would be important to delve on. I, as a mother of an 8 year old daughter, felt that it was important for her and children of her age to understand the struggles of our forefathers for the freedom that we sit today and enjoy.  With this theme set, the idea of the program became clear – “Role play” by children as a means to tell the whole story of our freedom struggle. With this, I gained a lot of clarity on the back-end tasks to be done

·         Research on the theme (in this case freedom fighters, their struggles)

·         Identify who does what (here, which child plays what role – and that’s why Casting is so important!)

·         Know your zone (here, where would be role plays be done, what kind of facilities are there etc.)

The “Why” – Higher non-commercial purpose for the benefit of the community

It is important that the purpose of the event has to be clear to the anchor and the event participants as well.  In small community events, it is best if the anchor takes the end to end ownership of the entire event – coordinating all that is needed to be done.

In the Independence day event that I had organized, the idea and theme were driven by me, so the purpose of the event was clear to me. Through this program, I intended to ensure that all in the community develop a new sense of respect for our forefathers who fought for our freedom, and that all the kids in the community relate to our freedom movement as their own struggle and not just as a history lesson in school.

The “How” – Putting things together in a plan and implementing the plan

If the “what and the why” are established with clarity, the rest as they say will be history J! The “how” is only a mechanical project execution exercise with clear control of milestones and targets.  In the independence day event, I put together the plan – with certain milestones and targets including things such as when should the script of each role play be ready, what kind of music and action is needed when each participant enters or exits the stage, what kind of mike and audio system do we need for the event, when is the drop dead date for all these, what kind of clothing is needed for the participants, snacks for the kids and the rest of the assembled community etc.

There are a few good practices that have worked for me in formulating and managing such a plan.

·       Develop a time-wise duration plan of the event i.e. a plan which clearly states what program comes in first, how much duration, what is the duration of the breaks etc. A sample template that I use is shown in the figure.

Sample template for event planning

• Ensure to plan buffer times as there could be under estimation and hence a spill over
• Ensure that you have volunteers who support you and that they know their roles very well 
• Eg: one of my good friends did the entire stage production on the day of the event – playing the relevant background score appropriate to each role etc
• Dont hesitate to take clear decisions on what should be part of the program and what should not

The outcome seen on the D day of the event, was very encouraging.

•       The audience were very appreciative of the event, they felt they had learned something and that their time was well spent,
•         the participating kids felt like heroes and heroines, having role played one or the other role of a freedom fighters, they learnt lot more about Indian freedom struggle than any history class could teach
•        It gave a sense of purpose and achievement to all those who had contributed to making the event a success – from those who adjusted the mikes to the ones who cooked and baked for the event.

So, behind every successful community event, there is a lot of planning, hard work, dedication and enthusiasm from all those who want to make it happen. Having said that, my realization is that the event becomes successful first - in the mind and heart of the anchor who manages the event before it can become a success in reality.