1. Introduction
Events are essentially an assembly or reunion of people for private or public celebration, ritual or remembrance and have become a major feature of political campaigns and businesses. All planned events are temporary occurrences with fixed beginning and end. Every event is unique stemming from the blend of management, program, setting and people. There are three types of events namely Local or Community events, Hallmark events and Mega events.
2. Characteristics of the event
“TP Myanmar Thingyan 2012” was held on 19th of May (Saturday) which was organised by TP Myanmar group. This group was established since 1998 and they were celebrating this event every single year from 1998 to until now. So, this “TP Myanmar Thingyan 2012” can be considered as “Hallmark Event” as the event appears on yearly basis, once a year. The event holds for only one day. Although the event is held for just one day, it is required long and careful planning. So, the organisers of the event needed to prepare about six months before event can be held. The organisers need to find the sponsors, special venue settings, advertising plans, budgeting, planning programmes and so on. As the event is hallmark type of event, it is important to take note of the risk that can arise such as financial and safety risk.
3. Strength and Weaknesses of the event
3.1. Objective and purpose
The objective of this event is that all the people from Myanmar came to Singapore for some reason like study, work, etc and cannot go back to their own country for a long time. So, they actually miss their culture and habitats of their own country. Because of that reason, the organiser which is TP Myanmar Club organised this event every year in order to not only make the Myanmar people from Singapore to enjoy their own culture but also to gather all Myanmar people in Singapore at in one place. Furthermore, the organiser of the event donates the amount of profits they earned from ticket sales to the “TP Myanmar Helping Hands” organisation. This organisation helps to those children in Myanmar who need helps from others to continue their education or daily lives.
It can be said that the objective of the organiser is met what they expected. Because every year all the Myanmar people are willing to go to the event called “TP Myanmar Thingyan” and the amount of ticket sales always hit the standard target set by the organiser and the event always ended with success.
3.2. Date of event
The event was held on 19th May which is Saturday and time is from 1pm to 6:30pm. So, it is convenient for people as most of the people do not work on weekends. Moreover, as the schools are closed on weekend, students can also come and enjoyed the event. So, it can be said that the date the organiser set for the event is convenient for most of the people.
3.3. Target market
For this event, the organiser mainly target to the Myanmar people who are currently stay in Singapore. As I mentioned above, the Myanmar people in Singapore are longing for some culture show that is related to their own habits and culture, this event will make them to somewhat fulfil what they wants and desire for their traditional culture.
3.4. Venue and the environment
The event was held at Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School (SEC) which is located on 296 Lorong Ah Soo S(536742). They held the event at the theatre which is available for about 700 guests can fit. The venue they had chosen is not very far from Serangoon mrt. The audience can reach there by alighting at opposite paya lebar girls’ school, Lorong Ah Soo, 4 stops later. There are also volunteers who will help the guests to lead to the place where the event will be held. So, it is very convenient for guests. For those who came by own cars, the parking was sufficient. So, there was no traffic impact.
As the event was based on culture show, some of the programmes that will include in the show will be cultural dance, singing and so on which noise levels is high. But the event was held on indoor theatre of the Paya Lebar Methodist girls’ school, there will be no noise disturbance to surrounding environment. So, it can be said that the venue is suitable for an event.
Outside the entrance of the theatre, there are three registration desks for registration. The volunteers in registration were wearing the Myanmar traditional costumes so that it will make the guests to feel like they are back in their own country. All the volunteers including security guards are also wearing traditional costumes. Because of the three registration counters the guests did not need to queue for a long time to get their seat numbers. So, the guests are satisfied with that as they did not need to queue for a long time.
The theatre stage was decorated with some national flower of Myanmar “The Padauk” and the poster of the event which is “TP Myanmar Thingyan 2012”. And also they put the poster of the main sponsors and co-sponsors near the stage so that the guests will know who gave sponsor to this event. The theatre can hold about 700 audiences. The lighting quality is sufficient enough for the whole theatre to brighten up and there were also enough air-con as the whole theatre is fill with about nearly 700 guests, the theatre is still cold. But the sound system was a bit weak as sometimes I cannot hear clearly what the performers are saying. So, this is the point that needs to take note by organisers of the event.
3.5. Programmes
The programmes in the event are well organized and show the audience that what is the traditional dances and culture of Myanmar people.
i. Yein 1 and Yein 2
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| Yein 1 |
This is the dance show where the group of girls wear similar costumes and dance according to the traditional Myanmar song. It is important for dancers to take note of co-ordination among group members during dancing.
