syllabus

ENT 4440 Live Event Management Syllabus 

2022, Spring Semester
Office: Room 203, Voorhees Hall, (718) 260-5595
Email: sbrandt@citytech.cuny.edu

Course Description

Event managers run conferences, corporate events, festivals, rock concerts and many other live events around the world.  In the event management class students will explore the theory, practice and tools of administering a live performance. Each student will be assigned to a live event in a Management position. The students begin in pre-production creating planning documents in a Production book and an estimate for the event they are assigned to. The students will attend meetings and be part of the event process. They will update their budgets and schedules as needed throughout the process. They will attend and manage the event with faculty support. The students will develop leadership skills through experiential learning. They will learn the value of establishing a professional presence; enabling the performance process to run smoothly and efficiently. Afterwards students will evaluate their event by examining obstacles they had to overcome.

Required Materials

Cary Gillett and Jay Sheehan, The Production Managers Toolkit, (1^st Edition), Focal Press, 2017
Word processing, spreadsheet, database and presentation software

Required Internet Access

You must log in and update your email address, and then check in once a week throughout the semester. This is a 100% online course content is synchronous with weekly asynchronous meeting for the class to learn collaborate and present events.

Attendance/Promptness

If you have a legitimate reason for turning in an assignment late, you must contact me (see above) before the assignment is due.

Show Attendance Policy (Departmental Policy)

If you are going to work in the Entertainment Industry, it is as important to be an educated and engaged audience member as it is to have a clear understanding of what happens backstage. Also, when your peers and/or faculty are working hard on a live event for the department, they must be rewarded with your strong support and encouragement, even though you may have nothing to do with that project. There is nothing worse, after working a “zillion” hours on a project, than to have a small audience. Therefore, as part of completion of this course you will be REQUIRED to attend at least one of the departments and or Theatreworks’ live events. The Haunted Hotel also must be visited at least once each year.  Please come and show your support as often as you can!

 PROJECTS

Pre-production Book

In the past each student would have printed critical documents to have on hand at your event. You would collect the documents in one virtual location to share and update as needed with your team. We will be using Airtable.

Sections of preproduction book are listed below. For this class you will be creating two production books. One for an assigned production inside the City Tech Theatreworks season and one for the Virtual/pop-up event assignment.

Post all documents you create in the assigned Airtable

Part 1: Communication: title page, table of contents and contact sheets, Venue contact, Agenda and notes for Meetings.
Part 2: Marketing: Mission statement, objectives, target audience, value proposition, elevator pitch and timeline.
Part 3: Planning: GANT, PERT and WBS charts and tables.
Part 4: Estimate for marketing plan.

Reflection Paper

Connecting to the work: Write a paper about an obstacle experienced during a live production. How did the issue come about and how did the student resolve it? Presentation and discussion to follow the writing portion of the project.

Course Grading

Online Course Technology Prerequisites

• You will need an email account and should be comfortable using it. The college provides an email account to all students.
• You should have access to and be able to use the Mozilla, Internet Explorer, Chrome Internet Explorer browsers with Blackboard.  AOL users should maximize the Internet Explorer browser and minimize AOL.
• You need access to a computer with at least 256 MB RAM and an Internet connection via a 56k modem or, ideally, the college T1 line.
• To make sure you have the online skills necessary to take this course; please take the online survey. You will receive a score and information letting you know if you are prepared to take an online course.

How to obtain the beginners guide to Blackboard and take the online survey

1. Go to the City Tech Home Page
2. Click on helpful links.
3. Scroll down to “Websupport 1.”
4. Scroll down to Instructional Technology Tutorials and Handouts
5. Scroll down to “Beginners Guide to Blackboard,” and click.
6. A series of instructional tutorials is listed

*Student training is also available in the open student lab in the General Building, sixth floor, Room G600. The phone number for the lab is (718)254-8565.

Online Component Description

• All assignments are posted in the assignment area of the course menu.
• All assignments must be turned in the assignments tab in Black board.
• I will be checking black board three times a week.
• I will be checking my email Monday through Friday

Blackboard menu

• ANNOUNCEMENT is the entry point. Announcements tell you everything you might expect to hear at the beginning of a class if we were in a classroom. In our virtual classroom, you have to read the announcements each time you enter the course by logging on. Check these announcements three times a week.
• INFORMATION is where you will find information about me (phone, email, office location and so on).  Our online classroom is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So if you want to ask me any questions about project management, you can post to the discussion board at any time and I’ll try to respond within 12 hours. (course syllabus, grading policies)
• LECTURES is where you will find all assigned readings, “handouts,” checklists, slides, lecture notes and information about how to do all the assigned work.
• ASSIGNMENTS is where all assignments (with due dates) will be turned in.
• DISCUSSIONS- Post any questions you have about Project Management.
• TOOLS is where you’ll find tools for updating your personal information, creating your own Home Page (on this site), checking your grades, and exchanging word processing files with classmates and with me via the Digital Drop Box. Also the tools for sending email to me other members of the class.

Openlab menu

• Instructions is the information hub of the webpage it includes syllabus, schedule and online etiquette.
• Lecture content- All the lecture content and materials for each lecture.
• Assignments-Your assignments and content are in this tab.
• Production Binder- The entire list of pages that should be in your binder and sample documents of each page.
• Faculty-Professor Brandt’s information.

Course Objectives:

Learning Objectives/Outcomes	Assessment
Knowledge: Through assigned readings and classroom discussions students will learn to select the specific needs of their assigned productions.	This will be measured in classwork and assignments
Systems: Students will develop communication skills that will allow them to identify information, organize it and report their findings in a useful manner.	This will be measured in classwork and the production book assignment.
Inquiry/Analysis: Students will participate in the management of a live production and participate in the real time experience. They will problem solve issues as they present in a professional manner.	This will be measured through evaluation of observation during a live performance, class discussion and homework assignments.
Integration: Students will experience live events and compose a paper about the professional relationships they develop as being part of a production team and working in a live entertainment environment.	This will be measured through evaluation of an assignment.