OWJ + 1 OWJ Program Participant + Reframe Marketing + 4 days of planning + 5 Amazing Volunteers = Dozens more people that know about One Week Job!

First off, I want to shout out a huge THANK YOU to everyone who helped make the first OWJ Street Team Event a SUCCESS!

For my week as an Event Planner, I decided to stage a pop-up event to help promote awareness of One Week Job. We staked out a spot in Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, and started spreading the news! We set up a table, handed out brochures, approached strangers, and did our best to get the word out there.

Good Things:

Table was good as a central location and place to talk to passerby - had a good number of people come up to the booth and ask us about what we were doing
The signage helped attract attention, ie: “I am Passionate About…” sign
We signed up (approx.) 10 new people to receive One Week Job emails, and win an autographed book/coffee-meeting with Sean!
A couple business people approached Sean and exchanged business cards – wanted to talk more about possibly working together
We handed out all 100 of our fliers
Had 5 volunteers show up to help!! Amazing!
Not everyone is on social media, so it was a good way to share the program face-to-face with those who might not have found it online

Ways to Improve:

Been more coordinated with our branding – we wore yellow, but there could always be more yellow!
Had an activity/game to attract people
More volunteers
Hit more street corners, moved around more
More time - Started earlier and gone longer
More/larger signage, put them up around where we were located, at cross walks, etc.
Giveaways – something immediate other than the brochures that we could have given out. ie: candy, OWJ branded toy

In the end, I learned the basics on how to pull an event together, and trust me - it's TOUGH!

I seriously stressed out about this one...of course I wanted to make sure it promoted the OWJ name and didn't sully it in any way. I'm also not that familiar with Vancouver, so it was tough figuring out where we should position ourselves, and where to get our supplies from. Obviously, my time frame wasn't that flexible, as I had to get everything planned out in less than 4 days! I had Monday to Wednesday to get everything in place...NUTS!

There was a lot of discussion with Sean and Ian, as they put in their 2 cents. They were my "clients" - so I had to please them as best I could!

Karen from Reframe Marketing was great - she contacted media outlets, emailed her business list, and was even there the day of to hand out fliers for me! I really appreciated her help - she kept reminding me to have fun and stay focused during the planning stage.

In the end, to be completely honest...I'm not sure that I'm cut out for Event Planning at this point in my life. I've been struggling a lot with my stress-level, not just with this event, but with my life in general. I found that planning this really freaked out both my physical and mental state; I had trouble sleeping, and I could actually feel my heart rate go up as I worried about how I would ever get everything done that I wanted to.

Of course my time limit didn't help things, but if I was ever put in charge of someone's wedding or a corporate event that actually HAD a budget and higher expectations, I'm not sure how I would cope! This was a steep learning curve, but I suppose eventually I would learn to be more comfortable in this kind of a role.

It was cool to feel as if I was in charge...Karen totally let me drive it, and Sean kept telling people that I was his boss ;) I loved the first part of the day, when everyone had showed up on location, and we had a little pow-wow to start things off. To be in that circle of people, and know that everyone was there to help out and make the day a success, was extremely heart warming.

I know how lucky I am to have so many supportive people in my life - my family, my friends, and all the employers that have so kindly taken me on - it blows me away every time I think about it!

Have a great long weekend Canada!

- Amanda