Global Odyssey was a whole of school entrepreneurial event where students operated stalls to sell products and services, creating a real business feel. I was in charge of the event finances, which entailed recording transactions, cash flow, and profits. In addition to the financial side of the business, I assisted with the decorations and set up of the venue to create a vibrant space. The experience allowed me to apply the business concepts studied in class whilst also enhancing my skills in leadership, organization, and teamwork.
LO1 – Recognizing one’s strengths and identify areas for development
Being responsible for the finances for the Global Odyssey event has allowed me to understand my strengths with organization and numbers. I felt confident and well-equipped to manage the invoices, cash flow update, and transparency with every financial aspect of the event. However, I recognized where I can develop, particularly in multitasking. Multitasking was essential because I was doing the finances while also decorating and setting up the event which required me to change roles very quickly. This illustrated that although I feel a strength in working with numbers and planning, I still need to develop in adaptability when I have multiple things happening at the same time.
LO2 – Demonstrate the challenges undertaken, development of new skills
Finances for a live entrepreneurial event was difficult to manage, as there were many transactions occurring at the same time between all of the stalls. I was maintaining accuracy on recording information, answering questions from stall participants, and addressing last minute issues. It challenged me to improve my time management, decision making under pressure and prioritization of tasks. Along the way I developed new skills in real-time financial management and improved my confidence in taking responsibility in accountability.
LO3 – Initiate and plan a CAS experience
The event required a lot of responsibility and initiative, especially having to ensure there was a robust finance management system in place before the opening of the fair. I put in a system that would track sales and expenses by stall, ensuring that there were adequate records at the end of the day to ensure sales remained accurate. I also managed to arrange my delegated responsibilities, so I was still able to contribute to decorations whilst leading the finance. This early consideration for planning ensured that I was free to be creative, organized, useful and the event was visibly financially transparent whilst also being other fun for participants and visitors.
LO4 – Demonstrating perseverance and commitment in CAS experience
The event we collaboratively presented was characterized by times when the workload became overwhelming for me. This was particularly when a bulk of stalls brought in their updates all at once. Despite feeling overwhelmed and stressed by the experience, I was committed to my role and was able to endure and get through the pressure and found a way to create the financial records so that I did not miss taking account of anything. I was able to demonstrate perseverance by staying and following the known process through to the end of the event when all the accounts were reconciled and the financial records matched the receipts. My commitment to continuing through to the end was a factor in ensuring the event ran smoothly and instilled a sense of accountability as part of the organizing team.
LO5 – Demonstrate skills, and understand the benefits of teamwork
Collaboration was essential to the success of Global Odyssey. I needed to collaborate with stall owners to record their transactions, I collaborated with other organizers to manage the venue and I collaborated with peers in setting up decorations. This participatory experience taught me that communication and trust is vital to teamwork. Sharing workload and collaborating in supporting one another, made managing such a big event much more manageable. It further made me appreciate that working collaboratively can reduce your own individual stress levels
