Welcoming students from across the UK to Ravensbourne

Second year BA (Hons) Digital Television Production student Hayden Kracke has been instrumental in planning the NaSTA Awards which are due to take place 14-16 April at Ravensbourne.

From coordinating the main awards ceremony to planning a boat party on the River Thames, we caught up with Hayden to discuss the ins and outs of planning the event.

What does it mean to be involved in such an exciting event? 

A group of students from Creative Capital attended the event in York last year, where we won several awards. It was such a brilliant event and so we decided it would be incredible to host it at Ravensbourne. 

We found out that we had won the bid in June and since then it really has been all hands-on deck. There hasn’t been a day since then that I haven’t worked on it.  

For me personally, it’s given me such great experience in the production management side of things. Working on this project has really confirmed that this is the area that I want to go into after university. 

Can you tell us about your role in organising the event? 

I’m the Executive Producer, so I look after both the creative and logistical side of things. 

My main responsibilities have been working behind the scenes organising the Saturday awards ceremony; so, managing the running order and scripts and handling the finances too. 

We’ve got 30 media companies attending and they will all have their own stalls in the Walker Space. There are also 30 broadcast companies in attendance too, and they will offer advice on things like CV preparation. There is also an interactive panel and interactive sessions taking place. 

We’ve also got several sponsors for the event too, so I’ve been liaising with them. 

In terms of scale, we think it is going to be even bigger than the degree show. On the Saturday, we are estimating there will be as many as 350 people in the building. 

What do you feel has been the biggest challenge in organising the event? 

One of the biggest challenges has been getting our heads around the whole concept for the weekend. 

We have to convey the fact that it is the NaSTA Awards 50th anniversary, but also that it's the first time that Ravensbourne has hosted the awards. We also wanted to incorporate a London theme into the event proceedings.

We’ve got 200 people attending and many of them have never been to London before, so we wanted to plan something really special.

Can you tell us a bit more about the London theme? 

 On the Friday night, we have planned a meet and greet social and as part of this we have organised a boat party on the River Thames. 

We are planning on getting all 200 or so people on a boat. The boat will go up and down a stretch of the river a couple of times, so it’s a great opportunity for people to get to know each other better and see some London sights. 
 
We have had the idea for the boat party since April last year, so we had to go about organising a venue hire for this. Thankfully, the one we have booked offered us a great rate as well. 

How much support from Ravensbourne have you received to organise the event? 

Ravensbourne initially allowed us to put the bid in to host the event, so for this we had to get approval from the executive team and the Students’ Union (RSU). 

The executive team at Ravensbourne has been involved at all stages of the planning process, but they’ve given us a lot of freedom to plan everything and to shape the event how we want. 

Zahra from the RSU has been heavily involved in the event's organisation and she’s helped us liaise with different departments within Ravensbourne, such as facilities and IT. 

There are so many things that you need to plan for when organising an event, and so many details that need to be considered and so it has been a big learning curve.

What part of the event are you most looking forward to? 

For me, it has to be the Saturday awards, because this is the bit that I’ve worked the closest on. It’s a two-and-a-half-hour live show, and involves so many moving parts.

I know it all off by heart and so once it comes to a close I’ll feel a big massive sense of accomplishment, I'm sure. It’s going to be one of the proudest things I’ve done.