Event Planning

All events run by a society are required to be registered and approved with the Students’ Union. This process is in place to support and empower all societies to run successful events.

To register your events, you will need to give the following notice period:

If your event:	Minimum Notice Period
Is costing you between £0 - £250	10 working days (2 weeks)
Involves a guest speaker that is not a current UEL staff member or student	15 working days (3 weeks)
Is costing you between £100 - £500	15 working days (3 weeks)
Is costing you between £500 - £1,000	20 working days (4 weeks)
Is costing you over £1,000	30 working days (6 weeks)

We advise you to submit your requests as early as possible, your event will not be approved until all documents have been checked. To start this process just follow the simple steps below:

Step 1. Submit an online ‘Event Registration’ form. 

Once you have submitted this form to the Students’ Union, please allow up to 3 working days for a member of the team to contact you.

Step 2. Complete and submit any additional documents (if requested).

Sometimes we might ask for some additional documents, found below.

• Event Plan

This helps you to plan large scale events and keeps everyone organised.

• Budget Plan

This helps you keep control of your finances and budgeting for your event.

• Risk Assessment Template

This is needed to cover insurance and health and safety requirements if your event falls outside your regular activities.

You should now also provisionally secure or ‘book a ‘room’ or an appropriate location for your event.

Make sure the space you use is:

• Accessible to all attendees
• Does not exceed the advised legal capacity
• Will not become damaged or require extra cleaning

Step 3. Your event should now be registered and approved by the Students’ Union, you can now book your suppliers and start marketing your event.

Make sure you keep your event documents up to date as your event progresses.

When paying for your suppliers, remember to check and follow the correct finance processes.

 

Additional guidance and some top tips you help you along the way!

Ticketing

Tickets for your event can only be sold and purchased online via the Students’ Union webpage, you are not permitted to use platforms such as Eventbrite or take cash sales unless approval is granted by the Students’ Union.

If you would like online tickets creating for your events email students.union@uel.ac.uk with the following information:

• Event title
• Event description
• Event date and time
• Event location
• Ticket types (e.g. early bird, members ticket etc.)
• Prices for each ticket type
• Date and time tickets go on sale
• Date and time tickets go off sale

Please allow the standard 3-5 working days for your enquiry to be actioned.

To increase ticket sales, consider:

• Allowing 2-4 weeks to sell tickets and promote your event (make sure you have made all necessary plans and bookings first).

• Set a pricing and promotions strategy, for example incentives or early bird ticket offers.
• Set a member’s price and non-members price. This will also help to drive your membership sales.

 

Marketing

Some top tips on marketing your event and reaching a bigger crowd!

• Create an event on your society web page through your admin tools, be sure to include the main details of the event such as event name, date, time, location and what to expect. If you don’t currently have access to this function, email the details to students.union@uel.ac.uk and we’ll get this online for you.
• Email your members through the Students’ Union website. If you don’t currently have access to this, send your drafted email to students.union@uel.ac.uk and we’ll send it on your behalf.
• Be sure to include the Students’ Union in your social media activity, tag us in posts or set a society or event Hashtag to keep track of the activities.
• Consider booking a stall on campus or at a university event, talk to students and staff this is a great way to not only promote your events and activities but promote your society too! Book a stall by emailing students.union@uel.ac.uk
• Pair up with another society and collaborate on a joint event (after all, two heads are better than one, right?)

 

Catering

Self-Catering

If you are catering for the event yourself, you have a duty of care towards following safe food handling processes that do not pose a health risk to the public. This includes personal hygiene, no cross contamination, correct storage and serving temperatures including transportation of foods and the correct labelling of food and ingredients during preparation and serving.

Here is a list of high-risk foods to avoid if you are cooking or baking for the event yourself and recommended low-risk foods you should consider:

High Risk/Low Risk Food List

Ensure all allergens contained within the foods are recorded and displayed correctly (i.e. ‘gluten free’ or ‘contains eggs’)

Food Standard Agency’s Tips for Bake Sales

At home people making cakes should follow these general tips:

• Always wash your hands before preparing food.
• Make sure that surfaces, bowls, utensils and any other equipment is clean.
• Don’t use raw eggs in anything that won’t be thoroughly cooked, such as icing or mousse.

• Store cakes in a clean sensible container away from raw products.

On the day, people bringing in cakes from home or running the event should follow these tips:

• Transport cakes in a clean sensible container.
• When handling cakes use tongs, or a cake slice instead.

Aramark Catering Company (onsite at University campuses)

Aramark Catering (based on campus) is the preferred catering supplier for the University of East London, if you would like to discuss catering options and quotes please contact: students.union@uel.ac.uk with your catering request. All orders must be confirmed not later than 5 working days before your event date so allow a minimum of 10 working days for discussions and quotes to be received from Aramark.

External Caterers

If you are using a reputable business or an external catering supplier who is providing food on campus, they must provide us with a copy of their:

• Public Liability Insurance
• Food Hygiene Certificate
• Risk Assessment

If these documents are not provided, the company cannot cater your event.

The Students’ Union has contacts for external food vendors, if you would like to discuss options for external catering contact students.union@uel.ac.uk with your information of what catering you’re looking for.

 

Film Events

Every film event needs a film license. Film licenses can cost upwards of £83.

The newer the film, the larger the room capacity and if you are selling tickets to the showing, all affect the price of the license.

Here are some steps to follow when planning a film event:

Step 1: check your film is listed on Film Bank Media’s website. Not all films have available licenses, so you should always check here first.

Step 2: Register your film event with the Students’ Union, tell us what film you want to watch, when, how many people will be attending and whether you plan on selling tickets. Register your event not later than 10 working days to allow time for the license to be booked and confirmed.

Step 3: The Students’ Union will check you have the funds to cover the cost of the license and make the booking with Film Bank Media.

Other Event Licences

If you are planning any of the following events, speak to the Students’ Union you may need additional licenses to run this type of activity.

• Show or performance
• TedX Talk
• Event on campus finishing after 3am.
• Physical activities
• Suppliers that carry additional risk e.g. rides/ circus performances etc.