Introduction
Whether you are in charge of organising music festivals, planning business-to-business webinars, running sport tournaments, or hosting beer brewing workshops, as an event creator you have a desire to entertain and inspire your attendees. At the same time, you aim to achieve your business goals which may simply mean staying within your allocated budget or, in a for-profit context, maximising revenues from staging events. Taken together, the social and business-related dimensions are central aspects of successful event management operations, and those responsible for events require strong socio-managerial knowledge and skills to succeed in their chosen profession.
From a business perspective, the events industry has grown into a professionally organised and financially lucrative sector. In 2018, the size of the global events industry was valued at $1,100 billion, and it was expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10.3% to reach $2,330 billion by 2026 (Roy & Deshmukh, 2019). There is no doubt – events mean big business. Sport events alone are outpacing the GDP growth in nearly every country in the world (Collignon & Sultan, 2014). If we look at business events – which include conferences and conventions, exhibitions, and incentives – they are now a global phenomenon and play a pivotal role for cities, regions, and countries in regard to their economic prosperity. As such, they are important destination marketing tools; they boost the visitor economy through local, national, and international visitation (such as transport, hotels, retail, and restaurants), facilitate small business growth by connecting buyers and sellers, allow for knowledge sharing that leads to innovation and business collaboration (both locally and globally), and they provide a platform or catalyst for entrepreneurship, international trade, and investment (see, e.g. Davidson, 2018; Dwyer & Jago, 2012; Hayduk, 2019; Mair, 2012; Manzenreiter & Horne, 2017; Smith, 2012).
From a social perspective, the general public’s interest in topics such as community development, social justice, and sustainability has led to a significant increase in policy makers and event planners focusing on the social domains of event management. The analysis of social event impacts – which in contrast to their economic counterparts are largely intangible and difficult to quantify – has received significant research attention over the past two decades, with studies investigating topics such as sport-for-development, (inter-)community well-being, and social cohesion (see, e.g. Levermore, 2011; Meir & Fletcher, 2019; Schulenkorf & Edwards, 2012; Schulenkorf, Giannoulakis, & Blom, 2019; Welty Peachey, Bor-land, Lobpries, & Cohen, 2015). It has been shown that if properly managed, events can enhance individual and collective capacities, improve people’s level of self-efficacy, create social capital, and, where poverty is implicated, promote social and economic justice and well-being (Misener & Mason, 2006; Richardson & Fletcher, 2020; Schulenkorf, 2010, 2013, 2016; Schulenkorf, Thomson, & Schlenker, 2011; Sherry, Karg, & O’May, 2011; Zhou & Kaplanidou, 2018). Importantly, the social experiences at events are often the key motivator for people to get involved in the first place; for instance, people want to socialise, be entertained, develop contacts, friendships and networks, and celebrate or enhance cultural traditions. On a wider level, these social aspects can then lead to what event proponents label as improved community spirit or pride at the local, national, and/or international levels (Heere et al., 2013; Pawlowski, Downward, & Rasciute, 2014; Storm & Jakobsen, 2020).
In addition to business and social dimensions, there are a number of related event impact categorisations that are important to organisers and attendees. Event researchers have classified event impacts into political, psychological, physical, and environmental domains (see Allen, O’Toole, Harris, & McDonnell, 2011; Preuss & Solberg, 2006). Recent studies on sport events have further added health impacts as well as sport participation impacts to the mix (see, e.g. Richards, Foster, Townsend, & Bauman, 2014; Veal, Toohey, & Frawley, 2012, 2019), while educational and reputational impacts have also been identified (see, e.g. Parent, Mac-Donald, & Getz, 2017; Potwarka & Snelgrove, 2017; Schulenkorf & Schlenker, 2017). We suggest that these additional categories provide an ample opportunity to investigate managerial processes and strategies for development and leverage; however, they are not taking centre stage in this book. We are well aware though that different dimensions interrelate and overlap with each other. For example, an improvement in transport and communications (physical) can influence interaction and cooperation among people (social), whereas urban transformation and renewal (physical) may result in job creation (economic) and/or problems with social dislocation (social). As such, event impacts and their managerial domains cannot and should not be viewed in isolation, and we are committed to respecting this in our book.
What the aforementioned examples also show is that we cannot see event impacts as either solely positive or negative, because potential knock-on effects may be perceived differently in various contexts (Small, 2007; Small, Edwards, & Sheridan, 2005). For instance, social spaces can enable increased interactivity and celebration at music events, which may result in a party-like atmosphere. For some, this describes a socialisation or engagement benefit (Welty Peachey et al., 2015), while others in the host community may perceive increased noise levels as a disturbance. This means that when discussing event management across different dimensions, a critical appraisal and a reflective approach are required. For too long, event proponents across government and community have conveniently ignored the warnings of event critics who have shown that events may leave host communities and organisers with a significant economic or environmental burden, and – from a social perspective – they may well reduce the quality of life of people who are directly or indirectly affected by their existence. There are numerous events that have, for instance, led to an increase in antisocial behaviour, criminal activity, violence, and arrests during the festivities (Getz, 2019; Yolal, Gursoy, Uysal, Kim, & Karacaoğlu, 2016).
