Planning And Executing A Major Event: Strategies And Guidelines

1. a) Research and discuss the critical strategic role that events play, within governments, communities and corporations.
2. b) Compare and contrast the links between policy, strategic objectives and strategic processes, within the context of event planning for businesses, government and communities.
3. c) Analyse the processes, tools and techniques of strategic development, as it pertains to event planning.

Note: a major event is an event that has important consequences, such as a conference or exhibition, a major product launch or a government VIP event. This includes public events, such as festivals and concerts, with over 10,000 people.

Step one – Design your event concept

Your event concept must:

• Be designed with the local community in mind
• Needs to be either be “supported” or “approved” by local authorities
• Has an objective other than financial gain
• Has a physical location (cannot be an online event)

Step two – Identify stakeholders

In your event brief, you must:

• Identify the key stakeholders
• Describe the target demographic for the event and how they will be reached
• Explain why the target demographic would enjoy/participate in the event

Step three – Event execution

• What location/s will be used?
• What facilities are required versus those available
• A brief overview of the planning timeline
• An overview of how the event marketing plan and communication to the host community

Step four – Event feasibility Provide:

• A brief explanation of how the event will be funded (Sponsorship? Ticket sales? Grants? Corporately owned?)
• Perform a high-level SWOT Analysis and briefly explain how you will mitigate any perceived weaknesses or threats

Design your event concept

Events have an appeal that is special because they have a natural simplicity and because they occur within a limited duration. According to Huang & Zhang (2011) the natural simplicity of events makes them different from created attractions and permanent institutions. The event planning process and its execution usually determine the impact in which the event will have on the memory of people. Well-planned events will usually live to be a good memory while poorly-planned events just become past events and are never remembered (Müller, 2015). Additionally, the benefits of events in places which they occur cannot go unnoticed, while the alignment of the events and the local governing council is given a priority. Therefore, the essay seeks to compel the local council as to why they should support or approve the event and detail what the support would look like.

With the local governments and authorities also being part of the community, the event aligns with the strategic objectives of the local council to the community. The event supports the local council’s initiative of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) through educating the community and creating awareness. However, different political views may affect the collaboration between the local council and the event organizers (Hall, 2006). The event’s development is affected by different ideological positions. Additionally, the public policies of events are affected by the governing political parties’ thrust of ideologies. Although the event has been publicized well and is now the most popular and renowned around the country, there is no full support from the local governing authorities a problem which has been linked to the mayor of the city based on his different political views hence causing the event to suffer. The local government has provided the event with funding and permission to use public land, hence saving the event organizers the problem of reviewing different potential locations which may lead to the decline of the event. The local authorities have complied with the needs of the event by providing public space, funding, and security so as to ensure that the event’s activities proceed without any security hitches.

Additionally, according to Waikayi, Fearon, Morris, & McLaughlin (2012) the event has complied with the health protection and safety policies. Event organizers put the safety of the attendants first and seek to ensure that accidents are avoided. To achieve that, services of public bodies like the Red Cross are sought so as to ensure all medical cases which may occur are handled swiftly to avoid any casualties (Chalip, 2006). The local governing council and the event organizers have also partnered with environmental policy and protection agencies, with the partnership being beneficial to all parties.

Identify stakeholders

The event has several benefits to the local community. Some social-cultural benefits include a more certain sense of ethnic identity, strong cultural identity, community pride, family bonding, awareness, and appreciation. According to Gursoy and Kendall (2006) events increase their cultural and social pride by showcasing their local traditions and culture. Events have important social benefits which are festival-related hence serving to underscore the important benefits of the festival which leads to civic pride.

Local businesses will be developed as the event brings together a large group of people who will shop around before, during, and after the event. New businesses will also be developed with several people trying their luck in business for the first time and finding that it actually works. Events provide opportunities for business promotion hence providing incentives for the involvement of businesses (Yeoman, Robertson, Ali-Knight, Drummond, & McMahon-Beattie, 2012). Moreover, events improve business activities and amenities in a region or destination and improve its position in the market. The economic benefit will also be popular among the organizers of the event since and businesses surrounding or are somehow connected to the event will benefit from the event including ship and bus companies, waste management, security services, shops, hotels, and restaurants.

Despite many positive impacts associated with the event, there are also few negative impacts that can significantly affect the community. The event is associated with negative social-cultural impacts. Due to a high number of participants, the event is believed to result in increased jams and traffic. According to Wang, Lu, Yuan, Zhang & Wetering (2013) events with a higher number of attendees always result in congestion as participants are likely to depart from events at the same time. Furthermore, events can lead to overcrowding in town hence raising security concerns. For example, the Manchester terror attack in 2007 killed more than twenty-two while others fifty-nine were left with serious injuries when attending a concern in Ariana Grande (Smith, Craigie, Pollard & Jones, 2017). The attackers will always target the events and there is a need for risk mitigation. The other negative impacts of events include creating a lot of noise and disturbance and events participants disturbing the privacy of the local community.

