Meeting with Barbara Butler
On Wednesday Dave Walker and myself visited Huddersfield University Business School to meet Barbara Butler, the schools Enterprise Development Manager.
The meeting was very informal. We discussed what the School does, what the Choir does and how they might help us, particularly but not exclusively in the area of engaging with a wider, and younger, audience and how we might publicize our concerts more effectively.
The outcome was very positive and resulted in them offering the Choir an opportunity to become a project for a small team of four to six Business School students, starting in September 2014. With the Schools help we would work up an assignment proposal and this would be part of the students course work during the winter/spring term.
The School work with many organisations and companies, across a whole array of business sectors. About 18 are chosen each year as ‘projects’. They were keen that we should take part in the process.
A spin-off from the discussion could be a presence at the September ‘Freshers’ Fair. An opportunity for us to sell ourselves and also the Willard White concert to receptive music under-grads. Barbara is also prepared to advertise the concert on their internal Intranet. Direct communication to the students and staff at the University.
There’s lots to mull over but, as a first step, we have an invitation to attend the student presentations covering some of the projects completed this year.
This is on Tuesday 25th March (next week) commencing at 10:15. One presentation might be of particular interest, the Forget Me Not Charity project is presented at approximately 10:40. Presentations finish at 12:15 and we are not obliged to stay ‘til the end.
This year’s university student presentations on marketing to their sponsors
Attendees
- Steve Flynn
- Graham Dawson
- Tom Ashworth
Follow up to 19 Mar 2014 meeting.
This was an invitation to attend the student presentations of some of the projects conducted in 2013/14 academic year.
We saw 3 project presentations…
- 1. News2UK
- An online newspaper feasibility study conducted by 6 students.
- Lots of research and statistics
- The best presentation of the morning.
- 2. Forget me Not Childrens Hospice
- A brand awareness study conducted by 6 students.
- 3. Carters Hand Tools
- Carters make shovels, hundreds of them, for use in the construction industry, particularly railway construction.
- Study attempted to identify export opportunities to the burgeoning Australian railway sector.
- The weakest presentation but, to be fair, probably the hardest project spec.
All the projects were attended by the project sponsors as well as Business School staff.
All the projects were well received by the sponsors.
Next Steps
- If we want to take part in this process next year we need to work up a proposal and submit it to the Business School by the end of this summer.
- A lesson we learnt yesterday is that the project objectives and scope need to be targeted and clearly defined to ensure we get good results.
- Available Projects are offered to the students during November and we can expect the project to start at the end of the year or early in 2015.
- The students need a single point of contact within the Choir but this should not preclude a number of Choir members being actively involved.
Personal Notes
I believe this is a great opportunity and one we should capitalise on.
There is a lot of goodwill within the Business School and a desire that we should take part.
We must try to make this liaison with the University longer term rather than just for the scope of this project.
Ps. As a direct result of contact at the meeting we have a new follower on Twitter – Forget Me Not. Question. How do we capitalise on Twitter Followers…?
