Transcript No Slide Title
ESTABISHING A RESEARCH AGENDA FOR EVENT MANAGEMENT
DONALD GETZ, PhD Professor, Tourism and Hospitality Management Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, Canada AOIFE Annual Conference, November 2003 Tralee, Ireland
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INTRODUCTION and AGENDA
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This is the first AOIFE conference to encompass event-related research
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Establishing a research agenda for event management should be a national priority.
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I will discuss the bases for a research agenda, who should be involved, and some of the research priorities.
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Through examples of my own research I will demonstrate the practical as well as theoretical value of research in this field.
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DEFINING THE ACADEMIC FIELD OF EVENT MANAGEMENT
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Is there an identifiable body of knowledge and skills that defines event management as a separate field of study or emerging profession?
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What commonalties are there among the various types of events and their professional associations?
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TYPOLOGY OF PLANNED EVENTS
CULTURAL CELEBRATIONS
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Festivals
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Carnivals
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Religious Events
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Parades
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Heritage
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Commemorations ART & ENTERTAINMENT
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Concerts
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Other Performances
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Exhibits
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Award Ceremonies BUSINESS & TRADE
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Fairs, Markets, Sales
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Consumer/ Trade Shows
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Expositions
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Meetings and Conventions
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Publicity Events
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Fund-raising Events SPORT COMPETITIONS
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Professional
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Amateur EDUCATIONAL & SCIENTIFIC
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Seminars, Workshops. Clinics
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Congresses
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Interpretive Events RECREATIONAL
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Games and Sports for Fun
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Amusement Events POLITICAL & STATE
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Inaugurations
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Investitures
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VIP Visits
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Rallies PRIVATE EVENTS a) Personal Celebrations
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Anniversaries
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Family Holidays
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Rites de Passage b) Social Events
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Parties, Galas
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Reunions
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OVERLAPS AND INTERDEPENDENCIES
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conventions often include trade shows
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Olympics always encompass art festivals
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periodic sport events have become festivals
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resorts, hotels, recreation facilities and attractions host many types of event
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festivals typically include sports, recreation, sales, exhibits, concerts, hospitality for sponsors
MAJOR COMPONENTS OF EVENT MANAGEMENT EDUCATION Level 1: FOUNDATION EVENT STUDIES: THE NATURE OF PLANNED EVENTS
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Limited duration and special purpose
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Unique blend of setting, program, management, and participants/customers
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Experiences and generic appeal
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Cultural and economic significance
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Businesses, agencies and organizations
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Forces and trends
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Professionalism
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Programming and scheduling
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Venues/settings MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS
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Planning and research
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Organizing and coordinating
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Human resources
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Financial and physical resources
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Budgeting, controls, risk management
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Marketing and communications
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Impact and performance evaluation Level 2: SPECIALIZATION
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Type of event and unique program
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Special venue requirements
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Event organizations
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Target markets and unique communications
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Special services and supplies
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Unique impacts and performance criteria
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RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS
1) management-based research is necessary (business, public administration and not-for-profit perspectives) 2) research is needed on unique elements of planned events, commonalities and differences 3) research needed on the issues related to specific event types (e.g., demand for festivals) and settings (e.g., managing a convention centre)
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DISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES
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Many other disciplines and fields must contribute to event management.
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Each brings its own perspectives on theory, methods and research needs or priorities.
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There is a need to attract more experts from other fields to apply there knowledge and skills to events.
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RESEARCH TRENDS
A review of Event Management suggests that two perspectives have been dominant:
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marketing, including motivations and segmentation studies, and sponsorship issues
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economic development, impacts and related tourism issues
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MAJOR THEMES OF PAPERS PUBLISHED IN EVENT MANAGEMENT THROUGH VOL. 8(1) 2003
• Economic Development, impacts, event tourism (39 articles) • Sponsorship and event marketing (16) • Marketing, including segmentation studies (13) • Other management topics (12) • Community impacts, resident attitudes and perceptions (11) • Visitor/participant motives (10) • Education, training, accreditation, research, professionalism (9) • Politics, policy and planning (9) • Description of festival sector (seasonal, spatial, calendars) (5) • Attendance estimates and forecasts (5) • Volunteers (4) • Urban renewal (3) • Law (1) • Benefits to consumers (1) • Arts and culture (1) 10
WHAT’S MISSING?
