Your one stop shop to putting on events as a student group!
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Event venues
There are many locations on campus available to you for hosting your event. Find out more about these and their capacities below:
Bookable rooms are currently able to be booked. Capacities which can be found below:
- Bookable Room 1 – 50 people
- Bookable Room 2 – 15 people
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- Bookable Room 3 – 8 people
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- Bookable Room 4 – 15 people
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- Bookable Room 5 – 20 people
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- Bookable Room 6 – 50 people
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Rooms can currently be booked between 9am and 10pm. To book a bookable room, please click here.
Please note that no alcohol is allowed in the bookable rooms.
Capacities for UEA rooms can be found on Booker. Please however, do not book rooms via Booker. Please only book UEA rooms via the room booking form below.
Please note that only small, cold, pre packaged snacks are allowed in UEA rooms and no alcohol.
To book the Multifaith Centre, please contact them directly. Their contact details can be found by clicking here.
To book a UEA room, please click here. Please note that no alcohol is allowed in the bookable rooms.
Students are able to book blue bar on selected dates throughout the semester, subject to availability. Any event in this space has to be something that any customer could watch and enjoy, for example, an open mic night, poetry slam or an interactive activity. Events in this space should be seen as an opportunity to expand the reach of your club or society by engaging with our customer base.
No ticketed events can take place in Blue Bar as it has to be open to everyone, however your club or society will be able to take cashless, voluntary donations via the SU website.
To enquire about booking the blue bar, please email union.opportunities@uea.ac.uk.
As you can imagine, we are currently receiving a high volume of queries so please be patient with us as we aim to work through these as quickly as possible. Please also allow yourselves plenty of time when organising your events and activities, we would recommend at least 4 weeks for smaller events and 6-8 weeks for larger events.
For any questions, please email union.opportunities@uea.ac.uk and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
Creating events
We know making events and tickets on the SU website can be confusing, so we have made a step by step video detailing how to do this, and what the different functions you can use when making an event and a ticket.
Risk assessments
Risk assessments are required for any event you run, apart from an event that is online. As long as you are running an event, you are responsible for the safety of the students at that event.
If you have made a Hive or room booking for an event you will need to submit your risk assessment on the booking form here.
For any other Society or Club event that hasn't been processed through room bookings, then the completed risk assessment has to be sent to union.opportunities@uea.ac.uk to be approved.
If your event is high risk, you may have to work with our events coordinator to get the risk assessment to a good standard.
Please see below a blank risk assessment form which includes a handy guide of what to put in each section. We have also created a 'cheat sheet' which lists a number of hazards that could happen at your event and some suggestions of how you could mitigate the risk.
Click to download a blank Risk Assessment form Click to download the Hazard Mitigation 'Cheat Sheet'
To obtain permission to have an event in an open space on campus (anything outside of buildings), it needs to be approved by the University's Event Permission Group. These are elected respresentatives from several areas of the university, who consider the implications of the event on the surrounding area.
To do this, you must complete an Event Permission Form and risk assessment to cover the event that can be found here under documents and forms. This must be submitted with our events coordinators approval once the forms are completed and you are ready to send them. Please ensure you have allowed 4 - 6 weeks notice of the event.
Advertising your event
There is a plethora of ways you can advertise your event to members of your student group and to members of the public. Below is a list of ideas to help you market your event and some things we can do to help facilitate this.
Committee members can email all of their club or society members via the SU website. This is an effective method of communication because it ensures everyone who has purchased membership will see your notices, and saves time as you will not need to compile your own mailing list.
To email all of your members via the SU website, click the cog in the right hand corner of the SU website, go to your club or society's admin tool, click messages, click send email. If you have input a group email address (e.g. examplesociety@gmail.com) into your student group page, the website will give you the option from emialing from the student group email address, or from your personal UEA email address.
In your email, be sure to include all the important details of your event, such as when and where the event is taking place, any information an attendee may need to attend the event (such as Zoom passwords or directions to the venue) and a link to the event listing on the SU website.
Outside events
To obtain permission to have an event in an open space on campus (anything outside of buildings), it needs to be approved by the University's Event Permission Group. These are elected respresentatives from several areas of the university, who consider the implications of the event on the surrounding area.
