BVA603 - Week 17

05/11/2019

I had to briefly spend time out of the class because of the noise getting me close to a sensory overload and I knew if I didn't have a time out, it would likely and eventually result in me getting a panic attack. I went down to the green screen room and was impressed by the venue and installation teams' effort at setting up the projection screening for the opening night on Thursday.

Reflection on last week's minutes
I think it was good idea to have creative design for post reminding people about how many days until the opening night takes place. Jacqui had aimed last week to collate a press release, which we know by now that she succeeded in doing and had sent us a copy on Discord. It's a pain that What's on Invers would charge us for promoting our event, even we are students and so it's best that we don't do so and just go ahead with eventfinda.
I am hoping that our traditional media contact will contact us very soon, if not by now because it's only a handful of days until opening night

I think it's the best idea to have Tim Shadbolt present all the awards, especially since he's a big SIT ambassador and advocate. It also gives him incentive and more reason to come along to the opening night. I now know that Britney saying that she has sent out all the VIPs an email invite is not completely accurate since she later said she hadn't sent out invites to Penny Simmonds or the local MPs, which could be problematic doing it at the last minute almost because they may not attend as a result.

07/11/2019

I spent a couple of hours before the opening night, assisting catering. 

I helped on the night by...

• carrying boxes of alcohol and food to where they needed to be
• keep an eye on the alcohol at the catering table so it's not unattended or taken by others before the event has begun
• help prepare some of the food
• pour soft drinks for the general public

There were moments that could almost be considered complications like...

• difficulty putting the rubber gloves back on when helping prepare some of the food for catering 
• I wasn't needed for most of preparing the food for catering
• I couldn't be alone serving drinks because I had difficulty using the beer opener (due to my dyspraxia) and as a result, I had to serve the soft drinks, while Natasha served the alcohol (which was wine and Speights beer)
• When we were to prepare the food, we tried to get it done in the staffroom kitchen, but that didn't end up being an option because we needed to give a couple of days notice, have the staffroom locked, or have a staff member or tutor present because there were confidential documents in the staffroom.

I took a few photos of the event to show to my family through social media. Bex later suggested to put the photos up onto the Temp drive for others to use as evidence in their report.

I received good comments about my work from Benn Jae (film judge for T&C) and one of my actors, Dillon Kirton. Benn Jae still remembered me from his previous visit to SIT and he told me he looks forward to see what work I will produce next year. He also told me that complications that I have faced with my short films / assessments this year is common in the industry

There wasn't anything in marketing for me to do that night, but I did notice that Luqman documented the event by taking photos of the event with a DSLR camera

I went along to the film screening at Centrestage. I was impressed by the number of seats that were filled. It started with a dozen, but from the looks of it, it roughly filled up to 200 out of the 300 seats.

My flatmate came along to the event. He almost came late to the art exhibition because he got the times wrong. If I hadn't rung to remind him, he would had missed out. He liked the films and animation on-screen at Centrestage, especially Oisin's films and Nik's Unreal Engine 3D animation. In fact, he thought Oisin's film about that conspiracy theory guy should had won the excellence in film award.

The downside to assisting catering was that I couldn't go ahead and enjoy the event, but I ended up being able to when I took a break from serving drinks to the public. I also forgot about the installations upstairs and so I didn't get a chance to experience those.

09/11/2019

It was terrifying to start with, but it eventually became less so as I was getting into it and my mind was starting to get going.

I've never really thought about during the time leading up to the event, about how my involvement could contribute to the success of Think and Create 2019.


Stage One

Who went in what group and what were their tasks in the group?

The progress from each of the groups through the minutes

What are the requirements of my roles and others in my group

Focus on individual and subcommittee

How do we plan to establish the level of success - surveys? Interviews? BTS footage? 

The budget? - entry fees, income, SIT budget, and expenses 

This stage is to do with the planning 

The budget - How is it to be affected by extra entries from degree and postgraduate students, plus trades students.
It tells us a guaranteed income - entry fees
Potential sponsorship - cash donations, prizes

Using SIT equipment will keep prices down for documentation through BTS

Why are we doing this event?
- It can be broad

Goals that are SMART

SMART
S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Achievable
R - Realistic
T - Timing

Questions to ask yourself

• What are we doing? 
• What are the components of this event?
• Where are our energies are going to go into? 
• What are we creating?
• Footage taken on the night? 
• Number of seats at Centrestage? 
• Number of entries? 
• Number of students entering? 
• Number of sponsors?

