That’s all Folks!

Source: 2bitentertainment.blogspot.com

To all my lovely readers! I am sad to say that this will be my last blog for the University of Greenwich. I have been lucky enough to have been offered a fantastic opportunity with an events company local to Greenwich. It’s a bittersweet feeling that my time is going to end with the Enquiry Unit, but this will be the first big step to launch my career in the events industry.

The company specialises in international conferences in the fire safety and the engineering field. This is an interesting area of conferences and the company is well established in their field, so I’m excited to get to understand not only the area of conferences but also this area of specialism. I will start full time at the end of May so this will be a fantastic end to University before I graduate!

I have really enjoyed my time within the Enquiry Unit and also studying for my degree at the University of Greenwich. I will be sad to go but I’m looking forward to starting my career in the industry which I have worked hard to be a part of over the last three year.

Finally, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has read my blog. I hope that you have enjoyed reading it and it has been of some benefit helping your decision whether or not to join University of Greenwich or start an Events Management degree. I wish you all the best of luck and thank you once again! Goodbye and all the best for the future J   

Revision Timetable

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter! I headed off home for the majority of the Easter break which was lovely. I was able to catch up with all my family and friends since I haven’t been able to go home since Christmas. It was extremely relaxing especially after handing in my dissertation and the remainder of my coursework. I also ate my own weight in Easter eggs so it’s straight back to exercising for me, oops!

I’ve also begun my revision timetable for my exams; I have two this year for Sporting Events Management and Contemporary Issues in Events Management. I have my longest exam this year of three hours, which will be killer, but hopefully the preparation will pay off. Everyone has their own revision technique, but I find it useful to firstly read up on everything, going over my notes and lecture slides. I then begin to break the information down onto revision cards and revise these. Then once I am confident I begin to answer the past exam paper questions. It took me a while to establish which method worked best for me, exams I always find to be stressful and much prefer coursework. But, preparation is the key as you have the knowledge to be able to answer the questions and not get too stressed in the exam.

Information is slowly filtering through about my graduation ceremony which is exciting. It still shocks me how quickly time has flown since I started my degree. I have confirmed my tickets and next need to sort out my graduation gown. All strange concepts but it’s just round the corner in July! More importantly I also need to buy my outfit, which I imagine is going to take me a while.

Source: https://www.ccsf.edu/NEW/en/student-services/admissions-and-registration/records/evaluation-and-graduation.html

In other news I am continuing with my graduate job search and have been applying for various opportunities, so I have my fingers crossed for responses from those. I am applying for many different opportunities and have found the practise at writing my covering letters and tailoring my CV one of the most difficult parts of the process. But, practise makes perfect as they say!

The end is near

So its crunch time! My dissertation is complete, and only needs the final adjustments. Completely nerve racking but I am submitting early in that hope that if any problems do occur I am able to rectify these. It’s a strange feeling seeing the finished product after spending such a long time completing it, but I hope all the hard work has paid off!

I am looking forward to Easter, it will be lovely, all my coursework will be finished and I can just concentrate on revision for my exams in May. I am planning on going home for some of the Easter break and seeing all my family and friends, and of course eat chocolate.

 

Source: www.derby.ac.uk

I worked at one of the business school taster days this weekend, meeting lots of the new applicants who will hopefully be joining the university in September. It was a great day, besides the rain, but everyone seemed exciting and there were plenty of activities going on during the event.

Source: www.peopleplusconsulting.com

Back to reality and I'm realising the short timeframe I have until the end of my degree and I'm beginning to look more seriously at job applications and graduate schemes. I have been following opportunities for the last year or so to get an idea of what jobs are out there and what they look for in a candidate so that I can prepare myself and also making some applications. I have also been visiting the Employability Team at the University who have been extremely helpful in giving me advice about how and where to apply, what type of jobs and revising my CV to graduate job standard. Writing Covering letters is also something which I have been struggling with, I am never sure if I’m writing too much or too little. But the employability team also provided me with lots of advice of this and as with most things, practise makes perfect! I would defiantly recommend using the services available from the GET team, many people forget they are there and don't take the opportunity to make full advantage of the services. The link below has the timetable of the drop-in sessions which the GET team offer to University of Greenwich students:

http://www2.gre.ac.uk/current-students/emp/get/contact

Other good websites to look for opportunities are Prospects (http://www.prospects.ac.uk/) and Milkround (http://www.milkround.com/). 

