Mastering the art of Events: Students pitch their ideas to industry

University of Northampton students have been honing their pitching skills as part of their International Special Events Management Master’s studies.

The group of students had just six weeks, as part of their studies, to establish themselves as an Events Management company and prepare to pitch to three industry experts.

The students were challenged to take three client briefs and transform them into bespoke events for each client – a gala dinner at the o2, a corporate video filming project and a press launch, in Rome, for a new product.

Under the guidance of Brendan Read-Jones, Associate Lecturer at the University and freelance creative director in film and live events, the students pitched their ideas to Brendan’s clients – Gazeley, IM Group and Honda Motorcycles- in a dragon’s den style workshop, before being given industry feedback on their pitches.

Ivna Reic, Subject Leader for Events, Tourism & Hospitality at the University of Northampton said: “We blend academic thinking and industry best practice to develop students’ knowledge for assignments and assessed work, but to get them properly prepared for landing a job, we create experiences linked to industry to develop their creative thinking and communications skills.

“This ‘client project’ helps our students to hones those skills; working from initial brief to the creative pitch, selling not only themselves, but their organisation and the idea they’ve developed for the client. This client project also gives our students industry feedback on their work, which is such a valuable learning experience.”

Talking about the experience, student Amie Burn said: “This client project was exciting to work on, but also challenging. We had six weeks to take three client briefs from idea to a full pitch – and each one was a very different kind of event. There was so much to think about, not only the creative ideas for the events, but the logistics behind that, timescales, budgets, the whole process of creating a bespoke event.

“Pitching to the clients was nerve wracking, but having done it, I feel more confident in my skills. It was valuable to get the feedback from the clients on our pitch, they shared some helpful industry insights, and the importance of return on investment and timescales for the client.”