Stakeholders - people who could potentially attend e.g. SIT students and staff, judges, local businesses, general public, friends and family, sponsors

How to make the event as attractive as possible and more important than other events that day or week.


I worked on taking notes from the tutorial videos for half an hour (starting at Stage One) and then rested up more this morning because of wet weather and I thought I might as well try and do this assessment at home. I went back into the tutorial videos in the afternoon. In fact, it took me all afternoon to get through all the videos, but I took breaks in between and spent time packing for the move back home.

Looking back, I should had kept a weekly record of engagement on the FB page for this report (views, shares, likes).


Stage Two

In collecting evidence, I have mainly been documenting my progress and our committee meetings leading up to the opening night. I did try to reflect on the other subcommittees' progress, but it became impossible in keeping up with other papers.

This part doesn't need to be long.

This is something that you can learn from. I don't think we documented the public mood of the opening night, but I do recall seeing post-it notes for feedback on the wall at RAW Gallery and I also personally recall what happened e.g. rough estimate on how much of the seats at Centrestage was filled on the night (up to 200), the films that had the most applause in Centrestage - The Defector, Elpis

Blogging can be included in this stage and will be a primary source for a lot of my evaluation report.

Quantitative 

• Number of entries / sponsors / prices / sponsorships / prizes / audience numbers. 
• Cash gained from the entries and sponsorships. 
• Sponsorships or prizes donated. 
• Comparing with previous year. 
• Level of engagement on social media (views, shares, likes). 
• Budget
• Spreadsheets and tables e.g. entries submitted
• Numbers, figures, amounts - defined and specific

Qualitative

• Surveys on thoughts, comments, and suggestions on the event from our key stakeholders
• Potentially mention my flatmate's thoughts about the event or Dillon and Benn Jae's comments on my submissions
• Can also be done in the form of interviews and post-it notes

Digital paperwork - minutes, drafts, emails

I didn't really use email in doing my job towards Think & Create and I didn't document most of my Discord messages into my blog - case of human error.

Digital work - entry forms, entries, posters, flyers / pamphlets, maps, signs

I didn't think it would be necessary in my case, but then I thought it will be to prove that the event did happen, entries were submitted, and to calculate the success of Think & Create 2019.

Documentation is all about streamlining a paper trail

In the evidence, demonstrate your trustworthiness, usefulness, planning skills, documentation skills, writing skills, and organisational skills

In techniques of collecting evidence, don't put all your eggs in one basket like only using one Survey Monkey.

Stage Three

Condense and review your findings in a clear, but short manner

It's important that you have a complete set of documentation, but don't include everything into the report because it would make it too long. You just include 'the gold nuggets'

Cite Appendix to support points

Decide what is the most important information and what is the less important.
Consider how much words to use for each element in the report

Calculate percentages from Quantitative evidence onto the internet

When looking back at feedback, prioritise comments that the stakeholders wrote themselves

Review your attendance in the committee meetings, Discord threads, and involvements in subcommittee tasks

Review common threads in our involvement

Be brief and use visuals in order to convey large slabs of information in order to effectively restrict your word count in the body of your evaluation report

Using video in respect of how we are to evaluate Think & Create made me realise how effective it would had been if we were to collate an evaluation report for the local elections Q&A event from earlier this semester - interviewing students on local issues.

One of the reasons for this evaluation report is to share our experiences on our individual involvement towards Think & Create to others that may not had been aware of.

How much have I learned and benefited from managing Think and Create? How much did I find hard or challenging? What had driven me to the edge at times? e.g. timing

Don't be critically personal because it serves no purpose in this case
Those types of comments I will likely exclude from being directly in the body of my report, with this in mind

Consider SWOT - it's a good way to categorise a volume of information

SWOT
S - Strengths
W - Weaknesses
O - Opportunities
T - Threats
(refer to booklet to see an example)


Stage Four
A couple of paragraphs at most

Questions to ask yourself

• How has Think and Create impacted you? 
• Things to keep in mind for a similar event in the future? 
• Room for improvement? 
• Things to do and things not to do in a similar event in the future?
• How has your timing affected parts of your tasks concerning Think & Create?
• Impressions, skills, experiences, and techniques that have stood out to me and why
• What have I learned from all of this?
• What did I learn about myself and the people around me?
• You can use information from previous years. The measure of success this year compared to previous years or just last year?
• Useful and cautious advice to give to second year students next year who will have to organise the next Think and Create. What to recommend to them and challenges and trouble-shooting to avoid?

