The FINANCIAL — New Year is coming and the two biggest business universities in Georgia CU and ESM are getting ready to celebrate. The students are organizing both of the parties; they had to deal with the sponsorship difficulties aggravated by August’s events and financial crisis.
Both ESM and CU are having a party at Night Office. ESM has its on the 29th and CU on 30 December. Ticket prices are different too, GEL 30 for CU tickets and GEL 90 for ESM.
“The ticket price is GEL 90. We pay DJs USD 300, USD 4,720 for closing the club and GEL 10,515 for 300 people catering. We had only 2 alternatives: clubs “Triumph” and “Night Office”. The first one was excluded, because the last party took place there, so we chose Night Office,” says Tatia Kharshiladze, ESM student and Organizer of the party.
“The ticket price is GEL 30. The total cost of the party is USD 12,000-14,000. This cost includes the club, DJ, tickets and promotion materials. Currently we have 250 tickets sold and we expect this number to double. Non-university members won’t be let in. As for sponsors, their representatives will be let in as an exception,” explained Zura Eziashvili, CU student.
“This year getting sponsors was much more difficult than in previous years. At the previous party we had 52 sponsors and this year about 15. You can’t blame anybody in this case, especially banks, who are having the hardest times,” Zura Eziashvili the Organizer of the CU party, told The FINANCIAL.
The crisis has influenced the availability of sponsors. Most of the companies are having staff reductions and cost saving measures. It seems sponsorship funds are close to zero for most of them.
“Not only crisis but also the August war has affected Georgian companies a lot. We did not get any kind of financial support from the companies. They did not want to provide financial support for a party, because this kind of step would affect their image. When there are hundreds of refugees in the country and a company gives out money for a party instead of charity, public reaction is supposed to be negative. Financial crisis has also had a big influence, a lot of companies refused claiming they lacked money. So the companies agreed to participate in lottery and to give us their products, mostly catering products, wine, beer, etc,” commented Tatia Kharshiladze.
“This year the university isn’t involved too much in the organizational activity of the New Year party. Of course some of our staff are helping the students, giving them some creative ideas, and some advice, but it’s not on an official level. As our students are the future managers, they should gain their first managerial and organizational skills by organizing the party. We think that it’s the right approach. Besides, no one else can better understand the needs and the wishes of the students rather than themselves,” states Director of Marketing and PR Department of CU.
“The university doesn’t provide the financial help for this party. Due to the world financial crisis, we couldn’t attribute the budget for this event. However CU attributed one gift for the lottery, which is laptop HP 550. In any case we think that this prize will be very pleasant for the winner,” Tinatin Gugberidze Director of Marketing and PR Department of CU, told The FINANCIAL.
Among the sponsors of the CU party is career.ge a new recruitment website.
“The evening will be opened by famous Georgian group 33a, and then the band from the famous bar “Agora” will perform. After midnight club music will be played by 2 Georgian DJs. There will be a lot of games for fun and a lottery for all the guests to participate in. All of them will have an equal chance to win various prizes from our sponsors,” told the ESM representative.
At the CU party there will be video sketches prepared by the students themselves. The performers will also be students.
“We have famous singers studying at CU so they will be performing. It’s very important for the development of the CSB culture. There will be surprises for not only the students, but also the lecturers too. It’s a great experience to organize such an event. You learn not only how to organize a party, but also different aspects of marketing and management, whether it’s communicating with sponsors or promoting an event,” Eziashvili, the Organizer of the party mentioned.
“The slogan of the party is ‘C U soon’. Students prepared the commercials for the party at the university with our own resources and the students of Caucasus Media School (CSM) helped us. We posted this commercial on CSB’s website where students check their grades. As the majority of the students check their grades on this website we thought that it would be a good idea to use it as a promotion tool.”
The administration of ESM is not taking part. The university lent the money to the students that they’ve already covered. The university is responsible for nothing. Only students take part in the organization process.
“We have a party each year, but this is the first time that our party has had a special dress code that should be obeyed. It will be a black and white party. It will be shown on TV and not only students and lecturers will attend this event, but also Alumni members and sponsors. Also this is the first time that the musical programme will include a Georgian group, band and DJ,” claimed Tatia Kharshiladze.
Written By Levan Lomtadze
