Movie for a Cause-Supporting Autism

 

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Project Description:

Many different ideas and proposals were generated for our field project, however we had less than two weeks to prepare and implement so it had to be something not too big and feasible. We decided to do a Charity Movie Night and to partner with the Bahrain Society for Children with Behavioral and Communication Difficulties and Alia for Early Intervention to raise funds and awareness supporting autism.

 

We had a screening of the movie “Temple Grandin”, a biopic of a woman with autism who became one of the most prominent female animal scientists. In addition to the movie screening, we had an informational speaker who gave us a short interactive presentation about autism. We managed to generate funds by selling entrance tickets, as well as selling food and beverage to the audience. We also made donations open to anyone who wanted to contribute, even if they were not able to attend the event that way we were able to maximize fundslogo

 

Project Objectives and Methodologies:

Our project objectives were to raise funds, and to create awareness about autism.

We started planning for the event on 7th of April 2015 and we scheduled our event to be on the 15th of April 2015, so we only had a total of 8 days to plan, schedule, organize, and implement our plans for the event! So we had to have a very hands on approach with this project in order for it to have been successful.

We split our tasks and gave each other functional roles that were split into marketing, operations, logistics, finance, public relations and having a project manager to overlook all the tasks. Even though we distributed tasks we had a cross functional team strategy which allowed us to help each other when necessary.

Our primary tasks were to secure a location as well as have proper advertisement.

Since we had such little time, we wanted to spread the word as soon as we could. We created an Instagram account “@movieforacause” and used other means of social media  in addition to posting flyers on notice boards and digitally as advertisement. We also managed to get a local news crew cinstagramover the event.

In terms of the location we managed to secure a venue within a day from planning with Bahrain Polytechnic, a local university, who gave it to us rent free, including technical support for the event. We also had a few other sponsors, Canar who provided us with funding for the event and Janahi Design who created our banners and flyers.

In terms of logistics, it was very simple as the venue was fully equipped with chairs, speakers, screen and projectors. It also conveniently had a food area to set up stalls. For food and beverage, we had those delivered by either family members or the vendors themselves.0c8d8c404bbe8b521245f9dec24cdc8b

Also, plenty of parking was available as the event began after regular work hours, so a lot of free parking was available by then.

In terms of revenue, we charged entrance fees for 3 BHD (Bahraini Dinar) and for snack and beverage, we sold popcorn, nachos, chips, chocolate, baked goods, soft drinks and water.

We managed to have 75 attendees which equated to 225 BHD from entrance fees alone, 130.2 from snacks and beverages, and we also sold 87 BHD worth of autism accessories provided to us from the society. In addition to the money we received from the event itself we managed to raise 878.2 BHD worth of donations, so total funds raised were 1381.2 BHD. All in all we managed to create a very successful event in a very short period of time.

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Advice for Future Teams

  • Make sure all of you communicate well with each other, because communication is a key factor in helping you succeed. Use the most compatible means of communication for your team. Ours was meeting before and after every class and creating a shared whatsapp group.
  • Make sure you plan and document everything from the get go.
  • Have contingency plans in place, and if you’re doubtful of getting last minute approvals from somewhere or someone it is ok to work in parallel with your contingency plan.
  • List down all the possible challenges and consider the mitigation process in order to overcome any surprises.
  • Most of all, remember you’re doing it for a noble cause, so have fun with it and remember that it is very possible! We only had 8 days to deliver, so anything is possible if you put your mind to it.

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Lessons Learned:

We learned three main things from this project:

  • Planning. Planning is a key element that will contribute to the success of your project, it will help you think of every detail that you might have missed, and it will definitely help you avoid any risks.
  • Communication. We made sure we always had a way of communicating with each other; the workflow of our project went very smoothly thanks to that.
  • Commitment. Although a lot of us had prior engagements either with work or our personal lives, we were all committed to completing our tasks and meeting deadlines. No one fell short in that aspect in our group and everyone delivered on time which is what helped make our project so successful.  food2foodsponsor3sponsorsponsor1

Qatar to deliver first underground metro in the GCC by 2019?

With the many multimillion dollar projects Qatar is handling, the underground metro line is said to be top priority. Metro lines exist in the GCC, specifically in Dubai, however an underground metro line is something completely new to the region. The Metro Line is said to reduce carbon emissions by 258,000 tonnes per year. It is also said to provide jobs for many and create sustainability and stability for Qatar’s growing economy. This project is also a great way of resolving traffic jams and road blocks. With the FIFA World Cup in 2022, the rail way system will resolve Qatar’s concerns of road congestion for the substantial event. Nevertheless any delay in this project will cause greater concerns for the 2022 World Cup, as the railways will be a primary source of transportation for the event and will heavily reduce traffic.

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This multi-billion-project has so many aspects to consider in order for it to be completed successfully, the major concern would be time in this case.

As we know the railway industry has come a long way from the days of using manual labor for creating underground tunnels, and accordingly Qatar has managed to sign a deal with German Tunnel Boring Machine Herrenknecht, for the supply of 21 drilling machines that will manage to drill the underground passages of the metro line in two years time. The metro will consist of four main lines most of which will cover the greater Doha area and estimated daily excavation quantity is said to be 600 m³ with a total estimated excavation quantity of 5,000,000 m³, that’s a lot of drilling that needs to be done in two years! A great deal of monitoring and coordination is required to meet that two year deadline. Funding for the project may not be the greatest issue, however other issues need greater attention, such as machine maintenance, meeting daily targets, safety hazards, weather conditions, road blocks and so much more. Also, with the recent oil crisis in the middle east region, we may see a delay in current projects, however these things will be put into better perspective as we go further into 2015.

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Railway projects are very costly and time consuming, some of the most famous underground projects, like the London Underground, took almost 40 years to complete, but with the major technological innovations in the industry, and the use of drilling machines, underground railway construction has become faster and more efficient. Qatar’s delivery date for the project is four years from now, which begs the question is this enough time to deliver a major project such as this one?

Also, with the FIFA World Cup 2022 around the corner from 2019, if any delays were to occur how badly would they effect the upcoming event? Could this risk be averted in time for it?

Sources:

http://www.constructionweekonline.com/article-33178-doha-underground-metro-tunnelling-begins/

http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/news/qatar/332279/metro-to-save-2m-km-car-travel-per-day

http://www.emirates247.com/business/economy-finance/qatar-begins-drilling-below-capital-for-underground-metro-2015-04-02-1.586228