Have an open-minded perspective on your involvement like you are a different person

We don't have as much of a formal structure as seen in examples for getting our report done

Difference in numbers between this year and last year - sponsorships, comments from the opening night, entries


Stage Five

It's important to look at pages 46-47. It will be very helpful to clear up where each stage fits in the structure of a evaluation report

Think of the report as something that is wrapping up the event and provides your own perspective on how things went.

Acknowledge the people (including tutors) on their contribution towards Think and Create, especially those whom went out of their way to help you, but were tasked to another subcommittee

The context portion of the report is really about summarising what's been planned and thought through

Makes me glad that my previous study at Ara had such a strong focus on summarising information in academic writing.

Context (applies Stage One) - 
Using evidence from Appendices e.g. blogs, emails, minutes, Discord
USE CITATIONS
A setting, overview, and purpose for Think & Create
Overview of key stakeholders and the role of the committee and subcommittees. You need to demonstrate that you understand their role in organising this event

In considering the subject, will APA be as critical as the research project and dissertation last semester. There had been minimal need for research in comparison.

APA should be at a high standard for this report

Description of project (applies Stages Two and Three) -
It doesn't need to be exhaustive
It's a complex event
Describe the entry process, the funding process (sponsorships), the diverse nature of the works submitted
Who is involved? - sponsors, students, judges
The location of the event and how it's spread. Establish that there are diverse range of locations (Kea Room, Upstage, RAW Gallery, Green screen room, Transition Gallery, SIT Library, Invercargill City Library, SIT Centrestage).

I don't know how visual material could help support this portion of the report
I think the tone of the marketing campaign had subtly changed over time throughout the semester

Aims, Objectives, and Measures of Success (applies Stages One and Two) - 

Questions to ask yourself

• Have I sought out results? - interviews, BTS footage, newspaper articles
• How they have changed and developed throughout the semester?
• Do I have a process to organise that I have all the documentation up to scratch?
• How did the evaluation go? Was it difficult? Did it work? - Survey Monkey, post-it notes

I will need to look at the Y drive tomorrow to see what resources we have to use as evidence for the report

Don't clutter up your report with evidence

Summarise and analyse it

What we found out (applies Stage Three) -
Justify, explain, and verify the impact of Think and Create 2019 as individuals, a part of a committee process, and key stakeholders, and key stakeholders
Quantitative and Qualitative results

Questions to ask yourself

• Did the aims and objectives work?
• Did all the original planning work like we wanted to?
• Did the communication work?
• Did the marketing work?
• Did all or each of the subcommittees work?
• Did the timeline work?
• Did coordinating the subcommittees on the day of the event work?
• Did the storage work?
• Did the entry process and funding process work?
• Which venue worked best?
• Did the key stakeholders think that the event went well? 
• Did anything happen out of the blue?

Overview of the project (applies Stage Three) - 
Keep it as brief as possible, but still give an overview of the event.
Use SWOT to give balance to this portion of the report

Lessons learned from the evaluation (applies Stage Four and Five)
Keep it simple. Use a list of bullet points. 
It's for the benefit of the next team that will run Think and Create next year

Appendices -

• Blog post of relevance (no active links - instead copy and paste into report). This is to make ourselves sure that the blog posts are up to scratch, and blog posts are to be tilted and dated in the appendices
• Minutes / notes from committee and subcommittee meetings (think about what ones to include)
• Other documentation: emails, drafts, posts, Discord. NO ACTIVE LINKS AT ALL.
• Other digital work: MP4 video files of interviews, stats from Survey Monkey (plus comments), spreadsheets, tables, sample and draft forms etc.

In Appendices 3, it can give you ideas on how to collate and place your evidence and information together for a report

I did get comments on the night about my submissions on display and my involvement in assisting catering

You will need to be selective or prioritise of your evidence for this report.