Project purpose or objectives
Putting on this trunk or treat for big deal outlet was to help the community have a safe place to bring children to get candy and celebrate Halloween. Another reason why we were putting it on was to provide an opportunity to have small businesses get their names out in the community.
The project
Pictures from the event on October 27th.
Challenges encountered in completing the project
During the event there was an issue trying to get power for the jump house. This caused the event to start about 5-10 minutes late. We decided to move the bounce house to a completely different location in the parking lot, but it ended up working out better because it was more convenient for the kids to be able to jump while they were waiting in line to go through and get candy from all the different cars.
Project processes
I sat down with my mentor and other managers at Big Deal Outlet to come up with a game plan as well as picking dates to have the event. We talked about how many people they wanted to have there as well as what kind of activities they wanted. After having several different meetings with them we came up with a plan to have a trunk or treat on October 27th.
We wanted to include other small businesses in the Idaho Falls area. We decided to invite food vendors to come park in our parking lot near the cars that would be passing out candy.
I also had to make a list of games and activities that would be there. One of those things was a bounce house and so I had to research different bounce house companies in the area and then book a bounce house to be delivered for the day of the event.
Once we had a list of food vendors, I had to start making calls to see who would want to participate in the event.
We also created an event on Facebook and shared it on the Big Deal Outlet page to get the word out to the community. The event reach over 3,500 people on Facebook.
Once we had our food vendors committed, we would share their business page on the event page to get their name out into the community as well as get people excited for the different types of food that would be at the trunk or treat.
On the day of the event I got to the parking lot of Big Deal Outlet at 6:00 AM to block off spaces to ensure we would have a place to park all the cars, food vendors, and have a place for the different activities.
An overview of the experiences you had
This was a great opportunity to work with many different businesses and to be able to put a fun and safe event on for the community. Working with many different individuals from different businesses was very pleasant as they were all cooperative and easy to work with.
It seemed like everyone that was involved with the event wanted it to go well and was willing to pitch in where they were needed. Planning and putting on this event required a lot of work, but it was very rewarding as I was able to speak with many of the parents and children that came to participate. I was also able to communicate with the food vendors that came and hear how successful it was for them to be there. They all said they wanted to participate in this type of event next year there is.
There were over 400 people at the event.
What takeaways you have gained from the project
Working with different businesses to put on an event for their local community was very beneficial. It was so neat to see how they wanted to come together to help create a safe place for these families to celebrate a fun holiday and it was awesome to see how many people came out to support local businesses.
There were many things I learned from this project. It’s important to have a plan in place and have enough time to plan and prepare beforehand. Having a good team is essential to having a great event. At times I felt like I was doing a lot, but as I started to delegate to my team, things started to run more smoothly and stress was taken off of myself and a few other individuals.
Having the right tools and planning having a specific plan on how to execute an idea makes all the difference.