HER23085617 SHR6E037P~002 Event Evaluation

Event Evaluation

For this module, we planned and organised a fundraising music event where we raised money for Leeds food banks. It was at Wapentake on the 14th of March 2026 and had an intimate audience of friends and music lovers; it was the perfect environment for a friendly fundraiser. My role in organising this event was overseeing and managing all of the donations, which I had to carefully plan for, as it was not a ticketed event and all donations were suggested but not compulsory. In this evaluation, I will outline how the planning process aligned with the production of our event and in which areas we could’ve improved to ensure it ran more smoothly. This essay will include relevant evidence to show the success of our event and will also include a reflection on what could have gone better. Video and photographic evidence will be attached, and I will explain how each piece of evidence supports specific operational areas.

We all devised specific roles in order to stay on top of all areas of the event. We ensured that we outlined our pre-event responsibilities, live event responsibilities and post-event responsibilities so we all had areas to be in charge of. My role was overseeing the charity donations. My pre-event responsibilities were making contact with the charity that we were raising money for, setting up an efficient donation system, and ensuring that they were happy with the ethics and promotion of our event. My live event responsibilities included asking for donations in a non-confrontational or pressuring way and explaining the beneficial work of the charity. My post-event tasks included calculating all of the donations we had collected and ensuring that the donations got to the charity, which meant I was overseeing the finances of the event, which is a huge responsibility. My role was crucial to the success of the event because I was the manager of the fundraising aspect of the event, which was a fundamental part of our event. All of the roles we devised for each other were equally important to ensure a smooth-running event. It required a lot of teamwork, collaboration and understanding of each other’s workload, but ultimately was the reason the event was successful.

Attached to this essay, there will be evidence in the form of photos, videos and screenshots relating to a specific topic outlined. The reason this evidence is included is to demonstrate our practical involvement and organisational process. Evidence will include figures ranging from social media posts and promotions to photos of the general event atmosphere. Each section of this essay will be supported by 3 pieces of evidence that are relevant and support the claims that I will make about our event in this evaluation. This is especially important for my role as donation manager, as there will be evidence attached to show the money being collected and donated. It was paramount that we went about this the right way so that the ethical side of the event cannot be questioned, and the evidence will show this.

We intended for our event to have an intimate and friendly vibe, and that required creativity, as ‘events are a unique blend of management, creativity and logistics’ (Bowdin et al.). This was evident in my role, where I had to create a friendly atmosphere and coordinate the charity aspect of the night. The crowd engagement with the bands was very good because most of the audience were friends of ours or the bands. As it was a smaller venue, it didn’t take much turnout for the event to look full, but there were about 30 people there. See Figure 1 of my attached evidence for a photograph of the crowd at peak time. The atmosphere met our expectations, but we could have worked harder to distribute the crowd more evenly to create more standing space, which would have allowed us to market the event to more people and increase donations.

Wapentake is a free venue, so we were not allowed to ticket the event in advance or at the door. We did, however, have a donation station that you had to pass in order to go through to the event, where we were selling raffle tickets for £4 and also encouraging any donations, and almost everyone bought a raffle ticket, including the staff. Furthermore, it was quite easy to manage the queues as there was no need for proof of tickets, and there was limited security. See Figure 2a for entry footage and Figure 2b for our donation station. As efficient as this was, it may have been easier to organise if we had a ticket system, even if the audience didn’t have to pay, so that we had an idea of numbers and if we were going to go over capacity.

We had quite limited security as we marketed our event as a small, intimate charity gig. We didn’t have security staff; however, one of our team members was at the door to ensure there was no trouble, and he was in communication with the bar staff so that there was no danger to the people inside. All of us on the team were on alert for incident management and crowd control. See Figure 3a showing one of our team on the door. We also took measures to ensure the artist’s equipment was safe and couldn’t be stolen (see Figure 3b) Looking back, we probably weren’t completely prepared for some security risks and could have hired security staff, but we overlooked it since it was a smaller event. However, the security measures that we took were effective.

We ensured that we considered health and safety throughout the night, as ‘risk management is a continuous process that identifies, analyses and responds to potential hazards’ (Silvers). In our initial risk assessment, which was part of the planning process, we outlined the potential health and safety hazards in Wapentake. Our main concerns were with the size of the venue and area for artists to play versus the area for the crowd to stand without being uncomfortable or at risk. We addressed this by putting caution tape where the band were playing (see Figure 4) and ensuring that there was a direct, unobstructed route to the fire exit and the toilet. Another key risk we focused on was equipment hazards. These risks were avoided by having our sound engineer check all of the equipment that the artists had brought themselves. Though we prioritised health and safety, I was aware that, through the night, people weren’t using the toilet as a precaution to not interrupt the show, as the path was very close to the bands. In future, it would be a good idea to have the path to the toilet a bit further away from the bands.