However, to mitigate the negative impacts of the event, the organizations should consider negotiating with the local council to make sure there is enough security for the event. Furthermore, the event organizers should look for private security if possible and conduct a deep search on the entry to make sure nobody enters the venue with any weapons which might disrupt the event’s peace. Traffic congestion created by the event can be avoided by allowing participants to leave at their own pleasures hence minimizing the possibility of people leaving the event at the same time. The noise in the event can be minimized by event’s organizers developing a plan which restricts loud noise or shouting.

Event execution

Financial support is needed in this event to facilitate enough resources which are vital requirements for creating a smooth running of activities and satisfaction of the participants. According to Wagen & White (2018) for effective implementation of events, there must be well-organized finances. Therefore if the event is having enough finances and resources it will have high performance. Additionally, the local council should provide public land and space which will serve as the event’s location. In this effect, the local council should ensure that the application for the license of hosting the event has been processed quickly to enhance a quick planning of the event.

Moreover, security should be provided before, during and after the event so as to enhance the smooth running of the event and to ensure that law and order have been adhered to by making sure that any trouble-makers have been arrested and consequently arraigned in court and prosecuted. County governments should ensure that the fire brigade is at high alert during events in order to ensure swift response of the fire department in case of a fire occurring (Toohey & Taylor, 2008). Ambulance services should also be provided at a fee by the local government so as to cater for any medical emergencies.

VIP guests should be offered special security preferably from the military to protect them against any security risks that may occur unexpectedly. Mega-events should also be given the priority of special coverage and live broadcast by the media houses (Boyle & Haggerty, 2009). Any regulations and bans barring media personnel from covering the event should be lifted so as to allow for a nationwide broadcast of the event. Waste management services should also be availed since large amounts of litter is generally expected where there are thousands of people converging hence managing the waste would be important in the protection of the environment. The aspect is important since other events are bound to occur at the same venue hence clearing the place would offer a conducive environment for other forthcoming events.

Conclusion

The benefits and purpose of the event are to ensure all activities run smoothly according to the plan and ensure the cost and time is used effectively by all event participants through consideration of thorough communication on the planning stage. Poor planning of the event is the root cause of negative impacts experienced in communities when, during and after the events (Richards & Palmer, 2012). The budget allocated for the event should not go overboard but rather it should be estimated to cater for all expenses without cost-cutting on some important issues. Effective management of finances is essential to the success of the event as it avoids the embarrassing situations of some participants not getting satisfied.

References

Boyle, P., & Haggerty, K. D. (2009). Spectacular security: mega?events and the security complex. International Political Sociology, 3(3), 257-274.

Chalip, L. (2006). Towards social leverage of sport events. Journal of sport & tourism, 11(2), 109-127.

Gursoy, D., & Kendall, K. W. (2006). Hosting mega-events: Modeling locals’ support. Annals of Tourism Research, 33(3), 603-623.

Hall, C. M. (2006). Urban entrepreneurship, corporate interests and sports mega-events: the thin policies of competitiveness within the hard outcomes of neoliberalism. The Sociological Review, 54(2_suppl), 59-70.

Huang, Y., & Zhang, Y. (2011). U.S. Patent Application No. 12/558,089.

Müller, M. (2015). The mega-event syndrome: Why so much goes wrong in mega-event planning and what to do about it. Journal of the American Planning Association, 81(1), 6-17.

Richards, G., & Palmer, R. (2012). Eventful cities. Routledge.

Smith, S. R., Craigie, R., Pollard, J. S., & Jones, D. J. (2017). Trauma training: mandatory ‘fire training’for general surgeons?. The Bulletin of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 99(9), 312-315.

Van der Wagen, L., & White, L. (2018). Event management: For tourism, cultural, business and sporting events. Cengage AU.

Waikayi, L., Fearon, C., Morris, L., & McLaughlin, H. (2012). Volunteer management: an exploratory case study within the British Red Cross. Management Decision, 50(3), 349-367.

Wang, Z., Lu, M., Yuan, X., Zhang, J., & Van De Wetering, H. (2013). Visual traffic jam analysis based on trajectory data. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 19(12), 2159-2168.

Yeoman, I., Robertson, M., Ali-Knight, J., Drummond, S., & McMahon-Beattie, U. (Eds.). (2012). Festival and events management. Routledge.