EMRS S2R3 2011/2012
MINI ROADSHOW @ NANYANG POLYTECHNIC LINKWAY
22th of February, a day that has left a lasting impression on us. It was the first event that we had organized. Joy, grief, disappointment & excitement were few of the many emotions that ran through us. Let us now take you on a walk down memory lane!
We started on this project about a week before the event day. Faced with such a daunting task, we were not confident of our abilities, as this was the first time we were planning something like this. Small though the roadshow might be, we still put in our very best effort.
On the 3rd day, our supervisor announced that there would be friendly competition between the different teams. That statement alone sparked our competitive spirit and each team began a race to compete against one another. Tension was running high and emotions flew all over the place as we raced against time to meet the deadlines.
The day before the event was best described as frantic. Everyone was rushing to meet the deadlines and do last minute adjustments. What further agitated everyone was the arrival of the stocks that we had previously ordered. Every team received less than they had ordered and some items were not even given to us. Agitated, frustrated and ready to call it quits, we held a meeting to change our action plan. Luckily for us, we had a previously constructed a risk matrix and were ready for this setback. We rated the probability of occurrence as high and had our countermeasures. We readjusted the overall theme to our booth and made several noticeable changes to our posters and flyers. This was an eventful but fruitful day.
Event day had finally arrived and everyone was excited. Everyone arrived in school earlier than usual and there was noticeable excitement and nervousness in the atmosphere. Our first stop was the fixtures room. Gathering there at 9am, some of us got started right away. Obviously, that was a wrong move. Instructions were to gather at 9, but we simply assumed we could get started. Apologizing for our mistake to Ms Choo, we promised not to repeat the error and got started on setting up our booth immediately.
Every team was ready and raring to go at 10.20am. There were several hiccups along the way but everything was proceeding as planned. At 10.30am, the Mini Roadshow officially started. All the teams had their own dress code and different themes for their booths. The theme of our booth was Memory Lane. We mainly sold items that could capture memories, or store memories in one way or another. Business was not very good for the first hour or so. Luckily for us, our team had another plan. We did mobile selling, as we realized that due to the high prices of our products, it was easier to target lecturers with higher spending power rather than students. The plan worked brilliantly, and drew in profits of over $150 by itself.
Throughout the event, we were tested on various aspects of handling a roadshow. One of the factors our team was lacking in was product knowledge. We actually had a customer tell us more about the product and he knew more about the product than we did. Miscommunication was another problem that we faced, information was not properly disseminated and it led to other problems arising.
All in all, the event was executed rather smoothly although there were a few hiccups. Before we knew it, it was 3.30pm and we had to get ready to set down the roadshow. Despite everyone being deadbeat, we all helped out in returning fixtures and removing posters from our booth. People from different teams were helping one another with their fixtures and it was a heart-warming sight to see the cohesiveness of everyone.
