Showing our Ambition

Event Academy were thrilled to be a part of the Ambition Royal Gala Dinner at Kensington Palace earlier this month. As the culmination of a year’s partnership between ourselves and the national youth charity Ambition, our current students offered their time as volunteers to ensure the event ran perfectly. We caught up with Ammar and Nadisha who were heading up our team of 30 volunteers for the evening to find out how they found it. First up, our student volunteers were briefed on the last event plan, which included timings down to the minute for the whole evening and were then involved in briefing the rest of the team. All this planning and preparation is essential, as our students have been learning on the course, but as Nadisha told us, “Volunteering really opens your eyes to what it is like to be working on the ground at a live event. The most unexpected thing was finding an iron at short notice for our celebrity guest, Darius Knight, so that he could iron his shirt for the dinner after arriving straight from another engagement.” In the events industry, volunteering is an essential part of demonstrating your ability to deal with any situation. Ammar gave us some advice for getting the most out of a volunteering opportunity: “Always ask questions. Your role at the event might be signage or AV assistant, ask questions about the objectives of the event and find out what the clients are looking to achieve … Students who are going into the event world should jump at any opportunity to volunteer, it gives you an appreciation of everything that goes into making an event successful that you can’t get from the lectures alone.” Congratulations to Ambition for a hugely successful event after months of preparation and to our student volunteers for working so hard at the event itself. Lucy Davis, from Ambition, shared their perspective on the event: “Our 90th anniversary gala dinner was a huge success, and we’re really grateful to the volunteers from Event Academy for all their hard work. Guests enjoyed a drinks reception on the terrace of The Orangery, followed by a three course dinner, live auction and evening entertainment. The volunteers were attentive throughout the night and made sure everyone had an enjoyable and memorable evening. All of the profits from the event will go to Ambition Giving, our grant giving scheme for youth clubs and projects which offers young people across the UK the chance of a brighter future.” All images, including featured images, by Miles Willis Photography http://www.mileswillis.co.uk/