March 4, 2014, by offcampus

PR Project Management: Developing Our Project

Today’s update from the PR Project Management Advantage Award module comes from Politics student, Will Padgham, who gives an overview of all the different things that need to come together and some of the initial decisions which needed to be made to start getting the project into shape.

The meeting began with a discussion between the group and the module convenor, Rachel. This gave us the opportunity to update Rachel on the work that we had done in between the meetings, and also allowed us to clarify any queries that we had. One of the issues that we came across during closer examination of food costs for the event was that due to the large number of guests anticipated it would be too expensive to buy the supplies from an average supermarket retailer. Through discussing this with Rachel we decided that it would be more cost-effective for us to purchase the food and drinks for the event from a wholesale retailer, allowing us to free-up more funds from the budget to spend on other aspects of the event.

At the end of the last meeting we decided that two of the most important tasks we needed to complete were the formulation of draft event invites and the accompanying cover emails. Through communicating via Facebook we were able to complete both of these tasks. In the meeting we were able to finalise the format of the event invites and apply some final edits to the covering emails before we send them off to the guests next week.

It was only when developing these two tasks that we realised we needed a formal way to sign off our emails and also to set-up an official group email account through which we can manage the invites and responses. With the whole group present at the meeting we quickly set up an official email account and decided that the best way to sign off our emails would be to use our names followed by ‘on behalf of the University of Nottingham and Nottingham City Homes’ Tenant Academy’.

We discussed the progress of the other tasks that we had each been allocated and developed plans to continue the work in these areas. For example, we researched the cost and feasibility of providing musical entertainment during the event and decided that we wanted to distribute a selection of mementos of the event in personalised linen tote bags.

A large proportion of the meeting was attributed to organising further sessions for next week. We contacted Jill Walker, the manager of Aspire Café, where we will be holding the event. We decided that the best way to answer our questions and develop a greater picture of where the event will take place would be to visit the café before the next meeting.

Crucially, we also arranged to meet the Tenants we will be working with throughout the event at Samworth Academy. We decided that before meeting with the tenants we needed to offer them a potential menu for the event; as a result we came up with various ideas and themes for us to propose to them. This will allow us to receive their feedback on our ideas and provide the tenants with the opportunity to take a central role in the decision-making process.

This week has been very productive and has allowed us to schedule further meetings for next week. Although much work has already been done it represents the stage at which all of our ideas come together to develop more concrete actions and plans.

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Google+
• Share on LinkedIn