TAKING ON THE ROLE OF TEACHER IN MY FINAL YEAR

During my first term I delivered a workshop to my fellow Events Management students on ‘The impact of recent terrorist attacks on Event Security and what this means for Event Managers’. We were able to choose our topic from a variety of ideas, which suited our interests best. I appreciated the fact we had the choice and we weren’t restricted in the way our written essays on other courses assign us a set topic. Despite being a serious matter, it was certainly one that proved interesting to research.

Being a kinaesthetic learner, I thrive when involved with more engaging methods of learning. Planning a workshop and devising games and activities was definitely a more entertaining means of study compared to our usual lectures. 

Students also typically learn better and recall more when they are required to teach the material to someone else. But this had me questioning whether this is down to the pressure of relaying the correct information to your peers or because you’re simply mixing up styles of learning. I certainly felt obliged to ensure my slides were clear, concise and exciting to listen to.

From our experience of past tutorials I will admit I often feel disengaged after an hour of solid talking and no activity. By providing elements of participation through games it enabled us as the teachers to collate immediate, informal feedback. We were able to see if everyone was focused, participating, assess the general mood of the class and see from the quiz answers whether everyone had understood the informative parts of the workshop.

I was well prepared to answer the questions the games evoked. This was reflected in the feedback we received from our tutors, Ewa and Pam. They highlighted how we monitored the group work and answered questions well. I did however feel the pressure when teaching to my peers, to know the content thoroughly and to be able to justify my answers. Having the confidence to justify your reasoning and beliefs is not only important in the university environment but good preparation for the workplace too. 

Ewa and Pam also praised the level of research and content delivered during our workshop. However areas for improvement related to timings, speed of speech, focusing too much on our scripts and nerves. Despite rehearsing our slides, on the day nerves meant we all spoke faster than planned and finished 10 minutes early. This experience has highlighted the importance of rehearsing for pitches and presentations and this is something I will take with me to my future career.

If I were to run this workshop again, I would ensure there is a contingency plan in place for when there is time to spare. With our workshop being information heavy, I would aim to introduce a class debate as opposed to talking more ourselves. In another workshop I attended the student teachers spilt the class and encouraged a debate on drug use at events and festivals. This engaged everyone in the room and the discussion provided much to think about after the class.

Throughout this assignment, our group stayed focused on our topic and we all understood what we wanted to achieve. Being like-minded individuals we had no issues when it came to devising the structure and content. We worked confidently and efficiently together, communicating clearly and sharing responsibilities according to our work experience and strengths.

I feel that taking on the role of teacher in my final year has provided me with a variety of soft skills every events manager needs, consequently preparing me well for post-university employment. The skills I have gained from this experience include excellent organisation, the ability to carry out a number of tasks at the same time, good communication and people skills as well as the ability to focus on the attention to detail. Each of these skills I feel I have previously been able to apply in my role as Events Intern at The Walt Disney Company.

My experience on placement provided a great foundation for building my skills set up in my final year at university. While at Disney I was responsible for briefing volunteers and suppliers on event days. I also assisted the Events Manager compiling presentations for our Senior Vice President regarding event plans. As a future Events or Production Manager I can only expect to brief and converse with many more suppliers, venue hosts and guests on event days. Leading a workshop has helped build on my public speaking skills and experiences leading a discussion, giving me the confidence to carry these skills with me as I embark on my post-graduate career… wherever that may be!

On a final note, I think experiences like this at university are helping to shape the future managers of the events industry, providing a new wave of talent who are confident and ready to take on the challenging and dynamic world of events. It will certainly be interesting to reflect on the industry in 5 years time, hopefully as I am making my way up the career ladder. Are those individuals with degrees and university experience noticeably better at networking? Sales? Negotiating? Leading? And Managing? Time and experience will only tell.