By Michael Ramos | Strategic Organizational Communication
Youtube Link For Visuals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1BBRW33420
Project Summary
In an effort to help the Pacific Roots Association become more financially independent and maintain sustainable activity levels for future semesters, I collaborated with the club to conceptualize, plan, and execute their first Lū’au event. This project aimed to raise funds to support the club’s growth while celebrating and sharing the rich cultural diversity of the Pacific Islands with the campus community and local residents in Rexburg, ID
Attendance Goal: 100
Revenue Goal: $1,000
Actual Attendance: 135
Actual Revenue: $2,000+
BACKGROUND
A traditional Hawaiian lū’au is a large gathering that typically features a feast, cultural music, and live performances. The Pacific Roots Association, an unofficial cultural club at BYU-Idaho for students from the Pacific Islands, had planned to host its first lū’au event in 2020. However, those plans were derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, organizing a large-scale event like a lū’au has proven challenging for the club.
The most significant obstacles have included recruiting enough participants to learn and perform traditional dances, obtaining materials to create and preserve costumes for future use, and securing or preparing enough food to serve a large crowd. Beyond these logistical hurdles, club members must balance the demands of organizing such an event with their commitments to academics, work, relationships, and other extracurricular activities.
Light Bulb Moment
Hosting a lū’au was not something I initially envisioned for my senior project. My original ideas revolved around topics like self-improvement, sales, ADHD, podcasting, or substance abuse, but none of them sparked passion and creativity. On the final day to submit my project proposal, I found myself in conversation with a friend from Hawai’i, reminiscing about how much I enjoyed my honeymoon in Oahu, HI. When they asked about my favorite experience, I immediately answered, “The PCC (Polynesian Cultural Center).” At that moment, the idea for my senior project came to me.
While I didn’t know much about hosting a Hawaiian lū’au at the time, my wife and I have developed close friendships with many students whose roots are in the Pacific Islands. Since 2022, we’ve been actively involved in the Pacific Roots Association, attending meetings, socials, and even participating in BYU-Idaho’s Culture Night. Together with the group, we’ve performed traditional dances from Tonga and Fiji, deepening our connection to these cultures.
Getting Started
I have never been in charge of hosting and organizing an event, but I have been responsible for overseeing projects. I spent two semesters working as a project manager for our University’s creative agency, Soapbox. During my time there, I learned many lessons and guiding principles for getting projects to move along, which I felt transferred over and applied to planning events. Two lessons I learned were:
1. Everyone needs to be on the same page.
2. Be proactive.
As soon as I got the idea for the lū’au, the first thing I knew I needed to do was learn about it and get a basic understanding of it. I met with the co-presidents of the Pacific Roots Association (they’re my friends) and they loved the idea. Conversations go easier when you’re prepared.
Project Brief
During my time as a project manager, I learned that it was industry standard to create a brief that outlines the scope of the project. This document would help everyone be on the same page. The brief is very important and must be detailed because it would be our guide throughout the whole project. I took time to research important questions to ask when organizing an event and then created a brief to fill out. I met with the co-presidents of the club several times to go over the brief until it was ready to share with our future anticipated stakeholders: a food vendor & venue owner.
Timeline
Since the Senior Showcase is November 21st, 2024, I figured that the best time to host it would be the Friday the week before. With a date, and only 8 weeks from the time I started, I made a general timeline of things that should get done by a certain timeframe so that the project wouldn’t be in danger of getting pushed back. I did research on the internet for a couple of days to learn about the dos and don’ts of event planning. The following is the timeline:
Vendors
Two vendors were at the top of my list: Kainoa’s Hawaiian Grill and Mo’ Bettahs. They’re the only restaurants to sell Hawaiian food in Rexburg. In the early stages of this project, my biggest goal was to have a caterer cut their prices by 50%. That’s a lot to ask for, I believe. I decided to visit both of these locations to give an unofficial pitch. I hoped to identify the key stakeholders and establish a relationship.
September 24th
When I went to Kainoa’s, I spoke with a cashier and told him that I was with the Pacific Roots Club, a group representing the cultures of the Pacific Islands and that I wanted to know if they’ve ever done fundraisers in the past. He told me that he wasn’t sure, wrote my contact information on a sticky note, and told me “I’ll pass this along to him.”
After this visit, I headed to Mo’ Bettahs. I recognized a dear friend who worked there and ordered a plate of food. While we caught up, I told him that I was doing my senior project and was hoping to speak with a manager. Luckily, the manager was in-store but told me that he would need to get approvals from the corporate headquarters to do any kind of fundraiser. I left the manager with my project brief.
September 26th
I received the following text from Jeremy, owner of Kainoa’s:
“Good morning Michael. This is Jeremy from Kainoa’s Hawaiian Grill. I got your message about looking for some sort of sponsorship. You can give me a call back at this number or come by the restaurant today before 1:30 and we can chat. Sorry it’s taken me a few days to get back to you.”
I responded with:
“Jeremy, thank you for getting back to me, really. I know that running a restaurant and balancing other responsibilities must take a lot of your time.
I won’t be able to make it today due to conflicting schedules but could we meet sometime early next week? I can give you a call later today to briefly explain what my organization is looking for so you can know what to expect. “
I called him later that day and he said that he’d love to help out with our lu’au. We planned to meet on September 30th.
Vendor Secured
On this day, I brought one of the co-presidents of the Pacific Roots club, and we went over what the possibilities of a sponsorship could look like. We thought of asking for food donations or having a sponsored night where a certain percentage of sales go to the group,
The meeting couldn’t have gone better. Jeremy mentioned that he used to work closely with the Polynesian group of students but communication died after the 2020 pandemic. He said it’s been a slow semester for the restaurant ever since Mo’ Bettahs came to Rexburg. He said that if this lu’au would help promote his business, he would 100% cover the cost of the food. That was amazing news!! We also planned to have a sponsored night on October 19th. 10% of sales would go to us.
Success
Venue Secured
This part of the project was delegated to a co-president. She had been in contact with three potential venues but communication had died. One day, on her way to work in Sugar City, she noticed The Aisle Wedding and Event Center and checked it out. She met the owner, Debi, and was given a tour. They set a venue tour for next week for the other co-president and me to check it out and ask questions. After we received the tour the following week, we decided to move forward. The price was great, the venue was spacious enough, not too far, and had decorations free to use.
Culture Night
Throughout the whole semester, we practiced dance numbers for Tonga, Fiji, and the Cook Islands. We were going to use these three for the lu’au as well. On November 9th, we used Culture Night as a way to promote the lu’au. We had asked the MC to announce that if the audience liked what they saw, we would be hosting a lu’au the following week, and if they wanted more information, they would need to follow our Instagram page.
Event Day: Pacific Root’s Inaugural Lū’au.
On November 15th, we had our event, and it was a complete success! We passed the 100 ticket capacity but people kept walking inside to pay and the venue owner, Debi, said she had more tables and chairs downstairs, so we retrieved them and admitted more people in. They got fed as well. The ticket they paid for included a meal from Kainoa’s, or from us (we made extra food the night before in case something like this happened).
We ended the night surpassing our revenue goal by over 100%.
