The quiz show "Schlag den Prof" at the University Info Day 2022 was a complete success. In this article, I'll tell you how much planning actually went into it and what it has to do with studying tourism.
Author: Verena Nowatzky
"Sound on, camera on and please!" - That's how it sounded on January 5, 2022, when the auditorium on the Görlitz campus was transformed into a television studio for a day. For the University Information Day 2022, or HIT22 for short, the 12 Tourism Management students on the "Event Management" module (including myself ;)) put on a real quiz show in cooperation with lecturer Sebastian Benad (M.A.). Teaching staff and employees of the university competed against students from Zittau and Görlitz in various categories - true to the title "Beat the Prof!".
The recording of the show was broadcast on January 13 on the HIT event platform. Our aim as event managers was to show the pupils at the grammar schools what makes studying at one of the two HSCG locations a great and unforgettable experience. In addition to the many exciting classes / courses, this also includes the numerous parties, excursions in the border triangle and the cool people you get to know along the way. But how did the organization of "Schlag den Prof" actually work?
The conception, planning, implementation and follow-up took place in the elective module "Event Management". We had the specific task of organizing the opening event for the University Information Day 2022, as well as another program item. But something was to turn our initial considerations completely upside down. In October, we started brainstorming what exactly we wanted to give prospective students. We soon came up with the idea of presenting the leisure activities at the two study locations as part of the four seasons.
The original plan involved designing four different rooms, each representing a season and the associated leisure activities of HSCG students. What we didn't know at the time was that the University Info Day would take place as an online format for another year.
One of the tasks of event management is to be flexible and to be able to react confidently to spontaneous changes in plans. We experienced this first-hand when the pandemic put a spanner in the works of our creative thinking. We had to realign ourselves, but stuck to our concept. The information we wanted to present in analog form was published as web content in numerous blog and video posts.
The fact that the opening event was to be a quiz show in which students and professors put their knowledge of the HSZG, Zittau and Görlitz to the test was only decided in the last third of the semester.
With the degree of planning, we divided into different working groups. The teams were formed:
Maintains an overview, represents the project externally, steps in when things get stressful.
Coordinates the room planning and organizes the necessary technical equipment.
Responsible for the conception of the quiz show with creativity and organizational skills
Responsible for the conception of the "4 Seasons" room concept with a lot of networking and attention to detail
Responsible for the planning and creation of social media posts and made an Instagram takeover on the HSZG channel
Supported the implementation of the concepts and recruited the quiz show participants
Kept a close eye on the cash register and supported with the organization of sponsors
Responsible for the hygiene concept of the event with measuring tape and masks
As already mentioned, the HIT took place online, which is why the quiz show could not be held as a live event with an audience, but was recorded. We spent two full days setting up the auditorium as a filming location and recording the show for the University Information Day 2022.
Even if everything turned out a little differently in the end than originally planned (but that's often the case in life, isn't it?), in the end everyone had a lot of fun organizing and running the event. Towards the end, things got a little more stressful, but the general desire to put on something great prevailed.
To all Tourism Management students who are currently in their third semester: In the next stage of your studies, you will have to decide on an elective module for the fifth semester. I can only warmly recommend the event management module for the "Management of the Tourism Industry" section. From my own experience, I can say that the module provides a good and, above all, practical insight into the event industry. Another special feature that I personally really enjoyed was the flipped classroom format. This means that all the theoretical module content was also taught by us students in workshops, which we then prepared in small groups. This meant that there was no traditional frontal teaching, which made the subject of event management even more varied than it already is.
Incidentally, the professors were not beaten this time, but who knows, maybe there will be a rematch?
