Date and Venue

Discuss about the Due Diligence Report Of AIPM.

As a part of the annual program to spread the Awareness of project management among the various individuals and the people working in corporate industries, a conference event has been planned. The event is going to be held on 9^th and 10^th of September at ground Perth Centre in Australia. As a part of the scope of this project along with other deliverables, the hotel, and transportation management, especially for the international delegates, shall also be considered along with the Grand Gala dinner in a naval atmosphere. Each session the Gala dinner is going to be sponsored by different combinations of arrangement. For the generation of revenue, so that the cost of Expenditure for developing the project can be managed, is sponsorship with different arrangements has been designed. The ticket for the attendees is also categorized into various categories among the members and non-members of AIPM. To receive early confirmation and generate revenue prior to the expenditure, the special discount has been planned for the early bird booking. This whole report we shall evaluate the distinct functions and features of project management for conducting this event.

AIPM is the Australian Institute of project management and it is a national body which takes care of the project management educational system and the upbringing of the project management knowledge in the industry. It is an Australian version of the project management institute. As a part of its annual target of spreading the information related to project management, they have organized at event to promote the knowledge regarding the use of project management in Information Technology projects.

As a part of the scope of this project all the marketing strategies which are adapted for organising the event, regarding the venue, the duration of the event, the speakers who are required to be assigned for the conference, the risk associated with the conference, the sponsorship requirement, ticket prices and the overall summary of the project management methodology which is adapted for this project shall be discussed.

The aim of the project is to increase the Awareness of use of Project Management concept in IT professionals for the members and the non-members of AIPM. The aim is to organize a conference for around 900 people attendees. AIPM being a non-profit making organization, the aim is to just to get the money back which is required to be invested in delivering grand conference from the tickets and other marketing strategies.

Conference Details

The objective of the project is to organize an event for 2 days at Perth on Friday and Saturday. This objective can be fulfilled by arranging at least four speakers to deliver their speech each day with a key speaker for the day. The conference shall be preceded with a Gala dinner on the night of 1^st day. The objective of arranging this conference is to build a network among the professionals and to have Direct Access to the leaders of leading project management organizations.

The marketing strategy which is adopted by AIPM to conduct this conference is the cutting-edge Technology like the use of social media to expand the awareness and send the messages regarding the organizing about this conference to all the target audiences. This technology can also be used for receiving the feedback from the audience just after the completion of this event (Bernazzani, 2018). The marketing strategy has been mainly divided into four categories, the categories are as below:

The first category of marketing includes the communication using website and other electronic technology (Queensland Government, 2016). A dedicated website is designed for this conference by including all the features like the design of the logo of the sponsors for sponsoring this conference, by providing a link for the registration of the attendees, the Gala dinner after the conference on 1^st day has been shown on the website, along with a dedicated speaker’s site. So that the attendees can see a brief about the speakers who shall deliver the lecture during this conference, along with the contact us menu in which the audiences can contact.

The second part of the marketing strategy involves the use of electronic media to directly send mail to the prospective attendees. The first mail shall be sent six months prior to the event to make awareness among the attendees regarding the conference. Then the 2^nd mail shall be sent 4 months prior to the event regarding the program. Finally, 3 months prior to the event the notification with invitation card shall be sent to the attendees.

The third part of the marketing strategy is to advertise about the information of this conference using different publications like the newspaper, newsletters, using the posters to be placed around the various universities, train stations, metro station and other location after getting the approval from the local authority.

The fourth part of marketing strategy will involve the ‘Call for papers’, according to which the deadline for the submission, then the notification about the decision of selection, and if some comments are there so for the revised submission of the accepted articles, and then the final registration deadline shall be communicated with AIPM for booking their slot.

Marketing Strategies

The venue for the conference program shall be the ‘Crown Perth centre’. It is being in the central part of Perth in Australia, as it is reachable from all the transportation point of view. The ‘Crown Perth centre’ has various meeting rooms like the Theatres, ballrooms, Golf Course, restaurants, and event Casino. It has all the entertainment facilities which are required to be provided for the refreshment of the attendees. Moreover, this centre also has hotel facility which can be provided to the out-station attendees at their request and the out-station speakers too.