One of our team members played in a band at the event, and he organised the production and technical side of things. We had a general idea of a dimly lit vibe that we wanted for the night, and Wapentake accommodated that (see Figure 5a). We ensured that the dim light wasn’t a hazard for artists, audience or staff. Our friend who works at Wapentake is the sound engineer for every gig there, and he was happy, knowing the cause of our event, to do it for free. In Figure 5b, you can see our sound engineer ensuring that the sound was consistent throughout the night. All of our team were also there at the end to ensure that the breakdown was as smooth as the setup. There were no technical issues as far as I was aware, but in future I’m sure we could’ve designed more suitable and interesting lighting.

We communicated with the artists mostly by speaking in person to ask them to play. They were given a schedule of the night, e.g. when they were playing, when to get there, when the soundcheck was, etc. (see Figure 6a). We used the upstairs area of Wapentake as a green room where they were free to go throughout the event and place their equipment (see Figure 6b). Artist satisfaction was high overall due to the measures we put in place.

We had a running order taking into account the time it would take all of the bands to set up and soundcheck. We also set up the stage to accommodate all of the bands with a specific stage plan, which was carried out by both our team and the Wapentake staff so that everyone knew how it was going to go once the show had started (see Figure 7). However, there was a delay in starting as our last band had a late soundcheck, so we had to adjust accordingly. In hindsight, we should have asked the bands to arrive earlier to set up. Once the show began, there were no disruptions in the event, and we finished well before curfew.

During the planning process, we came up with an online marketing campaign to promote the event to people. This included Instagram posts and stories, email via a mailing list, an event page, specific hashtags and analytics tracking. When it came to executing this, we limited it to a few Instagram posts and sharing with our friends through word of mouth. There is evidence of this with the Instagram post of our poster and its related insights (see Figure 8). In reflection, we missed the mark on this section of our event as we lacked consistency and reached a limited audience and therefore limited the turnout. With a more organised strategy, we definitely could have raised more awareness and therefore more money for the cause, even with the limited capacity of the venue. We had a post calendar that we devised together, which, if we had followed, a lot more people would have known about the event. In future, online marketing is something I will see as non-negotiable to focus on when planning an event.

Our promotion plan was to get our friend to design some artwork for the event and use it for all of our promotion. This includes our posters and our Instagram posts; we paid her £5 to design and execute this artwork. We then printed out several posters and put them up around the conservatoire and in Wapentake itself (see Figure 9). All of our team had the job of distributing these posters to ensure that we maximised awareness. Upon reflection, our posters were quite visible, especially around the conservatoire, which I feel contributed to attendance. However, we weren’t prioritising awareness outside of the conservatoire, which, if we were organising a larger event, would be important.

As I have outlined in this essay, our event was not ticketed and was completely free to attend, so all of the money that we made from the raffle and donations went to Leeds North and West food banks. The aim of an event can be understood through its intended outcomes, as “planned events are created to achieve specific outcomes, including social, cultural and economic benefits” (Getz). In this case, we tried to maximise audience engagement and funds raised for charity. We also urged everyone to bring non-perishable foods for us to donate. In total, we made £71 to donate to charity. We spent £5.80 on artwork and printing posters, which all of our team chipped in for. So, though we made a loss, it was only £5.80, and we were happy to spend that money on our event. I have attached a settlement sheet to show this. I have also attached a picture of us taking donations at the event and the proof of sending the money to charity (see Figure 10). Overall, we chose a fundraising event so we weren’t going to make money, but as the donation manager, I think we successfully promoted our donation system at the event and raised as much money as we could.

To conclude, many aspects made our event successful, and the areas that we missed the mark on have been good learning experiences, so we know what to do next time to improve. We had strength across key areas such as health and safety, and event atmosphere. These strengths were mostly down to our extensive planning process and the allocation of roles within our team. I have honed many of the skills that I need as someone hoping to get into this industry, such as communication and problem-solving. Since this is the first event that I have organised, all of the mistakes my team and I made have been helpful and educational. Our main mistake was overlooking the online marketing side of putting on an event, and I will definitely focus on that when I put on another event. Upon reflection, we needed to strictly stick to our plan and schedule that we devised in the planning process. This experience will definitely affect my future event management practice positively and has helped me gain confidence.

Bibliography

Thomas, R. and Bowdin, G. (2012) ‘Events Management Research: State of the Art’, Event Management, 16(2), pp. 103–106. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3727/152599512×13343565268212.
Rollyson, A. (2025) Why All The Fuss About Settlement Sheets? – FLi Artists, FLi Artists. Available at: https://fliartists.com/2025/05/20/settlement-sheets/ (Accessed: 2 April 2026).

Getz, D. (2012) ‘Event Studies: Discourses and Future Directions’, Event Management, 16(2), pp. 171–187. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3727/152599512×13343565268456.
Health and Safety (2010) Musiciansunion.org.uk. Available at: https://musiciansunion.org.uk/health-safety-wellbeing/health-and-safety (Accessed: 4 April 2026).
Silvers Risk Management for Meetings and Events Silvers, J.R. (2008) Risk Management for Meetings and Events. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Leeds North & West Foodbank | Helping Local People in Crisis (2024) Foodbank.org.uk. Available at: https://leedsnorthandwest.foodbank.org.uk/ (Accessed 8 April 2026).