To do this, you must complete an Event Permission Form (under documents and forms at the bottom of the page) and risk assessment to cover the event. Please ensure you have allowed 4 - 6 weeks notice of the event.
Please send your completed documents to openspace.events@uea.ac.uk to approve. Once they have approved your application, they will send it onto the SU team to approve and we may liaise with you directly if there's need to provide your student group with any further support.
Information on how to book a BBQ can be found here.
A BBQ for 12 or less students can be booked by completing the form on the page here. On weekdays you will usually have a response within 24 hours.
All BBQ’s for more than 12 people must complete an Event Permissions Form and fill out a Risk Assessment, whether clubs, societies or schools. Bookings for more than 12 people must be from a SU Club or Society or from a UEA Department or School. Individuals can only book for a maximum of 12 people. Find out more here.
Online events and web platforms guidance
This guidance is for student groups to use when setting up and running their web platforms. This guidance aims to provide student group leaders with information on how to:
- Facilitate and maintain positive and inclusive interactions on their platforms
- Respond to inappropriate behaviour on their web platforms
- How to use the multiple event platforms available
- Tips and tricks for setting up a great online event
Reminder: You do not need to submit a risk assessment to us for your online event as long as you follow all of the guidance on this page. You do need to submit a guest speaker form if you have an external guest speaker speaking at your online event via the Online Event Guest Speaker Form here.
Online Platforms Provided by the Students’ Union
The Students’ Union provides each student group with a mini site on the Students’ Union’s main website, www.ueasu.org.
These mini sites are set up by the Students’ Union upon a group’s affiliation and the space remains active until a group is disaffiliated.
The mini site allows student groups to:
- Promote their events and activities
- Provide information about the purpose of the student group
- Hold democratic elections for committee positions
- Sell memberships (if applicable to the type of student group) and track memberships purchased
- Email members
- Sell event tickets and merchandise
- Create news articles
Online Platforms Created by Student Groups
Student groups may have additional online platforms to promote their activities and/or communicate with their members, such as:
- Email addresses
- External websites. This is not recommended as you are already provided with a website platform, but it is allowed providing:
- - Clear rationale that the website platform provided, doesn’t meet the needs of your requirements, e.g. live streaming etc.
- - The student group provide the URL link clearly on their UEASU webpage
- - The student group do not administer memberships / products through the external website
- - The purpose of the external website does not overlap with the purpose of the UEASU student group webpage
- - The students group’s UEASU webpage is maintained with up to date information about upcoming events and activities
- Social media accounts : Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn and Twitch
- Group messaging forums such as: Facebook group chats, WhatsApp, Discord
How to run great, online virtual events
With the introduction of social distancing, how we communicate with people is changing. As face to face events become more challenging to do, using social media is going to be a pivotal communication tool for student groups to engage their members, promote activities and showcase achievements. One of the biggest adjustments for student groups, will be how they run their events this year. There will be a need for all clubs and societies to provide increased digital content and a huge part of that will be running their own virtual/ online events.
To help you, we have put together a how to guide on running virtual events which shows you how to use some of the most popular online platforms, and what you'll need to consider to be able to put on a great, online event.
To view the guide, please click here.
It is important to remember that any web platform for student groups is an official student group space, so behaviour that is unacceptable at an event, is equally as unacceptable on any of your web platforms. All users interacting with the Students’ Union, or a representative of the Students’ Union (including student leaders), should have an expectation of feeling safe. Here are some guidance on unacceptable behaviour and tips for preventing it.
Unacceptable behaviour
The Students’ Union has a zero tolerance approach to conduct that could legitimately be perceived by its recipients as:
- Cyber Bullying/Stalking
- Trolling / Online Impersonation
- Excluding
- Sexual harassment
- Discriminatory comments and behaviour
- Abuse and unwanted attention
- Threatening or violent behaviour or language
Full information on UEA and uea(su)’s definition of online harassment via Never Ok campaigns is detailed here. You can report incidences of unacceptable conduct through the Report and Support portal, which can be found here.
Managing your online platforms
Here are some points we recommend groups follow to promote positive interactions on their web platforms and how to handle unacceptable conduct.
