Active Minds: Event Planning & Promotion
Collaborated with campus groups to plan and promote a week-long event series focused on mental health awareness.
Project Overview
Stress Less Week is a week-long series of events that helps students reduce stress the week before finals. Each day there are different events around campus and tabling in the student union. For each event that students attend, they receive a raffle ticket, and twelve winners are picked at the end of the week.
This event series is sponsored and planned by the mental health group on campus, Active Minds. As the former president of Active Minds, I oversaw the planning and promotion of the event series. I collaborated with twelve organizations on campus. I also worked with my own organization’s executive board and staff advisor.
Time Frame
Location
Services Provided
Affiliation
Project Scope
I coordinated with the presidents of twelve organizations across campus to plan daily events. I met with each collaborator in person two to three times to plan each event and regularly emailed them.
I managed logistics such as space rental and supply orders. I booked the spaces for each event using my university’s scheduling system. I created a supply list with the executive board members and assisted with tracking our organization's budget.
In addition to the planning, I spearheaded the promotion of the event series. I created a variety of posts, flyers, screen ads, and even designed a webpage (found here).
Logistics
I communicated with other organizations to collaborate on events. I kept in contact with the school's scheduling manager to adjust event times/locations as necessary.
I used Google Drive to organize and share information related to the event series with the executive board. The treasurer was assigned to track the budget using Google Sheets, and the secretary was tasked with keeping meeting notes in Google Docs.
I used the project management tool Basecamp to assign tasks to the executive board members. I created events and to-do lists within Basecamp to track progress and make sure tasks are being completed on time.
Social Media
Using Canva, I designed unique advertisements, social posts, and story posts for each event that included related branding to tie them together. I used Facebook Business Suite to schedule pre-designed posts throughout the week.
I took pictures and videos at each event and posted about them live on the main Facebook and Instagram feeds as well as on the stories of both platforms.
I submitted the graphics to the university to share on their official social media page. The designs were displayed on screens at targeted locations on campus as well.
Promotion
I used Adobe Express to create a webpage that detailed the schedule for each day and linked to each collaborating organization's socials. The link for this website was included in our Instagram bio and screen advertisements as a QR code.
Remind was used to send members daily texts with information about events. There were over one hundred people signed up for Remind notifications. I also emailed members on our email list detailing the event series.
The Process
Here's a look into the planning and promotion for this week-long event series.
Results
Stress Less Week had the largest event turnout in the past three years. Our Stuff-a-Plush event alone had a turnout of over 200 people.
Eight different events were hosted with twelve organizations throughout the week with at least one event per day. There was daily tabling that handed out snacks, drinks, and goodie bags. By the end of the week, almost all supplies had been given away at said tables. One to two therapy dogs were in the library every day of the week as well.
The awareness surrounding Active Minds on campus significantly increased and Instagram followers increased by fourteen in the week of the event series. There were eight volunteers throughout the week–the most of any previous Stress Less Week. We also partnered with new organizations including The Exponent, Clay Club, and S.A.L.S.A.
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