Event Strategy: Planning Function Event Management Nuke Farida.

Event Strategy: Planning FunctionEvent ManagementNuke Farida

The planning function What is planning? the planning process consists of

establishing where an organization is at present, where it is best advised to go in the future, and the strategies or tactics needed to achieve that position

What is planning? In other words, the planning process is

concerned with end results and the means to achieve those results.

Elements of the strategic event planning process

Concept or content to bid1. duration2. location/venue,3. Timing4. key program elements that will serve to

make the event unique or special.

Conti’dFeasibility study:1. budget requirements2. managerial skill needs3. venue capacities4. host community and destination area

impacts5. availability of volunteers, sponsors and

supporting services (for example, equipment hire firms)

Conti’d projected visitation/ attendance infrastructure requirements availability of public/private sector

financial support; level of political support for the event; the track record of the event in terms of

matters such as profit .

Conti’d Bid preparation process:

1. identifying resources that can be employed to support the event (for example, venues and government grants

2. developing a critical path for the preparation and presentation of a bid document to the ‘owners’ of the event

3. developing an understanding of the organization conducting the event and the exact nature of the event itself

Conti’d4. identifying the key elements of past successful bids preparing a bid document 5. presenting and/or submitting a bid to the ‘owners’ of the event, such as a sporting body 6. lobbying in support of the bid.

Establishment of organizational structure Simple structure a simple structure has a low level of complexity.

Event manager has control over all staff activities.

Advantages: Common in small event management businesses

as it is flexible, adaptable to changing circumstances, easy to understand, and has clear accountability – the manager is accountable for all the activities associated with the event.

Conti’d The flexibility of this structure

commonly means staff are expected to be multi-skilled and perform various job functions. This can mean individual jobs are more satisfying, and produce higher levels of staff morale.

Conti’d Disadvantages: staff do not have the opportunity to

specialize, they may not achieve a high level of expertise in any one area.

once an event organization grows beyond a certain size, decision making can become very slow – or even non-existent – as a single executive has to make all decisions and carry out all the management functions.

Conti’d if the manager has an autocratic style of

management, staff can become demoralized when their expertise is not fully utilized. There is also an inherent risk in concentrating all event management information in one person – obviously, sickness at an inappropriate time could prove disastrous.

Figure Simple Structure

Functional structures

a functional structure departmentalizes (that is, groups related tasks) in a way that encourages the specialization of labor (paid/voluntary).

Benefits: individuals or groups (such as committees) can be given specific task areas, thus avoiding any overlap of responsibilities

Figure functional structure

Program-based matrix structures Organizers of a multi-venue sporting

event, for example, may choose to have separate committees with responsibility for all tasks associated with event delivery at each location.

each committee/group leader would be required to manage a team of people with a comprehensive range of event- related skills.

Conti’d several inherent advantages: allowing groups/individuals to engage

directly with the task (producing and delivering an event) and facilitating intergroup communication and cooperation.

Figure Program based

Multi-organizational or network structures Event management companies create “virtual

organizations” to conduct large and complex events, while they are relatively small in size (fewer than 20 people).

Advantages: there is no ‘down time’ because of contracting specialist

businesses with current expertise and experience on need-only basis.

Budgeting can also be more exact because most costs are contracted and, therefore, known beforehand. This structure also allows for quick decisions because the core management group is made up of only a few people or one individual

Disadvantages: These include issues associated with

quality control and reliability of the contractors who are involved in performing tasks, and coordinating employees (from various other organizations) who lack a detailed understanding of the event.

Figure multi-organizational

Developing a strategic plan Purpose, vision and mission

statements purpose is required to provide sufficient direction

and focus. An example of a purpose statement is one

developed for Brain Awareness Week, an annual international event coordinated by Dana Alliance (USA) and the European Dana Alliance for the Brain (2005), a non-profit organization that seeks to provide information about the personal and public benefits of brain research:

Conti’d Brain Awareness Week is a worldwide

celebration of the brain that grows more successful every year. It is an opportunity to let people know what is being done to diagnose, treat and prevent disorders of the brain, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, stroke, schizophrenia and depression, which affect the lives of millions of people

Cont’d Vision statements usually describe what the

event seeks to become and to achieve in the longer term (Thompson with Martin, 2005). They are also often brief, precise and motivational in nature. The Windsor Festival (2005), for example, states, ‘...we offer a unique experience, which entertains and enhances the community, linking social, educational and commercial interests. . . Building on these foundations, we will increase the breadth and variety of the program, increase accessibility to the arts and encourage wider recognition of the Festival’.

Conti’d . The Windsor Festival (2005), for

example, states, ‘...we offer a unique experience, which entertains and enhances the community, linking social, educational and commercial interests. . . Building on these foundations, we will increase the breadth and variety of the program, increase accessibility to the arts and encourage wider recognition of the Festival’.

