Event of the Week: Lakeside Academy Masquerade Ball

2016-07-31

Lakeside Academy gives their seniors an amazing prom with May 27th’s Masquerade Ball  

Let’s look back on prom season with Lakeside Academy’s Masquerade Ball. The Lachine, Quebec school held their annual prom May 27, and actually found inspiration for their event by looking at ticket themes. “We were so happy to find matching posters and entrance tickets, drink tickets, etc., that all went with the invitation,” wrote Kim Porter of the Academy in an email interview.

The prom’s unique theme reflects the school’s uniqueness; the Academy was founded in 2001 through a combination of two community high schools. According to the Academy’s website, the student body is a “culturally, ethnically and socioeconomically diverse population.” Aside from advanced core classes in their school-wide International Baccalaureate curriculum, the Academy also gives its students the chance to take part in many activities, including sports, art, drama, robotics, dance, and music.

How do you market a prom, particularly since it’s not a standard event for the public? Even though it’s a school-centric event, there are still some marketing tricks that work, such as marketing to an audience interested in your product. In this case, the vested audience are the students themselves. “We posted the event on our website and posters throughout the school,” said Porter, “but not much external marketing was done since it is only for our graduates.”

The event, which took place at the Sheraton Dorval Airport Hotel in Montreal, was largely successful. “The event went very well,” wrote Porter. “The colours of the invitation were used by the decorators to decorate the hall.  It made it very majestic and many of the students chose dresses that highlighted the grandness and elegance of the theme.”

If you’re working in a school, you’re probably already thinking about prom. If you are worried about the possible headaches prom planning might give you, fear not; many of the solutions we’ve provided in the past from our customers will work for prom planning as well. First, make sure to plan prom well in advance. Second, delegate tasks to your prom team; don’t try to take on the whole of prom planning all by yourself. Third, expect mistakes to occur. For instance, Porter realized there was an error on the Academy’s prom tickets. Not only was she able to be notified of the mistake, but she was also able to get the tickets reprinted in plenty of time for the event. That goes toward another point; not only will errors come up, but there are always solutions to problems. Nothing is ever as big as it seems in the beginning.