The format of the conference is designed in such a way that it will attract the members who are not members of AIPM; it will also attract the individuals and the members from the corporate level. A part of the format of this event for speakers shall be selected preferably from International experience background for providing the lecture at this conference in each day. As a part of this program, the main objective will be to grow more interest in project management about the individuals and corporate level members. This program shall provide an opportunity to the project managers to deliver their speech as a part of being a speaker regarding their research paper.

As per the general practice of project management always with project management standards this project of contacting the session event has also been divided into four main categories. The categories are the first is the initiation stage, then planning stage, third is the delivery of the conference or the event and finally forth is the review of post-implementation event.

As a part of the Initiation, the total concept of the event is designed and the total duration taken for this activity is too months from May to June. Under this group, the whole concept of organizing the event like the finalization of the number of speakers per day delivering the lecture, the management of tea and lunch break at the equation of Gala dinner to attract more attendees so that the aim and objective of the project are fulfilled.

As a part of the Planning for this event the activity shall start in May, the document which is required to be delivered like the lecture duration and the articles which shall be delivered, the review and comment shall we develop that completed between May to August. The plan is required to be updated every month to check the execution starts so that the proper stage of development can be tracked, monitored and controlled properly (Al-Jibouri, 2003). The budget and venue for the event shall be finalized during the month of August so that event can take place in September. The planning for providing the accommodation for outstation attendees and lecturers shall also be planned between May to August.

Venue Details

As a part of the Delivery WBS, it can be divided into 2 categories, one is the execution of marketing and second is the execution for the work which is required to be done to make the event successful. As discussed above as a part of the marketing, the promotion should take place from June to August and the registration for the event shall also be done between June to August. All the transportation of the goods for the people shall be arranged before the start of the program in September between August to September and the main event shall be conducted for two days in September on 9th and 10th.

As a part of the WBS Post implementation, all the feedback from the attendees and the speakers shall be received between September to October by using this social media electronic platform.  After the remarks are received those shall be evaluated between September to November before the final closing out of the project in November.

The risk associated with this event or the conference can be divided into the below RBS (Risk Breakdown Structure) category (Hillson, 2002):

The Likelihood and the impact (Iacob, 2014) of the above-identified risks are as below:

Table: Risk Analysis

Source: developed by Author

Several Types of Arrangements

For the overall sponsorship arrangement for conducting this conference event, various categories and arrangements have been developed. The sponsorship has been widely divided into four major categories like Platinum, gold, silver, and bronze levels. By offering the sponsorship the logo of the sponsor shall be displayed on the website for it conference venue and the entry and exit of that conference hall etc. according to the cost of the sponsorship. In addition to the four discussed major groups The other sponsorship includes for the dinner, the Gala night, the mobile application, the internet cafe, the pens and pads which are to be provided to the attendees, the water bottles, etc. Responses that shall be sponsoring all these items and their logo shall be tested for that material for their publicity.

Even though the revenue from the advertising packages are not considered to be the part of the budget for the revenue from the event, deep dealers are the packages who can provide the icing and the cakes at the event location.

The ticket pricing for attending the event has been divided into members and non-members that too on the basis of early booking at the standard booking. Booking for the member, non-members, and the booking for the Gala dinner etc. has a discounted rate for the early booking. The prices of the tickets have been considered for the calculation of cash flow revenue from the event to make up the cost required for arranging the event.

Risk Analysis

Especially for the delegates who are going to attend this conference from the places outside Australia shall be provided a discounted rate for the booking of hotels and transit facilities. Once the booking has been done through the webpage, special coupon shall be provided by AIPM for booking of hotels and transit facility.

