Caroling in Review

       The Spontaneous Caroling event that my team and me for Music Meetup at Iowa BIG, you know, the one I mentioned last week? Went pretty darn well. Of course, I'm keeping a few things in consideration when I say it went well:

A) It was our first time EVER planning an event

B) Thanksgiving Break

C) Marketing?

D) Surprise grand piano

       The design of the event was what I thought would be the hardest part, but as it turned out, it's a lot easier to bake a cake than it is to get people to buy it. Now, we weren't selling anything besides a bit of holiday cheer, but getting people to come to an event, is a real struggle, especially when you're sixteen and hardly know the meaning of the word marketing.

       Our approach, was basically just the distribution of this informational card we made, physically and electronically. To some extent, that was successful; success being defined as seven people attending that were not directly invited by any of my team members or me. But still, what even is marketing? How do you promote an event? That's the beauty of BIG, though: we get to learn.

       Also, our “failure” to market “purposefully” was partly due to the fact that Thanksgiving break fell about two weeks before our event. That meant that when we should have been out promoting, we were all on break. But get this: IT IS OKAY TO TAKE A BREAK. That's just the way it worked out.

       Our “failure” to market more “purposefully” actually worked to our benefit when it came to the actual performance. I'll tell you why: surprise, grand, piano. The space where we intended to perform was half taken up by a grand piano that we discovered the morning of the event. If we would have had more people come, there is no way we would have fit. Our group filled up the area like a bucket brimming with water, which gave the appearance that we were a much bigger group than we actually were (there were actually about 20 of us).

       In the end, it wasn't embarrassingly unsuccessful, but there were enough parts of the event that weren't quite right, to give us something to build on. It was the perfect start, and now our next steps are clear. We need more time to plan, more effective marketing strategies, and of course lay the ground work for the design of our next event. There is plenty to learn, and with the solid look into event planning that Spontaneous Caroling gave us, our next event will only be an improvement. 

ALSO: Shout out to our accordion player, Neil. He brought the party.