I have had opportunities during my church life as a youth and young adult, to plan activities at church, whether for the children, the youth or women’s department. It allowed me to explore my abilities to plan, co-ordinate and lead others towards the successful execution of these activities. From a simple outdoor Sunday School Class to Youth Weeks, Christmas Programmes, Retreats, Camps and most recently Conferences. Opportunities at work brought the business perspective as activities planned was of a “Customer” focus ensuring we kept customers happy and desirous of returning, to get access to more of our services.
All these activities have one thing in common however; there is a room, a space, or a location, where it all goes down. There is “The spot” where the magic unfolds.
“The Christian Writers’ Meet-up” was no different, my first Event outside of the bounds of my local church or my workplace.
The chosen location was the “Allamanda Beach Resort” Conference Room. I knew from experience that the “Room” was important; it mattered how it looked, the first impression created, its ability to keep you awake to the end and its ability to create a pleasant and unforgettable moment. Never under-estimate the power of “the room”.
If you attended our first Event, you may want to comment on “The Room”. However, here are a few things I considered when preparing “the room”.
- The walls of the Conference Room were all white, the table cloths were all white, in other words there was quite a bit of white space. I could’ve chosen to add dark colours, may be a straight colour scheme like black against the white or blue against the white or some other colour. However, InspireMe and Inspirational Events are about just that “inspiration” and I felt I was on the safe path with colour, bright and present colours. This is one thing white space allows in an almost unlimited fashion, colour and a variety of it. I chose bright green, orange and purple as the theme against the white background, with slight variations here and there.
- I chose to use white table-cloths because I was going to run a risk trying to get the right shade to match the colour-scheme selected. So, I played it safe but still took little risk. The head table to the front and the table on which the water was placed, at the back, were covered with green table cloths, while all other tables were covered with white.
- I chose to have large letters plotted because they clearly communicated “it was all about writing”, it was appropriate in my view.
- I also used foam boards covered with fabric (I have found that soft fabric adds class and elegance) to give it a unique and different look, applying innovation and creativity. I stayed away from what was familiar to me and launched out putting new ideas to the test. Note, that it was important for me to stick to the three main colours as much as possible, notwithstanding, getting uniformed shades was not possible in all cases, but the difference was not significant.
- Then there was the need for flowers; the room needed either a really large floral arrangements or a number of small ones. I went with the first option as I thought, less hassle; I would just need to find one focal point as against finding a number of focal points. Note that it is important to focus your decorative pieces at key focal points; the areas that will be mostly seen. I chose a large bouquet and placed it in-front of the podium.
- Finally was my favourite decorative piece that added the final touch, in my view; the “Pen Prop”. Oh how I loved that pink pen! It was designed and created by Nahshon Jeremiah, Visual Artist and Entrepreneur. The “Pen Prop” was “pink”, yes, pink in colour but it “blended in quite well”.
From feedback received, it seems that we accomplished what we wanted to accomplish with the “Room” and that is to make sure the environment created an inspirational memorable moment that fully complimented all the activities that unfolded as part of the “Meet-up”. Despite the positive feedback however, I have asked myself, “What could’ve been better?”
How did I feel about the room! 95% Satisfied!! I think that is pretty good for a hard self-marker.
The atmosphere in the room must also be credited to Nahshon Jeremiah (Pen Prop), “This&That Grenada” (Advice, Ideas, physical support), Colleen Edwards (beautiful floral arrangement) and my beautiful, helpful daughter (prepared the writers’ folders).
I wish to add the projector screen, it was also creatively used to share our logo and inspirational pics; made possible by Quasim Joseph and my son Jonathan Jeremiah.
I also wish to Add music. Music played softly as participants entered the room and at intervals when appropriate. Music chosen for the Evening was “Jonathan Mc Reynolds” Album “Make Room”.
We must admit that “The Room” is important to the execution of “The Vision”. It is important that we put some serious thought into it, plan and execute well.
Hope you enjoyed this! Feel free to send in your comments!
