Revamping Longhorn Racing's Unveiling

Introduction

From 2017-2019, I was Events Coordinator for Longhorn Racing and the teams that made up the organization. After attending the 2017 racecar Unveiling event, I saw several ways we could modify the annual event so it better showcased the vehicles and the individuals who worked on them. I also saw several ways we could majorly cut costs so more of our money was going directly to the teams and their vehicles. In the two years I managed Unveiling, we saw the event grow significantly. The number of attendees more than doubled, we spent only 25% of what was spent in 2017, and we saw a 300% return on the event. 

I am glad I was able to give back to an organization that I love so much. It means a lot to me, knowing that the teams are able to celebrate their accomplishments with friends and family at the end of the year without having to worry about the costs of the event cutting into their funds for the vehicles.

The Problem

The Context:

Every year at the University of Texas at Austin, a group of students come together to design, build, and race an FSAE race car. The Combustion team has been around since the first FSAE event back in the '80s, and in 2015 they expanded to include an Electric vehicle team. While the design teams were busy building vehicles, event management was falling to the wayside. I was a member of the Electric team and I worked closely with the team captain, so I saw the struggles happening behind the scenes. We were hurting for money, corporate support, and team retention. I became Events Coordinator in February of 2017 to try to address some of these issues from the inside. (I came in after the 2017 Unveiling Event had already been planned.)

Every year we showcase the vehicles we built at Unveiling. Corporate Partners, staff, families, and alumni are all invited to see the team's progress. This is a great opportunity for networking and general showmanship, and it gives the team members an opportunity to practice presenting their subsystems before they do so at competition. As Event Coordinator, I was responsible for executing the event in 2018, and I saw several ways we could improve the event based off of how 2017's Unveiling went. 

Improvement Areas:

1. The ballroom we used was on the other side of campus from the garage we work in, but we are not permitted to drive the vehicles themselves on campus. This meant we had to load the cars up in our trailers, drive them across campus, and then drive the trailers back to our garage because campus parking was scarce, and there was nowhere to park our trailers during the event. After the event ended, someone would have to go back across campus to get the trailers so we could take the vehicles out back to the garage. 
2. Additionally, the doors to the ballroom were not wide enough for the vehicles to cross into the threshold with the suspension on, so we had to take the suspension off both vehicles and then reassemble it twice in one night.
3. Then there was the issue of space. There wasn't enough space on the stage for both vehicles, and there were too many bodies around the vehicles in this small space for people to actually get a good look at the different systems.
   
4. The banquet-style was not ideal for this kind of showcase. The purpose of this event is to show off these really incredible design projects undergraduate students were working on, but the venue and the event structure were making it difficult to highlight the cars. Dinner was served while the presentations were being made, splitting the focus unfairly between the presentation and the dinner. Additionally, students, parents, and corporate partners were stuck at banquet tables for the presentation, making it difficult for corporate partners to mingle with different students throughout the event.

2017 Numbers:

80 people in attendance

$35/ non-UT Student

$25/ UT Student

3.5 hours

$2600 in costs for venue and food

When I was given the 2017 numbers, I knew I could do better. I kept four things in mind as I planned the 2018 event

1. Our design teams were hurting for money. I needed to find a way to allocate back to the design teams as much of that $2600 that was budgeted for Unveiling as possible.

2. This event should be highlighting and celebrating the students and their accomplishments. Splitting the attention between them and dinner was doing them a disservice.

3. This event was perfect for highlighting our corporate partners. We should be using this event to show our partners what we have been working on with the funds they have provided us. This event is also the perfect opportunity to encourage corporations to invest in our design teams. Charging them $35/person to check us out was sending the wrong message.

4. Ticket prices needed to come down so students wouldn't have to choose between attending their own celebratory event and doing laundry. $25/ticket for dorm food was a hard sell.

The Solution

My Goals for the 2018 Unveiling:

1. Refocus the event to highlight the students, the vehicles, and the people who helped the org succeed.
2. Find a new free venue with big doors.
3. Cut costs dramatically.
4. Cut ticket prices.
5. Get rid of the banquet-style to make it easier for people to mingle.


In short, in the two years since I reorganized the Unveiling event, I was able to make some very big changes that you can see in more detail below. The number of attendees has more than doubled, we are spent only 25% of what was spent in 2017, and we saw a 300% return on the event.

The biggest change made was the venue. I researched several different venues on campus and around Austin before I spoke to someone in the brand new engineering building on campus who agreed to host us for free. Not only was this building free and incredibly beautiful, but it was directly across the street from our garage and it had some big doors! That's right, we were able to move the vehicles in and out of the building with ease!

The auditorium was reserved for us for the presentation portion of the night, and the main foyer was reserved for us for the dessert/cocktail hour and the physical unveiling of the vehicles.

After doing some research and speaking to professionals in the events industry, my team and I came to the conclusion that a dessert bar would be the most cost-effective way of providing refreshments for guests. My team and I went around town asking for donations from local bakeries, filling in the holes with a bulk run to the local Sam's Club. Our partners over at RedBull caught wind of the changes, and offered to bring some of their products as one of the beverages we provided that night. Low-cost advertising for them, free beverages for us!

Additionally, I added some awesome photographers to the 2018 Unveiling! I mentioned how people had to keep passing their phones around at the 2017 Unveiling in order to get pictures, so a few team members with cameras volunteered to help out at the 2018 event. This resulted in us getting some great pictures for our PR team.

Finally, this new venue was able to accommodate everyone with ease. We expanded Longhorn Racing during the 2017-2018 school year to include a Solar Vehicle Team, so this venue was perfect for hosting three large vehicles and 200+ guests with plenty of room to spare.

Overall, we came in significantly under budget, spending only $50 on events that year. This is thanks to the profits we made at Unveiling as well as the corporate donations made that covered the cost of food at meetings they attended. 

Additionally, even though I wasn't as involved in the 2019 Unveiling while I was interning in Florida, the young woman running the event followed the blueprints I left with her, proving that the event can be successfully replicated after I leave. In fact, the 2019 Unveiling showed even more growth because the new format made it easier for more corporate partners to justify coming out to Austin for the event, and more affordable for family members to show their support.

In the two years since I reorganized Unveiling, we have seen the event grow significantly. The number of attendees has more than doubled, we spent only 25% of what was spent in 2017, and we saw a 300% return on the event. I am glad I was able to give back to an organization that I love so much. It means a lot to me, knowing that the teams are able to celebrate their accomplishments with friends and family at the end of the year without having to worry about the costs of the event cutting into their funds for the vehicles.