Creative Events Management

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I L I A L W S

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H A A H N N

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An Event Manager has the 6th most stressful job in the world according

to USA data CareerCast.com , up there with Fire Fighters, Police

Officers and Military Personal.

But when you think about events you can say:

Having the pressure of every single detail on your shoulders, a lot of

behind the scenes work, extremely high expectations for it all to

unfold, not just in front of your eyes, but in some cases in front of

large audiences, hundreds of thousands of pounds at stake; This

could be seen as a stressful, manic and a down right nerve racking

profession.

But that pressure is something I believe I have relished since I can

remember. If its’ down to me to be organising something, I will dot

every I and cross every T. This passion that I install in anything Event,

Images Hannah Williams ©

4 Interesting Facts about me:

In 2008 I was Number 1 Female Discus player in England;

I learnt to play the saxophone at 12 years old;

I worked in Pennsylvania, USA at a Children's camp for 3 months teaching Gymnastics;

My favourite types of animal are Pugs;

Images H

ann

ah W

illiams ©

Im

ages G

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Marketing, Advertising or Brand related, is rare and I value it as one of my strongest assets,

and I believe any company would value it too.

I’m Hannah Williams, a West Midlander who moved to the Cornish coastal town of

Falmouth in 2012 to study Creative Event Management (BA Hons) at University.

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Top 8 Personal Attributes I posses…. Top 8 Professional Attributes I posses….

During my time at Falmouth Univer-

sity I have realised a lot of my personal strengths , found new interests and have devel-

oped my skill set overall.

This has led my career ambitions to expand wider and wider. I would love to work in

a wide range of industry's ranging from a Marketing Manager to Brand Consultant.

Large companies such as P&G, Nestle and Google do incredible Marketing,

Advertising and PR strategies which I would love to be a part of. Another favourite

company of mine, Adam & Eve DDB, a communication agency working with a range

of clients from John Lewis to Fosters.

I am interested in Brand Consultancy as that allows a mixture of roles, allows for

knowledge and creativity to flourish.

I would also like to set up my own business within the hospitability industry. From

using my 7 years worth of industry knowledge I am confident that I have almost seen

anything and everything that could go wrong to allow that not to happen to my self.

Future Goals

Care

er A

mb

ition

s

Confidence, Logic,

Creativity, Dedication,

Reliability, Loyalty,

Commitment, Assertiveness

Financial Management, Leadership Initiative,

Idea Conceptualist, HR Management,

Creative Vision, Research Development

Business Acumen ,Consumer Relationship Specialist

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The Cornish Charity Ball was a charity dinner evening created by

me and 3 other team members from Falmouth University

3rdYear Event Management Class. The night was in aid of the

Cornwall Air Ambulance to help raise funds for their new night

time search helicopter. To find out more information about the

charity ball please turn to page 6.

Bollywood Shelter was a 2nd year project devised by myself and 3

other team members. Bollywood shelter was an Indian themed

evening showcasing live food, authentic Indian dancing as well as

highlighting the crucial charity Shelter Box. To find out more

about Bollywood Shelter please turn to page 11.

Simon Rixs Political Fundraiser was an event for which I was

personally sought out to create for the client, Truro and Falmouth

Liberal Democrat Councillor. Mr.Rix was looking to raise money

to help support his campaign in 2015 and asked me to help put

together an event which could raise these vital funds. To find out

more about The Political Fundraiser please turn to page 13.

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The Cornish charity ball was an idea generated by myself for my

2nd year university project.

The team and I decided early on that the charity we chose must

reflect a charity close to people’s hearts due to the fact that

Cornwall really values community based actions and causes. The

Cornwall Air Ambulance is not government funded and relies

solely on the donations of the general public. This and the fact

that Cornwall has a great surfing community and the Air

Ambulance are readily involved with this community made the

charity decision very simple. Many of the team members had also

used the air ambulance service in personal situations so it was a

cause very close to all our hearts.

I generated the idea of having an early 1900s themed evening by

looking at the success rate of recently released films ( The Great

Gatsby) Music ( Lana Del Ray ) TV Shows ( Downton Abbey,

Broad Walk Empire) which all pick up on the Edwardian era

theme, I also thought due to the events that happened during this

time period ( Sinking of the Titanic, WW1, Prohibition America,

Rise of Music due to technological advances such as the Wireless)

that a truly authentic night could be created providing a wide varie-

ty of entertainment whilst encouraging members of the Cornish

Community to expand their knowledge of Cornwall Air Ambu-

lance as well as having a chance to dress to the nines which was

also one of our Unique Selling Points.