For mini sites provided by the Students’ Union, external websites and email addresses created by student groups:
- Use these platforms as a professional space to inform members and prospective members about your student group and its activities and answer general enquiries.
- Only give access to the committee members who need admin access to these platforms.
- Remove admin access to those who no longer need it. Ensure no data can be accessible to previous admins. Also ensure passwords are updated.
For more interactive web platforms such as social media pages/groups and/or group chats:
These could include:
- - Facebook
- - Twitter
- - Instagram
- - Snapchat
- - LinkedIn
- - Discord
- - YouTube
- - TikTok
- - Twitch
- - Whatsapp
- Assign platform leads and ensure these are not the only methods of communicating with your members as some may not utilise some platforms or are able to access them. Your primary source of communication to members should always start with email from the ueasu.org website.
- Only give admin access to those who are assigned it. Whilst refreshing passwords at least annually.
- Include web platform handover in handover between old and new committees each year.
- Keep your groups and chats closed to paid members only (remember to add new members regularly). For any open public pages please utilise guidance above.
- Provide a statement to members upon joining that your web platforms are for discussion and communication around student group activities only and behaviour associated with the unacceptable conduct in this document is not tolerated.
Please note that Sports clubs are bound by UEA Sports Club Social Media Charter.
What should you do if an incident of unacceptable conduct does occur on any of your web platforms?
- Put a message out on the web platform where the incident has occurred, to state that the behaviour shown is not tolerated in your student group and kindly ask your members to keep the platform a safe space for students. Ensuring that all committee members are briefed on this.
- In addition to this, or if the behaviour continues, consider direct messaging the person (or people) to let them know that their comments are not acceptable on the student group web platform, referring back to the statement made at the beginning of there year where possible.
- If the situation has become unmanageable you can consider instigating a cooling off period and temporarily freeze the group for a period of time. Admins can then consider using this period to release any further statements on the platform, as necessary.
- Consider closing the group permanently.
- Report the incident to your Students’ Union staff support and provide screenshots/evidence of the behaviour. The Students’ Union will then be able to offer support with dealing any necessary further action or investigation as per relevant Students’ Union procedure (if necessary).
- If the behaviour was posted online, remove the comments to revert your web platform back to a safe space for students (make sure you have collected any evidence you need for later reference before removing).
- After a cooling off period, re-open/ unfreeze the web platform for members to have access to posting again and remind all members that everyone is to move on from the previous conversations and remain respectful on your group’s web platforms and at your events.
- Of course you also hold the right to close the group completely.
- Keep your staff support at the Students’ Union up to date with any further escalations or issues so they can provide you with the correct support.
- Should you feel that the behaviour is in breach of Never OK Guidance please report this activity via Report and Support, a member of the SU opportunities team or UEA Sport.
Online Cloud Storage
Student groups setting up cloud storage platforms such as but not exclusive to:
- Microsoft OneDrive
- Google Drives
- Drop Box
- Student groups must be sure to follow robust general data protection regulations. They should always be security protected and only shared with committee members. Their primary use should be for handover such as committee role descriptions, logos and marketing assets and functional files for student group operation.
- They should not hold any personal data of members any longer than they should unless it is for the purpose of trip registrations or for a particular use agreed and consented to by that member e.g., a mailing list showing interest in the society. Once the need for this data ceases this must be deleted immediately.
- By personal data we mean but not exhaustive of any contact details, or personal identifiers, such as nationality, disabilities, sexual orientation, race, ethnic origin, religious beliefs or health.
- Where you may hold a list of names but no further identifiable/sensitive data, this can be stored in the drive, this may include registers to sessions or ticket holders for future events.
- An audit of this data must be completed very year to ensure this data is deleted post its use expiring.
- No data should ever be shared with any external party.
- If these drives are not set up by the Union on your behalf, you must ensure you follow all online software guidelines and ensure the data is kept in line with GDPR training.
Specific consideration for WhatsApp groups
We are that many student groups will use a WhatsApp group to communicate with your members. We advise the following:
- Ensure that you abide by the general principles above for managing a web platform as above.
- That these groups should be used for general communications of the student group rather than regular whole dialogue of all members.
- Remember that not all members will be able to or engage with a WhatsApp group and shouldn’t be the primary basis of communication.
