For the first time, all TAMK schools and units would host the international week together, fully online. During the event a huge selection of lectures, workshops and seminars from all TAMK units were offered and open to students, staff members and partners from other universities. The great thing was that there were no participation restrictions, a Business student could visit a lecture on Engineering and vice versa.
During the afternoon cultural events were offered including multiple musical sessions and a movie night. The Eye on TAMK 2021 – Online Week managed to combine scientific, pedagogical, and intercultural events to make it a truly multidisciplinary event week.
Unique opportunity to work with professionals
When our Marketing lecturer announced that TAMK was searching for students to help with the marketing for Eye on TAMK 2021 – Online Week, I was intrigued.
As an International Business student in my 2nd year studying Marketing and TAMK Student Ambassador, this project sounded very interesting. I’m always excited for such projects because they give me the chance to develop my skills hands-on.
We were a team of five students, working closely together with the event organizing team. Our job was to help with the promotion of this year’s international week: Eye on TAMK 2021- Online Week. We created multiple posts for social media and intranet, with the guidance and support of TAMK’s staff.
Our goal was to tell TAMK students and staff members about the general dates of the Eye on TAMK 2021 and what to expect. Also, we gave hints on the learning opportunities and the social and cultural events happening during the week. For example, we created social media posts about artist Jesse Markin’s performance and interview on the 20th of March.
Learning new tricks and overcoming difficulties
My main task was the visuals for all the posts we submitted. My goal was to make sure that the visuals are eye-catching and informative at the same time. I often created different versions for each post and let my teammates vote, because I couldn’t decide what to pick.
I’m interested in graphic design and I’m familiar with apps such as Photoshop. So, it was a lot of fun experimenting with certain images while respecting TAMK’s branding and colours. I even learned quite a few new tricks on Photoshop while creating these visuals.
As our last task, we worked on a video for the closing ceremony. The video would include pictures shared on social media by the event participants.
We collected images from students and teachers participating in lectures, musical sessions. We also received pictures from behind the scenes, by TAMK’s Communications Team. It was important to me to share all these different aspects for the closing ceremony.
The making of the video itself was not very pleasant since my video editing tools kept crashing. It was very frustrating especially because I had a short deadline for it. I was very happy to deliver the video on time, and I was proud of the end product. I sadly couldn’t participate on the last day but I hope that the people who watched my video on the last day of the event enjoyed it.
A look behind the curtain
Working remotely on this project because of the pandemic was more challenging than I anticipated. Especially when it comes to more creative related projects it’s easier to meet face-to-face and work together. Also, the need for good time management became evident early on, because we all had very different time schedules. But even with those difficulties, we managed to help TAMK promote the event and over 600 people enrolled for it.
Overall, it was a super interesting process. I appreciated it not only as a marketing student but as someone who enjoys participating in such events.
I had the opportunity to see behind the scenes and to take a closer look at the planning and creation of an event. And of course, it was great to be able to create something for TAMK audiences.
I can definitely say that I am glad I participated in this project and I’m very happy and thankful for my Eye on TAMK 2021 – Online Week experience.
Text and graphics: Christine Schmerber, TAMK Bachelor’s student in International Business
Photograph: Dimitra Panopoulou-Huovila
