Are you feeling isolated in the pandemic? Finding yourself wishing for concerts? We’ve all felt the loss of events in one way or another during the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether you’re longing for a large gathering or a simple night out with friends, events impact our lives. They help us form connections with each other over a common purpose, and their absence is a big reason that we’re all feeling so isolated this year.
However, some events have made it work this year, and have happened despite the less-than-ideal circumstances. For some organizers, this meant converting an existing event to an online format, while for others, this meant coming up with entirely new events to achieve the same purpose as their traditional events. One of the greatest problems this year for events is not necessarily the limits on events happening, but the limitations of marketing them. If you’re somebody that’s keeping your eyes open for events, they’re on social media hoping you’ll come across one of their posts!
Some recent events that have made great use of an online format are the TRU Foundation Gala, the TRU Philosophy, History and Politics Conference, and several event series put on by TRUSU this year. In the video to the right, I go through these events in more detail, and special guest Mark Fagg from GK Sound helps me explain how these events used technology to achieve things that they couldn’t in person.
1. The TRU Foundation Gala
The 2021 Foundation Gala: A Community Affair. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-z3yqf3Bqc
The TRU Foundation Gala converted their existing event to an online version this year. In a normal year, this event would take place in a banquet room at a hotel, and would feature a full evening of dinner, speeches, and entertainment, as well as a silent auction. This year, however, attendees were given an opportunity to attend the event via Zoom, while dinner was delivered to their doorstep. Tickets ranged from $65 to $100, dependent on which local business attendees opted to receive their meal from. This year, the theme of the Gala was “A Community Affair”, in the spirit of hope and bringing people together. They compiled an impressive list of sponsors for the event, and pulled the event off as elegantly as it would have been in person.
For more information about this year’s Gala, please visit https://www.tru.ca/foundation/events/gala.html
You can also watch a recorded version of the full broadcasted 2021 Foundation Gala at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-z3yqf3Bqc
2. The TRU PHP Conference
The PHP Conference Committee at the 2019 Back to School BBQ at TRU. Pictured from left to right: Jenna Churchill, Tek Nath, Kristen Jacobsen, Deanna Brady. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/TRUStudentsUnion/photos/tru-php-conference-2020/10156681943016747/
TRU’s annual Philosophy, History and Politics Undergraduate Research Conference is a 14-year tradition at TRU, and the organizers weren’t about to let the pandemic stop them from continuing this year. While normally, students across Canada would fly to Kamloops to present on their topic of choice, the same students were given the opportunity to present from their homes this year. The conference panels took place in Zoom breakout rooms, set up by GK Sound. On January 22nd and 23rd, 2021, the conference hosted 30 presenters and approximately 120 attendees.
When asked, Jenna Churchill, the Chair of the 2021 PHP Conference, claims that the biggest obstacle for the committee was “losing that direct connection with people, as the in-person experience is always a bit more fulfilling”. However, the shift this year can also be seen as a blessing in disguise in some ways, because “logistically, it was a lot easier because there were less moving parts (such as) travel, booking spaces and food!”
For more information about the conference, please visit their website at www.tru.ca/phpconf.
3. TRUSU
The TRUSU Back to School Barbeque, where students often go to learn about different organizations and receive plenty of free samples. Retrieved from https://www.trusu.ca/news/entertainment/support-the-2019-back-to-school-events-at-tru/
Although we might not identify them as an “event planner”, TRUSU is known for hosting some of the most well-known events on campus, such as the Back to School Barbeque, Clubs Day and the Last Class Bash. This year, these three events were cancelled in their traditional forms, although Clubs Day was reformatted into individual Club Information Nights, which were held over Zoom over the course of a week. TRUSU also reformatted its annual Common Voices series of lectures to be online this year. Throughout the year, TRUSU has also introduced some new events to help keep students connected, such as their Virtual Games night series and Virtual Coffee Chats. These events served as a much-needed break from studying, and effectively reminded students that campus life is meant to be about more than just a classroom.
For more information on events that TRUSU has coming up, please see the TRUSU Events Calendar at trusu.ca/events.
The events industry is one of many that have seen a drastic change during the pandemic, but some planners have seen opportunities in the chaos to challenge themselves, learn new skills, and put their events on in a way the world is not used to seeing. In the case of student planners, this is especially challenging to do while balancing a full course load. However, those who are passionate about the industry have nonetheless put on some great events during the pandemic, and undoubtedly will plan more great events in the near future. To be the first to find out what these events might be, check out the TRU Events Calendar at inside.tru.ca/events and the TRUSU Events Calendar at trusu.ca/events!
Video Credits:
Thompson Rivers University (2021, February 6). 2021 TRU Foundation Gala – A Community Affair. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-z3yqf3Bqc
Thompson Rivers University (2017, October 18). PHP Conference at the Back to School BBQ. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcANAB_av4E
Thompson Rivers University (2017, November 20). TRU Campus Life – Episode 1 – Thompson Rivers University. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLYp7OlzeO0&t=30s
Mixaud (2019). Business / Corporate [Recorded by Mixaud]. On Corporate (vol 2). https://mixaund.bandcamp.com/track/business-corporate
Made for CMNS 3020