Managing external speakers at online events. What should you do if your external speaker says or does something inappropriate?
- Make sure you have submitted details of your external speaker at least 4 weeks before your event is due to take place.
- Once your external speaker is approved, please make sure you send them the below guidance from the external speaker policy.
- a. They must not incite hatred, violence or call for the breaking of the law.
- b. They are not permitted to encourage, glorify or promote any acts of terrorism including individuals, groups or organisations that support such acts.
- c. They must not spread hatred and intolerance in the community and thus aid in disrupting social and community harmony.
- d. Within a framework of positive debate and challenge seek to avoid insulting other faiths or groups.
- e. They are not permitted to raise or gather funds for any external organisation or cause without express permission of the trustees.
- For the policy in full please click here.
- Make sure you see a copy of the external speaker’s presentation before your event so you are aware of what they will be talking about beforehand.
What to do if your external speaker starts talking about something inappropriate?
To give a current example, let’s say a guest speaker is invited to talk about the covid vaccine and they actually start talking about how 5G will control them when they have it - you need to take control and decide whether that is appropriate or not. If you feel that what the speaker has said is inappropriate, you should:
- Mute the external speaker and/or turn off their video.
- Send a message to the external speaker to state that the behaviour shown is not appropriate, referring back to the external speaker policy that you sent them.
- If the situation has become unmanageable you can consider instigating a cooling off period and temporarily freeze the group for a period of time. Admins can then consider using this period to release any further statements on the platform, as necessary.
- Report the incident to your Students’ Union staff support and provide screenshots/evidence of the behaviour. The Students’ Union will then be able to offer support with dealing any necessary further action or investigation as per relevant Students’ Union procedure (if necessary).
- If the behaviour was posted online, remove the comments to revert your web platform back to a safe space for students (make sure you have collected any evidence you need for later reference before removing).
- After a cooling off period, re-open/ unfreeze the web platform for members to have access to posting again and remind all members that everyone is to move on from the previous conversations and remain respectful on your group’s web platforms and at your events.
- Keep your staff support at the Students’ Union up to date with any further escalations or issues so they can provide you with the correct support.
All events run by student groups should consider the following safety guidance when organising:
- Use the best online approach for your event and consider the types of Software available:
- Zoom
- Microsoft Teams
- Google Hangout
- Facebook Rooms
- House Party
- Twitch
- Ensure you control who can access the event:
- Ensure you have registrations
- Only share the link to the online event once an attendee is registered
- Consider adding a password or other authentication requirement for attendees to access the event
- Deter and manage disruptive activity:
- Select a webinar/virtual meeting platform that includes security features.
- Make sure that the settings for whatever platform you use are adjusted to account for security.
- Depending on your event, consider disabling features that allow attendees to present their desktops or interject without being called upon. This can greatly reduce the ability of an inadvertent or cruel disruption.
- The nature, subject matter, publicity, and size of your event may increase these risks. For example, a well-publicised political event might attract negative attention or people intent on sabotaging your event.
- Set expectations for how attendees should act:
- Share guidelines for behaviours attendees are expected to demonstrate.
- Consider and communicate your policy on un-registered attendees, video recording, and disruption.
- Explain each attendee’s responsibility for ensuring the safety and security of the event.
- Use caution and avoid sharing sensitive personal information on the individuals hosting the event and where the broadcast is being held, unless necessary.
- Set expectations for how external speakers should act:
- Make sure your external speaker is approved before you advertise your event. Make sure you send through details of your external speaker to us at least 4 weeks before your event.
- Share the external speaker policy with your external speaker.
- Make sure you view their presentation before your event.
- Make sure you follow the steps here should your external speaker say or do something inappropriate.
- A final few hints:
- Carefully consider the subject matter of your event, how it is advertised, and where you will be “broadcasting” from.
- Limit personally identifiable information or other items that might embolden someone to try to disrupt your event during a live broadcast.
- Such incidents are rare. But, as virtual events continue to grow in popularity, these are some of the risks that event creators should consider before hosting their event. Check out Zoom’s event safety guide and Microsoft’s event safety guide for more resources.
