The Definition and Evolution of Event Management

Question:

Discuss about the Event Management for Organizational and Business.

Event management can be defined as a process of using organizational and business management skills to envision, plan, coordinate and implement both business and social events. The events in this case refers to wide range of activities such as parties, conferences major and major tournaments like the upcoming world cup scheduled to take place in Russia in the year 2018.  This therefore means that event management is not all about a few events like weddings and parties but rather a whole spectrum of both social and business events such as home party and annual general meeting of a company respectively. Over time event management has undergone tremendous changes from where it begun. During its initial stages, event management was all about managing for social gatherings such as weddings and parties but today event management has taken up management of corporate world events such as business meetings and marketing events for the companies. (Damm, 2012) Today, the industry is characterized by a lot of technological improvements such as powerful public address systems and conference interface technologies that are capable of translating one language into another thereby bridging the langue barrier in any conference.  Many companies today enlist the services of event management companies to plan for their corporate events as a strategic business tool.  The corporate would want certain theme to be displayed during their events so that even though it could be an annual general meeting or an investor conference the theme and the values of the company as well displayed and communicated to the attendees through how the event is designed. This could be by crafting captivating messages that are strategically placed within the location of the event. How the event is also themed in terms of the color can also be a way through which the company is communicating to the attendees of the event. The company hosting the event would also be keen to look professional and would want all her guest to be served well during the meeting and ensure that every small detail of the event is gotten right and thus boosting the corporate image of the company and by extension the company brand. Social world have also increased reliance on event management as a strategic tool in their activities. (Getz, 2013) Many people today want their social events to look perfect in the eyes of their guest and because envisioning, planning and executing such an event will need careful planning by someone with experience event management has become part and parcel of the event management in the social world.  A single event has numerous potential through which it can enhance or improve a whole business. Through an event for example investor conference, a company can get numerous offers in terms of funds to invest and expand it business simply because the event is well organized which depicts how the organization itself looks like. Through a single event a company can also gain a good number of clients that will be important for supporting its business. (Kilkenny, 2016) An event also has a potential of wining a company business opportunity through the way they can pitch for business during a business event such as trade fair. Therefore a single event has a good number of ways through which it can improve a whole business.

Corporate and Social Event Management as a Strategic Business Tool

According to an event planning program designed by Judy Allen and named DRIVE, the foremost important aspect in planning an event is Define. This means defining or understanding through definition what has been done and is being done in your industry regarding all aspects of an event. The information can be gathered through business journals and other types of publications touching on the subject matter.  The second step is carrying out research. This means that researching or finding out what other industries are doing to make their functions or events successful. Here, it is advisable that research is carried out across all possible industries because this means more ideas are obtained. The ideas obtained in the research can be incorporated in your event. The source of information for research can be trade publications and educations seminars from event planners among other sources. The third step is to innovate. The step suggests that the event planner should innovate based on the research carried out in the previous step and see what may work best for their event. This can be future enhanced by working with event planning professionals to ensure that the vision of the company is well executed owing irrespective of the fact that the innovations are new and maybe not tried before. The forth step is Visualize. (Getz, 2014) This basically refers to envisioning how changes in the company product line or services may capture the attention of the market through publication in various forms of the media and the last step is to execute or implement the event using all the resources available in a reasonable way. The above steps will guide the objectives and the goals of the event being planed depending on what the owners of the event together with the planer will deem fit for their event. As mentioned in the above process the key method in setting up the purpose, objectives and goals of an event is through comparing notes with the industry peers through reading all necessary publications that are related to the event being planed. The comparisons should be drawn from all the relevant industries. Another method which can be applied in setting the goals of an event is through brainstorming with the event planers as resources person who can collate all the experiences they have into the event being planned. The elements to be considered when setting up purpose and goals of event include timeliness, effectiveness, and objectiveness. (Mehndiratta, 2008) Vision is a very important aspect of any event. It helps in narrowing down how the event should be planed and making issues concerned with the event planning clear and understandable to all the stakeholders involved in planning the event. Event experience on the other hand is also a very important aspect of the event in that it helps the event planers and owners to avoid pitfall mistakes that they may make in the process of planning for an event during the initial stages. Some aspects of the events are difficult to change once the process of the implementation of the project or the event has begun and thus it is important that there is adequate experience in planning for the event.  Event visualization is also a critical aspect during the initial planning of the event. (Kilkenny, 2011) This is because it enables the event planers to have a clear picture of how the event may look like when fully implemented. This visualization will therefore provide insightful information to the planners for better execution of the event. Event budgeting on the other hand will ensure all the activities of the event are well budgeted such that no part of the event can fail to be implemented due to lack of funds to run the activities. Return on investment can be obtained through carrying out the cost-benefit analysis of the event and rationally weighing the output verses the input. (SHARMA, 2009)

