Lesson video

Hi, I'm Mrs. Wheelhouse, and welcome to today's lesson that's from the unit "Maths in the workplace." In this series of lessons, we're exploring how maths is used in different careers.

So let's get started.

In today's lesson, we're going to be looking at some of the ways that maths is used in event management.

Now, on the screen, you can see the definition for percentage.

A percentage is a proportion of a whole.

We're going to be using percentages today.

So if you're not familiar with what they are, you might wanna go and refresh your knowledge before you have a go at this lesson.

Our lesson is break into two parts today and we're gonna begin by looking at math skills in event planning.

What areas of maths do you think an event management company might use? Pause the video while you have a think about this or have a chat to the person next to you.

What did you come up with? Well, this is some of the things I came up with.

I thought they might use area, maybe multiplication, division, percentages, money.

They could, of course, also use time, profit, loss, ratio.

During this lesson, we're going to look at just some of these areas.

Now, one of the most important skills an event planner must have is being able to work to a budget.

Why do you think this is one of the most important skills? Well, events will need to be organised in a way that either breaks even or makes a profit, and definitely not a loss.

Now, it'll depend on the type of event as to whether it's a profitable event or a break-even event.

What do you think break even means? Pause the video and have a think now.

Welcome back.

Let's see what you said.

Well, break even is where there is neither profit nor loss.

If that's what you said, well done.

So can you think of any examples of events where we might want to break even or any examples of events where we might want to make a profit? Pause the video while you have a discussion on this.

Welcome back.

Did you say any of these? I've gone for planning a concert, planning a music festival, a sports event, charity event.

Well, what might cause these events to be break even instead of making profits? Well, if we only sell the minimum number of tickets or if there's an external fact which affects participation, we might not make a profit.

We might instead break even.

We, of course, are hoping not to make a loss.

Let's imagine you are planning a charity junior five-a-side football tournament for 10 teams. What costs do you think will be associated with organising this event? Pause the video and brainstorm that now.

Welcome back.

What did you come up with? Maybe you came up the same things as me, and maybe you came up with different ones.

These are some of the things I came up with.

Well, I might need to hire a venue.

I'll need to hire staff.

Need to hire toilets.

If the venue doesn't have them.

I'll need to buy trophies and medals, 'cause if you win, you'd like to receive something.

Ah, refreshments might be useful too.

Now, you've been quite lucky in your event planning, you've managed to recruit volunteers to staff the event.

So no cost there, whew.

But everything else will need to be costed.

So the venue is hired on an hourly basis.

You want to hire it for the correct amount of time.

The event will start at 8:30 in the morning and finish at 3:00 in the afternoon.

How long, therefore, do you need to hire the venue for? Pause and have a think about this now.

Welcome back.

So what did you say? You should have calculated that you need it for six and a half hours.

And that's if you're going from 8:30 to 3:00.

Now, you might have said at least six and a half hours and I can see why you might have said that.

So that's something to keep in mind for later on.

Now, the cost of hiring the venue is 250 pounds per hour, but the venue offer a 10% discount because it's a charity event.

Oh, it's nice of them.

So how much will it cost to hire the venue? And this is where I said you might want to bear in mind how long you need that venue for.

And did you say, at least.

Have a think about that? So pause the video now and have a go at working out.

How much will the cost to hire the venue be? Welcome back.

Let's see what you put.

Did you say that it would be 1,575 pounds? Let's have a look at the calculation I did.

7 multiplied by 250 multiplied by 0.

9.

Can you see where those values have come from? Well, I said I needed to hire the venue for six and a half hours, but actually I've rounded up to seven.

I don't know if the venue has a reduction because I don't want it for a whole hour or not.

But I've assumed when I'm doing my budget that they might not.

Equally, it would be good to have some setting up and taking downtime.

250, 'cause that's the cost per hour.

And then 0.

9 because I'm getting a 10% discount.