Moreover, in 2020 and 2021, the event industry had to battle the most severe external disruption it has ever faced. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many live events to a halt and event organisers were required to quickly adapt to “the new Covid normal”. The consequences were drastic. With social distancing requirements enforced by legislators, educational events such as conferences and congresses had to shift to online modes of delivery. Sport events were conducted with restricted capacity or no fans in the stadium. Meanwhile, live acts such as theatre performances or music festivals were largely cancelled with dramatic negative impacts on event businesses, staff, and performers. Figures from the Business Events Council of Australia showed that in 2020, the Australian economy alone was set to lose over $35 billion in direct expenditure, as nearly all business events scheduled for 2020 (96%) had to be cancelled or postponed. Overall, it is fair to say that COVID-19 has challenged the events industry like nothing before, and it will likely be a bumpy road towards a full recovery. Again, this is particularly true for the social and business-related domains of event management where aspects of social engagement and financial revenue – two of the core benefits of special events – have been majorly interrupted.
With this book, we are committed to a critical yet balanced investigation into recent events, including the different dimensions and strategic decision-making. While a focus on social and business dimensions has provided the impetus and starting point for our writing, we will refer to other related domains whenever suitable. We do so because we believe that to be a successful event planner and organiser, a holistic, proactive, and strategic approach to management is required.
Structure of the book
Whilst the event industry is constantly growing – and despite an increased academic focus on event management in recent decades – it is surprising how little work has been completed around the managerial aspects and processes associated with event leverage and impact studies. However, momentum is gathering with dedicated event impact and legacy subjects offered at event management university courses around the world, and special issues published in high-quality academic journals including one on strategies for leveraging sport mega-events, published in the Journal of Sport Policy and Politics (Grix, Brannagan, Wood, & Wynne, 2017), and another on impacts and strategic outcomes from non-mega sport events for local communities, published in European Sport Management Quarterly (Taks, Chalip, & Green, 2015). In short, Managing and Leveraging Events: Business and Social Dimensions set out to capitalise on this momentum to bring together a book that explores how the latest event impact and leverage research can inform the growing field of event management.
In this introductory chapter we have briefly provided the background, purpose, and context for Managing and Leveraging Events: Business and Social Dimensions. In the remaining ten chapters of this book, we invite readers to explore, learn, discuss, and reflect on the latest concepts, issues, and trends in managing and leveraging events. With a clear focus on the social and business-related aspects of event management, readers will enjoy interrelated chapters that cover (a) theoretical definitions and conceptualisations; (b) practical cases, contexts, and challenges; as well as (c) critical event management issues and future research opportunities.
The first section (Chapters 1–4) will set the scene by focusing on key definitions and conceptualisations in the context of managing and leveraging events for business and social benefit. In addition to this introduction, Chapter 2 presents a conceptual framework for event-related social and business management and a discussion of key stakeholders, management processes, impacts, and outcomes. Next, Chapter 3 provides a critical discussion of the managerial aspects of event leverage, including recent theoretical advances and practical examples. The final chapter of the first section highlights the importance of event evaluation; it presents current assessment approaches and provides applied examples of impact evaluation.
With the groundwork firmly laid, the second section (Chapters 5–10) explores in depth the managerial challenges and opportunities related to maximising the business and social opportunities of events. The six chapters in this section are supported by a variety of cases and contexts, ranging from international large-scale events to small-scale festivals in local communities. Moreover, the section will feature examples from high-income countries as well as low- and middle-income settings – an area that has so far been largely overlooked in event leverage research (Schulenkorf & Schlenker, 2017). In particular, Chapter 5 brings together business and social factors around commercial event engagement. Here, the focus is placed on sponsorship management and using the digital landscape as an important dimension of event leverage. Next, Chapter 6 investigates special events and international business opportunities. With a focus on business relationships and event partnerships, this chapter also provides a critical appraisal of the roles of governments and cities in staging events. In Chapter 7, research from the area of strategy – including strategic alliances and network management – is applied to an event context where aspects such as alliance portfolios, stakeholder networks, and business relationships are critically discussed. This is followed by Chapter 8, which focuses on business events and knowledge management. This chapter is underpinned by academic literature on strategic responses and organisational learning which is applied to an event management context. Meanwhile,...
