Date and Time

The CUD Media Impact course debate took place on Wednesday, 19th June 2019 from 4 to 6pm (during the class timing), so that many students, professors and externals could attend the event.

The organization of the debate started on May 19 when the event management and planning team finalized the location, date, timings, timeline and the budget plan. Moreover, during the same week, the groups collaborated with one another.
From May 26thto June 1st, the strategic focus was defined and from June 9thto June 15th, the event group gathered the money to print the posters, banners and brochures created by the branding team and promoted the event through invitations on social media and emails.

During the week of the event, the same group arranged the materials (including a bouquet of flowers), tables, chairs, microphones and other details and conducted face-to-face interviews with the external guests. (Appendix 4)

 

Before the beginning of the event, the groups, especially the event planning and management team, made sure that the volunteers (CUD workers) and the arrangements (lights, stage, tables, microphones, chairs, etc.) were ready. (Appendix 3)

At 4pm, the event started, and it lasted 1 hour. The debate team, that was divided into two groups (for and against), discussed on the relationship between social media and mental health disorder and whether the media impact was positive or negative.

At the end of the debate, the event planning and management team conducted face-to-face interviews, in particular to the external guests that attended the event, in order to get a feedback from the audience about the campaign.
After the debate, the catering started and the event ended at 6pm.

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Venue location

The event was held in the Red Theatre at Canadian University Dubai because it was the most suitable location for this debate.

The Red Theatre is well-equipped with an appropriate stage, microphones, and different lights.
Moreover, the venue location that we chose can accommodate a large number of people both on the stage and in the audience, and since we expected around 60 guests for the debate, we considered the Red Theatre of CUD as the best option to make everyone feel welcome.

This location is more formal and professional for events in general; furthermore, it provided all the materials we needed. In this way, we could easily grab the audience’s attention.

The first row was reserved to professors and the external audience, mainly from Mental Health Centers (Ms. Bahar Wilson founder of Mindfulness UAE and teacher and Dr. Abeer Hamdah founder of the “Mind Me Campaign”).

At the end of the debate, the catering, that was provided by the university, was held outside the Red Theatre (between Block A and Block C of Canadian University Dubai), and it included simple snacks and refreshments.

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Budget Plan, Media and Promotion

The budget plan (Figure 5) includes the prices of two posters, two roller banners, thirty brochures, the catering and a bouquet of flowers.

Since the class (MCM 220) is financing this debate, we decided to limit the spending by providing only the essential elements, and with the money collected (50 AED each student), we bought two roller banners, two posters, and thirty brochures (Appendix 6) that were important in promoting the debate; thus, the posters were hung up in blocks C & D. Whereas, the banners were located in blocks C & B, which are the most crowded areas of the university; indeed, on average, 150 people enter block B every day and more than 200 enter block C.
However, both the banners were moved to the entrance of the Red Theater, and the debate poster was projected on the rear screen projector of the stage throughout the event. (Figure 5)

With our budget, we also comprised a bouquet of flowers to be placed on the stage during the event, while the catering, that included refeshments and food to the partecipants, was offered by Canadian University Dubai.

Furthermore, a six-panel brochure was handed out to the audience at the entrance of the Red Theatre in order to give more details of the event that they were going to watch.

Other than the banners, the brochures, and the posters, we also created short videos that were sent to the communication department of Canadian University Dubai in order to be published on the social media of the university (mainly Instagram) to promote the event and invite students to join the debate. (Appendix 7)

Moreover, we provided contacts of mental health centers in the United Arab Emirates, so that the communication department could send them the invitations, and we also requested to send emails to all the students and professor of Canadian University Dubai.

The debate poster was also projected in the televisions around the university.

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FIGURE 5 - BUDGET PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN

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Post-Campaign

Overall, the campaign was a success; indeed, all the groups worked very hard as a team in the organization of this event.
All the materials needed on the day of the event was ready on time: we did not find any inconvenience during the debate. The brochures were distributed to the audience, the poster was projected in the big screen behind the debate team, two tables and six chairs were placed on the stage, the two big banners were located at the entrances of the Red Theatre, the bouquet of flowers was placed on the piano on the stage and then it was given to the psychologist, Ms. Raneem Nageeb, who was the intermediator of the debate. Fifty people, including externals and doctors from the mental health centers participated to our campaign asking questions and getting involved in the event addressing the two groups of the debate team that supported two opposite ideas.
The students on the stage (for the motion and against the motion) were well-prepared, reinforced their perspectives by using statistics, in-depth researches and detailed examples, sometimes also personal ones and answered the questions of the psychologist.

We also took videos and photos of the debate and of some feedbacks from the external guests. (Appendix 4)
In conclusion, we are really glad to have had the opportunity to raise awareness among the youth about an important and current topic, such as the impact of social media on mental health disorders through a well-prepared campaign created with the hard work of the MCM220 class.

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Limitations

During the organization of this event, we faced few limitations.
Firstly, we could not expect more than 60 people attending the event because the debate took place just prior to the final examination period and during Summer 1, that it is not attended by many students if compared to the fall and spring academic terms.
Secondly, since we, students of the Media Impact class, paid for the event, our budget was limited; therefore, we could not provide more material needed for the promotion and organization of the event.
However, despite these limitations, we provided the essential promotional material and we reached the number of 50 participants attending the event.

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