Reflection on Student Led Lecture – Events Management Qualifications and Reputations

On 27^th February we were hosting a lecture, followed by tutorial on the Event Management Qualification’s value and reputation within the industry. Overall, I think we did well and the feedback from the student audience was that it was an interesting topic that had not been covered on the course before and therefore felt refreshing. However, there are definitively some things that we could have done differently. Firstly, I was quite happy with the overall structure however, felt that we could have improved it in the following sections; when discussing the value of getting a degree, we could have been clearer what we, for the purpose of the lecture, defined value as, whether it be looking at the degree as a return on investment in a quantifiable way or consider more intangible aspects such as developing new skills. I also think that the lecture could have benefitted from more statistics in terms of when the first Events Management University course was offered in the UK, however, despite endless Google and other platform searches we were unable to find this information. Furthermore, I think it could have been interesting to see how many Event Management courses are actually offered in the UK and how many students graduate each year from an Events Management degree. At the same time, showing how many people we will be “competing” against for any job vacancies in the near future, this could have potentially overwhelmed students in the audience, which we wanted to avoid. 

Another feature, that we originally had planned for, and which I think would have added great value to the presentation was a video that we would have created by ourselves. The idea was to each ask about 3-4 friends, colleagues and family members, both that are in the events industry and that are not, what their perception of an Events Management degree is. I think that could have added a more personal touch to the lecture and ensure that there was at least one aspect of the lecture that was guaranteed that none of the students had seen before. It was unfortunate that the team felt that it would require too much work for a lecture which would not be graded. 

One of the main things that I was concerned about before the lecture was that the audience would feel like it was too much of a “UCAS pitch” that they had all heard before, we therefore tried to add our own experiences to it by sharing our decision to study a degree in Events Management. Another aspect that we considered was when reading the opinions of others on the Events Management degree it is easy to become over-critical of the degree and we wanted to ensure that we were delivering an as unbiased view of the topic as possible. To ensure that we did not de-motivate anyone in the audience or look down on the achievement that we will soon have completed; to get an Events Management degree. But instead we wanted to give an as accurate account as possible of how the Events Management is viewed by academics, industry professionals and former Events Management students and despite there being room for improvement, I think we managed to achieve that goal to a high and satisfying standard.

I enjoyed the experience of hosting a lecture especially that we had an opportunity to pick our own topics and tailor and plan it to suit what we were interested in. For me, it was a chance to try out how it would feel to be a lecturer. Throughout the University period I have felt a bit like a mentor, in lack of a better word, to some of my fellow students. I don’t know if this is because I am a bit older or that I am just well organised and normally start my assignments early on. For whatever reason I have been giving out a fair bit of advice and help throughout the years and I have quite enjoyed it and the thought of maybe one day in the future becoming a lecturer has crossed my mind. So I think it was a good experience for me to fully appreciate the time and effort that it takes to prepare for a 50 minute lecture and perhaps most importantly prove to myself that it is something that I can do if I choose to go down that career path on day. But for the time being I will take the experience gained from preparing and hosting a lecture with me to my job that I will be starting in May where I will be supervising 15 staff members. I think that this experience will be beneficial in terms of giving me the confidence to know that I can present matters in a logical and structured way that my staff members can easily follow and understand and that ultimately motivates them and encourage them to perform to the best of their abilities.