Event Management: A Holistic approach
Event management can be understood as one of the application of project development for the creation and development of large scale events on the likes of Conferences, Live events, Festivals, Music festivals, ceremonies, sports events, celebrations, concerts or the conventions (Veal, James & Burton, 2015). It is a systematic process which starts with understanding, identifying and studying of the brand; recognize its target audience, conceptualizing the concept of the event and in the end coordinating the technical aspects before launching the final event (Masterman, 2014). Event planning includes the process of planning and coordination, which includes tasks like scheduling, budgeting, venue-selection & inspection, getting necessary and relevant permits for the event, working on the logistics and the transportation, getting hold of décor, lighting , sound, staging, event security, coordinating with the third party vendors, emergency plans, security of the event and so on. It can thus be said in order to create a grand and successful event, vast amount of detailing and accuracy is required (Webster, 131-133)
In the report, we will learn how the event industry has evolved and why it has become a great strategic tool for the corporates and society to keep a point across or to celebrate a milestone or lay the foundation of a future work to be completed. Judy Allen gave a very innovative concept of event designing and planning (DRIVE), will understand the individual elements of it and know its importance. Having a vision for an event is extremely important while planning for it, it’s just like having a vision for the company, future work in the event goes hand in hand with the vision of it, hence a very important concept in event line. Every event has a certain outcome associated with it, it might be promoting a company, brand, product, ticketing sales for a concert, getting important delegation for a conference, ensuring the safety of human in an event, all these outcomes comes into ROI (Return on investment), how to get the ROI for the event will also be studied (Testa, Mark, Mitchell, 61-70)
Identifying and applying objectives through an event strategy will also be studied in the light of FIFA 2018 world cup, and how such a big magnitude event will be managed with sustainability at its core, and what are the elements behind the application of the objectives to ensure sustainability of this huge sporting event. Going green seems to be the buzz word for the entire world, with the entire world and the thought leaders focusing on going green, events are not left behind and hence, it’s important to ensure continuum of the concept even after the event.
Event management as explained above is a combination of multiple task at the same time. It starts with the planning process, which then leads to the implementation of the planning, moving to the execution part and then to the gaining feedback and realizing what were the high and the low points of the event, and what can be done to improve the experience of the audience in the next event and also using service rebuttals for service recovery (Van, Mithelda & Getz, 2016). As explained in the picture above, event management consist of number of activities in order to ensure the success of any event. Some of the key elements which go into managing any event are:
Marketing: If the event is not marketed, the audience will not be aware, ensuring less footfall and hence an unsuccessful event. Hence marketing of an event is as pivotal as marketing of a product before its launch (Dose, Tiffany & Astrom, 2017)
Location: In order to organize an event, the first thing which the organizers think of is the location or the venue of an event. It has been mentioned by experts that the venue selection should be done on the basis of the people expected to come for an event and not according to the venue capacity. Therefore a very fundamental concept of event management (Tseng & Ye-Min, 2015)
Creativity: In the present era, a lot of event revolves around the same concept, like music festival, business conference, celebration, R&R etc., it therefore becomes extremely boring to witness the same thing over and over. Hence, creativity has to be infused in any event in order to make it different to its audience; in short, creativity is the differentiating factor in an event (Nufer & Wirkungen, 2013)
Logistics: Transportation, arranging pick up and drops, ensuring the human and the material availability on time is very critical to an event success. Logistic therefore plays a very important role in event management (Rushton, Alan, Croucher & Baker, 2014)
Budgeting: Budgeting is as important for an event, as it is to any line of business, in absence of budgeting the event is sure to go out of the reach of organizers, with money and the resources just being wasted rather than utilized. Thereby, strictness has to be maintained while working on the budgeting of an event, and a separate team has to monitor the money being spent on different event operations or processes (Getz, Donald & Page, 2016)
Security: In the past and also in the present, it has been seen that a lot of people lose their lives in absence of proper security measures or emergency plans. Thus it is the responsibility of the event organizers to ensure safety of each and every human involved in the event and at the event, at the same time ensuring safety of the equipment installed for the event. By having security and safety at the core of an event planning, hazard can be prevented (Masterman, 2014)
Development overtime is a term which is catching people attention from quite some time; it can be understood as the time which is spent extra on planning or the development of an event. It is the responsibility of the event organizers to keep a strict watch on the timeline of an event, otherwise it results in excessive wastage of money, time and resources and also shows mismanagement of the event organizers. Hence the prerogative is on the event organizers to take care of the timelines and ensure that it does not runs into development overtime thus saving resources of the owners (Getz, Donald & Page, 593-631)
