Geddit!
The first pop-market organised by Poppin! Events as our launch, it featured 7 local fashion and accessories businesses that participated as vendors.
The market was also livened up by live performances by 8 young emerging local talents throughout the two days.
The planning and execution of the event was heavily supported by our ex-offender as part of his on-the-job training and employment.
Key Targets and Achievements
10
Targeted Participating Vendors
Targeted Attendance
600
Targeted Number of Performances
8
5
Targeted Number of Partners
Total
Participating Vendors
7
Total Attendance
~250
Total Number of Performances
9
Total Number of Partners
4
What We Did
As the organiser, it took a high level of detail and focus on our side to ensure that every aspect of the event is covered and expectations were met. We had to set standards higher, further than what we were usually accustomed to in school projects.
A whole lot of marketing
"Business has only two functions - marketing and innovation"
- Milan Kundera
One of the key things in a business is getting people to know about it. The power of marketing and people is unprecedented.
With Geddit!, we pushed hard to get our event marketed at various channels - for both potential event goers and vendors. It was a great challenge for us considering we had two different groups to target and the lack of knowledge on the channels available to reach out to them.
For Geddit!, we intentionally held the event on 12 & 13 January 2019 to focus on the female crowd who'll be shopping for the upcoming Lunar New Year. We also focused deeper into this crowd, targeting youths aged 18 - 35.
We used the following channels to reach out our targeted market:
We utilised Instagram Ads that had the function to target specific demographics on Instagram.
Physical Marketing
A whole lot of flyers and words were given out to the public pre-event and during the event.
Event Websites
We approached various huge event listing websites such as Honeycombers and ExpatLiving to feature our event.
Click below to see the event listings:
For the vendors, we extensively searched for small to medium local fashion and accessories businesses on Instagram. We also used email blasting to businesses that we came across online and at other pop-up markets. These businesses that we targeted only used online mediums to sell their products.
We leveraged on this and positioned ourselves to offer them an opportunity to physically sell their products without the heavy costs of a storefront.
We managed to secure 7 businesses to participate in our pop-up market:
Planning and executing on almost no budget
With close to zero budget, we had to be as resourceful as we could but at the same time not compromising on the quality of the services we provide. Furthermore, majority of the team having lack of industry experience in events planning made it a big hurdle for us.
We were able to secure partnerships with organisations that helped to ease the financial burden and support our social cause.
Youth Corps Singapore was able to provide us with a venue without charge.
We were also able to leverage on our connections made from our internships such as having Adrenalin Group to support our logistical needs.
We utilized what we have learnt in Business Communications in order to pitch our event to potential sponsors and partners. These learnings took the form of crafting out proposals for sponsors as well as creating various email templates that we utilised for different situations.
~250
Total Attendance
Challenges
Maintaining expectations of clients
Keeping the clients at the center of everything was a challenge to us. We had to strike a balance between making enough money to minimally breakeven and to provide the best to our clients, especially when we were tight on budget.
Many of times we found ourselves focusing too much ourselves and lost touch with our clients. In the midst of the work, we come to realise that whatever it is we have to keep our clients always in our mind and give them the best.
Working with our beneficiary
We had to work alongside with our beneficiary when we ourselves we're learning as we go. It was taxing on us to handle our beneficiary's behaviours and attitude towards work and ensuring that he does his job up to standards.
Unable to get funding
We were to fixated on getting funding for one event, instead for the whole business and operations. Many other funding options we were not able to grasp due to not meeting their requirements.
What Didn't Work
Value for money
The venue was sponsored and it helped us financially, but it didn't help our clients. We didn't understand the trade-off we were taking when we agreed on this venue. Once we knew, it was too late - it was event day.
The venue did not also coincide with the price that the vendors had to pay to participate in our pop-up market which was:
$300
for a single booth for two days
$200
for a shared booth for two days
The price was set based on the market rates that we've researched but we did not fully access whether we could provide the value that the prices should bring to our clients.
Despite us charging at market rates, we were not able to cover our costs and made a loss of:
$400
Improvements from Trial
Vendor Management
During our pilot event, we were told that we did not routinely check up on our vendors. Hence, for Geddit!, we assigned one person to be the vendor in-charge and take care of the vendors' welfare. Additionally, we learnt how to negotiate with potential vendors and provide a win-win solution for them to participate in our pop-up market.
Communication Skills
The team's communication during our pilot event was lacking as not only did we not update each other on our whereabouts, we were a unclear about the last minute changes that were made to the event. Hence for Geddit!, we constantly keep one another updated through Whatsapp whenever any changes were made.
Feedback
Despite the rough execution, we were able to receive positive and constructive feedback from 145 respondents that attended the event.
rated our event a 4 -5 stars out of 5
70.3%
94.5%
would attend another event organised by us
Common feedback given touched on three main aspects of the event: venue, marketing and vendor line-up.
Venue
As touched upon previously, the venue did not have a lot of foot traffic and that affected the overall atmosphere of the event. The outdoor nature of the venue also affected some attendees, commenting on the weather conditions such as the rain and hot weather.
Marketing
The marketing efforts we had did not reached the audiences that was truly interested in our pop-up market. Furthermore, our marketing did not give a reason for people come, it was just merely a reminder that the event existed.
Vendor Line-up
We received feedback that the vendor line-up could be more interesting, with inclusion of more varied fashion products or food and beverage vendors. We did consider food and beverage vendors but due to the amount of permits required and potential risks, we had to let it go.