When I was watching "Life of Pi", when the male protagonist and the tiger were drifting on the sea and returning to land to say goodbye, the male protagonist looked at the tiger's retreating back. There was probably a sentence that impressed me. Particularly profound: You should say goodbye properly when leaving so that you won’t have any regrets (probably so).

Graduation dinner is the same for me.

After graduation, classmates from all over the world began to go their separate ways, and no one knew when they would meet again. So when our class president told me about the teacher appreciation banquet in mid-May, there was not much time left before graduation. As a result, the teacher-appreciation banquet began to prepare nervously.

First, we formed a graduation dinner planning group!

Facts have proved that the establishment of a planning group is very necessary. If it were just me and another partner (we are publicity organization committee members), then in the end we might just have a meal at a food stall or a small restaurant opposite the school. We are both interns, and our time and energy are limited. So when the squad leader asked me where I planned to hold it, when it would be held, and whether there were any specific procedures, we didn’t want to just have a meal, but we wanted the banquet night to be filled with memories. So my monitor and I sent a message to the class group asking for volunteers for the graduation dinner planning team, and that night about ten students who stayed in school signed up to join us.

A meeting of the planning team

Soon after the graduation dinner planning team was established, we started making appointments at night to discuss specific matters about the dinner at a milk tea shop near the school entrance. Before the discussion, I first list the framework that needs to be discussed, the problems that need to be solved, etc. In the first meeting, we mainly solved the following issues:

1. Dinner style: buffet style or Chinese style?

2. Holding time: On the day of graduation photos? The day of defense? On the day of the investiture ceremony?

3. Hotel selection: We have several requirements: good environment (tall and elegant), sufficient equipment (stage, lighting, sound, etc.), and delicious food (not the most important)

4. Price range: Based on the experience of previous sessions, we control the price within 200 yuan/person.

5. Invitation letters: Both teachers and classmates need invitation letters. Should they make their own or buy them?

6. Video production: shooting plan, shooting personnel, and production personnel.

7. Banquet theme

8. Banquet process

The first, second, fourth and eighth items were all discussed in one meeting .

Based on the large number of students in our class and the large number of girls, we finally decided to use the buffet method.

Moreover, it must be held at a time when all students are back to school so that more people will sign up to participate, because it is impossible for people who intern in other places to come back specially to attend a teacher appreciation banquet, and the day of graduation photos, the day of defense, Almost everyone will be back on the day of the conferment ceremony. After careful consideration, we chose to hold it on the evening of the thesis defense (on the day of graduation photos, most people need to accompany relatives and friends who came from all the way, and the conferment ceremony is too late at the end of June). , after the defense, there is no pressure to revise the paper, and I can open up and have fun.

Make time plans and strictly implement them. Because we want to make the graduation dinner grand, the whole event is no less than a wedding. There are many things that need to be done. It is a big project, so planning the time schedule is also very important for the planning of the dinner.

Attached: Graduation dinner schedule

(1) My style and my show (catwalk + introduction, students first, then teachers)

(2) Teacher’s message

(3) Mai Ba sang (two Mai Ba in the class "Little Lucky" and "Cinderella")

(4) Interactive game (ask about the four years of college and about the class) Activities and course questions, chocolate will be rewarded for correct answers, and a drink will be punished for wrong answers)

(5) Mid-time meal

(6) Video playback

( 7) Happy 4th birthday (climax)

(8) Exchange of gifts (each student prepares a thoughtful gift. This process is very ritualistic, and the whole process becomes very memorable)

(9) Awarding the certificate of the previous class committee

(10) End of the dinner

Hotel visit

It is no exaggeration to say , our planning team has visited every slightly larger hotel. Our planning team rode little sheep and visited every house, compared the environment, price, and equipment, and finally voted to choose Sheraton.

Yes, a five-star hotel.

I also had concerns at the beginning. It would be nice for everyone to have a happy reunion dinner at the graduation dinner. Is choosing a five-star hotel out of vanity and comparison?

First, because of the large number of people in our class, after constant negotiations with Sheraton, we were able to secure a very cost-effective price by guaranteeing the attendance of 80 people and adjusting the two meat dishes on the menu. Compared with other hotels, The prices offered are not much different. (The menu has been changed and the dishes have become richer)

Secondly, our class wants to make the graduation dinner more upscale, and it also has a catwalk, so the hotel environment needs to be high. superior. After checking the places, the environment of Sheraton is the best.

Since the price difference is not big and the environment is the best, it must be the Sheraton.

Banquet theme

The theme is the traction line of the entire planning. The invitations, graduation videos, and planning tone are almost all based on this theme. Moreover, it is easy to use this theme to incite propaganda. There are many themes for graduation dinners on the Internet, including "youth never grows old, we will never part", "that year in a hurry", "graduation, we won't say goodbye"... almost all of them have been used to death, and later we also had several It's only for one class, I don't think it's anything new anyway.

The theme of our graduation dinner is "Love the time, never forget it", which is catchy and full of reluctance. Later, after our dinner, the students posted on WeChat Moments and many people used this sentence, and the spread rate was quite high.

Event Promotion

We signed an agreement with the hotel to guarantee a minimum of 80 people, and also gave a deposit. In fact, I am still very stressed. According to our class’s past experience, not many people participated in the activities. For example, in the graduation trip of my class, only more than 50 people participated. If the graduation dinner does not reach 80 people, on the one hand we will need to pay liquidated damages, and on the other hand the price may not be as favorable as 200 yuan/person (200 yuan includes meal expenses, teachers’ fees and venue rental fees will be shared equally , wine expenses, purchase of decoration materials, etc.).

