Looking back at my experience at GSP it was very different to what I expected. I thought it would be a lot easier and all the events happen a lot more smoothly. However its a very fast paced industry and there are no room for mistakes especially when you have a room full of thousands of guests. Saying this its an extremely thrilling and rewarding job when everything pays off.
I loved my time at GSP the company throws incredible money no object events and they were all very helpful and lovely to work with. They always helped me if I needed something or couldn't figure out how to do a task. At events they were extremely professional and couldn't do enough for the guests.
I loved working at the events it was such a satisfying feeling knowing you helped put this together and watching it all come together was so thrilling. Working at the events was my favourite part of the job as every event is different and there were always different jobs to be done at various events.
What I didn't enjoy so much was having to do some of the boring tasks such as clearing out boxes, putting the promotional packs away and putting the production box together. Although these were boring jobs to get given they have to be done by someone.
I throughly enjoyed my time at GSP and would love to work for them again in the future, I could really see myself working for an event company as a full time job as I love events and the thrill of working for a company such as GSP.
Tuesday 7 May - Friday 10 May
This week was a very stressful week at GSP as it was the week of the NABS Event which is one of the biggest events they do, as well as it being a short week due to bank holiday.
There was a huge amount of preparation to be done as the event held 1000 people in a tent so there was a lot of organising to go into this event.
There was a number of tasks I was asked to do this week but one of the main things was the Presentation of the Logos that would be projected round the room. This was a quite stressful task as everything had to be perfect and there was no room for mistakes. These logos had to go onto the new NABS 2013 background that had been designed for the event.
Here is an example of one of the slides on the on the Powerpoint, where you can see the background for the powerpoint and how it has to all be laid out. The theme this year is The Future, as its their 100th anniversary year of NABS Charity. This is why everything had to look futuristic and as though we were in the future.
I also had to put all the slides in their categories on a spreadsheet, this was a rather time consuming task as it took a while to insert all the necessary information in the document. This also became rather boring as I kept having to change ones around as the clients emailed me with changes.
Here is what the spreadsheet looked like once i was finished with it.
Apart from this my other tasks this week were packing up another production box full of all the necessary stationary need for the event. I also had to help pack the boxes with all the table centres and name plates made. Plus all the costumes for the hosts and hostesses
The Event - NABS 2013
On the Thursday of this week it was the big day of the event for NABS, after months of planning an preparation the day was finally here. This time I didn't have to be on site till 4:30 as everything was covered by the production company on site. When I arrived at Battersea Park I was told immediately to put on a radio because the site was so big and this was the only way to stay in contact.
My job for this event was to help the host and hostesses with their jobs throughout the night, and also to make sure all the acts that were performing had everything they needed. The night was hugely stressful for everyone as there was always something to do and a lot of things went wrong.
There were loads of different acts throughout the night which were, jugglers, girls on stilts, tv heads - which were men in outfits with screens of the powerpoint i made playing on the tv that was on their helmet, feeding the fish - which was a light show, then the main act which was magnetic men who were brought in by one of the sponsors spotify.
There was also an auction going on at the event and also a silent auction with lots of amazing prizes to be won. They also had mail online create an app which had a game especially for this event. It was a quiz and then also had videos and other fun inventions to do with the event.
The event went extremely well considering there was a lot of problems with the iPads and the mail online app, however the guests had a wonderful evening and there was lots of positive feedback given to GSP.
Here are some photos from the event:
This was a more stressful event and there was a lot more to do so was a lot more pressure unlike the last one. I enjoyed myself a lot and learnt so many new skills and new interesting information that I will use in the future. However this type of corporate charity event is not a category i enjoyed as much as its a lot more hard work then one might think and also a lot stricter with what I was allowed to do.
Monday 29 April
Today is my birthday and although I was working I still had a lovely day. My first task was a bit boring as I had to clear out the boxes of their promotional packs and put them back in the right places. Their promotional packs are boxes full of postcards with pictures and some blurb on to convey the types of event that have been done in the past. These are given to clients and when they go to meetings to portray the events they have previously done to give future clients an idea of events they hold.
After this I then had to edit the powerpoint for NABS on their logos again as some slight changes had been made. This was a powerpoint of all the logos that represented the companies attending this event. This allowed me to keep up to date with the latest companies coming and kept me in the loop of who was the most important, and enabled me to know a little more about the event.
Here is a photo of one of the slides from the powerpoint, this was the magazine section and gives you an idea of who was attending the NABS event.
Tuesday 30 April
Today I created the prize slips for the massive balloon wall that was going to be in the entrance for the NABS events. This meant writing up all the different prizes on a word document and putting them in a grid with writing on the back so it all had to fit into the right boxes. This took a while because printing on double sided paper meant that you had to have the words in exact place for it to work and it wasn't in line with the opposite page which made this task more difficult.
