What is MAP?
Miami Activities & Programming (MAP) began on the Oxford campus in 2014. MAP consists of an executive board and general members who all work together to put on upwards of 50 events each semester. As part of the Office of Student Activities, MAP events are free and open to all students.
I served on the executive board as the Director of Series in 2019. During this time, I worked to execute 24 events in three series; Movie Series, Craft Series, and Coffeehouse Series. Below is an outline of my process, photos from events, and a reflection of the Open Mic Night event from Fall 2019.
User: Miami University students
Scope: Experience design, event planning
Series Event List
Spring 2019
1/31: Crazy Rich Asians
2/19: Bob Ross Canvas Painting
3/8: A Star Is Born
3/12: Keychain Making
3/14: Haley Klinkhammer
4/6: Dive-In Movie, Aquaman
4/11: Seth Cook
4/12: The Hate U Give
4/23: You’re Fired
4/30: Neon Sign Making
5/2: Dez Duran
5/3: On The Basis of Sex
Fall 2019
8/30: Aladdin
9/1: Aladdin Matinee
9/17: School Supplies & Macrame
9/20: Yesterday
9/22: Yesterday Matinee
9/26: Open Mic Night
10/19: Family Weekend Farmer’s Market
10/31: Us (Special Halloween Showing)
11/1: Us
11/7: Live Band Karaoke
11/12: Makerspace
12/3: Gingerbread House Contest
Event Photo Gallery
Open Mic Night
Open Mic Night Event Team
Open Mic Night was inspired by the 2018 National Association for Campus Activities Mid-Atlantic Conference in Grand Rapids, MI. Through attending, I noticed everything from spoken word to acoustic artists to stand-up comedians were prevalent amongst performers. At the time, Miami University was hosting a Coffeehouse Series, which brought in 3 artists each semester to perform for students. However, attendance was low. The cost of the artists, the space, and the food served caused the cost-per-person to soar. This metric is key to understanding the success of MAP events, and we compare it to the cost of attending a similar event outside of the university. After all existing contracts for the semester were up, I proposed hosting an Open Mic Night for Fall 2019.
An open mic night would allow us to showcase students and their talents. Supportive friends were able to enjoy the music and increase our attendance. This shift alleviated a lot of the issues that existed with the old Coffeehouse model. We completely cut the cost of an outside performer. By using volunteer and independent artists, we were able to cut on average 82% of the cost. This lowered our cost-per-person to $6.78, reducing it by approximately 7.5x (Spring 2019 average of $51.56/person over three events).
The event was held on Thursday, September 26, 2019 from 9-11pm. Armstrong Student Center has a stage, known as Shade Stage, for events just like this. The dimmed lighting and strong sound filled the space and reinforced a positive and supportive environment. A total of 18 acts were performed over the two hour event. These acts ranged from musical performances to stand-up comedy to spoken word. We also provided coffee, tea, water, veggie trays, mac and cheese bites, and cookies for the attendees to relax and enjoy. Overall, the event had 75 attendees, including the performers.
In the future, I hope to provide a simple set-up, such as a piano, for performers to use so that we can accommodate a wider variety of acts. Additionally, I would like to provide performers with a small goodie bag as a gift for performing. It would include a water bottle, some candy, and marketing materials for our upcoming events.
After the success of this event, I was able to propose this event for the next semester, Spring 2019. After its proposal, it will be reviewed by the current executive team and potentially implemented with improvements. I look forward to the way that open mic night will evolve Miami University and continue to showcase the talent on campus.
Miami University’s student newspaper featured the event in one of their articles. Read about it here.