Events Management

Glenn Bowdin, Johnny Allen, Rob Harris, Ian McDonnell, William O'Toole

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781136445118
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

Events Management is the must-have introductory text providing a complete A-Z of the principles and practices of planning, managing and staging events. The book:

• introduces the concepts of event planning and management
• presents the study of events management within an academic environment
• discusses the key components for staging an event, covering the whole process from creation to evaluation
• examines the events industry within its broader business context, covering impacts and event tourism
• provides an effective guide for producers of events
• contains learning objectives and review questions to consolidate learning

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Each chapter features a real-life case study to illustrate key concepts and place theory in a practical context, as well as preparing students to tackle any challenges they may face in managing events. Examples include the Beijing Olympic Games, Google Zeitgeist Conference, International Confex, Edinburgh International Festival, Ideal Home Show and Glastonbury Festival.

Carefully constructed to maximise learning, the text provides the reader with:

• asystematic guide to organizing successful events, examining areas such as staging, logistics, marketing, human resource management, control and budgeting, risk management, impacts, evaluation and reporting
• fully revised and updated content including new chapters on sustainable development and events, perspectives on events, and expanded content on marketing, legal issues, risk and health and safety management
• acompanion website: www.elsevierdirect.com/9781856178181 with additional materials and links to websites and other resources for both students and lecturers

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SECTION

1

The Events Context

The first part of this book looks at the history and development of events and the emergence of the event industry in the United Kingdom. It examines the impact of events, including their social/cultural, physical/environmental, political and tourism/ economic implications. This section also deals with the nature and importance of event tourism and includes a chapter on sustainable development, an increasingly significant factor influencing overall events planning.

Chapter

1

An Overview of the Events Field

Learning Objectives

After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

• define special events, mega-events, hallmark events and major events
• demonstrate an awareness of why events have evolved in human society
• describe the role of events in the UK, and the UK tradition of events
• describe the rise and effect of the community arts movement and its influence on the development of festivals and public events
• understand the growth and emergence of the events industry
• distinguish between different types of events
• list and describe the components of the events industry, including associations
• discuss the attributes and knowledge requirements of an events manager
• describe the types of organisation involved in the delivery of events management training.

Introduction

Today, events are central to our culture as perhaps never before. Increases in leisure time and discretionary spending have led to a proliferation of public events, celebrations and entertainment. Governments now support and promote events as part of their strategies for economic development, nation building and destination marketing. Corporations and businesses embrace events as key elements in their marketing strategies and image promotion. The enthusiasm of community groups and individuals for their own interests and passions gives rise to a marvellous array of events on almost every subject and theme imaginable. Events spill out of our newspapers and television screens, occupy much of our time and enrich our lives. As we study the phenomenon of events, it is worth examining where the events tradition in the United Kingdom has come from, and what forces are likely to shape its future growth and development. As events emerge as an industry in their own right, it is also worth considering what elements characterise such an industry and how the UK events industry might chart its future directions in an increasingly complex and demanding environment.

Events as Benchmarks for Our Lives

Since the dawn of time, human beings have found ways to mark important events in their lives: the changing of the seasons; the phases of the moon; the eternal cycle of birth, death and the miraculous renewal of life each spring. In Britain, the early folk festivals were associated with Plough Monday, May Day, Midsummer Day and Harvest Home – the latter celebrating the final gathering of the grain harvest (Oxford Interactive Encyclopaedia, 1997). From the Chinese new year to the Dionysian rites of ancient Greece and the European carnival tradition of the middle ages, myths and rituals have been created to interpret cosmological happenings. To the present day, scratch the surface of the symbols of Old Father Time on New Year’s Eve, Guy Fawkes on 5 November Bonfire Night, Halloween, or Father Christmas on 25 December – and remnants of old myths, archetypes and ancient celebrations will be found underneath.