I hope this helps! Good luck to everyone completing their dissertation, and happy job hunting!

In the Spotlight

I’m happy to report that the event went really well! Arriving at the venue early to set up it was exciting to see the event come to life after all the planning and preparation which took place.  Sound check went well and all the acts were ready to perform by the start of the event. As we opened the doors there was a tense wait for people to arrive, which felt like forever. But, eventually people started to arrive, even more people than we expected and soon the venue was packed in time for the acts performances. Our artists on the night included; Adam Lee, Tom Poole, Anna Hogg, Uberkill and Island Cassettes, all fantastic performers which really made the night. We also had a DJ and MC who both made a great addition to the night. Below are some pictures from set-up of the event;

A few of my friends and family were able to make it on the night which was lovely to have their support, although the night was a little stressful, I was so happy that it was a success and really proud of my team, all the hard work paid off!!

In other news, I am still continuing with my dissertation, slowly but surely getting there. I have now made it through most of the findings section and moving on to my discussion and conclusion sections. The deadline is looming so I’m feeling the pressure slightly now, but trying not to let this get to me. So, I’ve been thinking of ways to relax; here are some things I've tried:

source: http://bawandinesh.name/running-after-guruji/

Running, brilliant stress reliever, but if like me you can be on the lazy side it did take some effort! Hence why I have taken up a couple of fitness classes over the last few months which are much more fun and I’m much more motivated to attend.

Source: bardstown.com

Eating, which completely took away all the good I received from exercising, but chocolate did help those stressful evenings in the library!

Source: xanderi.wordpress.com

Insomnia was no help at all. But, something which has plagued me for the last month!

Source: cartoonlogodesigns.com

And the best remedy of all….smile and relax!! As they say think positive thoughts and feel more positive. Thinking the best of the situation and not spending all my time concentrating on how much I have to do, meant I was able to put my energy into getting things done!

All the best of luck to everyone completing their dissertation or any other coursework, be positive, YOU CAN DO IT!!!! All you need to do is prove it to yourself.

Will keep you posted in my next blog! 

‘In the Spotlight’

Not only is it under a month away until I need to hand my dissertation in, but also the third year Events Management students are running various different events over the next few weeks. My team, Say It Loud Events, decided to organise a gig night showcasing up and coming music talent from the indie genre. As I've mentioned there’s been various hiccups along the way and changes which have needed making but now it’s only a few days to go! We are underway with the final preparations building up to the night and I am certainly feeling a mixture of excitement and nerves!

Check out our poster below:

A limited number of tickets are still available for the night so if your interested head over to, Ticketsource.co.uk/inthespotlight 

I will let you know how it goes in my next blog and will hopefully see you there!!!

In other news I am still working on my dissertation, after a brief stress out about how to analyse my data, a meeting with my supervisor helped me sort it all out in my head. I now have a clear structure of how I am going to write everything and have just given myself a little break from it to write this blog for you all.

We had an open day at the University on Saturday which was super busy! Its great to see lots of people coming along, it certainly helped taking my mind off the freezing temperatures. I was kitted out in about 5 layers and ready to take some of the lovely groups we had for tours around the campus and accommodation. It was also great to hear about all the students who have got some offers from University of Greenwich, well done to everyone who has an offer and good luck to those who are still waiting to hear, I have my finger, arms, legs and toes crossed for you! J

 

Source: welcometoourreality.blogspot.com 

Rudimental BRIT Master Class

As I’m sure many of you are aware the BRIT awards is happening this month, just around the corner at the O2 Arena. As part of this the British Music Experience (the museum in the O2 Arena) has been holding various BRIT master classes for students. I was lucky enough to get hold of a free ticket for the master class with new band Rudimental. I have to admit I didn’t know exactly who the band where, only really having heard their big hit ‘Feel the Love’.

Source: www. telegraph.co.uk

The session was held in the British Music Experience and lasted for an hour. The band answered questions from the host of the event and then questions were opened to the floor for a Q&A with the audience. The band gave an insight into their background, musical tastes and how they eventually became a band and broke into the music industry. It was a real insight into a band that have worked for many years to get to where they are, and still had a lot more progression to have; it will be interesting to see this over the next year. I would argue that this possibly didn’t have a lot to do with events management but, as someone who is interested in working on music events in the future and has a keen interest in music this was a great experience.

