Events Management students at the Sino-British College have demonstrated their talent and professionalism by organising a series of off-campus events in April and May of this year.
Year 4 students studying for the University of Huddersfield's Events Management degree take a course called 'Managing the client event', for which they were required to put on live events for charities and other organisations at off-campus locations. The students worked with both local and international charities, including CereCare, Morning Tears, Baobei, Hands On Shanghai and the beneficiaries of these charities include a wide range of causes such as homeless and migrant children, children with disabilities, sick patients and community centres.
Events organised by the six groups of students include an Easter Fun Day at CereCare, an outing for Sunshine Home residents 'Sunshine Home, Sunshine World', the Community Centre Shanghai's 'Friend & Family Day', Baobei Charity Farmers' Market, 'Fashion Mothers' charity fashion show and the Shutterbug Photography Exhibition. All the events were very well organised and presented, attracting around 1,000 participants in total.
On 8th May the students organised a charity Farmers Market at the InterContinental Shanghai Expo Hotel. The hotel was one of the event sponsors and the students were fortunate to be able to host the market in the beautiful grounds of the hotel villa gardens.
The event helped to raise funds for the Baobei Foundation, a charity that aims to help save the lives of Chinese orphans born with neurological or gastrointestinal disorders requiring critical surgery and aftercare.
Professor Ian Gow OBE, Principal and CEO of SBC, was invited by the students to speak at the event. He said in his speech: "I'm very pleased to see that our Events Management students are able to apply their specialist skills in the real world in such a positive way." He also said: "SBC is committed to working closely with the local and international community in Shanghai, so I'm particularly proud of the fact that our students have already shown a strong sense of social responsibility and they are now doing everything they can to help those who are less fortunate than themselves."
On Saturday 23rd April, one of the student groups organised an Easter Fun Day event for the children at CereCare Wellness Centre to help support this charity that cares for young children who have Cerebral Palsy.
Sponsored by Ikea and promoted by the British Chamber of Commerce Shanghai, the event was organised so the children could enjoy some fun activities and to help improve their social interaction. It was also a good opportunity to better understand the issues faced by children who suffer from the disease and to introduce the business community to CereCare so they could explore opportunities for working together in the future.
Rory Farquhar-Thomson, Chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce Shanghai, was invited to attend the event together with a group of colleagues from the Chamber. In his letter of thanks to Principal Gow, Mr. Farquhar-Thomson wrote: "I would just like to take this opportunity to express my feelings of gratitude to your students for the excellent planning and execution of this event. Over a two hour period they fully engaged the children and adults in a wonderful fun packed afternoon."
Stacey Kurzendorfer, Head of the Events Management Division said: "I am extremely impressed with the problem solving abilities the students have shown in organising their events, and I am particularly impressed with the array of sponsorship the students' efforts have attracted."
In addition to utilising their specialist knowledge and organisational skills to organise charitable events off-campus, students have also been taking initiatives in organising various activities on campus. In December last year, students hosted 12 different live events and all the money they raised was donated to various charities.
Throughout past year, students in Events Management have also been very active in seeking volunteer work opportunities. For example, over 60 students volunteered in the mega-event of the 2010 Shanghai Expo, and one student was selected to be an escort and the flag raiser for the Republic of Salvador during the opening and closing ceremonies. Other events that students have volunteered in include the Shanghai International Literary Festival, Shanghai Rugby Sevens and the F1 motor racing event.
Dr Catherine Curtin, Senior Business Lecturer at SBC, said: "We are very pleased to see our students so actively involved with such impressive charities and local community projects. Very strong links between these and the college have been developed and we hope to build on these in the future."