Conti’d a combination of both vision and mission. The

Liverpool Women’s International Music Festival (WIMFEST, 2004) state their mission:

‘ to be a festival that will celebrate diversity, tolerance, tradition, history and story telling; by women, through music and song. It will involve schools, young people, local communities, professional and amateur performers. The festival will encourage both individual and collective endeavor, empowering and enabling women to organize the event, produce, promote and perform’.

Tabel.Mission Statements

Goal and Objectives

Objectives The establishment of objectives are summed up by the

acronym SMART, which refers to the fact that objectives should be:

.  specific: focused on achieving an event goal (or, if no goals have been developed, its purpose)

.  measurable: expressed in a way that is quantifiable .  agreeable: agreed on by those responsible for

achieving them .  realistic: in terms of the event organization having

the human, financial and physical resources to achieve them .  time specific: to be achieved by a particular time.

Examples of objectives Economic objective –  Percentage return on money invested or overall gross/net profit sought –  Financial value of sponsorship attracted –  Percentage of income to be raised from fundraising activities –  Percentage increase in market share (if the event is competing directly

with other similar events)

Attendance/participation –  Total attendance/attendance by specific groups (for example, people from

outside the area, specific age groups, professions) –  Size of event in terms of stallholders/exhibitors/performers/attendees –  Number of local versus outside artists –  Percentage of an area’s cultural groups represented in a program –  Number of community groups involved with the event

Conti’d Quality – Percentage level of attendee/exhibitor/sponsor/volunteer

satisfaction– Number of participants/speakers/performers of international reputation – Number of complaints from attendees/exhibitors/volunteers

Awareness/knowledge/attitudes –  Percentage of attendees or others exposed to the event that

have changed levels of awareness/knowledge as a result of the event

–  Percentage of attendees or others exposed to the event who have altered their attitudes as a result of it

Human resources –  Percentage of staff/volunteer turnover –  Percentage of volunteers retained from previous year.

SWOT analysis This process may involve referring to a

range of existing information sources, including data collected previously on the event, census data and general reports on relevant matters such as trends in leisure behavior.

SWOT analysis The external environment is usually

assessed first, and consists of many factors. The main factors include:

Political/legal Economic Social/cultural

Conti’d Technological Demographic Physical/environment competitive

Strategy option Growth strategy: Growth can be expressed as more revenue, more

event components, more participants or consumers, or a bigger share of the event market.

An example of this is Streets Ahead (a Catalan festival which takes place in Manchester). It adopted a growth strategy from 1995 towards a street festival for the millennium, involving ten local authorities in and around Greater Manchester. In the first year, one authority was involved, the following year two, then four until, by 1999, all ten local authorities were taking part (Allen and Shaw, 2001).

Conti’d Consolidation/ stability strategy: maintaining attendance at a given level. Strong

demand for tickets to T In The Park, for example, has allowed the event to sell tickets well in advance, cap attendance numbers and further enhance the quality of its program. By capping ticket sales in a climate of high demand, this event has also created a situation in which it has greater pricing freedom.

Retrenchment strategy Combination strategy

Strategy option Retrenchment strategy: reduce the scale of an event but add value to

its existing components. The management of a community festival, for

example, may decide to delete those festival elements that were poorly patronized and focus only on those that have proven to be popular with its target market. Likewise, exhibitions may delete an accompanying seminar programme and focus on the core aspects of the exhibition.

Conti’d Combination strategy: includes elements from more than one

of these generic strategies. An event manager could, for example, decide to cut back or even delete some aspects of an event that no longer appeal to their event target market(s), while concurrently growing other aspects.

Strategy evaluation and selection 3 Main Criteria: Appropriateness/suitability – strategies and their

component parts should be consistent. That is, strategies selected should complement each other and be consistent with the environment, resources and values of the event organization.

Feasibility – the proposed strategy should be feasible. It should work in practice, considering the resources available (for example, finance, human resource, time). The strategy should also meet key success factors (for example, quality, price, level of service).

Acceptability/desirability – strategies should be capable of achieving the event’s objectives. They should focus on what the environmental scan has identified as

Conti’d important and disregard the

unimportant. Event companies should, however, be careful not to overlook potential risks involved in the strategy; for example, financial or environmental risk, or the risk of the required skills not being available in the organization

Operational Plans Operational plans will be needed for all areas

central to the achievement of an event’s objectives and the implementation of its strategy.

Areas for operational planning such as budgeting, marketing, administration, staging, research and evaluation, risk management, sponsorship, environmental waste management, programming, transportation, merchandising and staffing (paid and volunteer).

Operational Plans Each area that develops operational plans

will require a set of objectives that progress the overall event strategy; action plans and schedules; details of individuals responsible for carrying out the various aspects of the plan; monitoring and control systems, including a budget; and an allocation of resources (financial, human and supporting equipment/services).

Control systemsOnce operational plans are implemented, mechanisms are required to ensure that actions conform to plans.Meetings and reports are generally central to the control process, as are budgets. Budgets allow actual costs and expenditure to be compared with those projected for the various operational areas.