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Interceptions Showcase Preparation

Behind-the-scenes of #Intercept2017

The countdown leading to 'Interceptions' involved immense commitment, time, effort and dedication from everyone of the various teams. It was honestly not easy planning everything from scratch, especially for me with little experience in running events! Preparing for a large-scale digital art and culture exhibition that will be held at the prestigious ArtScience Museum was enough pressure on its own. Recounting the various exhibitions that I have visited previously, such as the Singapore Biennale and the 'Future World' exhibition which I discussed in entry #4, it was indeed a great challenge to meet such standard. Adding onto the pressure is the need to uphold the expectations of our mentors, Prof Nancy and Eve as well as the rest of the Communications and New Media and NUS Community.

As part of the preparation process, I was involved in the site reccee at ArtScience Museum weeks before the big show day. This was a necessary and important procedure that was not just applicable to the curation team, but to the events team which I belong to. By familiarising ourselves with the space, we are able to plan for the set-up of the registration booth, strategise the power points that should be used and to note other important features of the galleries such as the emergency exits and toilets. The tour around the galleries gave us a better idea of the space that we are working with which aided in the planning of our SOP, event flow and logistics list. 

Another important part of the preparation process is spreading the word of 'Interceptions' to the rest of the NUS community, apart from just our CNM friends from my current modules. It was exciting to be able to boast to friends and family through word-of-mouth and frequent posting on my social media feeds- Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. This was done by creating my own content, with pictures taken by my iPhone, or by reposting and sharing videos done by the Marketing and productions team. Another personal tactic to gain more attention from my online friends is through tagging. When the contest details were released on Facebook, I managed to tag a few friends who responded to the post but unfortunately did not win the contest. Additionally, friends and family were invited to the Facebook event page of Interceptions to remind them when the event is nearing.

Apart from online promotion, offline marketing took the form of a Interceptions roadshow. It was heartwarming when friends turned up at the 'Interceptions' booth during my duty. Kudos to Instagram for being such a good marketing tool! Through Instagram story,  I managed to entice some friends to drop by the booth, which they gladly supported. Although it can be tiresome having to individually approach passers-by who may shun and dismiss you, it was a more intimate and 'human' way of invitation. Having the drive and passion in what we are promoting is indeed important to keep myself going. Through the various interactions and reactions from people, I have even picked up a new trick to draw people in closer- to purposely flip a flyer on the floor and when someone picks it up, approach him/her with a smile and say, "hi, you can keep that! We are actually having a free exhibition by students and staff from CNM, would you...."

It worked most of the time!