The associated cost for planning, executing and closing of the conference event in crown Perth centre shall have the following expenditures which can be considered as the project cost or the cost of implementing the project. The expenditure heads are as shown below:

From the above-developed expenditure requirement for the project which is AUD 3,74,786 and the expected revenue generation from the sponsorship itself is around AUD 4,56,500 (this does not include the revenue which is expected to be generated from the ticket selling and Advertising packages).

Hence from the above calculation, we can make it very clear that the NPV (Net-Present Value) is positive (Jory, et al., 2016). NPV = $ 4,56,500 – $ 3,74,786 = $ 81,714. So, the event of this conference which is going to be conducted by AIPM in crown Perth centre is going to be a profitable one. Even though AIPM is a non-profit making organization, but from the above calculations, it can be made it clear that if the target sponsorships are obtained then the project cost can be managed from the sponsorship about only. The additional revenue which is going to be generated through another part can be kept as a reserve for future.

From the above-developed figures of Expenditure and Revenue, distributing those at the month between May to November (the period of the project) should be done. The following cash flow curve is developed (Datey, 2015):

If the AIPM board decides to proceed with this program and hand over the whole responsibility of project management for the event, then all the methodology and steps as prescribed in PMBoK shall be followed to develop and deliver the project. The methodology which shall be followed to deliver the project will start from the initiation and terminate in close-out (Al-Zwainy, et al., 2016). The methodology of developing the project shall be as follows:

Initiation: As a part of the initiation, first a business case shall be developed with a high-level cost comparison for developing the cash flow curve. Once the case is approved, the Charter shall be developed by appointing a project manager (Enani, 2015).

WBS for Conference Event

Planning: As a part of the Planning, now the project manager shall take over the project and appoint key stakeholders required for the execution of the project. All the knowledge areas as per PMBoK, like scope, time, cost, human resource, risk, procurement application, stakeholder management etc. shall be developed.

Execution: As a part of the execution, as per the defined planning procedure the marketing technique shall be adapted so that the revenue can be maximized along with the expenditure by providing additional facilities.

Monitoring: Starting from the planning stage the project manager shall continue to review, track, and monitor the project deliverables on time to time basis, to control them whenever required.

Close-out: As a part of the close-out, being the project manager and the overall project team along with the sponsor, the AIPM team the project outcome shall be evaluated. All the feedback from the stakeholders shall be accumulated and along with the lessons learned a project close-out reports shall be handed over to AIPM.

References

Al-Jibouri, S. H., 2003. Monitoring systems and their effectiveness for project cost control in construction. International Journal of Project Management, Volume 21, pp. 145-154.

Al-Zwainy, F. M. S., Mohammed, I. A. & Raheem, S. H., 2016. Application Project Management Methodology in Construction Sector: Review. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, March, 7(3), pp. 244-253.

Bernazzani, S., 2018. 7 Ways to Use Social Media Customer Feedback. [Online]
Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/service/social-media-customer-feedback
[Accessed 23 April 2018].

Datey, V. C., 2015. Step Function Model For Forecasting Project Cash Flow. International Journal of scientific research and management (IJSRM), 3(5), pp. 2812-2815.

Enani, J., 2015. Project Charter. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 6(3), pp. 853-857.

Hillson, D., 2002. Use a Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS) to Understand Your Risks. Texas, USA, Project Management Professional Solutions Limted.

Iacob, V.-S., 2014. Risk Management and Evaluation and Qualitative method within the Projects. EcoForum, 3(1), pp. 60-67.

Jory, S. R., Benamraoui, A., Boojihawon, D. R. & Madichie, N. O., 2016. Net Present Value Analysis and the Wealth Creation Process: A Case Illustration. The Accounting Educators’ Journal, Volume XXVI, pp. 85-99.

Murray, S. L., Grantham, K. & Damle, S. B., 2011. Development of a Generic Risk Matrix to Manage Project Risks. Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 5(1), pp. 35-51.

Queensland Government, 2016. Using social media to market your business: the basics. [Online]
Available at: https://www.business.qld.gov.au/running-business/marketing-sales/marketing-promotion/online-marketing/social-media
[Accessed 23 April 2018].