The Greenbank hotel was our first choice venue, due to their ex-

ceptional reputation within the area. We chose the Riverbank

Suite which overlooks the harbour and creates a dynamic and

beautiful view for all guests to enjoy as well providing a beautiful

designated smoking area which many attendees said they

appreciated. Image Isabelle Compton ©

Image Trish Millard ©

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For the Cornish Charity Ball to be

successful I tried to create marketing

materials which matched our target

audience.

In terms of the creation of the tickets

I made a rough basic design focus-

ing primarily on the corner art work

as through research I discovered the

curvaceous patterns and majestic

lines were incredibly popular in Edwardian society when social invita-

tions were sent out.

The poster which was our main point of promotion, featured a fa-

mous figure Lord Kitchener. He appeared on a 1914 advertisement

to recruit people to fight in the first world war. I thought that Kitche-

ner would be perfectly fitting for our promotional material due to his

relevance to the era and his extremely identifiable stance which ap-

pealed to many of our target audience. Lord Kitchener became our

connection point to the public as many had seen our promotional

efforts but had remembered him primarily more than the

information on the promo material. This worked in our favour as it

allowed us to strike up conversations with potential attendees and

allow them to notice us rather than us over promote to them.

A fellow team member sourced a graphic designer and relayed our

vision and idea to her in order to create tickets and posters which

enticed our target market and show cased our theme efficiently. The

tickets in particular represented what standards attendees could ex-

pect from the Event. A local company, Cornwall Design and Print

printed all our products for us and through negotiations with the

owner I personally secured a 45% discount on our overall bill.

I realised from the early stages of the making of the Cornish charity

ball that our target market would be completely different to what we

as a group were used to. Social media was a vital tool to the charity

ball, but again with our selected target audience, many were not on

social networking platforms, so we used different channels to ensure

the success of the Cornish Charity Ball.

As our physical promotional material was building up memento

throughout the local area I realised we had to expand our radius. We

approached BBC Radio Cornwall which broadcasts throughout the

whole of the county and we were invited onto a guest slot which not

only helped raise the profile of the Cornish charity ball, but also

helped me to develop my speaking and oral skills and also helped

me to understand the technical difficulties and requirements re-

quired to advertise and sell an event just though voice alone.

Image Hannah Williams ©

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Following on from the success at the BBC, I organised a selling/

promotional day at one of the most successful coffee shop & delicatessen

within the South West. I approached the owner of Picnic Cornwall and ar-

ranged a meeting to not only invite them to The Cornish Charity Ball but

also to donate items for the raffle we had planned.

From this meeting we received items from their deli as well as a deal to pro-

mote and sell tickets on selected days inside and outside their shop, situat-

ed in the heart of Falmouth Town Centre. In exchange for their hospitality I

suggested that we would be more than happy to promote some of their new-

est products that had just arrived. Because of us they managed to sell over

3cases of their fat free, dairy free, gluten free, high fibre protein packed

berry flavoured snack bars at a retail price of 2.95 per bar.


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To thank our guests for attending, they received a hand

made goody bag containing offers and discount vouchers to

some of the leading restaurants and shops within Cornwall.

Each bag also contained information about the Air Ambu-

lance such as donation forms, stickers and information

packs. The highlight of the goody bag was the individual

pots of authentic Roddas Cornish Clotted Cream which

guests were impressed with.

Another exciting feature of the gift bags, were the individual

boxed hand made flavoured bon-bons. These had been

specially made by a Truro based sweet company specialis-

ing in sweets and chocolate from times gone by. After

speaking to the owners of Pennyworths they donated 50

boxes of the sweets for the event.

As well as receiving the sweets for free, I also managed to

supply all our décor for free as well. This included all the

flowers that decorated the room and the tables for guests to

enjoy. In terms of authentic and unusual pieces of furniture

all the suitcases and Edwardian décor were supplied by a

local antiques dealer who in exchange for promotion at the

event was more than happy to meet all our needs.

Overall the Cornish Charity Ball raised £546.50 for the

Cornish Air Ambulance and through this event I received a

first overall for my efforts.

Images Hannah Williams ©

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From Katie Marie Campbell, Performer:

I loved performing at the Cornish charity ball.