Both in private and in public, people feel the need to mark the important occasions in their lives and to celebrate milestones. Coming of age, for example, is often marked by rites of passage such as initiation ceremonies, the Jewish bar and bat mitzvahs and the suburban twenty-first birthday party. At the public level, momentous events become the milestones by which people measure their private lives. We may talk about things happening ‘before the new millennium’, in the same way that an earlier generation talked of marrying ‘before the Depression’ or being born ‘after the War’. Occasional events – the 1966 World Cup, the new millennium, and the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games – help to mark eras and define milestones.

Even in the high-tech era of global media, when people have lost touch with the common religious beliefs and social norms of the past, we still need larger social events to mark the local and domestic details of our lives.

The Rich Tradition of Events

The UK and the various countries and cultures within it, have a rich tradition of rituals and ceremonies extending over thousands of years. These traditions, influenced by changes within society, including urbanisation, industrialisation and the increasingly multicultural population, have greatly influenced many events as they are celebrated today. Palmer and Lloyd (1972) highlight that Britain has many customs and traditions that are tied in with the changing seasons and country life. In addition, they note that with developing immigration, particularly after the war, settlers brought their own customs and traditions that have now become part of Britain’s heritage. In the cultural collision with the first migrants from the former colonies of India, Pakistan and the Caribbean, new traditions have formed alongside the old. However, many events that people take for granted today have been taking place in one form or another for hundreds of years. These include fairs, festivals, sporting events, exhibitions and other forms of public celebration.

The Lord Mayor’s Show provides an example of this – originating from 1215 when King John granted a Charter confirming the right of the citizens of London to choose their own mayor. One of the conditions of the Charter was that the man chosen as mayor must be presented to King John for approval and had to swear an oath of allegiance. This was the basis for the original show – literally, the mayor has to go to Westminster to be shown to the king. The Lord Mayor’s Show is now the largest parade of its kind in the world – with 6000 participants, 2000 military personnel, 200 horses, 220 motor vehicles, 56 floats, 20 marching bands, and the state coach, all involved in the procession that is nearly 2.5 miles long, yet travels a route of less than 2 miles (Lord Mayor’s Show, 2000).

The term ‘festival’ has been used for hundreds of years and can be used to cover a multitude of events. The Policy Studies Institute (PSI, 1992, p. 1) notes that:

‘A festival was traditionally a time of celebration, relaxation and recuperation which often followed a period of hard physical labour, sowing or harvesting of crops, for example. The essential feature of these festivals was the celebration or reaffirmation of community or culture. The artistic content of such events was variable and many had a religious or ritualistic aspect, but music, dance and drama were important features of the celebration.

The majority of fairs held in the UK can trace their ancestry back to the Charters and privileges granted by the Crown. The original purpose of the fairs was to trade produce – much the same as with exhibitions today. For example, the famous Scarborough Fayre dates back to 1161. The first recorded Charter granted to King’s Lynn was granted in 1204, with the Charter for the Valentine’s Day fair granted by Henry VIII in 1537. Cambridge Fair dates back to 1211 and provides an excellent example of a fair that started out as a trade fair run under the auspices of the local religious community;it continues today as a pleasure fair. Hull Fair, the largest travelling fair in Europe, dates back to 1278 and Nottingham Goose Fair to 1284 (National Fairground Archive, 2007).

Encyclopedia Britannica (2009) notes that the term ‘festival’, as commonly understood today, was first used in England in 1655, when the Festival of the Sons of the Clergy was first delivered at St Paul’s Cathedral, London. Established as an annual charity sermon, it assumed a musical character in 1698. Other examples of early festivals include the Three Choirs Festival (1713), the Norfolk and Norwich Festival (1789) and the Royal National Eisteddford of Wales, (revived in 1880 although it originates from 1176) (PSI, 1992). Festivals of secular music started in the eighteenth century – the first devoted to Handel took place in Westminster Abbey in 1784 – with many continuing well into the twentieth century (Britannica.com, 2005).

