Event Management: Notes and Case Studies

Event Management: Notes and Case Studies

Event concept

While doing the preparation work for any event, it’s important to plan how the visitors will experience it. When it comes to planning events of this scale, key elements have to be considered and a clear event concept has to be formulated. Allen et al. (2008)

The core task while planning an event is creating a clear Event Concept. Goldblatt (1997) put forth that the process of the event concept can be summed up by posing 5 important questions which he calls as the 5Ws of the event.

The 5Ws are listed as:

1. Why must we hold this event?
2. Who will be the stakeholders for this event?
3. When will the event be held?
4. Where will the event be held?
5. What is the event product that is being developed and presented?

Event Experience

Events are usually designed to wow the audience and knowing how the audience is going to consume the various offerings can help the event management team to effectively organize the event.

According to Pine and Gilmore (1999), the experience of any consumer at any event can be depicted using a model that depicts how active, passive, absorptive or immersive the experience is. In the case of any sporting event, fans are generally passively absorbed watching the proceedings, which makes such events ‘entertainment’ in nature.

Stake Holder Analysis

Importance of Stakeholders

A stakeholder is a person (or an organization) who can affect or will be affected by the event. Stakeholders in this case are people, agencies, bodies, communities, who are directly involved or interested in the Olympics and related projects.

Direct stakeholders are important to ensure the smooth execution of the event, and are directly involved in things right from the conception to the final execution. Indirect stakeholders are the ones who are positively (or negatively) impacted by the event, and add to the overall feel-good factor of the event.

Because there are several stakeholder groups, it can take considerable time and energy to keep everybody in the know-how of things. A better approach is to know their importance in the overall scheme of things and deal with them accordingly.

Mendelow (1991) says organisers should analyse them based on their Power (to influence strategy or resources) and Interest (how interested they are in the events success) and accordingly interact with them. As can be seen from the matrix, certain groups have to be given more importance as they have a bigger stake in the success, whereas some just have to be kept informed about the progress.

For example, the various Government agencies will need to be fully engaged and kept satisfied as they can get things done, and are answerable to everybody about the costs involved and the benefits the event will incur. Partners and sponsors will have to be managed closely as they will provide most of the funding required to host the event. Groups with less power but high interest, such as volunteers should be kept informed about the developments as they can help improve things and ensure o major issues arise.

Robyn Stokes (2007) says that the number of stakeholders that is included in strategy-making usually may depends upon whether a political economy view or a functionalist view of tourism development is adopted.

Savage et al. (1991) has suggested various strategies on how to work together with the various stakeholders, depending on the type of stakeholders that are involved. For example: ADD references and apply the concept to the event.

• ‘Involve’ for the Supportive stakeholder
• ‘Monitor’ for the Marginal stakeholder
• ‘Defend’ for the Non-supportive/competing stakeholder
• ‘Collaborate’ with the Mixed Blessing stakeholder

Because there are so many groups involved, it can be a huge task to work with everyone involved. However, what should be borne in mind is that different stakeholders will have different stakes and expectations from the event, and so organizers may not require similar commitment levels from everybody involved. In fact, when working with some groups (such as competitors), it makes sense to safeguard your interests.

Consumer Motivation

Visitors to big events usually have various motivations for attending an event; they all have different expectations. For example, fans could be attracted by a particular music festival because of factors such as fun and dance; novelty; excitement, group identity and entertainment; lifestyle etc. Kye‐Sung Chon (1989) says that in order to effectively serve recreation travellers at their destinations, it is essential for organizers to understand the psychological factors that motivate these travellers.

Kruger (n.d.) says that organizers/marketers should find out more about the motives and preferences of the various visitors; it can serve as a useful market segmentation tool that can attract more consumers towards a service/product.

References

• Allen, J., O’Toole, W., Harris, R. and McDonnell, I. (2008). Festival and special event management (4th edition). Milton: John Wiley.
• Brent Ritchie, J.R., (1984) Assessing the impact of hallmark events: Conceptual and research issues. Journal of travel research, 23(1), pp.2-11.
• Goldblatt, J. J. (1997). Special events: best practices in modern event management.New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
• Kruger, M. (2016) A 3E typology of visitors at an electronic dance music festival. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EVENT AND FESTIVAL MANAGEMENT, 7(3), p.1 (from abstract)
• Kye‐Sung Chon (1989) “Understanding recreational traveler’s motivation, attitude and satisfaction”, The Tourist Review, Vol. 44 Issue: 1, pp.3-7
• Mendelow, A., (1991) December. Stakeholder mapping. In Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on information systems, Cambridge, MA.
• Pine, B.J. and Gilmore, J.H. (1999). The experience economy. Boston: Harvard Business Press.
• Robyn Stokes (2007) Tourism strategy making: Insights to the events tourism domain. Tourism Management 29 (2008) 252–262
• Savage, G.T., Nix, T.W., Whitehead, C.J. and Blair, J.D., (1991) Strategies for assessing and managing organizational stakeholders. Academy of management perspectives, 5(2), pp.61-75.

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