Leading the team behind the NaSTA Awards

After helping to launch Ravensbourne's society, Creative Capital, in October 2021, Jack Philips is now spearheading the event proceedings for this year's NaSTA Awards. Ravensbourne successfully won the bid to host the event in April (14-16). 

We caught up with Jack to learn more about the finer details of organising the prestigious event.

What does it mean to you personally, to be involved in organising such an exciting event? 

This year, it is an especially big deal because it is the 50th anniversary of the NaSTA Awards, so it is a massive privilege to be hosting this year. 

As a BSc (Hons) Broadcast Engineering student, it’s also an amazing opportunity to work with so many massive broadcast companies. In terms of my career progression, it’s great to build those contacts even before I graduate. 

With the live stream, and the technical side of things, it’s brilliant experience and I’m learning some great skills that will definitely be useful in my career.  

Obviously, it comes with a lot of pressure too, but I think if there is no pressure, then there is no reward. I’m sure the week before we’ll all be feeling the stress, but we’re confident that it will all go smoothly. 

I think once the credits have finished on the live stream, that will be the moment when we realise that we’ve actually done it. It will be quite a special feeling. 

How did you initially get involved in the organisation of the event and what is your role? 

 I was already involved in Creative Capital, which we founded about a year ago now. 

Together, we put a bid in back in May to host the awards. We had to pitch it at an AGM (annual general meeting) for the NaSTA Awards event. Other universities got to vote on who should win, and the majority chose us! 

Once we found out we'd won, the real work started. We had to plan how we were going to pull the whole thing off. 

My role within the project is host officer, so I deal with all the technical side of things. We are live streaming the whole event, so I've been organising that. 

Is it predominantly students from other universities attending the event? 

 In terms of the tickets sold, it is predominantly people outside of Ravensbourne.  

We’ve got over 200 students from across the entire county attending, all with a general interest in media. A lot of sixth form colleges don’t teach media subjects, so for these students, it will be a complete introduction into the broadcast and television industries. 

We also have around 100 Ravensbourne graduates attending as well as 30 media companies and recruiters, too.

What do you feel has been one of the biggest challenges in organising the event? 

I think one of the biggest challenges has been learning things from scratch.

I’ve had to learn how to become an event planner. As part of this, there’s so many elements that I have to think about, like how many people can you fit into a space.

Also, there are all sorts of risk assessments that need to be done too to ensure the event is safe for all the visitors. 

What ambitions do you have for after graduation? 

I initially thought that I wanted to be a sound engineer, but after organising this event, I’ve really enjoyed the project management side of things. Because of this experience, I think I want to move into project management, but for the technical and broadcasting side of things. 

Are Creative Capital up for any awards this year? 

Yes, so there are 21 categories in total and Creative Capital is up for awards in 18 categories. 

As we are organising the event, we’ll know the nomination shortlist ahead of time, but we will only find out the winners when it’s announced on the night itself.