欧美视频

By Jeff Murphy, December 19, 2019

As part of a competitive learning experience in the fall Events Management course, 欧美视频 students presented proposals for a special event to Warrensburg Main Street. Shown with WMS leaders, the team with the winning proposal, 鈥淪napshots of the 鈥楤urg,鈥� includes, left to right, Shota Huguchi; Isabel Anderson; Ashley Durbin; Jill Purvis, WMS executive director; Jamie DeBakker, WMS event manager; Sarah Craig, WMS treasurer;  Anna Gicinto; and Meagan Williams.
 
WARRENSBURG, MO 鈥� Working with Warrensburg Main Street, 欧美视频 students are putting their knowledge of event planning into practice to create opportunities to attract people to the downtown area this spring while also enhancing the ability to market the community. Thanks to a student-Main Street partnership, planning is currently underway for what is tentatively coined 鈥淪napshots of the 鈥楤urg.鈥�

The project began with nine students who were part of the junior-level Events Management course taught by Keira Solon, assistant professor in the Division of Business Strategy within the Harmon College of Business and Professional Studies. The initiative grew out of an idea that Main Street Director Jill Purvis shared with Solon last summer. It provided a win-win situation for Main Street to gain assistance from events marketing and management students in a way that would give them valuable experiential learning opportunities. In return, Main Street gets help promoting Warrensburg鈥檚 history and economic vitality.

With these overarching goals, during the fall 2019 semester Solon鈥檚 students divided into four teams to develop and pitch concepts for special events for Warrensburg Main Street鈥檚 leadership to consider. After weeks of planning, each team pitched their ideas to the Main Street leadership in September, which ultimately narrowed the choices down to two student proposals.

鈥淲e then divided the class into a team of four and a team of five, and they each respectively worked on one of the two ideas. The winning idea was called 鈥楽napshots of the 鈥楤urg,鈥欌�� Solon said, noting that the board also liked elements of the 鈥淪hop and Crawl,鈥� event which was proposed by the second student team as a way to help spark commerce downtown.

鈥淭he idea behind 鈥楽napshots of the 鈥楤urg鈥� is that it will begin with an online photo contest. One of Warrensburg Main Street鈥檚 needs is that they don鈥檛 have enough images for their marketing materials,鈥� Solon said.

Students proposed that by sponsoring a photo contest, community residents could help share images of local dining opportunities, architecture, places of interest and more that Main Street can use in promotional materials. Elements of the 鈥楽hop and Crawl鈥� also could be rolled into the final event to provide  an opportunity for viewing the photographs and helping to select winning entries, while also providing a way to get people to visit local businesses.

鈥淲e鈥檙e still in the phase of figuring out how to merge the two proposals,鈥� Solon said.

She added that her spring 2020 Advanced Events Management senior-level class will be responsible for finalizing event details with a goal to stage the event during Warrensburg Main Street鈥檚 first seasonal Art Walk on April 3. More information, including photo submission deadlines, will be announced as exact dates, times and opportunities are determined.

Students who participated in the 鈥淪napshots of the 鈥楤urg鈥� team were: Shota Huguchi, Isabel Anderson, Ashley Durbin, Anna Gicinto, and Meagan Williams. Representing the 鈥淪hop and Crawl鈥� team were Kylie Thompson, Ashley James, Jake King and Chris Butler.  Many of these students will return this spring.

Noting  the benefits of working with students, Purvis said, 鈥淲hen having an opportunity to partner with a UCM class or organization, this creates the potential to showcase what Downtown has to offer as well as create real- life opportunities within a community they are living in that will have a lasting impact. Many times when a UCM group partners with us, they are unaware of what we do as an organization and what we offer for the Downtown community.鈥�  While students also learn about local stores and restaurants they may have not known existed beforehand, she said, such partnerships 鈥渃reate a ripple effect of sharing what they learn with peers and faculty which helps drive more foot traffic to our businesses. It also builds a hometown bond with them so they begin to see why many of us love Warrensburg.鈥�

Solon said over the next few months students involved in the project will gain experience in areas that also include social media and financial planning in collaboration with Main Street. She emphasized the value of what the experience has provided to date, and how it applies to career building.

鈥淥ne of the main things they learned was how to listen to the client, take the client鈥檚 needs into consideration and then create something that appeals to the client as opposed to something that appeals to a particular student,鈥� Solon said. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e learned a lot of the restrictions of working for a non-profit organization in that budget is very limited. It forced students to really explore what had to be purchased, UCM promises an education that allows students to experience opportunity in action. Asked how this project meets that goal, Solon said, 鈥淭hey are getting experience that鈥檚 going far beyond the classroom that will impact them in numerous ways. The most obvious way is that it is something that will go on their resumes. Also, the relationships they are building with Warrensburg Main Street and local businesses could potentially open up professional opportunities for them.  The other thing I think it鈥檚 doing is an unintended consequence 鈥� it鈥檚 getting those students involved with the local Warrensburg community, and it鈥檚 making them feel like they are part of the community as opposed to being exclusively part of UCM,鈥� she said.