Show night

The show evening took place for the first time in 1987. It grew out of a tourism seminar led by Prof. Dr Harald Bartl, the former dean of the Faculty. The seminar focused on guest entertainment (animation) in hotels or on club holidays. The highlight was usually an elaborate show on the final evening. The show evening brings this concept to the university: as a practical exercise for the seminar.

Since 2012, Prof. Dr Jan Drengner and Prof. Dr Hans Rück have been in charge of the show evening. For Master’s students, it serves as a case study; for Bachelor’s students, it is an optional module in event management within the Faculty of Tourism and Transport.

Each edition has its own theme. Students take on the role of event manager: from conception and planning right through to evaluating the event’s success. They bear full responsibility for the budget, as the Show Evening is not a simulation but a real event with a real budget.

The Show Evening is growing in popularity year on year. Students from all Faculties take part, and the performers and volunteers make it a shared experience for the University of Applied Sciences Worms.

The assessment for the show evening covers the entire event: conception, planning, organisation, execution and follow-up. You will be responsible for one of five areas: venue, communications, sales/finance, programme or management control.

• Specialisation: Event Management. It is helpful if you have already taken the SBWL specialisation module.
• Participants: 5 Master’s students, 20 Bachelor’s students
• ECTS: 10 ECTS for Bachelor’s students (both compulsory-elective modules ‘Show Evening I’ and ‘Show Evening II’), 9 ECTS for Master’s students (Show Evening case study)

During the show evening, you will not only learn the theory but also put it into practice straight away: an idea first develops into a concept, which in turn becomes the finished event. Working as part of a project team also strengthens your interpersonal skills and prepares you for your career.

During the show evening, you will acquire the following specialist skills in event management:

• Concept development, planning, scheduling, execution and follow-up of an event
• Agile project management using the SCRUM method with the tools Confluence and Jira
• Use of artificial intelligence for planning and organising events
• Materiality analysis to prioritise sustainable aspects of events (with support from fwd: Federal Association of the Events Industry)

Within each trade, you will also acquire the following skills:

The show evening is a challenge for everyone involved. The lecturers need to keep track of the progress of the various trades at all times and want to be able to provide students with prompt support even between face-to-face sessions. To this end, we use the web-based tools Confluence and JIRA from Atlassian. This makes the show evening one of the most innovative courses at Worms University of Applied Sciences.

The Show Evening has its own Facebook and Instagram pages. There you’ll find detailed information about the various roles behind the scenes, as well as updates such as the theme of the current event.

• Facebook: Showabend Hochschule Worms
• Instagram: @showabend_hs_worms
• Website: showabend-worms.de

Drengner, J.; Rück, H. (2016): Approaches to comprehensive management control of marketing events, in: Zanger, C. (ed.): Events and Tourism, Wiesbaden, pp. 224–240.