Industrialisation, Festivals and the Sporting Events Calendar

Exhibitions and trade shows have taken over much of the traditional purpose of the fairs. The Exhibition Liaison Committee (1995, pp. 2–3) noted:

Since pre-Biblical times producers and merchants have displayed their wares at fairs. However the present UK exhibition industry can trace its origin back to the first industrial exhibitions held in London in 1760 and 1791. These were organised by the Royal Society of Arts and culminated … in the Great Exhibition of 1851 which was housed in the impressive ‘Crystal Palace’ erected in Hyde Park.

Dale (1995) highlights that the Great Exhibition was a triumphant success, with over six million visitors – around 25% of the population. It proved to be an excellent promotional tool for Britain, British industry and related trades, and was the first international trade show (Cartwright, 1995). The exhibition generated profits of over £180 000 (Exhibition Liaison Committee, 1995). The following years saw the development of many exhibition facilities that are in existence today, including Alexandra Palace and the Royal Agricultural Hall (1862), Olympia (1886) and Earls Court (originally opened 1887, current structure from 1936).

Sport provides many of the UK’s most significant and enduring events. As well as attracting large crowds and media attention, they help to create a national identity and are important to the country’s tourism appeal. As the originator of most team sports, Britain has an international reputation for sport, and stages many international world-class events each year, drawing in large numbers of visitors and providing major benefits for local economies (English Tourism, 1999). Many of the most famous UK sporting events have their origins in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including equestrian events such as Royal Ascot (1711), the Epsom Derby (1780) and the Aintree Grand National (1839, name adopted 1847), water-based events, such as the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race (1829), Cowes Week (1826), Henley Royal Regatta (established 1839, named Henley Royal Regatta from 1851) and the first Americas Cup race off the Solent, Isle of Wight (1851). Other major events from this period include The Open Championship (Golf) (1860), the FA Cup (1872), The Championship (Wimbledon) (1877) and Test cricket (England vs. Australia, 1882).

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, festivals that were predominantly choral developed in cities across England, including Leeds. However, further trends included local singing competitions in taverns in the eighteenth century, and amateur singing and brass band competitions in the nineteenth century (Britannica.com, 2005).

Wood (1982) observed that due to the dual forces of industrialisation and Christianity in the mid-nineteenth century, many of the traditional festivities that developed alongside folklore were lost. In the emerging climate of industrialisation, the working classes had little time for traditional celebrations, with the new National Police Force disciplining the working classes through the criminalisation of many traditional festivities. The middle of the nineteenth century saw at least forty saint days in the year, although not all were public holidays in all areas. However, the Victorians believed that it was not economical for workers to have so much free time; as a result, they abolished a number of festivals and tidied up the public holidays. Later, they introduced a week’s paid holiday to replace lost Bank holidays (Harrowven, 1980). Wood (1982, p. 13) noted:

‘The assumed irrationality of festivity underlay the bourgeois social order of industrial life and for the working classes this meant that old ways of thinking about the future, steeped in folklore and superstition, were slowly obliterated. The emerging morality of industrialism insisted that personal security could only be gained by thrift, diligence and abstinence from the pleasures of the flesh. There was little place for riotous assembly in this code of ethics until far sighted [sic] commercial entrepreneurs began to discover in the frustrated needs of the working class a whole new sector of the industrial market. Celebration was then resurrected as the Leitmotif of the emerging leisure industry and has remained a key element of mass entertainment ever since.’

Palmer and Lloyd (1972) acknowledge that weakening community life and the increasing pace of progress led to folk festivities that had lasted hundreds of years being changed – a trend which they note will continue with the rapid change in civilization. However, they highlight that British resolve has prevented the complete extinction of these celebrations, with many of them too deep-rooted in communities to completely disappear. Although many do not take place as spontaneously as previously, the folk rituals continue to survive or be revived, with some of the modern revivals adding new energy to old traditions. They explain:

‘It is said that if you scratch civilisation you find a savage. If you scratch the owner-occupier of a desirable semi-detached residence you will a find a man who is unconsciously seeking something safe and familiar, something with roots deep in the forgotten past. He may call Morris dancers “quaint” … and refuse t...