Hannah and her team were professional from

start to finish, working alongside me with re-

gards to which songs I was performing, whilst

also making sure I was comfortable with these

choices. Hannah made sure I had all the equip-

ment I required to perform, which as a singer is

one less thing for me to worry about. Very

professional!!

Image Isabelle Compton ©

Image Grace Scott Photography ©

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Bollywood Shelter was a 2nd year project undertaken by Myself

and 3 other team members in January 2013. For this project I sug-

gested hosting a cultured food event as our venue The Perfor-

mance centre which was already predetermined by the University,

hosts primarily art, dance and music events. I wanted to break the

mould of the “usual” student events that have been put on in the

past. This is how the idea of Bollywood Shelter was generated.

Bollywood shelter is paying homage to the charity Shelter Box,

who provide emergency shelter and vital supplies to support com-

munities around the world overwhelmed by disaster and humani-

tarian crisis. Their headquarters are located within Cornwall and

this is why we decided to go with this charity rather than a larger

more established one.

I generated the idea of having a multicultural event featuring many

countries but after discussions with the team we thought it would

be more practical to stick to one identifiable theme. This is where

I suggested Bollywood as it’s a glamourous genre and looking at

past events at the Performance Centre there hadn’t been any Bol-

lywood / Indian nights. This made our theme a unique selling

point.

The evening consisted of authentic Indian inspired dancing, a live

chef cooking traditional Indian cuisine as well as Henna Artists

and different types of media playing throughout the evening.

Richard Musgrave of Downright Delicious who is also a supporter

of Shelter Box created two main curries to be served to guests in

individual recycled take away boxes.

He provided a focus point of a cooking demonstration on how to

create fabulously simple curries suited for everyone and anyone as

well as suiting all budgets.

Image Rhian Israel ©

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© Rhian Israel Photography

From James Grice ,

attendee :

The event was well organised

from the moment you

stepped into the

performance centre, the

group itself had obviously

researched and taken into

account the culture they were

catering for and showed great

professionalism when it came

to wearing, dancing, serving

and acting in the Bollywood

cultural theme. Hannah

owned the event taking

charge when needed and

being there for all of the

paying audience, her detail

did not go amiss to us sat

down. Well Done Team!

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Simon Rix is the Falmouth and Truro Liberal Democrat candi-

date for the areas parliamentary seat. He and his campaign team

asked for my specialist help after hearing of the success of The

Cornish Charity Ball.

The brief was simple, to create an event that would help him raise

money for his campaign.

I toyed around with many ideas on how to engage with his already

established supporters and enthusiasts. Firstly Simon and I brain-

stormed ideas. He was incredibly impressed with the Charity Ball

and the amount of money that was raised and asked if I could or-

ganise something similar. I explained that his target audience and

my target audience are of a different nature. To compromise I

suggested having a guest speaker do a question and answer session

about Cornish politics whilst also enjoying a 3 course dinner.

For the venue, I decided on Merchants Manor, primarily because

I had already established a connection with the Head of Sales and

Marketing and they were extremely keen to work with me.

Through liaison with the Event Co-Ordinator at M.M we hashed

out Menu choices, room layouts, table plans, lighting rigs as well

as cost assessments.

In order for the event to be popular, it was thought to host the

fundraiser on the 10th of October—in memory of David Penhali-

gon and his first election victory into the House of Commons.

Mr.Penhaligon was a widely popular figure throughout the com-

mittee and highly ranked by fellow liberal democrats members in

the Cornish community, even to present day. Using this connec-

tion proved to be very popular and attendance figures were higher

than anticipated which was incredibly pleasing. I also made it pos-

sible to have Lord Paul Taylor chair the question and answer ses-

sion about the future of Cornish Devolution.

The event generated over £700 for the campaign. This was

achieved through ticket sales and auction prizes. Image Hannah Williams ©

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Simon Rix

3 Charles St

Truro TR1 2PQ

12/10/14

To whom it may concern,

I am writing today in my capacity as parliamentary candidate for the Truro and Falmouth Liberal Democrats to provide a pro-

fessional reference for Hannah Williams.

Hannah was instrumental to the planning and organisation of the Truro and Falmouth Liberal Democrats fundraising dinner,

held at Merchants Manor on the 10th of October. The dinner, held in honour of the 40 year anniversary of David Penhaligon’s

first election to the House of Commons in 1974, exceeded our fundraising expectations, raising just over £700 for my cam-

paign. The dinner was widely enjoyed and I am still receiving great feedback.

Hannah’s assistance liaising with the venue, organising menu choices, assisting with guest lists and deciding on timing and

scheduling took an enormous weight off my shoulders and was essential to the smooth running of the event. It is safe to say

we would have been unable to organise an event as successful as the one we held if it weren’t for Hannah’s efforts. I can confi-

dently recommend Hannah to any prospective employer who is seeking a motivated, forward thinking planner/organiser for

events large or small.

I thoroughly enjoyed working with Hannah and wish her all the best in her no doubt bright and successful future.

I can be contacted on 07801 356 840 or at [email protected] for any further enquiries.

Yours faithfully,

Simon Rix

Truro and Falmouth Liberal Democrat PPC & Cornwall Councillor


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I applied for a paid internship with Miracle Theatre, the South Wests

leading open air touring theatre company. My main role during my 6

weeks with Miracle was using my event management degree to help

primarily with their Front of House operations as well as organising

and creating new promotional materials and helping with distribution

of signage as well as raising awareness around the Cornish County.

During my time in the Miracle Theatre Office I also helped do a lot

of market research. Miracle wanted to improve their merchandise

and I researched and ordered equipment for them based on feedback

from the public at the performances. I also ensured their Front of

House stock was always organised and stocked up for every perfor-

mance. For some shows I was given sole responsibly of managing the

front of house by my self. This meant collecting prepaid tickets from

the Hall For Cornwall, arriving at the venue, setting up the welcoming

table and ticket stall as well as organising the merchandise table and

ensuring volunteers arrived on time—whilst monitoring the cast and

crew and their time schedules as well as ensuring they were fed and

looked after. Once these basic tasks had been done it was then my

responsibility to ensure a smooth running of the “get in” and to organ-

ise seating attendees in order for the set and the cast to be seen and

heard by all to a high standard. As well as doing this I was also ensur-

ing programmes were being sold to audience members. Pushing mer-

chandise was a big role Miracle set me as it was their first year of real-

ly expanding their sales and memorabilia. Through this internship I

have travelled and explored a large portion of the county. It has

allowed me to expand my knowledge of how a theatre production is

not only run, but the behinds the scenes work that a large production

requires for it to be a success.

Images courtesy of Miracle Theatre ©

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The Vine is a small, independently run PR and Marketing company

in Falmouth, Cornwall. I worked for a month at The Vine under Lot-

tie Mahon, learning basic PR knowledge and primarily researching

products and markets to ensure full understanding of a Product and

its competitors along with its growth plan as well as marketing strategy.

My main case study was the company ‘Worlds Apart’ who The Vine

have recently become their lead agency for any Marketing PR and

Social Media strategies.

The Manchester Bike Show is a yearly event in Manchester at Event

City, a large multi purpose venue. I volunteered my services to An-

drew Greenwood Classic Shows who runs the event and they hired

me to attend the show for 3 days in January 2013. My main roles and

responsibilities were to ensure the stall holders were looked after.

This included marking out their stall space to organising their power

sources as well as sorting out any conflict of space from stands over-

lapping. I also liaised with security about the timings of each trader

coming into the hall in their vehicles to ensure there weren't any major

waiting times and to ensure there was a smooth operational flow of set

up. This was done by having 20 vehicles enter the hall at the same

time, time to unload, and then move their vehicles to the car parking

zone to allow the next wave of traders to come in.

Transferable and overall skills I learnt and improved on from my Work Experiences:

Research Skills, Independent Study, Event Layout and Design, Crowd Control, Problem Solving, Health & Safety, Team Work, Stakeholder Management, Time Management, Public Relations, Box Office, Sell-ing, Cash and Stock handling, Competitor Analysis, Business Communication, Social Media Marketing,

Inventory and Stock Rotation, On the Road Organisation, Map Reading and Front of House Organisation.


Image Courtesy of Vine Marketing ©

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Cubanas Cocktail Bar & Restaurant, a Spanish, Cuban, Cornish

themed establishment opened in July 2014. Since the opening of

Cubanas I have undertaken extra work to ensure the success of the

independent business.

I began this change by creating social media platforms for Cubanas

to reach out to the public, as well as the public reaching out to us. I

first started an Instagram page as I thought it would be more effective

to just highlight how great our food and drink were through the pow-

er of picture, as well using suitable hashtags to draw attention to

ourselves from over the Falmouth area.