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Event Management has only recently begun to cover meetings, conventions and exhibitions
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especially lacking are true disciplinary perspectives on events such as theoretical contributions or special methodologies, other than economics, marketing and some geography
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social-psychological dimensions are not well covered
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DISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES
Psychology and Social Psychology
• needs and motivation to attend, and benefits sought from events; • customer satisfaction • gender, culture, demographic and age factors affecting demand 12
SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY
• events as leisure and social opportunities • celebration and culture • cross-cultural studies • social problems at events • social/cultural impacts on the community • host-guest interactions • cause-related events 13
ECONOMICS
• economic development and tourism • financing events; return on investment • develop a standard approach to economic impact assessment • costs and benefits (and their distribution) 14
POLITICAL SCIENCE
• political goals of events and event support • propaganda through events and to sell events
LAW
• impact of the regulatory environment; risk management; incorporation or charitable status; protection of name, logo, designs, etc.
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ENVIRONMENTAL PERSPECTIVE
(related disciplines: natural and environmental sciences; physical geography; environmental design and psychology) • trends: new event themes (e.g., whale festival in BC) • greening of events (e.g., Olympics) • ecologically sustainable tourism and sustainable events 16
CLOSELY-RELATED PROFESSIONAL FIELDS
Recreation and leisure, sport, tourism, hospitality, arts and entertainment management • event programming • operations and logistics • interpretation and education through events • retailing and exhibiting effectiveness 17
THE EVENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Adapted from Getz and Frisby 1988 GENERAL ENVIRONMENT Global forces impacting on events, event organizations, and event tourism
Inputs
COMMUNITY CONTEXT Local forces and conditions (other events; competition; stakeholders; resource availability INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT The organization and its management system: Planning; Leading; Organizing; Coordinating Staffing; Financing; Marketing; Programming THE EVENT Theme; Program; Setting; Consumer Benefits
Internal Evaluation Outputs External Evaluation
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THE EVENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM SUGGESTS SPECIFIC RESEARCH THEMES
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environmental scanning
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community and stakeholder relations
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goals and goal displacement
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resource acquisition
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management processes including controls and evaluation
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intended and unintended outcomes; externalities
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INDUSTRY OR SOCIAL SERVICE?
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Events are often viewed as an element in the tourism industry.
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Events are increasingly “big business”.
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Many events, such as exhibitions, provide services to industry.
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To be an “industry” is to gain credibility among politicians and corporations, leading to support and resources.
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RESEARCH PRIORITIES FOR AN EVENTS “INDUSTRY”
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employment potential tax benefits
• place marketing; image • tourist attractiveness • •
contribution to urban and rural development growth and development of events to international
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status management expertise training and human resource needs entrepreneurship and privatization
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A COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVE: EVENTS AS SOCIAL SERVICE
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to many people events are mostly a matter of celebration, participation, community pride, and fun
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contributions to social and cultural development, health and well being
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government agencies and non-profit associations as major providers and initiators of policy
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RESEARCH PRIORITIES FROM A COMMUNITY PERPSECTIVE
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impacts on the community and environment are major considerations
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on what basis should events be supported?
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measuring event “value” in terms of the intangibles of social and cultural benefits/costs
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PRACITIONERS’ PERSPECTIVE
• Determine what research managers actually need and use.
• Research must support event management and event tourism.
• Academic research has to be better communicated to the practitioners.
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PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
• Associations are fragmented by type of event and could seek cooperation at least on research.
• Some associations support research for their members; research symposia at conferences are growing.
• Trade publications seldom incorporate a research orientation.
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RESEARCH EXAMPLES
These examples illustrate both the theoretical and practical applications of event-related research.
