On Thursday 6th November, Access and friends participated in a virtual cycle from Manchester to Paris in aid of the charity 42nd Street, a charity dedicated to supporting the emotional wellbeing of young people. Having started a Project Management apprenticeship at Access in September, this was my first opportunity to manage a project from start to finish.
Tackling the project
As it was my first ever project with no experience behind me at all, I was very nervous. Especially as I only had 3 weeks to organise everything and around 30 people to organise! However, everyone at Access was very supportive and provided me with some guidance along the way. I decided that, in order to tackle this project efficiently, I would need a to-do list. There were t-shirt orders, time slots, room set- up, social media, technology and also participants to organise within a short space of time, so I knew I had to get cracking! This included lots of co-ordinating with our Managing Director Simon Landi and Social Media Executive, Rob Goodswen who were the main ‘go-to’ people for this project. Simon knew exactly what outcome he wanted (raise lots of money!) and Rob had great ideas surrounding the Social Media aspect. This made it really easy to liaise with them and prioritise aspects important to the project!
We had some great creative ideas flowing through the office about how we could make the event as fun and interesting as possible, which made it easier to pull the best ideas out and put them into practice! One of these was to put together a webpage – via a link on the Access website – which was specific to the cycle event. After many meetings with the creator (Liam Walsh-our Front End Developer), directors, creatives (Adam and Sarah) and other members of Access, the content was agreed. It would also contain a Twitter feed so people could follow us throughout the cycle and a permanent donate button. This was included, as our main objective throughout was to raise as much money for 42nd Street as possible!
As well as this, each participant would have their own ‘Top Trump’ card created, which was a fun element as I gave everyone at Access the opportunity to rate each other in humorous categories such as ‘Sweat Factor!’ This was great fun and it really got everyone involved in the process, whether they were actually cycling or not.
The good vs. the challenging
The web page for the cycle was a great experience to get involved with, as it was a collaboration which I was very proud of. The amount of work that went into it really paid off (thank you Liam!), as it was everything we wanted it to be within the timescale we had given ourselves!
I would say that organising the t-shirts and cycle slots for everyone was one of the most time consuming elements of the project, as it required everyone’s involvement, and lots of planning, prompting and chasing! However, it did teach me to never give your staff free control over a Google Doc spreadsheet (unless you want a variety of fake names written in a spectrum of colours all over it)!
The best part was actually being involved with the whole process, as it was really good for me to see something coming together over a period of time and then finally witness the end result. The day was energetic and full of teamwork and support for each other – as well as a few very tired faces from pulling an all-nighter.
Thoughts
I am astounded by the amount of support Access and 42nd Street got from the event, raising, up to this point £1960 – nearly double what our original target was! Everyone worked really hard and it’s an event we’re all very proud of. On the whole, I’m really proud to have been a part of this cycle event, and it was such a good opportunity for me to show off some Project Management skills, all in the aid of a great cause! I’ve really learnt a lot about organisational skills and managing lots of busy people. I can’t wait for the next project!
Chris Jacob, Head of Service for 42nd Street had this to say following the event: ‘It was a great atmosphere down at Access’ offices. Brilliantly organised, good fun and actually quite a challenge! Those bikes are not the most comfortable! 5 of us from 42nd Street took part and did a stint each but some of the staff at Access put us to shame as they were amazing! We really are hugely grateful for all the hard work and energy that went into the event – both the organising and taking part. Also a huge thanks to all those who have donated so far.’