So true or false? The cost of hiring a five-a-side pitch is 40 pounds per hour.

The venue offer you a 10% discount.

The cost to hire at between 9:00 AM and 4:30 PM is 270 pounds.

Do you think that's true or false? And make sure to justify your answer.

Pause the video and work this out now.

Welcome back.

You should have said, it's false.

And let's just check why.

Well, the number of hours is seven and a half, which means, we are likely to get charged for eight hours.

We've got to assume that it didn't say that the cost was proportional to the amount of time.

So therefore, our cost is 8 multiplied by 40, 40 pound per hour and then multiplied by 0.

9 to represent that 10% discount.

Therefore, the total cost is 288 pounds.

Well done if you got that right.

Now, we need to hire some toilets.

So we've hired our field for our charity matches, but now we need some toilets.

While the cost of hiring a portable toilet is 60 pounds per half day, which is for four hours, or 100 pounds for the day.

Can this event hire the toilets for half a day? No, they can't because the event is lasting for six and a half hours.

So we need to pay the daily rate.

Laura points out, "That's not going to have much of an impact on the total cost of the event.

It's only 100 pounds." Do you think one toilet is going to be enough for the event? Yeah, probably not.

Let's look at an estimate for the number of people attending.

Well, it's a charity junior five-a-side football tournament for 10 teams. So what would be a sensible estimate for the number of people attending the tournament? Well, it would consist of the team members, any supporters and the staff.

Well, how many players will there be? Well, there's 10 teams of 5.

But each team will probably bring reserve players along.

Now, if we assume each team consists of 10 players and each player has one supporter.

How many people will this be? 200 people.

Well, let's assume there are 50 volunteers.

An estimate for the total number of people attending the tournament is therefore 250 people.

Now, we've slightly overestimated here, we've added on the side of caution.

Better to have slightly too many toilets than not enough.

Now, do you think one toilet for 250 people sounds reasonable? Yeah, it really doesn't.

So although this would make more money for the charity, safety and comfort should be considered.

After an internet search, I've discovered that the recommended ratio of toilets to people at an event is one toilet for every 100 people.

So how many toilets should be hired for this event? Well, 250 divided by 100 is 2.

5.

But I can't exactly hire half a toilet, so I need to hire three for this event.

So the cost of hiring the toilets is 3 lots of 100 pounds.

Meaning it's 300 pounds.

Quick check now.

The number of toilets needed for an event with an attendance of 820 people is eight, assuming the recommended ratio of toilets to people is 1 to 100.

And I follow it.

Is that true or false? And make sure to justify your answer, please.

Welcome back.

You should, of course, have said it's false.

820 divided by 100 is 8.

2.

So in this situation, you've got to round up.

That means I need nine toilets.

Now, since this is a charity event, the company supplying refreshments agrees to do this for free.

Yay! Now, we need to find the cost of the trophies and the medals.

Each team has 10 players.

The winners and runners-up each get a team trophy and a trophy for each player, or other players get a participation medal.

Let's calculate the total cost of buying the trophies and the medals.

Well, what do we need to purchase? Two team trophies.

20 winner and runner-up trophies.

80 participation medals.

So our total cost is, therefore, 215 pounds.

Let's check.

You've got that.

There are eight teams and each team has seven players.

The winners and runners-up each get a team trophy and trophy for each player.

All other players get a participation medal.

Please pause the video now while you calculate the total cost of buying the trophies and medals.

Welcome back.

So did you check what needed to be purchased? Two team trophies.

14 winner and runner-up trophies.

And 42 participation medals.

Meaning the total cost is 144 pounds.

Now, the event organiser wants to make a profit of at least 750 pounds.

So what should the average ticket price be? Well, the total cost to run the event was the 1,575 pounds.

That was our venue hire.

300 pounds for our toilets.

And 215 pounds for our trophies and medals.

This gives us a total of 2,090 pounds.