Staying safe online - further reading
For more information on how to stay safe online, you can check out these excellent resources:
- Ask About Games – A website with everything you need to know about video games!
- WebWise – An online course provided by the BBC to help you stay safe online.
- ThinkUKnow – A website created by UK police for parents, with information and tools to help teach children about online safety.
Support with Managing your Web Platforms and Online Events
We understand that it may be more difficult online to understand the effect of some messages. If you are ever unsure of whether you should take steps to manage behaviour shown on your web platforms, please contact your Students’ Union staff support, who can offer informal support as well as investigate any serious behaviour misconduct as per relevant Students’ Union procedure (if necessary).
You can contact your staff support through the relevant contact details below:
Food at events
You may wish to incorporate food at your event in some way, for example giving out food to attendees, or selling food to make money for your student group. If you are looking to incorporate food into your event, please read our guidelines on food distrubution and preparation for student groups below.
- No food can be served in UEA rooms apart from small, cold, pre packaged snacks. This means no hot food, takeaways, or homemade food can be given out at events taking place in UEA rooms. UEA Rooms include any rooms on campus that aren't in Union House.
- Food, including hot food, takeaways, homemade food, as well as small, cold, pre-packaged snacks, can be served in UEA SU rooms (Bookable Rooms, Hive Stalls, LCR).
Fundraising for an external charity
This section explains how a club, society or peer support group can raise money for an external charity either. Your group may wish to raise money for charities that align with the purpose or ethos behind your student group, as part of a liberation month campaign, or just as a good will gesture.
Your club or society can raise money for an external charity through three methods: via UEA SU's Just Giving Portal, via running an event and donating ticket sales, or by running a bucket collection. This page explains the different options and how you would go about setting up and running these fundraising options.
Please read our fundraising policy for more information.
Clubs and societies are not permitted to set up Just Giving platforms using independent Just Giving profiles as we cannot ensure that money is being donated to the chosen charity. However, we have set up a UEA SU Just Giving Portal which will enable you to have Just Giving page for your fundraiser via the SU. To set up a fundraiser, please follow the steps below:
Step 1 - Ensure the charity is recognised and legitimate
When selecting an external charity, student groups should ensure the charity is checked before setting up a Just Giving campaign. You can check the charity is recognised and legitimate by searching the charity’s name and registration number on the government charity register.
You can often find the charity number at the bottom of a charity's website.
Step 2 - Set up a fundraiser on the SU Just Giving Portal
Once you have researched the charity and checked the charity on the government's charity register, you can now set up a campaign on UEASU's Just Giving Portal. To set up a campaign, follow these instructions:
- Click here to access UEASU's Just Giving Portal.
- Select ‘Raise money for us’
- Select ‘Make your page’
- Log in or create a JustGiving account
- Select the type of event you’re taking part in - taking part in an organised event, doing a personal challenge….
- Input the details of your fundraiser and choose your JustGiving web address.
- Once happy, click 'Create your page'.
Once you have completed these steps, the SU team will review the fundraising application and approve it.
There’s also a video which takes fundraisers through creating their pages.
Step 3 - Raise money for your external charity
After the SU has approved the fundraiser, you will be able to share this link with group members, friends and family to raise money.
Step 4 - Donate the money to your external charity
All money that is raised via your Just Giving fundraiser will first come to the SU first and we will then donate it to the chosen charity or charitable campaign.
Once the fundraiser is over, please send an email to su.accounts@uea.ac.uk detailing the total amount you raised, a link to your Just Giving Fundraiser and details for the charity you want the money to be donated to.
Fundraising for your club or society
In the majority of cases, a student group should use the product admin tool to raise money for their student group. We have a video on how to create a product on club or society's SU webpage here.
Your student group can be very flexible with the sort of donation product they want to set up. For example, you could create a £1 product called ‘donation to club or society’ which members of the club or society, students at UEA, and general members of the public could buy. You could also choose to set up a few different donation products set at different prices, for example a £1 donation product, a £5 donation product, and a £10 donation product so people have options of how much to donate.
There is an admin fee applied at checkout to all product sales on the website. The charges are applied on UEASU by the bank and UEASU are not able to subsidize this.
Once an individual has bought this item, or multiples of this item, the money from this sale will automatically go into your group’s subs account.