Due to the nature of Instagram I created a competition to one,

ensure we had followers whilst also allowing for customers to

promote for us, rather than we take up our time by chasing around

random Falmouth users. The competition was a simple

“ Take a photo of your Cubanas Experience, upload it

with the #CubanasFalmouth to Instagram and if you

receive over 20 likes you get a free drink!”

This promotion worked well as it allowed for Cubanas to see what

customers were saying but all through one platform. From the suc-

cess of Instagram I then created a Facebook page and a trip advisor

page to ensure that whilst we were expanding across social media it

was important not to alienate our older clientele who may prefer

Trip Advisor to voice their praises, comments and concerns.

Images Hannah Williams For Cubanas ©

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At Cubanas, I helped with the creation of specialist menus. The Cubanas

Sunday Menu was designed by Caroline Young, a talented 3rd year Falmouth

University Illustration Student. With my direction we managed to create a

brilliant Sunday menu which is in keeping with the Cubanas theme but also

offers a different stance on tropical.

With the Sunday menu, I was very aware of the large amount of competition that

was within a small geographical distance of Cubanas. In order to compete with

the competition I created a “Sunday Special” a 2 course set menu priced at

£12.95. This was undercutting competitors by up to 30% and made it more

accessible for Students to dine with us as it was a cost effective method.

Our Christmas booking system was created entirely by me at Cubanas. I de-

signed the menus, decided on a few of the food items, I suggested to the owner

that as a Front of House member of staff I know what customers are saying

about other restaurants menus and what they would like to see Cubanas stock

for the future. For Christmas parties I had made a booking form’s that allowed

us to gather pre-order in the simplest way possible for Guests, Chef and Staff to

understand.

I believe this is a big help to Cubanas because without the Christmas menus or

booking forms, organising Christmas parties would be a lot more work, time and

stress for everyone involved.

I stated to the Owner that we should create a set menu throughout the week as it

may attract customers who are looking for a quick easy meal and simple deli-

cious food on a budget. This menu has proved very popular to the point that

special requests are made in order to ensure customers can have the set menu

on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This menu has now become a permanent

feature at Cubanas and is popular with Chef, Owner, Staff and Customers. From

creating this menu to watching its success has made me feel very proud of my

knowledge of the local area and impressed by my own standards that the menu

is proving to be so popular. It has raised my self confidence and belief in my role

at Cubanas. Images Hannah Williams ©

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In order to ensure customer loyalty remained high I created 30%

off “golden tickets” for any customers spending over £45 in one

transaction. These were met with a great response from the public

who said that they “thoroughly appreciated” the money off card

and are impressed that we are an independent restaurant and are

competing with the likes of Rick Steins, Zizzi’s and Pizza Express

and that they will recommend us to all friends and family.

For Cubanas to get responses from the public I ensure that all staff

members are trained to ensure the same amount of quality is

achieved overall.

In order to train new members of staff, I firstly ask them to look at

the menus and try to familiarize themselves with the food we are

selling.

“In business the worst trait to have is not to know your own

product”

From there onwards I take them through all the basic waitressing

principles, ensure they are comfortable with table numbers and

layouts and individual team names. From my past 6 years working

within the hospitality industry I have learnt that nerves only slow

down service and to eliminate these first issues ensures their first

service is smoother, as well as ensuring the overall teams service is

flowing and operational guarantying a happy customer experience

resulting in higher tips and happier staff. I have learnt a lot of my

methods from Maslow's hierarchy of needs. The main point of

the first shift is to introduce a safety net, a point where all staff feel

that they have a basic understanding of what to do. This allows for

calmness within their physiological manner and as Maslow States

the first primary need within the hierarchy. From these basic prin-

ciples staff are slowly introduced to the more complex side of the

hospitality industry, from complicated orders to awkward custom-

ers. From my training I know that the staff at Cubanas are com-

fortable, happy and motivated to work to their very best.

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[email protected]

07595456823

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All Images are Credited and Copywrited

With Thanks to:

George Greed, Isabelle Compton, Rhian Israel , Miracle Theatre, Vine PR & Marketing, Grace Scott Photography, Trish Millard,

Caroline Young Illustrations, Simon Rix, Cubanas, Richard Musgrave & Downright Delicious

Skull Drawing Throughout Portfolio http://drawing-tutorials-online.com/public/images/gallery/skull_online1.jpg

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Creative Events Management