Conference Room
1. Apologies & Absences
Apologies – AG, DM, OW, AW
Absences –
2. Expectations
Meetings will be held once a week-ish, depending on how near large events are
You’ll receive event discounts for helping organise them, but won’t be ‘on duty’ during the big three.
Each person will run one small event throughout the year – so everyone gets an idea of what it takes
3. Major events
14th Nov – Ball
20th Feb – Feast (provisional)
13th June – Cuth’s Day (provisional)
4. Ideas for smaller events
Oktoberfest
Halloween
Christmas – christmas market in the garden – husky puppies, reindeer, mulled wine, choir, gingerbread men
General election (may) – question time/party on the night
St Patrick’s Day (post formal event?)
Snowball fights
Chinese New Year
Burns’ Night (post formal event?)
Fireworks night after party – toffee apples, hot drinks, cosy, apple bobbing,
Night of childrens party games – pass the parcel, pin the tail on the donkey, chocolate scarf game
Bake off competition
Charity cake competition – brooks
Cuth dine with me
Superbowl party at brooks? (when it’s warmer)
Summer american party – candy floss, pop corn, hot dogs
England six nations in the dining hall
External – go karting, paintballing, stargazing, ice skating
5. Michaelmas ball (in 29 days)
2 reception rooms – where the drinks reception will be
300 seats in the dining hall
Ents and live music in the hall after dinner
Use a theme to go with tickets and branding, something that doesn’t particularly need ‘costumes’ or themed ents
Feast was much more heavily branded – when you commit to a theme you’ve really got to do it well – with a looser theme you can get away with more
Cinderella
Night at the Oscars (red carpet, lighting, hollywood esque decs, don’t need to go all out on details)
Carnival would need you to go much more all out on decoration and theme
Moulin Rouge – don’t want to be too costume-y
Masquerade – could be fun to really go for it – wouldn’t take a lot for people to dress up for it
/phantom of the opera – people can go more all out if they want to
Theatre / old school glamour / west end / broadway – drapes and velvet ropes, little details like opera glasses, little interval ice creams pots, make the tickets look like actual theatre tickets, ents – pop corn stall, projector outside showing old films
Movie posters (cuth’s-ify them), a bit more upmarket that just ‘Hollywood’
Colour scheme – black/white/red
Could still have a red carpet
Paper and pens, rules of the game
Teach postgrads the cuth’s song, the rules of the game etc – no one teaches them!
Some tables and circles, some are rectangular
Tickets will be released around the end of October, theme/hype etc released in about a week
Themed ents – swing band, mimes, magicians, photobooth, disposable cameras (on cds) – leave people to do it themselves? most people just use their phones
Can get automatic ones or ones with a photographer, black cab from last year? black and white booth?
One large ent – fairground ride? issue here is proximity to the hotel – might not be able to use generators – quite restrictive – helter skelter? not great for heels and dresses…
Music – University Swing Band, durham uni orchestra ball had a good band
Basement Jazz – more to play during the meal, can’t really dance to it, more atmospheric – Use for drinks reception, not enough space for a live band during dinner
Last year – had the Invitations and then a student DJ
Want something new and a bit different – good music would definitely help
No one cares about the theme later in the night
There won’t be a lot of lingering in the garden – it’ll be very cold. Only use half the garden
Gazebo with mulled wine/hot choc to get people outside if it’s going to be full
Can use the reception rooms as extra space – we have them all night
Project film trailer on the internal walls
The Fabulous Hurricanes – played the ball in 2011
– 50s/60s rhythm and blues – modern songs in that style
The number of bands/DJs will be dependent on evening timings – first band for 10.30ish
one band outside? while we reset the dining hall?
Start time is completely up to us
People will get binned – worth bearing it in mind – think like a drunk person
last orders is 12.30 – finish at 1
Ents tickets – a drinks reception for them too – something at brooks – dress that up, or have a drinks reception at the venue while everyone else is finishing up dinner
Want to make the ents ticket feel as special as possible
Research:
C?- music
V?- djs
G?- ents
MF- djs
– come back with ideas and prices
Outside – fairy lights, wouldn’t take a lot to dress it up