Five aspects to consider when planning an event(Zephyr)

1. Budget: Determine an appropriate budget for the circumstances. Within zephyr, you have to consider a budget for potentially 500 students. How much food will we need? What venues will we be using? What will activities/ entertainment cost for the simulation? Unfortunately, things will come up too. Whether you want it or not, flukes will happen so its important to include a bit more in your budget than expected in case you need that buffer.

2. Objectives: What exactly is this event and what do we hope to achieve in the end? What are some overall goals? Hurricane Zephyr is a simulated category 5 hurricane that gives students perspective as to what it’s like to be hit by a huge natural disaster and the impact it would have on campus. A few main aspects to be considered are evacuation plans, assessing the overall damage, and decision making in regards to overall operations on campus.

3. Target audience: Who do you want to be apart of this trip? How will you promote it? In regards to zephyr, the main target audience is students. As we discussed in class, students are more likely to participate in something involving incentives. For example, Dr. Persuit offered an exempt blog post for the first two people who decided to go on the trip, which intrigued some of us. Along with that, food and snacks will be covered during the event which is appealing to most.

4. Timing: What is the overall schedule? When planning an event as specific at the Zephyr exercise, it’s crucial to know what’s happening at each time of day to avoid any conflicts. If we were to be hit by a category 5 hurricane, we’d need to know what to do and in what manner to be able to evacuate safely.

5. Evaluation: Once your event has occurred, evaluate it and see what you did well and what you could improve on. Reach out to your target audience again and see if they have any feedback for the next event. Since Zephyr is such a huge event that has been planned for the past two years, it’s crucial to know what to change for next time. Maybe meet up with all of the participants and debrief- while they’re still present. Another idea would be a survey to see how the event played out from different perspectives.

 

-Allison Whitley