Events in the current era are just not understood as a platform to celebrate, rejoice, have fun, party etc., they are consider as one of the most important strategic tool in the hands of the company. Organization these days use events as a marketing communication tool to create awareness, drive brand loyalty and brand identity and also as a tool to connect with its potential and existing audience. Companies these days, identify the touch points for the customers and accordingly give brief to the event organizers, in order to create an event around the customer touch points. Companies these days have a separate team of events, whose job is to identify clear cut objectives for the event and how to achieve the same. Thus, events are seen as a ladder to achieve organizational goals by setting objectives and identifying the parameters for success of the event (Woodford, Darryl & Prowd, 775)
Many businesses just blindly follow what their competition is doing in their events and try to replicate the same, without analyzing the results and the objectives of it, and thus loose onto their differentiating factor and hence the grip on the market. Hence, it becomes extremely essential to identify the event objectives and then work around it to deliver an engaging and a comprehensive event rather than falling flat with its audience. Duplication is an absolute no-no while creating an event, hence without identifying the clear cut objectives it should not be replicated. Every company has its own target audience, and hence a communication strategy around the target audience should be compulsorily made. The touch points of the target audience has to be met and infused with the event objectives with a quantifiable Return on Investment parameters (Shank, Mathew, Mark & Lyberger, 2014)
In order to be the market leader, maintain the position and become a driving creative force, one must stay on top of what the competition is doing, gain knowledge about the successful events of other industries and also be aware of the latest event trends, hot destination and event companies. All this can be accomplished by creating a competitive analysis checklist which is custom built for the company requirement around the DRIV event design program created by Judy Allen.
D-Define- As the name suggests, it is understanding with what is happening in the industry or the business functions, what kinds of events are taking place or business entertaining in the industry. Numerous sources like industry publications, the financial pages are good source of gathering information on what types of event are happening. Google alert also is a good source of gathering information. Sales representatives of the company can also be a good source of information in telling what kinds of events are happening in and around the industry and the feedback on it.
R-Research- As the name suggests, researching on what kind of events are happening in other industries. Journals, magazines, Google can again become a great source of providing information. Event planners and organizers can also be of great help in this, as they are the ones who are doing events for various understanding. They might also share some concept which can be later utilized for conducting an event.
I-Innovate-One should not be afraid of his/her own imagination. A concept which is hard to imagine, if put into realization can delight the audience and give them a sense of delight. Innovation can be in terms of a new concept, new space, new setup, extremely engaging and a different agenda, etc. It’s just important to at least innovate one new thing in an event.
V-Visualize- It is extremely important to visualize how any recent change in company’s product, its strategy, its market offering can be clubbed with the event and showcased to the audience. This will have dual effects on the audience, they will be amazed by the way the company visualized the approach of mixing the change in the event, and it will also help them to know more about the company they are already in working terms with, hence builds a connect.
E-Execute-In the end, execution, it should be a combination of both left brain and right brain thinking approach. Being creative and logically linear at the same time becomes important in execution of the event. All the arrows in the quiver should be used in the execution process. All the knowledge which has been gathered, the research been done in and around the event, everything should be coupled and put together for successful execution of the event.
Event vision- It is having a vision for the event being conducted, identifying how the event will look like, imagining the audience in the event and what kind of interactions will be there, vision for an event is like having a vision for the company after its inception, the same concept goes for the event vision.
Event experience is what the audience derives after attending the event. This can be analyzed during the creative stage of planning by putting up random question in the company and getting their feedback on the concept of the event. Hence, the experience which the target audience will derive can be mapped from the dummy audience and in this way a lot of changes can be made before the actual event.
ROI- Measuring ROI for the event is extremely easy and important these days. With the growing technology and several online analytics tools and the marketing brains of human, Return on investment on an event has become a reality. In order to find the ROI, first, goals have to be identified, some of which can be:
- Increasing brand awareness
- Increase sales
- Increase product knowledge
- Customer education
- New product launch
- Lead generation
- Media impressions and coverage
- Increase in website traffic
- Increase social media engagement, likes, comments, shares and follower increase
- Develop social media influencers and brand ambassadors.
After setting the goals, the next important thing is gathering of data which has to be measure, some of the examples of which can be:
- Number of attendees
- Leads
- Qualified sales opportunities
- Net promoter score
- Registrations
- Sales
- Survey responses
- Social mentions/likes
- Email clicks
- Email open
- Ad impression
- Website referral and conversions.