• Event Quality • Why Festivals Fail • Stakeholder Management 26
WHAT IS EVENT QUALITY?
• Event quality can be conceptualized as the blend of program and service delivery as presented to customers.
• It requires skillful management of the interactions among the setting (venues, decoration, atmosphere), people (guests, staff, participatns, volunteers), management systems (health, security, communications) and the event program (whether a competition, celebration, meeting, entertainment or exhibition). • To a large degree, event quality is dependent upon organizational and personnel quality.
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INTERACTIONS SHAPING EVENT QUALITY
Government Industry Environment Community 28
WHY HAVE QUALITY STANDARDS?
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To the owners and managers of events, adopting quality standards should lead to continuous improvement, better performance in terms of achieving
the event’s goals, and fewer problems.
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The tourism industry wants better events in terms of the event’s ability to
attract and satisfy target market segments.
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Quality standards (assuming that compliance is posted and people can interpret them) provide assurance to customers that basic services will be provided at least to a reasonable standard, and that they do not have to fear for their safety or health (beyond any risks assumed willingly and in an informed manner).
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Those who fund events (government agencies at various levels), or sponsor them commercially, will associate quality standards with risks. In other words, top-ranked or certified events should be better able to use the money wisely and therefore provide the desired return on investment.
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ELEMENTS OF THE QUALITY ASSURANCE PROGRAM Standards and criteria will be required in four areas: 1: Organizational Standards and Criteria:
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philosophy and values (including a code of ethics; environmental and social responsibility; consumer orientation; leadership; being a learning organization; stakeholder participation).
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management systems in place and documented: business and strategic planning; site planning; organization and coordination; risk and security; health and safety; financial controls; human resource management and specifically training; service quality; marketing and communications; impact assessment and evaluation; staff and volunteer competence: evidence of training programs and professional certification; performance evaluation
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ELEMENTS OF THE QUALITY ASSURANCE PROGRAM 2: Hygiene Factors (at the events)
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health, cleanliness, safety, security, comfort, information, signage, crowd control compliance based on both evidence of management systems, on-site inspections by experts, and (for levels 2 and 3) consumer feedback 3: Consumer Satisfaction and Quality Evaluation
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a uniform satisfaction rating system should be developed so that results are comparable across all events; an importance-performance method is recommended events will also need to provide evidence of complaints and incidents, and how handled; demonstrate how problems have been corrected consumers will be asked to rate hygiene factors, service quality, site quality and program quality (for 2 and 3-star ratings).
4: Impacts
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evidence of impact assessment and forecasting (ecological, environmental, economic, Social and cultural) green operations implemented (in itself this is a graduated compliance system)
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CASE STUDY:
MARGARET RIVER MASTERS
(WESTERN AUSTRALIA) Getz, D., O'Neil, M., and Carlsen, J. (2001). Service quality evaluation at events through service mapping. Journal of Travel Research, 39(4): 380-390.
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The research was intended to evaluate service quality at an event and to test 3 methods: • Direct observation of the audience.
• Participant observation using diaries.
• Visitor questionnaires.
Margaret River sunset
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1998 MARGARET RIVER SURFING MASTERS STAGE ONE: APPROACH AND ORIENTATION -No Signs To Location Approach Event Location -Confusing Signs -Traffic Control -Buses on Road
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Some congestion -Park in fields Public Parking Enter Controlled Area VIP Parking -Car-pedestrian conflict -Climb steep stairs Shuttle Bus To Site Walk To Site -No directional signs -No “entrance” -Flags and signs of sponsors abundant -Temporary structures -Vehicles and equipment -Public address announcements -Food smells Site Orientation On-site Experiences Figure 2(b) -Car-pedestrian conflicts -Minor traffic congestion -Queues for return bus Depart Parking/ Security Staff Bus drivers -No greeters -Vendors and Sponsors -Pre-event Marketing and Ticketing -Volunteer recruitment -Liaison with police and local authority -Hire buses -Create signs Adapted from: Bitner, M. (1993)
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-Some views blocked -Relaxed, calm crowd -Eating, drinking, smoking -Not much litter -Stairs to beach got congested -Encounters with surfers on beach and stairs -Clear public address -No litter bins on beach -No directional signs 1998 MARGARET RIVER SURFING MASTERS STAGE TWO: ON-SITE EXPERIENCES -Narrow, fenced entrance -No information -Sponsors presence -Clear views -Became crowded, noisy -Some floor litter -Food smell, smoke -P.A. not always clear -Not enough chairs, tables
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Slow food service at peak times -Good views -Uncomfortable seats -Crowding hazard -No shade, rain cover -Calm, relaxed audience -No supervision -P.A. not always audible -P.A.