Source: www.ticketmaster.co.uk

As part of my ticket into the master class I got entry into the British Music Experience, again as someone with a keen interest in music this was really interesting seeing the progression of British Music through the years. If you haven’t been its well worth it, sometimes you can get free entry with your ticket for an event at the O2 Arena, have a look at your email before an event and you might be able to get in free, this happened with a ticket I had before and I wish I had taken advantage of it then. 

I am slowly making progression with my dissertation; I am in the progress of revising my literature review and methodology from my tutor’s feedback and analysing my data. Analysing my data is proving for me to be quite difficult, statistics were never my strong point and its taking me double the time I would like it to. But I’m getting there and trying not to stress about the just under 6 weeks I have left to complete it, AHHH! 

Good Luck to everyone who is receiving offers back on UCAS and everyone who is also in the progress of completing their dissertation!! :)

The Retail Trust London Ball 2013

On Monday I was lucky enough to be part of the Retail Trust London Ball 2013. It was an opportunity which was sent through by one of my tutors, for a voluntary position on the evening of the ball. The event took place at the Grosvenor House Hotel, located on Park Lane, which is an amazing venue! The suite which the event was located in was beautifully decorated and ideal for the event taking place. My role on the day was assisting the team in the fundraising efforts. During the reception we were selling various different raffle tickets for various different prizes on the night. Once the Ball begun we were all assigned a number of tables to look after, during the evening various other games were going on as part of the fundraising, here we assisted the guest and collected the donations received. Definitely a worthwhile experience and I was glad that I had the opportunity to be a part of it.

Source: www.givinglots.co.uk  

Source: http://www.retailtrust.org.uk/news/photos/144/1/8/22/Y  

In other news, I have handed in another one of my assignment, that’s one more to ticked off the list And now it’s time to really get down to writing my dissertation. I am currently in the process of going through all of the questionnaires which I collected and putting them into an excel sheet to then analyse…a lengthy process but I’m getting there.

I took a little trip to the cinema this weekend and went to see Les Miserables, spotting all the shots of the Greenwich campus looking lovely! I really loved the film, I found it was very emotional and definitely need to go and see it at the theatre. I've heard mixed reviews from my friends about the film, but if musicals are not your cup of tea you might want to give this one a miss! 

Source: www. imdb.com

Source: www. thegreenwichphantom.co.uk

Happy New Year!!

A slightly belated ‘Happy New Year’ but I hope you all are having a brilliant start to 2013.

Before I head off home for Christmas I got chance to head over to Winter Wonderland to get me into the Christmas spirit. I went last year and can defiantly tell the growth in the event this year, it’s got so much bigger and better. I took some picture of my day; some of them are below for you;

 But now I’m back to chilly London after a lovely Christmas break. I spent Christmas at home with my family, it was lovely to finally get some time to properly spend with all my family and friends back home, I felt like I was on a holiday but got to sleep in my own bed. Of course I ate and drank way more than I should have, but I’m going to keep telling myself it was acceptable to eat chocolate for breakfast as it was Christmas!

I started my new year in a way you probably wouldn’t expect, I was up bright and early to head over to a local charity event in the next town to do my research for my dissertation. The event was a bra run in aid of Breast Cancer Care; it was a really fun event for a great cause. Those that took part were a range of ages and even some people brought their dog along to run.  The only condition was that everyone who took part had to wear a bra on top of their clothes and there was a competition for the best decorated bra, and yes even the dogs had a bra on! As part of my dissertation I was giving out questionnaires to the participants of the race to find out what their motivations were for taking part in the local charity sporting event, as part of this research I have also interviewed the event organiser to further back up my findings. I now have the task of going through all the questionnaires which I collected to analyse the data.

After feeling so ashamed in the amount I consumed over the festive period I have decided to get a little bit more exercise in my life so joined a Zumba class. I have never done Zumba before but have done a lot of dancing in the past so thought this would be fun way to do a bit more exercise. I have to say it was great fun and would recommend it. I’m still getting to grips with the moves, finding myself just jumping and waving my arms around at the sections I didn’t know, but it definitely doesn’t feel like your exercising. So until I can learn the moves I’ll be following the teacher’s advice, ‘if you don’t get the moves at first, don’t just stop, just keep moving and have fun’. 

Source: zumbaforu.com