Post surveys and NPS score are one of the most important way to then finally measure the ROI, coupled with the Google and social media analytics tool. Other important ways can be, targeted messaging, gamification and in event surveys
FIFA is considered to be one of the biggest sporting events in the history of sports, comparable to Olympics. It has a huge audience, both online and offline which has its eyes on the event. Hence, it becomes of absolute necessity to ensure the success of the event in each and every parameter, may it be the concept, logistics, budgeting, ROI, ticketing, security & safety, all the aspects have to be covered with all surety. Hence in event of such big magnitude, the responsibility of the organizers increase manifold and at the same time defining objectives becomes the first step in the event planning.
- Ensuring a dedicated system for the management of sustainability-A Sustainability management systems(SMS) is formed to provide guidance on day to day activities and help with the decision making for FIFA and LOC(Local organizing committee). The updates are consistently shared with the management and continuous feedback is taken on the same.
- Decent work monitoring system for the stadiums-A development of decent work monitoring system was launched in 2016; this team on a quarterly basis visits each stadium under construction and renovation for two days. The team review all the documentation, inspects the construction site, interviews the construction workers according to the methodology specified by FIFA. After the visit the general contractor sits in the meeting with the monitoring committee and is provided with a detailed list of any incompliances if found, and also provides a list of action plan for the next inspection.
- Ensuring diversity and anti-discrimination throughout the entire event-FIFA has a zero tolerance approach to discrimination, and has taken extreme steps to fight against it. In 2015, FIFA came out with a new initiative to monitor all the 871 FIFA world cup qualifiers and also a selected number of friendlies for acts of discrimination. FIFA has FIFA anti-discrimination monitoring system who works towards ensuring no discrimination.FIFA works in association with FARE network, which has an experience in combating discrimination in football matches. Also, FIFA published a good practice guide on diversity and anti-discrimination to support all of its members associations.
- Accessibility for disabled people or the people with limited mobility- In recent years FIFA and LOC have been working on making the FIFA confederations cup in 2017 and 2018 world cup accessible to all, in order to do the same they are coming up with infrastructure solution in parking areas, resting areas, special entrances, provision in ticketing services , wheelchair lending, audio descriptive commentary and also disability awareness training of stadium volunteers by FIFA world cup sponsor MC Donald to its spectators. They have also come up with “Special access tickets “in 4 categories and also will offer a complimentary ticket to a person who is accompanying the especially abled person.
- Green standards for stadium in Russia- In this all official stadiums will have to obtain a green-building certification for design and construction. This initiative coupled with RUSO is their strategy towards a green standard for stadium in Russia
- Tobacco free event policy- The authorities have decided to conduct tobacco free events in the world cup. For achieving such objectives, the organizers have already conducted 2 conferences on leading a healthy lifestyle and tobacco control.
- Climate change and climate action- In September FIFA joined UN climate change secretariat initiative “climate neutral now” becoming first international sports organization to do so. By doing so FIFA also pledged to continue to strive towards becoming greenhouse gas emission neutral by the mid-21stFIFA is also taking measures to control its carbon footprint
- Waste management and recycling-FIFA has developed a waste management concept which includes a set of approaches, requirements and plans for organizing an efficient waste management system at all official sites and events of 2018 world cup.
Going Green is one of the most important objectives of FIFA 2018, in order to fulfill the objective; the government has changed the standards of Green building certification and has also created a team to monitor the certification and the stadium buildings. The goal of going green is created only for the event, but it sure does have a lasting impact and benefits which can have longevity.
Going green is good for the environment and its benefits will be long lasting, provided the population of the country takes the issue seriously. Understanding the concept of going green is important, the concept should resonate with the entire population and everyone should put in individual efforts to keep the city clean and green, only then the sustainability can be achieved.
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Getz, Donald, and Stephen J. Page. Event studies: Theory, research and policy for planned events. Routledge, 2016.
Masterman, Guy. Strategic sports event management. Routledge, 2014.
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Tamari, Roni, and Joshua Donald Botnen. “Drive event capturing based on geolocation.” U.S. Patent No. 9,298,575. 29 Mar. 2016.
Testa, Mark R., and Michelle Metter. “Assessing Economic Impact as a Means for Event Efficacy: A Proposed Model and Case Study.” Event Management 21.1 (2017): 61-70.
Tseng, Ya-Min. “Media Effectiveness of Business Event Marketing: A Case Study on Metro Street Dance Contest.” (2015).
Van Niekerk, Mathilda, and Donald Getz. “The identification and differentiation of festival stakeholders: A new perspective.” (2016).
Veal, Anthony James, and Christine Burton. Research methods for arts and event management. 2015.
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Woodford, Darryl, and Katie Prowd. “Measuring the success of tourism and events Queensland’s.” CAUTHE 2015: Rising Tides and Sea Changes: Adaptation and Innovation in Tourism and Hospitality (2015): 775.
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