Well, we need the total income from the event needs to cover that cost.

So that's 2,090 pounds plus the profit I want to make of 750, which means that I need to generate an income of 2,840 pounds.

So what's the average ticket cost got to be? Well, if I assume that everyone coming needs a ticket that's 250 people, that means the average ticket cost could be calculated by doing the total income I need 2,840 divided by all the people attending 250, which gives us an average ticket cost of 11 pounds 36 pence.

Now, it's at this point, I've gotta make some decisions.

Because when I divided by my total number of people, I included the volunteers.

Do they really need to buy a ticket? Hmm.

And what about the players and the teams? Do they each need to pay this or should there be a discount for a team price? If I do that, which other tickets need to be more expensive? There's quite a lot that I need to play around with here.

You might even suggest doing the average ticket cost as being 2,840 pounds divided by 200, so that my volunteers don't have to pay for a ticket.

Or maybe you could say volunteers do pay for a ticket, but they get a reduced amount because they're volunteering to help out.

Let's look at our first task now.

Question one.

The cost of hiring a venue is 45 pounds per hour.

So calculate the cost of hiring a venue for the following time periods, please.

Pause and work this out now.

Question two.

To make your event more comfortable for people, you decide to use the ratio of 1 to 75 for toilets to people.

The cost of hiring a toilet is 120 pounds.

Calculate the cost of hiring toilets for the following numbers of people.

Pause and do this now.

Question three.

Calculate the cost of trophies and medals for the following.

Pause and do this now.

Now, in part d, I'd like you to use your answers to the previous questions to calculate the average ticket price if the profit needs to be at least 1,000 pounds.

So now, what I've done is I've given you particular restrictions, but if you look back over your previous answers, think you'll find you'll have worked most of this out already.

Pause and do this now.

Welcome back.

Let's go through our answers.

So if question one, part a, should have a cost of 135 pounds, part b, 360 pounds, and part c, 495 pounds.

In question two, you had to calculate the cost of hiring toilets.

So if part a, should have got 2,400 pounds, part b, should have 5,160 pounds and part c, 720 pounds.

Question three, you had to calculate the cost of trophies and medals for the following.

Part a, should have come to 153 pounds, part b, to 277 pounds, and part c, to 310 pounds.

In part d, you had to use your answer to the previous questions in order to calculate the average ticket price if we need the profit to be at least 1,000 pounds.

Well, the cost of this venue was 396 pounds.

Cost of the toilets was 720 pounds.

And the cost of trophies and medals was 310 pounds.

Therefore, our total income needs to be 1,426 pounds.

Add the profit that I want to make of 1,000 pounds giving us a total income required of 2,426 pounds.

Now, we've got 400 attendees.

So dividing that by 400 means the average ticket price comes to 6 pounds and 7 pence.

We can now play around with this price to decide which tickets should cost more and which tickets should cost less.

Well done if you got that right.

It's now time for the second part of our lesson.

And this is where we're planning our own event.

So let's consider the question, what costs are associated with planning a birthday party? Pause the video while you have a think about this.

Welcome back.

You might have said the invitations.

Hiring a venue.

Entertainment.

Catering.

That definitely will cost associated with planning a party.

Also, party bags.

Think about it, if we're planning for a small child.

And what I've done here is I've put on some figures that I found when I was doing some research.

So remember, these aren't typical values.

These are just suggested values.

So we're gonna calculate the cost of a birthday party for 30 children.

Now, they'd like an entertainer.

A small venue is an appropriate size for 30 children.

And the party will be from 2:00 until 5:00.

We need to get our invitations, the venue hire, the entertainment, the catering, and the party bags all costed up.

Well, the invitations, I can get packs of 20 for 4.

99.

Well, given I've got 30 children, I need to get two packs, which means that's gonna cost me 9 pounds and 98 pence.

To hire the small venue for three hours was 75 pounds in total.