The Event Planning Program and Its Five Steps: DRIVE

A world cup final is the biggest single sport event in the world which has a total of 32 teams participating in the event. Apart from the teams the event also has numerous logistical challenges ranging from waste management in the stadiums to serving all the spectators and the media teams covering the event. (Kilkenny, 2016) The importance of applying objective through an event strategy is that it provides guidance to the strategy by ensuring that both FIFA and local organizing committee (LOC) make decisions have ensures world cup event lessens the negative impacts and improves the positive impacts it will have on the people, the environment and the economy. The event organizers, that is FIFA and LOC have come up with 25 sustainable objectives for the world cup 2018 in Russia.  The objectives are outlined below; 

Under health and safety we have the following objective

• To ensure that there is enough safety and security at the Fifa world cup events.
• To ensure that all the Fifa world cup sites and events re free form tobacco.
• To improve medical services related to the world cup
• To promote decent working conditions for all the World cup staffs
• To improve skills and capabilities of Fifa and LOC staffs including volunteers III.
• Create opportunities for low-income groups to obtain tickets for FWC matches. (Fifa, 2017) 

Under Green-Building standards for the stadiums

• To ensure that there is compliance of Fifa world cup standards with green-building standards.
• Have sound and sustainable management capacities of stadium operators.
• Ensure there is proper waste management
• To ensure that there is minimum environmental effect resulting from the tournament. (Fifa, 2017) 

• Ensure that Commercial Affiliates and suppliers comply with FIFA and LOC standards on fair marketing practices and ethics
• Encourage legal compliance with resettlement and buyout regulations related to FWC stadiums IX. Local Economic Development
• Support investments and infrastructure development in relation to the FWC to foster local economic development (Fifa, 2017)

The planers have put in place comprehensive strategies to ensure that all the event sustainable objectives are met as desired. First among this strategy is continuous engagement with the stakeholder. This means that all the objective are checked one after the other and comparing them with the actual work done on the ground. For example, the construction of the stadiums is supposed to go green and comply with Fifa regulations guiding environmentally friendly structures. This can be easily assessed by checking the nature of the materials used in construction and the technology implemented in the construction work. The planers are also using the strategy of carrying out awareness campaigns and communication report that ensures more number of people get acquainted with Fifa regulations and principles on the event management. (Fifa, 2017) The organization also uses Educational programs that indicate the achievement of its previous sustainability achievements. This will serve as a motivation to all the stakeholders that the sustainability strategies work and have results that everyone can see. These achievements also provide guidelines through which visualization of the strategy can be made for better understanding of the event. The organization also plans for the sustainability as an effective way to positive legacy. This way the organization set the standards such that all the stakeholders especially the applicants who requests considered to host the event already know what is expected of them and thus further helping to entrench the aspect of meeting the organizations objectives. Fifa also promotes the sustainability agenda in the world sport such that it does not look like it is an affair of world cup event only. This way it helps to universalize the agenda of Fifa such that it would be easier to educate future stakeholders about it and thus improving the chances of meeting the objectives. (Fifa, 2017)

Going green have potential of achieving results beyond the targeted objective of the event. Through this initiave the world can reduce the level of green house effect in the atmosphere and prevent further depletion of the ozone layer which acts as a screen which prevents harmful rays from the sun. This will further stop the raising of the water sea level as less ice will be melting due less heat from the sun. It will also reduce the rate at which the world climate is changing which affects plans and animals depending rain as a major source of water. Therefore apart from meeting the objective of the Fifa environmentally going green has other potential advantages to the world weather and climate.

References

Boehme, A. (2011). Planning successful meetings and events. New York: AMACOM.

Damm, S. (2012). Event Management. Hamburg: Diplomica Verlag.

Fifa (2017). Sustainability Strategy 2018 FIFA World Cup™. [online] Resources.fifa.com. Available at: https://resources.fifa.com/mm/document/tournament/competition/02/66/69/50/sustainabilitystrategyfor2018fifaworldcup_neutral.pdf [Accessed 30 Oct. 2017].

Getz, D. (2013). Event management & event tourism. New York: Cognizant Communication Corporation.

Getz, D. (2014). Event management & event tourism. New York: Cognizant Communication Corporation.

Kilkenny, S. (2011). The complete guide to successful event planning. 1st ed. Sydney: Mediamax.

Kilkenny, S. (2016). Complete Guide to Successful Event Planning : With Companion CD-ROM. Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc.

Mehndiratta, V. (2008). Event management. Chandigarh, India: Abhishek Publications.

Rojek, C. (2014). Event management. London [u.a.]: Routledge.

SHARMA, d. (2009). Event planning & management. New Delhi: Deep & Deep Publication pvt. Ltd.

Singh, R. (2009). Event management. Chandni Chowk, Delhi: Global Media.