IHSM STUDENTS TOOK THEIR EVENT PLANNING IN-CLASS PROJECT AND TURNED IT INTO REALITY

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Perseverance, creativity and commitment are virtues that should not be neglected; in fact, they should be praised as often as possible. All mentioned virtues were demonstrated by one group of sophomore year students of the International Hospitality and Service management program at RIT Croatia, who decided to take their in-class project to the next level.

Sani Begović, Davor Cindrić, Mario Cvjetović, Slavica Nenadić, and Dolores Scherbl were assigned with a group project within the Meeting and Event Management class, taught by professor Domagoj Nikolić. The students decided not only to create a project, but to implement it in real life as well, so they've turned their event related to experiencing tastes of the Dalmatian region with the intention of raising money for charity into reality. It takes a lot of pre-planning, organization and good team work in order to have a successful event, and this group of students really took it seriously. "Organizing an event is not an easy job. My group and I worked throughout the entire semester in order to be able to realize this event. With the help of professor Nikolić, we were able to transfer the course material to reality. In that way, we adopted the knowledge more efficiently. Working in a team is a great experience because we all learned from each other", says Slavica Nenadić.

On December 3^rd, everything was in place for the charity Wine Tasting Event that took place at Winery Škar in Dubrovnik, where the owner Mato Krile produces his wine. Although the winery is closed during the winter, Mato was more than pleased to offer his space for this event. Attendees had opportunity to try red wine Plavac Mali, and white wine Rukatac, as well as "Rakija". The ticket per attendee was 50 kn and included 2 drinks and food, and all students, faculty and staff from Dubrovnik campus were cordially invited to attend the event. The event was a great success and students collected over 2.000,00 kn, which they donated to Mr. Jakov Bulić who was seriously injured in a car accident and is in need of financial means to support his recovery.

The overall purpose of this event was above all educational with the intention of improving the wine culture in Dubrovnik through creating opportunities to experience and enjoy the tastes of Dalmatian region. "I think the students applied in practice many theoretical concepts which were discussed in the course. They showed they understand how to manage customer experience, create engagement, positive emotions as well as esthetically appealing and efficient event scape. I was extremely proud and pleased with what I saw", said professor Domagoj Nikolić.

To make this experience of tasting domestic wines even more authentic, attendees also had an opportunity to taste prosciutto, cheese, marinated anchovies, prawns and homemade bread. During the wine tasting, attendees were entertained with live music, which created a special and pleasant atmosphere. The owner Mato gave a short presentation about the wine production; he explained the whole process from picking grapes to fermentation. After his presentation, the attendees took a short quiz where they could show their knowledge about wine production. Top three winners won t-shirts, cups, planners, key chains, which were sponsored by RIT and Alfa 2. Mario Cvjetović commented "While organizing an event there are many details to think of. Through the semester my group worked on planning where our event should take place, who will be our attendees, how we will promote, what is the budget etc. The most challenging part was to prepare the place, food, drinks and prizes on time."

The team members were more than happy with the success of their event as well as all the learning benefits gained from the process. "The experience and knowledge I got from this course and organizing event will definitely be useful. Although there is constant work and planning involved, my group managed to perform everything on time. The most interesting part for me was creating our web page. We were able to show our creativity and innovative thinking while presenting our event", concluded Sani Begović.