In order to stimulate students' enthusiasm to sign up, we have done a few things:

1. H5 invitation letter (link: /s/b5DI0izK)

2. Fetion notification

3. WeChat communication

In the second meeting, we mainly focused on the filming script of the graduation dinner video. In the past, most of the videos produced by the school were a collection of pictures with background music, and we wanted to shoot a graduation video similar to a micro-movie. In the end, we planned to refer to Mayday's "Cheers" MV to write our script, based on one person's personal experience. From this perspective, let’s review every bit of university life and slowly bring back memories of our four-year university life. (Video link: /v_show/id_XMTU3MzM4MTkxMg==.html )

The shooting was shot by members of our planning team. None of us had any experience in shooting. The shots were shaky, noisy, and had no center. The characters... were all unprofessional, but when it was finally broadcast at the dinner, the audience was filled with emotion, and some students were still wiping tears after watching it. After the dinner, some classmates asked me for a video as a souvenir. I sent it to the class WeChat group and it was forwarded by everyone...

It seems that technology is not important, anyone can be in the video It is the protagonist, everyone can find their own shadow in it, and everyone can find their emotional resonance in it.

Finally, I would also like to thank our 14th-level junior sister in the same major. If it weren’t for her amazing editing, she wouldn’t have been able to process the video we shot so well.

Three meetings of the planning team

More than a week before the graduation dinner, we held a third meeting. The main focus of the discussion this time is as follows:

1. Red wine purchase (red wine before meals, very sweet, suitable for girls in our class who do not drink often)

2. Style rental (to highlight Atmosphere)

3. Signature wall production and printing (for souvenir photos)

4. Dinner PPT production

5. Dinner music selection

6. Photographer arrangement (very necessary, you can tell the difference between professional and non-professional by looking at the pictures)

7. Purchase of on-site decoration materials (balloons, gifts, game lottery boxes, etc.)

8. Arrangement of on-site staff (reception, guidance, site control)

9. Host and host script

10. Order of arrival of teachers

11 , final confirmation of the dinner process

Then comes another busy week, interning during the day, and after work, riding small electric vehicles with the team members all over the street to visit flower shops, find wineries, and survey sites, and often return to the dormitory. It's past eleven o'clock in the evening.

On-site execution

At noon that day, the planning team and volunteers and I went to the hotel to arrange it. The staff at the hotel also actively cooperated with us.

Here are just a few things to pay attention to:

1. The on-site staff must implement it in detail, and the reception, field control, sound control, and lighting control must all go through the process. Be familiar with the process, otherwise it will be easy to get messed up.

2. The flow chart is dead, but people are living. The host must have the ability to respond to situations. The flow chart we discussed at that time was worried that there would be too few links. However, during the actual dinner, we found that everyone was very involved in taking photos with others, so we gave the students more time to take photos and eat, thus deleting two items. Game session.

3. If possible, it is best to hire a professional photographer. The hotel can provide staff to take photos for us, but they are not professional. In order to record everyone's voices and smiles during the dinner, so that we can take photos for our classmates in the future, so we invited two sophomore students who have photography experience in school to come over and do the photoshoot. The photographer who followed us throughout the entire process. If there were no photographers, probably all you would see in this article would be selfies.

4. Three hours before the dinner starts, Fetion and class groups should be sent to remind students of the time, location, transportation routes and precautions. There will definitely be people who will be late. In order to ensure that the dinner can start normally, it is recommended that the planners remind the students more.

5. After the class is over, it is necessary to escort the drunk students (to ensure safety) and follow up the teacher’s departure (to the elevator door or to the hotel door).

6. The hotel for the graduation dinner should be booked about a month in advance, because most classes are held at about the same time, and there are many options for booking hotels early.

7. Confirm the hotel’s payment method, cash, credit card, WeChat, Alipay? The Sheraton only accepts cash or credit cards. All the money we collected at that time was placed in Alipay. Transferring Alipay to a bank card is expected to take three days to arrive. If the hotel manager hadn't been willing to help when paying, we wouldn't have known what we would have done.

As soon as the lights are turned on, the white tablecloth, blue petticoat, red carpet, flowers, wine balloons, and exquisite food are set against the Qijiang River opposite the floor-to-ceiling windows. It is magnificent!

The students are also very impressive. The boys wear suits and ties, and the girls wear high heels and skirts. They drink and drink together, just like a dream.

Originally we were worried that some people would not be able to let go during the catwalk, but in the end everyone had a great time, and the teachers also joined in, so the atmosphere was great. Some students who were originally very low-key in the class also became very active during the dinner. Everyone laughed, chatted while eating, and took selfies with each other for fear of missing a photo with anyone. They were both touched and reluctant to part with each other.

And I was moved by myself.

Planning a graduation dinner is so damn hard!

Not to mention the day and night planning, even the night of the dinner was busy hosting and cooperating, scrambling to take a few bites of food but still eating standing with the plate in hand, just like migrant workers.

The same goes for the friends in the planning team.

But looking at the joyful occasion in front of us and the emotions in our circle of friends afterwards, we felt both proud and moved.

Thank you for meeting you, every beautiful and handsome classmate of 12-line management!

Xu Taotao

Written on May 18, 2016

Love you!