Entertainment for two hours, 'cause don't forget, our children will need to stop and eat.

They don't need to be entertained for the full three hours, that's gonna come to 220 pounds.

The catering for 30 children comes to 225 pounds.

And the party bags comes to 81.

This means our total cost for our party is 610 pounds and 98 pence.

Now, quick check.

True or false? It is important to consider different vendors or suppliers when planning an event.

Do you think that's true or false? And don't forget to justify your answer.

Pause while you make your decision now.

Well done.

It's definitely true.

You might be able to get a better deal elsewhere, or find ways to save on costs, so you can maximise profit or minimise expenditure.

It is now time for our final task of the lesson.

And here you're going to plan your own event.

Now, you need to choose from the following.

You could plan for a charity tournament where you want to make at least 500 pounds for your favourite charity.

What should the cost per ticket be? You might be planning a non-profit event, such as a child's birthday party.

And here you've been given a budget of 800 pounds.

So how many children could you invite to the party? You might be planning a music concert where you need to make a profit of at least 20%.

Or you could choose something of your own to plan.

Now, when you are planning your event, make sure you consider as many things as possible that are gonna cost you money and think about anything that's going to affect attendance or raising money.

Now, you can use the internet to research costs, so venues, catering, et cetera, in your area.

Or you could use the ones that I've provided earlier on in this lesson.

It's your choice.

But now, it's time to pause the video while you have a go at this.

Welcome back.

Now, if you've done this in class, you might want to take the opportunity to present your event and how you planned it to the others in your class.

Maybe you worked as a group to do this.

And if so, think about how you broke down the tasks.

Did you work well together as a group? Now, what we're going to do is I'm going to take the time to go through an example of an event I planned.

I went for planning an obstacle course birthday party for a group of children.

So we're gonna see how many kids I can invite.

Now, I've opted for the gold-level package at an obstacle course centre near where I live and I research the cost and it's 28 pounds 50 per child.

Now, they also offer party bags, and I want to get one with a medal in, a wristband and a pencil that'll cost me 6 pounds 99 per child.

Now, I also want food.

Now, I'm really lucky here because I know that the local pizza place will deliver to this party venue.

Now, a large pizza will cost 25 pounds 99 pence each.

And I figure these children are gonna be hungry.

So half a large pizza per child is probably sufficient.

In other words, one large pizza per two children.

Now, because I'm ordering for this particular venue, I'll get a 45% party discount and the delivery's free.

Result.

Now, things like water or squash, et cetera, maybe other bits and pieces I haven't accounted for here because I think those costs are minimal in comparison.

I'm just going for the big expenditures.

So what I've done is I've worked out the cost for two children.

Now, I haven't rounded the value at this stage because I want to try and be as accurate as I can for what the total cost will be.

Remember, my budget was 800 pounds.

So I'm gonna divide the 800 by the 85.

2745.

My unrounded value to see what this comes to.

Now, remember, this was for pairs of children, so it came to 9.

381, et cetera.

This means I can invite nine pairs of children or nine pairs of children, means 18 children can be invited to the party.

And if I do that, the party cost total will be 767 pounds and 47 pence.

So I've actually got a little bit of spare money there for buying some of those extra bits that I said wouldn't cost very much.

Like for example, a bottle of squash, so that I can make up lots of drink for those children.

They're probably likely to be thirsty after an obstacle course birthday party.

I've even got some spare money there to buy a cake.

Let's sum up what we've learned today.

Many areas of maths are used in event management.

During this lesson, we mainly focused on costs associated with planning an event.

Ensuring safety and comfort are addressed is an important factor when deciding on, for example, the number of toilets required for an event.

And many events will have a budget, which may limit some aspects of the event.

Such as the number of people you can have there.

Well done.

You've worked really well today and I really hope you've enjoyed learning about some of the ways maths is used in event management.

I look forward to seeing you again for some more maths.

Bye for now!.