Last Sunday, I attended Wynwood Style Academy. I was very excited to attend and see how the concept would play out. I was bit disappointed with the outcome truthfully, but yet was pleased with the people working the event. Wynwood Style Academy was a workshop dedicated to get people involved with WakeUpStar and also to shed some light on how we can build ourselves in whatever we are involved in, business wise. That concept right there brought me into this event. It's never too much to learn how to upper your skills. What was bad about it was how it all played out.
I arrived around twelve-thirty, the event started at twelve. I pulled up to a studio like place with only two cars in the parking lot. I was quite troublesome about that. I sat in the parking lot for about thirty minutes, left and returned. Still no sign of activity going on. I decided to go up along side of my friends. We walked into a warming environment. Was greeted at the doors with open hands. The people were very pleasant. There was still no one there, just the people running the event. We sat down for a few hours and was told the photographer should be arriving shortly. After just hanging around the photographers and their friends showed up. The ball started rolling from there. The event stated that there will be photo shoots going along side the workshop. From my point of view there was only one model. Where was everyone else? The workshop was just the founder giving out good words on how to upper our marketing skills. It was short and sweet. Didn't seem planned out as much. After all that it was just a chill zone. People were around talking and networking.
Overall there was about twenty people that attended this event and majority of them was part of the event. Where does this leave me thinking. I believe maybe with more support and networking prior to the event, it would had gone a totally different route. Maybe, even planned out a little bit more. Like I've said, the concept was a good idea. We need things like this to be available to the young community. But when these events are running with little show up it's as bad as not having an event at all. End of the day the work and support needs to be both put it in. These events are resources for you guys, in your own surroundings. We all should show a little support and take advantage of what's happening in front of us.
My words to WakeUpStar and the people behind the event....
Maybe next time plan it out better. Your idea was great, but needed a month in advance of networking your idea out to people so they can sign up and attend. Also with working with people for your event stress how important being on time is. Play with your timing as well this event did not need to be 6 hours long with its capacity.
Disclaimer : This is not a negative review on the event, simply just an eyeopener. Shedding light on both the good and the negative. We can't achieve without learning from our mistakes and growing. This is all one big learning process for all of us. This is WakeUpStar's first event, Looking forward to see improvements both from behind the scenes and from the community for any future events.
Thanks for coming out and for the dope review :) I didn't find it to be negative at all, just very candid and honest.
ReplyDeleteThe turnout was a tad bit disappointing. Everyone who showed up was amazing, but it was an event that could have benefited from a bigger turnout. Our goal was 25 (50 max) and we got about 1/2 of that.
Everyone who showed genuine support came out though, so it was good to see the tweets, etc weren't in vain. The empty parking lot may have scared some people off too b/c we saw groups of people outside who said they were there for the event but never came upstairs. Another group of girls also told us they couldn't figure out how to get in the gate and were almost getting ready to leave. Learning lesson!
We are definitely looking for more support and ways to improve Style Academy. This one was more of a test run to see what works and what doesn't, before putting heavy promotion into a monthly event.
While we were gearing it towards models originally, we learned that it's an even greater opportunity for stylists + fashion bloggers. We literally had to switch our presentation up on the spot to make sure that we included specific information for that group, while getting insight into the types of topics + support you guys would need.
I'm glad you noticed the work that goes into these types of events and that we do need more support within the community. Our goal is definitely to start networking for the next one right after the last one, because we want it to be a full experience for everyone.
The time slot was originally to allow models to have enough time to get at least a 30-minute shoot in, so good point about that. The format is something that would work for an established event, and we will definitely experiment with a looser format for the next one.
We did learn about timing, too. If it's an open event where people can arrive when they want and leave when they want, we need to market it that way. If there is a set agenda, we need to stress that as well.
Again, this is all great feedback! We love the openness and can't wait to implement this insight into the next one :)
Only one minor correction ~ this was the first Style Academy and June was our first month in our Wynwood location. This was, however, not our first event. Our most successful turnouts have been for Social Media Week (wakeupstar.com/smw13), especially our C.R.E.A.M. party, which we'd looove to do again: http://cream.splashthat.com.
Before that, we were in LA and ATL, so it's always a challenge being the new kids in town. We look forward to making our mark in S. Florida and thank blogs like Landscapers and wonderful people like Saf for the support. It means more than you know!
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and covering the event.
Love & Light & Landscaping :)
~ Ronnia, WAKEUPSTAR*