Presentation Type

Poster

Faculty Mentor’s Full Name

Mike Morelli

Faculty Mentor’s Department

Entertainment Management - College of Business

Abstract / Artist's Statement

Entertainment management is a field in which practical experiences and real-life situations are often the best teachers. As one of the inaugural Learning Assistants (LA) within the Entertainment Management (UMEM) certificate program, my responsibility was to enhance the students' understanding of the course materials in both BMGT 401 & 402, Event Management and Principles of Entertainment Management I, respectively. By working with small groups of students one at a time, asking open-ended questions to prompt critical thinking, and offering insight into how their events could run more efficiently, I believe that mission was accomplished. In BMGT 401, students were asked to raise $300 per team for the Montana Food Bank Network by hosting an event with no starting budget. When I took the course as a sophomore, my group raised $1,000 alone by using testimonial promotion - a record number of fundraised dollars to that point. I offered lots of advice and help along the way, and by the end of the six-week course, several groups had exceeded $2,000 and overall the class raised over $13,000 for the MFBN, and gained essential knowledge of event management that will be beneficial in future positions. In BMGT 402, most of the students worked on hosting Hasan Minhaj - a world-renowned comedian - in our very own Dennison Theater. As the LA and an employee for the UMEM Department, I acted as the runner and student producer. That means that I was in charge of all social media promotion, technical requirement supervision, Hasan’s green room setup day of show, and driving Hasan himself to and from the venue. In my capacity as the LA, I organized and conducted teams of ten for both load-in and load-out, while other students worked in the lobby taking tickets, ushering, etc. All students did an exemplary job, and we all learned a great deal from our experiences running real-life events.

Category

Social Sciences

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Apr 22nd, 3:00 PM Apr 22nd, 4:00 PM

Facilitating Learning through Events

UC South Ballroom

Entertainment management is a field in which practical experiences and real-life situations are often the best teachers. As one of the inaugural Learning Assistants (LA) within the Entertainment Management (UMEM) certificate program, my responsibility was to enhance the students' understanding of the course materials in both BMGT 401 & 402, Event Management and Principles of Entertainment Management I, respectively. By working with small groups of students one at a time, asking open-ended questions to prompt critical thinking, and offering insight into how their events could run more efficiently, I believe that mission was accomplished. In BMGT 401, students were asked to raise $300 per team for the Montana Food Bank Network by hosting an event with no starting budget. When I took the course as a sophomore, my group raised $1,000 alone by using testimonial promotion - a record number of fundraised dollars to that point. I offered lots of advice and help along the way, and by the end of the six-week course, several groups had exceeded $2,000 and overall the class raised over $13,000 for the MFBN, and gained essential knowledge of event management that will be beneficial in future positions. In BMGT 402, most of the students worked on hosting Hasan Minhaj - a world-renowned comedian - in our very own Dennison Theater. As the LA and an employee for the UMEM Department, I acted as the runner and student producer. That means that I was in charge of all social media promotion, technical requirement supervision, Hasan’s green room setup day of show, and driving Hasan himself to and from the venue. In my capacity as the LA, I organized and conducted teams of ten for both load-in and load-out, while other students worked in the lobby taking tickets, ushering, etc. All students did an exemplary job, and we all learned a great deal from our experiences running real-life events.