Ancient world student social

The Manchester Museum hosted a student social event that seemed to be similar to the event that we want to set up. I visited the event as to see what was going on to take influence and to ask the organisers any advice or tips they could give. 

Foyer

The main foyer as you walk in felt the most "social" area of the museum, as the free food and drinks were being handed out in this area. Groups were chatting and the (themed) music in the background meant it never got too quiet or awkward 

Advice

I spoke to one of the student volunteers who helped to work on the event who gave me a few tips. She said they only had a few weeks and a £500 budget to work from, which is obviously a lot less time than us so it was a relief to know what can be done in a short space of time. 

The main advice she gave me was remember at all times that the event is for students so you need to always think about what students will potentially want. She said majority of the £500 budget went on the free food and drinks that were being handed out but were essential to make people go. 

She also said that keeping to a theme (they chose Egyptians) was really fun. 

I also spoke to Naomi Kashiwagi, the student engagement coordinator at Whitworth Art Gallery and Manchester museum who mirrored the students advice. She commented on the interesting dynamic that the students were the main controllers of the event, and that she was there mainly as a support and for contacts (very similar to our PHM event) 

I also asked Naomi advice on how to market the event and she mentioned  that the most important aspect of how to market it were contacts. Through mainly Facebook, Twitter, email and the university and museum contacts. Yet I don't think this was the case, as I had only heard about the event on the night via Twitter, and if I wasn't online at that exact time I never would of heard of it, as their target market I feel this is a big error.



Main gallery

In the main gallery there was an Archeology student talking about Roman artefacts with an iPad to demonstrate, which was very interesting and notably optional so felt relaxed. 

Whereas the tour at 7pm although it was pushed into half hour still felt too strict for students who aren't history or archeology. Although there were about 30/35 people who followed the tour. There was also a woman walking around taking photos on iPad of people on tour, which kept the atmosphere quite fun and light.