Last week in The Beacon’s Weekly Gallery Deck, the K-9 Carnival was featured as an event to attend in Cedarburg on April 16th from 1-4pm. This event got cut a short due to impending weather, but overall, it was a great turnout.
Concordia University students of the Event and Production Management class – in conjunction with Festivals of Cedarburg put on an event geared specifically towards dogs.
Generally, Festivals of Cedarburg has a no dog policy at any of their festivals, so this is the one festival of the year where dogs are encouraged to join in on the fun.
The event took place in the Community Center Parking Lot in historic Downtown Cedarburg.
Upon arrival dogs and their owners were welcomed with smiling faces and a fun bandana created by a local Concordia student that included the event logo and the gold sponsors of the event.
The event schedule included pet contests such as “cutest pup,” “best costume,” and “best trick.” There were also several speakers who touched on a variety of topics, including how service dogs are trained, how people can learn more about how to best take care of their pets both before and during the adoption process, and how the Concordia Comfort Dogs serve the community both in and out of Concordia’s campus doors.
There was also a large number of vendors in attendance, providing something for everyone.
Vendors In Attendance
Cedarburg K-9 Unit
CUW Comfort Dogs
Partners with Paws Service Dogs
Danielle’s Designs
Gruber Law
Exterior Pros
T-Mobile
Event and Production Management Class
As this was an assignment for the Event and Production Management class, all students took a role in executing the event.
It started with planning the event, and before that was possible, students had to learn what goes into planning an event of this scale.
Senior Brittany Davis was one of the elected student event directors. She said, “Our planning consisted of securing vendors, sponsors, and donations, involving a lot of outside communication. Another large aspect was advertising and PR: making sure social media posts went out, posters were hung in heavy foot traffic areas, and that the press release caught the public eye plus designing banners and bandanas. You also can’t forget about food, agendas, budget, and logistics, each hold a crucial level of importance to contributing to the success of this event.”
Sophomore Matthew Torres, the second elected director noted that throughout the planning process he had broadened his creativity, teamwork, and communication skills. This really impacted the team around him in a positive way in order to execute the event successfully.
While the weather did not play out in the K-9 Carnival’s favor, Torres said, “The vendors really came in handy to keep people around and engaged with the Carnival.” Davis echoed, “The controllable aspects of the event ran very smoothly. All our vendors were so kind and contributed well to the carnival, plus we had a larger turnout than expected! However, the weather had other plans for our event. We had to wrap up about an hour earlier than planned due to wind and rain. Although the event was already a success, it would have been much better if it were not for the weather not playing in our favor.”
As this is a required course for a few majors, Torres and Davis gave some advice to think about when stepping foot into the class.
“Be patient and plan ahead of time because procrastination will cause a lot of delays in your planning for an event,” said Torres.
“It is easy to see the event you plan for this class as just another assignment, but it is so important to remember that there are actual people that will be taking the time out of their day to experience the outcome of your work, so be invested,” said Davis.
—Morgan Bolz is writer for The Beacon, the official student newspaper of Concordia University Wisconsin. She is pursuing her bachelor’s degree in Sports and Entertainment Business and plans to graduate in 2023.