messages -Give-aways; contests -tents/equipment clutter -Price and quality mostly good -Limited to sponsors’ products -No free water -Some long waits -Limited merchandise -Some vendors ran out of food -Convenient -Some litter near -Adequate number vendors -Not always clean -Supplies ran out -Crowding hazard -Vehicular hazard -Audience calm -Faulty microphone Public Viewing Grass and Beach VIP Tent VIP Grand Stand Sponsors Food and Beverage Toilets Ceremonies -Clean-up crew -Uniformed Police Security Crew -Volunteer recruitment -Liaison with police -Sponsors at displays -Girls for give-aways Vendors -Sponsorship and Vendor negotiations -Competitors -Entertainers -Dignitaries -Officials -Manager -Competitor recruiting and hosting -Liaison with officials -VIP hosting -Hire entertainers Adapted from: Bitner, M. (1993)
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RESEARCH NEEDS PERTAINING TO EVENT QUALITY
• evaluating quality from many stakeholder perspectives • refining observational methods • adapting importance-performance measures to all types of events • testing the effectiveness of quality assurance programmes 36
RESEARCH ON WHY FESTIVALS FAIL
• Arose from the observation that many festivals in Calgary failed while others were planned and never got off the ground.
• And from my own experience as a volunteer director of a festival that failed ….. and was never missed!
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WHY FESTIVALS FAIL
• An exploratory survey of festival professionals in North America yielded an indication of the incidence and nature of failures, and potential reasons for failure.
• Respondents were asked to rate the potential severity of problems that could threaten their festivals: marketing; financial resources; external forces; human resources; organizational culture 38
CATEGORY INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF FESTIVAL FAILURE (39 respondents) Number of respondents reporting each category (and total number of events reported) festivals that disappeared completely 19 (28) festivals that ceased, then started up again unchanged 6 (6) festivals that ceased, then started up again with a new name or concept festivals that were forced to change their location or venue 6 (8) 11 (18) festivals that were planned but never got off the ground 9 (13) festivals that underwent a major change or crisis that could be interpreted as a failure or near failure 10 (13) 39
MAJOR THREATS
• Lack of corporate sponsorship • Over-reliance on one source of money • The weather • Inadequate marketing or promotion • Lack of advance or strategic planning • Incompetent event managers or staff • Not enough attention to making profit or money • Poor control of costs • Lack of strong leadership • Inattention to program or service quality • Competition from similar events or events at the same time • Volunteer burnout • Cash-flow problems 40
A RESOURCE DEPENDENCY PERSPECTIVE ON FAILUIRE
• The frequency of resource problems might be a symptom of a more fundamental problem, rather than the most common cause of failure.
• Resource Dependency Theory suggests that interdependencies between organizations are critical in assuring an adequate resource supply.
• A good “fit” with the environment should ensure the resources are provided. One test of “fit” is the number of stakeholders committed to the event; another is: “who will miss it if it fails?” 41
RESOURCE MANAGEMEMNT STRATEGIES FOR FESTIVALS
• Avoid dependency on one source; diversify your revenue portfolio.
• Develop symbiotic relationships with resource suppliers so that they have a vested interest in your survival. • Develop long-term sources (e.g., long-term sponsorship) • Work with other events to influence the environment to obtain more resources (e.g., government lobbying).
