LIM’s City Lights Winter Ball: Bop or Flop?
Approaching end-of-semester burnout, has driven LIM College staff to host its first ever Winter Ball. LIM College is a school for business and fashion bustling with students ready to make their impact in the fashion market. Known for majors such as Marketing, Media, Merchandising, and Management, the college is much more than attending lectures and locking-in on homework; it is about building community and using New York City as your campus.
The Winter Ball was hosted at the venue, Midtown Loft & Terrace; shining with decorations reflecting the theme: City Lights. The unfortunate truth was the lack of excitement the students seemed to hold for the event…
Many peers had no interest in attending the event. After attending the Winter Gala, I witnessed first hand the mistake the other students had made. The event, which came with a free-buffet of food,treats, and hot chocolate, was well worth the $10 ticket.
Despite the lack of popularity, the party was bopping until the very end—not even the DJ wanted to leave. Even though this was the first annual event of this kind, the school previously hosted smaller-scale dances on-campus.
Ahmed Radwan, the Assistant Director of Student Life and one of the main organizers of this event, was interviewed about the inspiration behind creating an annual event of this nature.
“We were getting feedback from students that they would like to keep it [the on-campus dance], but see it as something that grows into a bigger, more elevated event,” Radwan says.
The students craved for something more glamorous; a fancy venue, a dress code, a feeling they weren’t at school.. Despite the initial demand, the amount of students who actually attended the event was shockingly low.
The event itself was very impressive with a food table, dessert table, hot chocolate station, a lemonade stand, and a DJ playing lots of music. The theme “City Lights” was a sparkling success; members of the Visuals Club at LIM helped accumulate the decorations to pull this event together. Aaliyah Ocasio is one of the members who helped with the decorating process.
“Why not enjoy it?” Ocasio says, “It’s my first year here, I want to go to as many events as I can, get dressed up, look cute, take photos… and free food!”
When analyzing the reasons why this event might have been considered a flop, the marketing (or lack-there-of) was a large part of the problem.
“I do kind of wish that we pushed it out with more video advertisements for it,” Ocasio says, when asked about what could have been done to improve the popularity for this event. “Because by the time the posters came out it was already really close to the date, and a lot of people are going back to their families prior to Thanksgiving.”
In all, the event was well put-together, it just lacked a certain energy that could only be brought by people. The views were breathtaking, the treats were scrumptious, and the drinks were cozy.
In the future, collaboration with marketing majors might be an appropriate strategy to attract more attendees. This is one event that I will be sure to mark on my calendar again next year. What about you? Leave a comment down below.