This page is designed to help you get started with your project. If you have any questions, please contact su.arcstaff@lse.ac.uk. All projects or ideas are more than welcome !
What is a project?
It is a unique and temporary endeavour with a beginning and an end. It is undertaken in order to achieve a specific objective , with an innovative aspect.
The most common projects undertaken by students are conferences, seminars, group trips, journal/magazines, social gatherings, show or exhibition, network and awareness raising campaigns but there is no limit to what’s possible and we would be happy to support any innovative projects or ideas.
Project management is a process which can be divided in several phases:
- Emergence phase
- Framing phase (the most important)
- Preparation phase
- Implementation
- Assessment
This page will give you some tips and tricks for the 2 first phases to help you get started with your project.
Emergence phase
Before starting to plan your project, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- Where is my idea coming from? Do I think people will adhere to it?
- What are my objectives? What do I want to achieve?
- With whom am I going to work? Who is my team? You don’t need to have a team but if you do, it’s better to form it from the beginning.
- Where can I get support: department, Students’ Union, external partners such as embassies, companies etc…?
Please note that our team can help you with the emergence phase:
- If you’re thinking about a project on the behalf of a society or sport club : please visit the Committee Hub or contact su.arcstaff@lse.ac.uk
- If you’re an individual student or an informal group of students: please get in touch with our Funds and Events support coordinator su.arcstaff@lse.ac.uk
Framing phase
At the end of this phase, you should have a detailed answer to the questions below:
Why?
Why do you think this project is relevant? What needs are being met by the project?
What?
What are the expected results, the deliverables of your project?
Who?
Who is the audience you would like to reach?
How many people do you plan to reach?
What kind of audience: specific departments, undergraduates, postgraduates, PHD students, the whole LSE students community, specific liberation groups, part of LSE students, part of external public etc...
Where?
Where would you like the project to take place?
How much?
What is the expected budget, how will you pay for it?
Below is a list of things that you might want to consider in your budget. Please note that this list might not be exhaustive for your specific project:
- Venue or space booking including AV and security costs
- Speakers
- Transportation, accomodation
- Refreshment/ Catering
- Interpretation/translation
- Activities
- Equipment or little materials
- Communication/marketing
- Prints
The more you anticipate and consider the costs with honesty, the less likely it is that the costs overrun. We would also recommend you to include 10% contingency in case your project still overruns. You can find a budget template: here
To match the expenses, you will need to think about where you can find the funding. It could be for instance by applying to the Students’ Union Fund, by finding sponsors, by ticketing your event, by asking a participation fee to attend the activity etc.
When?
When would you like your event to take place?
How?
To answer the “how” question, you need to consider:
1. The organisation of your team. The team should have:
- A project leader: They have a transverse responsibility. This is the person who coordinates the different tasks and keeps track of the progress of all the aspects of the project.
- A project team: everyone in the project team should be motivated and know their role in the project. For example (but not only), roles could include: finding speakers, finding financial partners, being in charge of invoices/payment (in relations with the SU), working on the communication/marketing, working on the logistics and so on.
- Frequent meetings so everyone in the team has the global picture of the progress and has the key information they need to complete their tasks.
2. The calendar of the preparation of the project. In order to do that, you will need to :
- Make an exhaustive census of the tasks so as not to forget anything. It will also help you to see which tasks depend on the completion of other tasks before being fulfilled.
- The most widely used planning tool is the Gantt chart. You can find examples of Gantt chart here.
What are the risks?
Identifying the risks in advance enables you to anticipate them and manage them when they occur. To do that you will need to fill a risk assessment.
Explore this section: