UNIVERSITY COALITIONS for GLOBAL HEALTH

Event Planning

Plan a Rally | Host a Speaker | Teach-Ins/Forums | Street Theater

Essentials of Event Planning

Clear Advocacy Demand – All events should join public awareness with action. Use events as a mechanism for furthering your advocacy strategy.
Invite the Media – Make sure you invite the media leading up to an event, especially your local and school newspaper. Also, prepare media packets with educational information on your issue for media personnel.
The Rule of Halves – Indicate the number of people you need to ask to attend an event to have your desired number of attendees show on the day of the event.
General Rule: If you want X amount of people to show up on the day for an event, you need to ask 8 times X. So if you want 10 people to show you need to ask 80 people and call them the night before the event. Trust us it works.

How It Works: Of all the people asked, half will say “yes” they will come the first time you ask them. Of that initial half, half of those people, when reminded a couple nights before the event, will say yes. Of that half, half will say yes the night before the event. And of those people, half of them will actually show up.

Plan a Rally

Rallies and demonstrations are excellent ways to increase public awareness and empower your members to take action. A well executed rally can change the course of a campaign and increase membership numbers overnight.

Rally essentials

Get a city permit to hold the rally
Stage and AV equipment
Keynote speaker
Recruitment
Invite the media

Rally recruitment steps

Identify Partners
The most important resource for a demonstration is people. Working with other organizational allies to help plan and promote the rally can drastically increase turnout numbers and be the start of an excellent partnership.
The Table
Set up tabling times in busy areas of campus starting two weeks before a rally. Have catchy props and colorful displays. Get their name, email and cell number for follow-up.

Ex: Hang empty lab coats nearby. At the table, ask people to write their own sentence on a pre-made letter to Congress, tell them about the upcoming rally and ask them to sign up.
It helps to have cookies or candy as a means of grabbing their attention!
Other Publicity
Put posters up about the rally in university dorms, bathrooms, etc. and ask friendly professors to let you pitch the rally to their classes.
Building your Team
Add all of the emails you get to a listserv, send weekly updates about the demonstration planning. Ask people to host sign-making parties and get people involved.
Follow-up
Two days before the demonstration, call everyone who has signed up and remind them.

No means no, maybe means no and yes means maybe. Invite them to meet up at X location and X time (if departure time for the demo is 10 am, ask them to meet at 9:30 am) to travel together to the rally site.

Call the press and send them a press advisory.
Day before the Rally
Have a sign and prop-making party. Call the press again and send another press release. Make press packets full of information and supporting documents on your issue.
Day of the Rally
Call all of the yeses and maybes. Set up a sign-in table at the meeting point and pass out all appropriate signs and props. Make more signs while people gather. Teach everyone the rally chant. During the rally, hand out press packets, and have speakers available to talk with press.

Host a Speaker

Boost attendance at events by hosting a speaker. This page explains how to identify and get speakers to your events.

Speaker Check List

Invite the speaker months in advance – share information about your organization
Secure an event location
Develop an event agenda
Create recruitment strategy
Meet the speaker when they arrive – assign a group member to “host”
Sign-in sheet
Thank you card
Follow up with attendees

Planning Timetable

Weeks before the Event	Day of the Event	After the Event
Begin planning two to four months before the event Be clear about what you want the speaker to discuss Clarify if and when the speaker expects to be paid Develop an agenda for the event Plan for a question/answer period at the end Assign someone to act as the “host” to the speaker Communicate regularly with the speaker Recruit people to attend the event	Have a sign-in sheet at the event, as a way to get new members Meet the speaker when he/she arrives Spend time with the speaker to go over the event agenda Keep time during the speech and help the speaker know when time is up	Send a thank you card Reach out to new people who signed in at the event

Teach-Ins and Forums

A teach-in is session composed of lectures and discussion around a specific topic.
A forum is a public meeting or assembly for open discussion that usually consists of a panel of experts. Sometimes forums are held in a roundtable format and other times they resemble a town hall meeting. The structure is up to you.

Both are good ways to educate the general public about global health injustices.

Preparing for a Teach-In/Forum

Find a location – keeping in mind you may need AV equipment
Decide who is facilitating and speaking at the event
Define your issues and develop interactive ways to convey the information
Make them as interactive as possible
Contact UCGH for informational and interactive materials
Create information packets for participants
Bring a sign-in sheet
Develop recruitment strategy

Program for a Teach-In

Start with an informative talk introducing your organization and the issue
Design a small group activity
Question/Answer time
Discuss steps for action
End with an action – have students call a representative or write a letter before they leave

Program for a Forum

Determine a subject for the speakers to address
Set a time limit for each speaker
Decide who will be facilitating the event
Create the speaker order
Question/answer time
End with an action

Street Theater

Street theater is a public performance that draws attention to your issue. Student Global AIDS Campaign is notorious for their street theater. They organize HIV/AIDS “die ins” by having students symbolically lie on the ground every couple minutes to illustrate the number of people that die each year from the disease. These skits help to visualize the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS to the general public.

Tips for Street Theater

Find a location – sidewalks, parks, classrooms, and the street are all excellent examples
Create costumes and props
Practice your skit ahead of time
Pass out information leaflets during the performance
Designate people to answer questions to observers
Act out the short skit several times
Secure location and appropriate permission and permits if necessary
Ask observers to make a specific action – sign a petition