Losting Music Convention Reflection Report
On 4th May 2019, Losting Music Club organised one of the annually event named 23rd Losting Music Convention. The theme for this event was ‘Heartz’ which is the symbolization of hertz (Hz) as this term is used most frequently in connection with sounds and music. This event was held at Dewan Sultan Iskandar, UTM from 7pm to 10pm. I noticed this music convention attracted a lot of UTM students as well as publics outside UTM. As reported from the ticket selling department, there is total of 1000 audiences in joining this event. There were total of 15 songs including cover songs and original songs performed by the Losting Music Club members. The 23rd Losting Music Convention was indeed a big success and all the singers were beyond excellence. I noticed the audiences really enjoy themselves fully and immersed themselves into the performance songs throughout this music convention.
Being vice president under publicity department in Losting Music Convention, I could not express my feelings enough when I saw the big success of this event on the day. We had spent more than 4 months in preparing this event. I felt so touched and excited as our hard work finally paid off with this huge success. Throwing back from the first day I submitted my application of event crew in this Music Convention, I still remember how excited I am when I was successfully chosen to be part of the committee under Publicity Department. During the first meeting of this event, I saw a lot of unfamiliar faces from different faculty. I was quite uneasy and nervous thinking that I would have to work with the people I did not know for few months. We greeted each other and have some short exchanges to introduce ourselves. After few conversations, I started to feel comfortable with them as they were so friendly and easy-going. I knew we would work well together in one team for the next few months. The meeting went smoothly as everyone was briefed about the tasks clearly and I could not wait to work as a vice president in publicity department.
Talking about publicity department, there are 3 members including me. Our leader possess excellent leadership skills. She is so dedicated and responsible. She briefed us in details about the things we needed to do for the next few months before the event day. She also guided us and always make sure we done our task perfectly before due date. After discussing together and checked each of our schedule, we set a department rule which is meeting every week to follow up our work process. I felt this is a good approach because this will make sure our progress is following the schedule and we able to finish all the task well before event day. As the saying goes, “Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligence planning and focused effort”. I believe the big success of our publicity department and the event is comes from our strong teamwork and hard work.
Being one of the event crew in this event, besides department tasks assigned to each person, we also required to work together on fundraising. To be honest, I am really familiar with the process or tips in fundraising. This is like when I joined Flag Day of St.John Ambulance Malaysia every year throughout my whole secondary school. The St.John Flag Day is annual activity held to appeal donations from the public to be used in healthcare, for example the medical equipments and ambulance. Flag Day events are always held between the third week of June and the third week of July for a period of one month. Being one of the members in St.John Ambulance Malaysia, we are required to join this annual event. This collection is used to fund our voluntary service, youth events and day to day operations at the Division, Area, State and National level. Similarly, the fundraising in Losting Music Convention Event is more or less similar with the Flag Day event I joined during secondary school. As I am experienced in this kind of fundraising event, I am not feeling shame or timid when asking donations from the public. In contrast, I actively asked the donations from the owner of the shops and public. Everyone is so supportive and friendly. We went to various places, from Taman Universiti to Taman Tun Aminah, we have went in each of every restaurant, wet and dry markets, cafes and some shop lots to ask for donations. In the end, we manage to hit our target in this fundraising event. It was tiring as we have to walk around and explain the purpose of this fundraising event to the public every time but I felt contented to be able to contribute to our event.
Before I joined as a member under publicity department, I never know the job of a Publicity Department is actually a lot. The main goal of this Publicity Department is to promote the Losting Music Convention to the public and increase our reputation. In order to achieve this goals, we as the publicity department have to share and update every details of this Losting Music Convention event on our social media page, printed out the banners and hang over the roadside or put in crowd spot and distributes the leaflets in the public places for example: canteen and market. Also, we tried to contact those famous Facebook Page, broadcast media (for example: MY FM) and also reporter from newspaper. I felt excited and nervous at the same time when I was assigned to contact these social media page, broadcast station and reporter because I am afraid they would not accept my request. Trying to step out of my comfort zone, I did a deep research for all the social media pages within our event area and jot down their email address. I emailed them regarding our event details and request them to share the related information on their page to increase our reputation. As a reward, we will post their company name in our sponsorship post. Out of my expectation, there were so helpful and eventually accept my request. I even successfully invited a reporter to attend the Losting Music Convention and published a report on the newspaper. I felt so contented when I saw my hard work paid off. Lastly, I believe part of the big success of this event is comes from the help and support from these social media and broadcast station.
For me, the most significant aspect throughout the task under Publicity Department is learning Photoshop. To be honest, I never touch Photoshop software before and I totally do not know how to function this software. However, one main job in the Publicity Department is to design different kinds of poster to post it on our social media. I always wanted to learn Photoshop as I understand many areas required photoshop skills however I never fully convince myself to start learning. So in this time, I finally get the opportunity to convince myself to learn this skills. Starting is always the hardest part. Since I am a total beginner, I am not familiar with the functions and shortcut key, so it nearly took me half day just to design a poster in the beginning. However, I never give up and keep learning during my free time. Apart from that, I also sought help from my team leader and team member who were familiar with the software when I faced some difficulties. Luckily, they were willing to help and guide me to use some shortcuts. Finally, I managed to design the poster that is fancy enough to be posted on the social media in a short time. I noticed if I really want to do something, I can do it well. I felt thankful to myself for taking up this challenge.
To sum up, I felt grateful in grabbing the opportunity and apply a position in Losting Music Convention Event. From preparing stage to final day, I really learn a lot of skills and knowledge outside of my study course. I will never regret to become part of the Publicity Department because this is the place where I grew a lot. Despite of learning new skills like Photoshop, I also stepped out my comfort zone to contact those medias, which indirectly help to enhance my interpersonal skills. Not to forgot, I also widen up my social circle and befriended some people from different faculties which is very beneficial for my future growth. Our teamwork is so strong and the spirit when everyone work together towards a common vision is very exciting. I must say everything I gained here is worth of the hardship that we paid off during these few months. Most importantly, our event went smoothly and everything goes well as planned. This was indeed a huge success which at the same time indicates that our hard work paid off. As a next step, if there is another event, I will definitely say “Yes. I am joining!”