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| Yein 2 |
Under Yein 2 program, they showed the different dancing style of three different ancient times of Myanmar namely, Innwa, Before War and after War of Myanmar. The dancers wear according to the different times of Myanmar and dance according to the style of the different times.
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| Rakhine Yein |
ii. Rakhine Yein
Rakhine Yein is similar to the Yein 1 and 2. The difference is that the dancers wear like the Rakhine people which are one of the ethical group of Myanmar and dance like the Rakhine people.
iii. Tangyat
Tangyat is the music group where people describe about what was happening around them and put them into music.
The topics include in Tangyat could be about political views, current news around the environment. They put these topics together with some music and present to the audience in humours way.
This is also the dance program where girls wear classic costumes and dance.
Pyazat is the short story program where members act according to the story line.
In order to Pyazat to be successful, it is important that the story line is interesting and sometimes humorous , the artists also need to be good at acting their roles and also co-ordination among the member. The lighting is also important.
vi. Modern Dance
Modern dance is also a dance program. The difference with other types of dance that I mentioned above is that the dancers do not wear the traditional costumes like above dance program. They wear modern costumes and dance. This program gives somewhat different taste to the audience.
vii. Stage Show
Under stage show program, the singers, all are TP current students or alumni. They entertained the audience with various types of songs.
viii. Ah Nyeint
Ah Nyeint is the show that entertains the audience with Myanmar traditional dance and humours.
At Ah Nyeint show, there will be one girl who entertains the audience with dances and small group of boys (4 or 5) will entertain the audience by saying humours. This show (Ah Nyeint) is the most important show in Myanmar since long times ago.
ix. Grand Finale
This is the program where all the participants in the event meet the guests and say the thank you words and then close the event.
3.6. Manpower allocation
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| Security & Usher |
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| Registration area |
For manpower allocation issue, it can be said that the organisers of the event have enough manpower. As I mentioned there were three registration counters and each counters have three persons to attend the guests. So, the guests do not need to queue for a long time to get their seat numbers. Inside the theatre, there are also 5 to 6 ushers to help the guests to find their seats. So, overall, it can be said that the manpower is sufficient enough for the event.
3.7. Logistics management
There was some inconvenient under logistic issue as the ushers cannot make on time to their respective place to show direction of the event venue to the guests.
As the show was end at 6:30pm, the organisers provide food and drinks to the audience. The food and drinks are provided by one of the co-sponsers namely “Zay yar” eating house which is located on Pennisula Plaza. So, the logistics arrangement is somewhat efficient and effective.
3.8. Products and Services
The products that are provided by the event could be the knowledge of how the traditional dances and costumes were used by Myanmar people according to the different times. The services could be the how the event organisers make the guests feel comfortable and to meet the needs or wants expected by the guests.
4. Some ways to maximize the strengths and minimize the weaknesses
The event organisers had selected the correct venue to hold the event, but it will be more effective if they had selected the Auditorium of Temasek Polytechnic. Because this event was organised by TP Myanmar club, so it will show more connection to the guests between the Temasek Polytechnic and TP Myanmar student club. Furthermore, when they are advertising for the event, they can use past event and show to the people. So, people will remember about past successful programs and want to find out what different programmes will be seen on this event.
There were also some weaknesses in the event. For the sound system issue, the organiser should check out the system whether the sound system is clear and working or not before the event. For the guests who cannot find the event venue because of the late arrival of ushers to help them, the organisers must give training the ushers and ask them to go to their respective spot on time. By doing this the organisers can minimize the weakness of the event.
5. Marketing the event
The event organiser used the poster for the event to attract the audience to the event. They also used the social media like facebook to advertise the event to the public. Furthermore, they use the personal selling to market the event. For example, they give the certain amount of tickets to the volunteer/ushers whom will sell this ticket to their friends or colleagues. It will be great if they printed out the flyers and give it to the people.
6. Conclusion
As the event was hallmark type of event which is held on yearly basis, people will likely to go to the event as they want to see the culture of the Myanmar. During the event, all the language used were Burmese language and the advertising is also written in Burmese language as the event target market is mainly to Myanmar people. In my opinion, it will be great if they could advertise the event by using English and during the event, explain about the programme in English before they perform, it will also attract to Singaporeans and other foreigners in the Singapore who would like to know or watch the Myanmar culture. By doing this, the event would be successful not only in Myanmar people but also in other races.
References:
· Event Management lecture notes: Introduction to Events & Event Tourism
· Event Management Lecture 3: The Impacts of Events
· Experiences from field trip visit [ TP Myanmar Thingyan 2012] 19th May 2012
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