You should be clear on your society page that these products are virtual and therefore buyers won’t be receiving a physical item when buying this product.
You can also run an event to raise money for your group and collect money for this event using the tickets and events admin tool. This option involves more effort and preparation from the student group as you will have to run an event rather than just set up a product people can buy.
If you are looking to run an event, we recommend you look through our events section of the committee hub to get an idea of what events you can run and the requirements of running an events before proceeding. You can also contact us to discuss your event idea.
If after researching and talking to the SU you decide to proceed with a fundraising event for your society, please consider the following:
- All publicity for this event should clearly state on them that this is a fundraising event for your student group.
- If you are wanting to use an event to raise funds for yourself and an external charity, you need to make this clear in the event publicity, and discuss this with the SU finance team before the event is set up on the SU website.
- You cannot use personal card readers to collect money at events and all tickets should be bought online via the SU website.
- If you are planning on running a collaborative event between three or more student groups, then you need to notify SU opportunities to avoid complications with profits.
- All sales from tickets sold on the SU website goes immediately into your subs account.
Guest speakers
If you're in a club or society, you might want to invite an external speaker to come and speak to your members - whether that's for educational, campaigning or social purposes.
To inform us of your external speaker, we need 4 weeks notice to allow time to run safety checks and approve the speaker.
Trips
Trips are a great way to keep your members engaged with your society and provide a fantastic opportunity to enjoy a social or educational activity. We encourage all of our societies and clubs to run trips where they can. To make it as easy as possible, we have included some steps below.
Research your transport. If your trip has a small amount of people attending, it is always a good idea to start with public transport such as the bus or train. This way, you are able to tell your attendees which tickets to buy and a time and place to meet.
If you’re travelling as a larger group or going a long way, you may want to look into hiring a coach. We recommend asking for a quote from a few different companies so that you can find the cheapest option. We recommend the following coach companies:
- http://www.dolphincoachhire.co.uk/
- http://www.marettschariots.co.uk/
If you're travelling in a small group you might be thinking about hiring a minibus. This is a bit of a longer process and you'll need to meet certain criteria due to the higher risks involved in driving.
Sports clubs can hire a minibus from UEA+Sport by contacting Joe Skeet at J.Skeet@uea.ac.uk.
Societies will need to book their own minibuses. We recommend the following hire companies:
- http://www.barfordhire.co.uk/
- http://asplandselfdrive.co.uk/
- https://www.enterprise.co.uk/en/car-hire.html
If you are travelling in a small group and one of you has a car you're willing to drive, that is absolutely fine. You will need to have a full driving licence and be covered by your own insurance to drive other students on a trip.
We are trying to reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible and therefore you are not permitted to fly to your destination if there is another feasible travel method. Please contact our events coordinator if you wish to discuss further.
Any hire fees or mileage you pay from your own money for a society or club trip can be claimed back from your subs account. Please contact our Finance Team on SU.Accounts@uea.ac.uk for information on how to do this.
Create an event so that attendees can pay for the trip. Ensure to collect information from attendees before the trip such as if they have any medical conditions, allergies and information of what you should do in case of an emergency. Please also ensure that you ask them for an emergency contact.
For more information on how to upload an event to the website, please
click here.
Complete a risk assessment form here and a trip form here. Please send your risk assessment and trip form at least four weeks before your trip to our events coordinator to be approved. If this is for an International Trip, please submit these to Adam Roche on adam.roche@uea.ac.uk and James Raywood on j.raywood@uea.ac.uk (Sports Clubs only) at least 10 weeks before your trip to be approved. Your trip form will then be sent to the security lodge.
You can use the Hazard Mitigation 'Cheat Sheet' here to help you complete your risk assessment.
The Risk Assessment should cover all your activities and consider risks such as:
- Participants getting lost
- Participants becoming ill
- Allergies
- Loss or theft of items
- Transportation
- Accommodation
- Coronavirus
Your Trip Form should include information such as:
- Whether you have a trip provider organising the trip with you
- Whether you have arranged travel insurance
- Your participant’s names and next of kin details - this is very important
Enjoy your trip!
You should now be all set for a great trip! We hope you enjoy it and make sure you take lots of pictures to share with us.