Event Planning: The First Stages!

Hey, all!

Carrie was able to share with you a little bit more about her specialty in this process and now it’s my turn to elaborate. I first became interested in this event last year when Kelly Fox and Amanda Goeser created it. Carrie and I were their little minions and tried to help them as much as possible. That’s when we decided to take on the project ourselves for the following year.

Since starting my education at Truman I have realized how much I love event planning and every aspect that goes along with it. I wanted something that kept me busy and call me crazy, but that was in a high stress atmosphere as well. I hope to work as an event planner or something similar as soon as I graduate in May. I knew working with this for Communication students would give more experience in this field.

Over the course of our semester of planning, we have planned out week by week what we would like to do. Of course this has changed many times. Because we’ve changed our schedule so many times, it has helped remind us how flexibility is a key aspect of event planning. This aspect of planning an event can both be thrilling and stressful, but no matter what comes along, we have to deal with it in the best way we can.

We’re very excited to have such great alumni come back to Truman, but this has probably been one of the most difficult aspects of the process! The Truman alumni coming back are very successful and we’re thankful that they are taking time out of their schedules to share their expertise with us.  We’re going to start featuring who will make up our panel soon and I will be delving into the process of how we were able to bring the alumni to us in my next post.

We’re still taking submissions so make sure and submit something you have done in the Communication department. Have a good week and look forward to hearing from us on Wednesday!

A Glimpse Into the Process: Logo Design

When Sara and I sat down for our first meeting about the COMMference, we realized we had a lot of work ahead of us. We made an four month schedule and then realized what we needed first was new a name and then a new logo.

As a typeface obsessed, creative-type, wanna-be designer, I was given the second task.  My initial reaction was to freak out, obviously.  I have designed many posters, fliers and t-shirts but a logo, that’s serious work.

My only instructions were create something. I started my creative process by thinking of words that I wanted people to associate with the logo and with the event.

Bold

Modern

Simple

Connection

Identity

Communication

I doodled a few ideas and then headed to my favorite place on campus, the Mac lab. Every artist’s process is different but mine always starts with sketches (mostly during class, oops) and then lots of online research. I spend a lot of time perusing around design sites looking at color schemes, typefaces, business cards and logos.

I think the best logos are simple, distinct and find the essence of the message. I started looking at the letter C (for COMMference and communication) and thought about a way to break this up into parts.  These parts would symbolize the many facets of communication: student media, public relations, advertising, journalism, rhetoric and forensics.

I came up with six logo drafts and then discussed them with Sara and Dr. Y. We made a few minor changes to the one we all like the best (make the COMM capital instead of lowercase, adding the grammatical apostrophe) and then we had our logo.

But how did we choose what colors to use? Come back next week to find out…

Submissions!

Hey, everyone!

As we continue the planning process for the upcoming COMMference, this blog will be a way to stay connected with students and alumni, as well as a venue to display student work. We want to thank everyone who has already helped us in picking a name, especially Teresa Bradley for creating the winner. We’re excited to get started on the next phase of planning: submissions.

We need your help. We’re now accepting submissions for the presentation portion of the evening. This part focuses on exceptional student work since January 2011. These submissions can be papers, projects or presentations. Since only a limited amount of presentation spots are available, submissions will be selected on a first come-first served basis. We reserve the right to select the submissions to be presented based on the variety and need for the evening. Those that are not accepted for presentation at the April 21 event will be posted on our blog so others may still benefit from your hard work.

Guidelines for Submission:

1. All participants must be a communication major or minor or a member of Communication Department-related student organizations or affiliated media (Examples include: Ad&PR, Lambda Pi Eta, NCASC, National Broadcasting Society, Forensics, the Index, News36, Detours, and KTRM--The Edge).

2. All works submitted must have been completed at Truman after January 2011.

3. All works must be related to a Communication course or be affiliated with the above organizations that are affiliated with the Communication Department. 

4. Each student may make no more than two submissions.

5. Group projects must recognize the work of all members. If a project was produced by more than one student, all group members must consent to its submission. 

6. Each submission will be involved with The Commference in one of two ways:

- Formal Presentation at The Commference 

- Featured on The Commference blog 

7. Formal presentations must not exceed 10 minutes in length, and may include an excerpt and discussion of the submission. Examples might include showing clips of a news package, reading a passage from a course-related paper, or sharing a portion of a PowerPoint presentation.

8. All submissions must include two parts:

- Completion of submission form by Friday, March 23

- Electronic copy of work sent to thecommference@gmail.com 

Please go to the link above and submit something. Thanks!