Event Strategy: Planning Function
Event Strategy:
Planning
Function
Event Management
Nuke 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
1.
2.
3.
4.
or content to bid
duration
location/venue,
Timing
key program elements that will serve to
make the event unique or special.
Conti’d
Feasibility
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
study:
budget requirements
managerial skill needs
venue capacities
host community and destination area
impacts
availability of volunteers, sponsors and
supporting services (for example,
equipment hire frms)
Conti’d
projected
visitation/ attendance
infrastructure requirements
availability of public/private sector
fnancial supporto
level of political support for the evento
the track record of the event in terms of
matters such as proft .
Conti’d
1.
2.
3.
Bid preparation process:
identifying resources that can be employed
to support the event (for example, venues
and government grants
developing a critical path for the preparation
and presentation of a bid document to the
‘owners’ of the event
developing an understanding of the
organization conducting the event and the
exact nature of the event itself
Conti’d
4. 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
a
structure
simple structure has a low level of complexity.
Event manager has control over all staf
activities.
Advantages:
Common in small event management businesses
as it is fexible, 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
fexibility of this structure
commonly means staf are expected to
be multi-skilled and perform various job
functions. This can mean individual jobs
are more satisfying, and produce higher
levels of staf morale.
Conti’d
Disadvantages:
staf
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, staf 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).
Benefts: individuals or groups (such as
committees) can be given specifc 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 eventrelated 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 needonly 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 sufcient 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-proft organization that seeks to
provide information about the personal and public
benefts 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
afect 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
ofer 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 ofer 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:
. specifc: focused on achieving an event goal (or, if no
goals have been developed, its purpose)
. measurable: expressed in a way that is quantifable
. agreeable: agreed on by those responsible for
achieving them
. realistic: in terms of the event organization having the
human, fnancial and physical
resources to achieve them
. time specifc: to be achieved by a particular time.
Examples of objectives
Economic objective
– Percentage return on money invested or overall gross/net proft 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 specifc groups (for example, people from
outside the area, specifc 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 staf/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 frst, 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 frst 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, fnance, 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 identifed as
Conti’d
important
and disregard the
unimportant. Event companies should,
however, be careful not to overlook
potential risks involved in the strategyo
for example, fnancial 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 stafng (paid and volunteer).
Operational Plans
Each
area that develops operational plans
will require a set of objectives that
progress the overall event strategyo action
plans and scheduleso details of individuals
responsible for carrying out the various
aspects of the plano monitoring and control
systems, including a budgeto and an
allocation of resources (fnancial, human
and supporting equipment/services).
Control systems
Once 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.
Planning
Function
Event Management
Nuke 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
1.
2.
3.
4.
or content to bid
duration
location/venue,
Timing
key program elements that will serve to
make the event unique or special.
Conti’d
Feasibility
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
study:
budget requirements
managerial skill needs
venue capacities
host community and destination area
impacts
availability of volunteers, sponsors and
supporting services (for example,
equipment hire frms)
Conti’d
projected
visitation/ attendance
infrastructure requirements
availability of public/private sector
fnancial supporto
level of political support for the evento
the track record of the event in terms of
matters such as proft .
Conti’d
1.
2.
3.
Bid preparation process:
identifying resources that can be employed
to support the event (for example, venues
and government grants
developing a critical path for the preparation
and presentation of a bid document to the
‘owners’ of the event
developing an understanding of the
organization conducting the event and the
exact nature of the event itself
Conti’d
4. 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
a
structure
simple structure has a low level of complexity.
Event manager has control over all staf
activities.
Advantages:
Common in small event management businesses
as it is fexible, 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
fexibility of this structure
commonly means staf are expected to
be multi-skilled and perform various job
functions. This can mean individual jobs
are more satisfying, and produce higher
levels of staf morale.
Conti’d
Disadvantages:
staf
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, staf 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).
Benefts: individuals or groups (such as
committees) can be given specifc 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 eventrelated 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 needonly 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 sufcient 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-proft organization that seeks to
provide information about the personal and public
benefts 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
afect 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
ofer 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 ofer 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:
. specifc: focused on achieving an event goal (or, if no
goals have been developed, its purpose)
. measurable: expressed in a way that is quantifable
. agreeable: agreed on by those responsible for
achieving them
. realistic: in terms of the event organization having the
human, fnancial and physical
resources to achieve them
. time specifc: to be achieved by a particular time.
Examples of objectives
Economic objective
– Percentage return on money invested or overall gross/net proft 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 specifc groups (for example, people from
outside the area, specifc 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 staf/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 frst, 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 frst 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, fnance, 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 identifed as
Conti’d
important
and disregard the
unimportant. Event companies should,
however, be careful not to overlook
potential risks involved in the strategyo
for example, fnancial 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 stafng (paid and volunteer).
Operational Plans
Each
area that develops operational plans
will require a set of objectives that
progress the overall event strategyo action
plans and scheduleso details of individuals
responsible for carrying out the various
aspects of the plano monitoring and control
systems, including a budgeto and an
allocation of resources (fnancial, human
and supporting equipment/services).
Control systems
Once 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.