There were some great prizes on offer such as a Diamond and Pearl Necklace and Wireless Tickets as well as some nice ICE watches.
Here is an example of the slips of paper I then had to cut out and put in the right section.
Wednesday 1st May
Today I was asked to go through the rich list 2013 and look for possible clients that might be interested at looking into throwing events organised by GSP. This was rather interesting as I got to read about a lot of new companies and know more about companies I already knew. This was a rather challenging task as a lot of wealthy people like to keep their information private, so took me longer then I though to find some information. It was quite successful as I managed to gain a few people information but not many.
This ended up taking up the whole day as it was tougher then I thought to find out some information I wanted so this was the only task I did today.
Thursday 2nd May
Today I got asked to help with finding some venues for a new event they had just been asked to do for a birthday in Milan. This was very interesting as I have never been to Milan and is a place I'd love to visit so I was intrigued to look into some venues.
I found some amazing ones such as the Dolce and Gabbana resturant called 'Gold'. This was a venue that has held events for celebrities such as Bruno Mars, Justin Beiber and Kylie.
Friday 3rd May
Today I carried on with searching for venues for the event in Milan, this was rather challenging as the customers wanting this event wanted this restaurant for the entire weekend which meant losing out on other sales that weekend, and it was the same weekend as the Grand Prix so would be busy. However we were able to come up with some amazing restaurants for their clients which was great!
Next I then helped look for venues for a bar mitzvah that was 'Prom' themed it had to be appropriate for a prom and be allowed to dress the venue. This was hard as a lot of venues weren't happy for us to come in and change the venue around unless it was an empty hall or we paid a lot extra which was in our budget.
Monday 22 April
Today I created an Instagram Page for GSP as this is an extremely popular and new way of promotion. We chose Instagram over Pinterest and Flickr because this doesn't let the public save the photos and use them as their own, so its a great copyright tool.
Here is an image of what GSP's Instagram page looks like:
After this I then was asked to make up 20 boxes of their promotional packs for a big meeting with some Russians the next day. These promotional packs are filled with A5 sized postcards with photos of previous events on, and on the back is a small blurb about the event and some more photos. These enable clients to have a small insight into the previous events GSP have done.
Tuesday 23 April
Today I helped assemble boxes for an event that night at one of GSPs newest venues The Club House. It was their launch night of this venue. We had to make 200 cardboard boxes full of brownies and business cards of companies attending the event.
After that I helped set up the board room for the meeting where we had to clear the tables of all the computers and stationary so it was completely clear. We laid out bottles of water and bowls of crisps. Then put the creds of the recent event on the TV in the background.
Here is a photo of how the room looked when it was all finished:
The rest of the afternoon i carried on editing the rest of the Instagram photos here are some examples of photos I've edited:
These photos were from two different weddings in Cannes
Wednesday 24 April
Today was a very busy day before the TLC Launch at Sketch tomorrow night. I had to make a production box for the event, which is a box full of stationary and everything you would need for an event such as duck tape, clipboards, pens, staples and then extensions leads and safety hats.
This is quite a tiring and boring task as you have to pack it all into a tight box and make sure every things there, and its done at the back of the office which is a small compact space and you have to route through cupboards to find it all so its not a very glamorous job.
In the afternoon I had to pack up all the boxes for the event tomorrow which included huge boxes of sweets and dress up outfits for the Photo Booth. This was also a rather dull job as I just packed boxes all afternoon but it had to be done.
Thursday 25 April - EVENT AT SKETCH
After a lot of stress and pressure the big day of the launch for the TV channel 'TLC' was here! TLC is an american channel that has been brought over to England for the first time and GSP got the honour of organising the launch party at the restaurant 'Sketch' in the West End London.
Here is the promotion video that was shown on the night of the event, this will help you to get an idea about the channel, if you don't already know what it is.
Today was the longest day Ive had to work. I was asked to be at Sketch by 9:30 to help the girls who has organised this event set up. There wasn't masses to do on the day but it was still tough work as I was on my feet the whole time. My first task was to set up all the radios for the staff that night, there were 25 radios to arrange which included charging them, attaching all the ear pieces and making sure they all worked.
Next I was asked to help fill up the jars with the sweets for the 'sweetie parlour' in the back room. This was a fun task as we got to see from start to finish what the jars and room looked like, we also got to sneakily eat some of the sweets as we went a long.
Here is a photo of what the sweets looked like once they were filled in the jars:
After this I was asked to blow up the props for the fancy dress Photo Booth. These included two pigs and an exercise ball. We were given a plastic pump that wasn't very powerful so this took a while to pump up. Unfortunately we had a problem with the pumping up the pigs so these had to be blown up by hand by one of our GSP team.
