From being a small inter-SFU MIS case competition to being North America’s largest MIS Case Competition with top competitors from all over the globe, CaseIT has faced an immense amount of growth over the past 11 years. The changes that were made to accompany the growth of the competition have been a wondrous and exciting experience for the students and professionals who have been a part of the competition.
Having been part of the organizing committee for two years, I’ve been able to develop some insight on how to run a successful large-scale event. Here, I want to share three key pieces of advice on how to run a successful event while receiving the greatest benefit from the organizing experience.
First and most importantly, challenge yourself and your existing skills. In challenging yourself to take on an unfamiliar role, you are stepping beyond your comfort zone and the amount of personal growth under these circumstances will be immense. When I first applied for potential organizing roles with the CaseIT organization, I chose to be the sponsorship executive over the creative executive despite knowing that I would enjoy and be more comfortable in the latter position. Although the learning curve was large, I was able to develop skills that I had never challenged myself to develop before. That year, I expanded my professional network and learned how to properly communicate with industry professionals. From taking an hour to compose my first e-mail to taking 5 minutes to send my 600th e-mail, the amount of personal growth I gained from stepping out of my comfort zone has been incomparable to any other experience.
My second piece of advice is to go beyond your role. Although I didn’t take on the role as the creative executive, I was still able to contribute by giving feedback on their work based on my personal experience. Going beyond your role is understanding the other roles in your team along with the individuals associated with each position. Many times in event organization, the work that is done will overlap between varying roles. By understanding each role and each individual in depth, you will be better able to work as a team. Understanding each individual’s skill and expertise can be helpful in terms of knowing where to go to for advice on a specific topic for the event. Input and feedback from others is crucial in creating great work. By developing these relationships through understanding each team member, the quality of your experience at the event will be higher as well. Not only will you be comfortable in asking for help, you will likely also have more fun in organizing an event with people you can now call friends.
My last piece of advice is to be proactive in engaging with the participants. Especially for multi-day events, the comfort that is developed through this relationship will ensure that the needs of the participants are taken care of. Should problems or questions arise during the event, this relationship ensures that participants are comfortable enough to approach organizing members for help. The quality-level of these relationships is usually a good determinant of how successful the event was run. Although “engaging with the participants” is not specified within any job description, it is one of the most important tasks within an event.
These tips may seem innate, but often times it can be easy to forget such simple and seemingly natural things to do because of the overwhelming amount of tasks that need to get done to maintain the basics of an event. Based on my experience with CaseIT, the value that is added through these simple actions is the defining factor of what differentiates a good event from a great event.
Cheryl has had experience with a diverse range of student activities which include her recent roles as the Director of Community Relations for BASS FROSH and the Sponsorship Executive for CaseIT 2013. She continues to be part of CaseIT 2014 as Creative Director. She is extremely excited to be a part of the Ambassador program so that she can broaden her insights andchannel her new knowledge into giving back to the Beedie community.