• Attempt to reduce competition for limited resources.
• Store resources “for a rainy day”. 42
A POPULATION ECOLOGY PERSPECTIVE ON FESTIVAL FAILURE
• This theory examines “populations” (e.g., of festivals ) • It suggests that because of resource scarcity and the tendency of populations to grow beyond their resource limits, some events will inevitably fail.
• Many organizations cannot change fast enough to adapt to environmental forces.
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APPLYING POPULATION ECOLOGY TO EVENT MANAGEMENT
• Occupying a “niche” is for which the organisation is especially suited is vital to long-term survival.
• Organizers must overcome the tendency for “structural inertia” in order to adapt; this is an organizational culture issue.
• Marketing strategies are easier to change than core values.
• Become a “learning organization”.
• Become an “institution”; well-established events have a special place in their society, thereby ensuring survival.
• New events are especially vulnerable; secure key stakeholder support and resources in advance.
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RESEARCH NEEDS PERTAINING TO EVENT FAILURE
• Learn from successful events and failures.
• Longitudinal study of whole event populations.
• Assess effectiveness of various resource and stakeholder management strategies.
• Study organizational culture and the change process.
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RESEARCH ON STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT
• The previous two research topics strongly point to the need for effective stakeholder management be event managers.
• Currently I am working with colleagues in Sweden and Australia, including a sample of events in Calgary, to examine stakeholder relations and management approaches among festivals and sport events.
• Step one is to have managers draw a “stakeholder map” indicating relationships with key resources suppliers and marketing partners (taking a resource dependency perspective).
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STAKEHOLDER MAPPING
Joint Marketing Partners Major Sponsors Event Owner
SPORT EVENT
Minor Sponsors Local Government Tourism Agencies Suppliers Volunteer Groups Managers indicate key relationships, the flow of resources, and determine who has power or control.
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STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT ON THE PART OF ONE SPORT EVENT
• Owners, the City, and major sponsors have guaranteed seats on the Board of Directors.
• Formal, contractual relationships with suppliers and sponsors.
• Regular staff-to-staff interaction between the event and the City.
• Advice and staff support received from the owner.
• Casual arrangements with sports teams that provide volunteers in exchange for revenue sharing.
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STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT
• Identify all stakeholders who influence the event or are affected by it.
• Prioritise the stakeholders on the basis of their power (especially in terms of resources provided) and the event’s mandate (e.g., service to the community).
• Establish formal relationships with key stakeholders and informal links with others, based on mutual benefits. Ask: what does each stakeholder want and need?
• Develop strong partnerships and alliances.
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DEVELOPING A RESEARCH AGENDA FOR THE EVENTS FIELD FORCES AND TRENDS AFFECTING EVENTS (environmental scanning) TRENDS IN RESEARCH (strengths and weaknesses) PRACTITIONER INPUT (what they say they need) PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
(reflecting practitioner needs)
RESEARCH GAPS AND PRIORITIES DISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES (what other fields can contribute) INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE
(what business needs)
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS APPROACH COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVE (social service)
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ESTABLISHING A RESEARCH AGENDA FOR EVENTS IN IRELAND
1: First, all the stakeholders have to be identified and a dialogue opened. Which group or person has enough legitimacy to convene such a process?
2: Some stakeholder groups, such as your association, can begin immediately to discuss research needs and priorities, while others might have to be coached on the importance of this process and the relevance of their participation. For example, getting “culture” to the table might be easy, but involving tourism, hospitality, and economic development might prove 51 a challenge.
ESTABLISHING A RESEARCH AGENDA FOR EVENTS IN IRELAND
3: Each cluster of stakeholders, defined by their primary orientation (e.g., festival organizations, tourism industry, sponsors, culture and heritage, environment, local government, etc.) must internally legitimize their participants and find a way to balance competing interests.
4: Finally, the process convenor must strive for between cluster balancing and consensus building. This requires that each major stakeholder cluster be given equal weight, regardless of its size and power.
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