Next another intern and myself were asked to set up the sweetie parlour and place all the jars on the round table in the room. This was an enjoyable task as we got to play around with the set up until it looked best to us. There was also three massive cakes that said 'TLC' that were going to be placed in the middle of the jars of sweets. This room was also going to have the 'Cake Boss' in there showing the guests how he makes his cakes and letting them ice their own cupcakes. This was a man who had a programme on the TLC channel.
This is how the 'sweetie parlour' looked when it was all finished
As one of the programmes on this channel had a pig for a pet, the whole event was pig themed. There was a huge blow up pig that was hanging from the ceiling in the main room, and they also had micro pigs in the front room for people to hold
Here is some photos of the pigs:
Here you can see the pig handing from the ceiling and me holding a micro pig at the event.
The doors for the event opened at 7pm and was heaving with celebrities from Holly Valance, Lisa Snowden and Jodie Marsh. I got the opportunity to meet the lovely Holly Valance and Lisa Snowden who were all very sweet and easy to talk to.
Holly Valance
Lisa Snowden
The launch was sponsored by SuperDrug, so they brought in a superdrug beauty parlour which was held upstairs in the Libary room at Sketch. This was where guests could get manicure, massages and also have eyelashes put on, it was a real girlie room where women spent a lot of their time that night.
Here is a sign made for the eventThis was the beauty parlour
My job on the night was to make sure everything ran smoothly and all the staff that weren't from GSP had all they needed and if not I could help them get it.
Here are some more photos from the event that night:
Today was a lot of fun but extremely tiring, I learnt a lot about how an event works and all the planning and preparation that goes into it. I got to experience first hand a top event in London which is something I have always wanted to do. It was hard work standing on your feet for 16 hours straight but it was worth pain being at the event. My favourite part was the sweetie parlour and it looked amazing with all the bright coloured sweets in the jars. The event got great feedback from the guests and the public and hopefully the show will do well in the UK.
Today was a more relaxed day as it was the day after the event and everyone was knackered from the night before. I was asked to sort out the logos for the next event which is called 'NABS' this is a charity that is backed by the biggest names in advertising such as Google, Facebook, Mediacon etc. This meant that I needed to create a powerpoint with all the relevant logos and in all the right sections.
This was an interesting task as it meant I got to see all the important companies attending this event and I was getting involved with this event coming up, so got to see it all developing.
Week One at GSP Monday 15 April
Today was my first day at GSP and as always on your first day it's just about getting to know the business. I was shown around the office and shown how to use the phone and all the relevant numbers I would need to know.
Here is an example of the phone list and all the relevant information i was shown:
I was then given the task of putting together a PowerPoint of all their different options of entertainment from artists to aquabatix this was really interesting for me as i got to view all the different types of entertainment they offer for an event.
Here is an example of a slide within this PowerPoint of the Aquabatix they have used for a 16th Birthday
This is another example of an unique type of entertainment of a 'Mocktail Bar Trolly' which would appeal to women because topless models walk around serving them with them.
Tuesday 16 April
Today was more of a boring time consuming job of deleting duplicate on a programme called Act. This is where they keep all their contact numbers, emails, and more of their clients. This gave me an overview of all their clients and i go to see who they had worked with previously.
Here is an image of the programme 'Act' and how the programmes
I also did another job today which was clearing out and sorting the boxes of their postcards that displays their previous events that they have done in the past, which they present to new clients in meeting so they get an overview of the company.
Wednesday 17 April
Today I had an interesting task of researching the traditional order of a Jewish Wedding, with knowing where the toasts go and in what order and who does such things as the welcome speech. This was intriguing for me as I am Jewish so this would be the order of a wedding hopefully one day I will be having. I also found out a lot about a religious Jewish wedding that I never knew before.
After this I was given the task of researching into their competitors Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and any other things social media sites they use. This was intriguing for me to see as I got an insight into what GSP are up against.
Here are some examples of their good competitors
Mask Events
Rouge
"rhubarb"
TBA
Time Based
Thursday 18 April
Today I continued with deleting of the duplicates on Act, I also helped some of the girls with researching some thing with an up and coming events.
Friday 19 April
Today I got the interesting task of looking up celebrity agents on the website 'The Handbook' this is a useful website for me to use in the future as it has venues, celebrities, news and much more which allows anyone access information that you wouldn't normally be able to access. I used this to search for relevant English celebrities that would be of interest to GSP as possible clients, such as Amanda Holden and Fearne Cotton.
Here is a snapshot of what the website looks like:
After this is was asked to research into sugared Bride and Grooms to go on top of a wedding cake. This was a task I enjoyed as it was intriguing to see what options they had.
I had to find a blonde bride and a brown haired groom, although this may sound easy it was harder then I thought as a lot of the options were rather scary or freakish looking.
Here are examples of ones I had found for options:
