Reading 4 Responses

Questions in packet (page 99-100):

1. Analyze the strategic importance of financial planning at an early stage.

For any event, there is always a certain amount of money set aside to put it on. For the most part, no event can be planned without taking this amount of money inaccount. A budget is created and everyone has to work very hard to keep to this budget because if the budget is overspent, there will be no money to make up for what is lost. Starting the financial planning at the earliest stage possible is necessary so that no one overspends on the event early on. The more you can prevent this, the more the event will run smoothly. The earlier you start, the more a group can prevent overspending. For an event, like a Ball State football game, we have a very limited amout of many we can spend at a game because it is a state funded institution. Most of the money has to come from ticket and concession sales.

2. Identify the key practices exercised in its financial management by identifying any cost controls.

When planning a football game, one thing we have to think about is staff at the football game. Security is taken care of by student workers. Student workers are only paid minimum wage, which keeps the cost of security down. Also, throughout the game, as attendance varies, we allow workers to go home to keep the costs down. Also, to keep concessions sales up, we do not allow food or drink to come into the stadium so that people can purchase food at consessions. To keep attendance up at the games, students are let in free. The money we lose to letting students in free comes from season ticket sales we make.

3. Identify and analyze the key areas of financial risk, how successful the event was in this risk management and suggest ways in which the event could have been more successful.

One of the financial risks would be lowering the costs of tickets to increase attendance at these football games. When the football team is doing well, these are fine, but when the team is not doing well, they struggle to sell tickets for each game. I believe the event can be more successful if they tried to include special programs with the football game to keep people coming for more than the football game, but maybe the experience of the football game.

Questions from case study (page 159):

1. What are the key attributes, skills, and attitudes that the Australian Open would desire of (a) a ball person and (b) a courtesy car driver? How would you assess these attributes?

A. A ball person needs to be professional at all times. They also need to understand customer awareness and the policies and procedures for an effective and safe environment. To determine this, I would look for professional charcterisitics like completeness of the application, demearnor during the interview, and the types of responses to application and interview questions. B. Courtesy car drivers need to also be professional, but understand that their main importance is to provde transportation to the guests and celebrities safely and punctually. The way I would determine this would be time the application was turned in (before due date, on time, late), punctuality to the interview, and seeing how punctual they were at their previous jobs. I would also look for how safe of a driver they were according to the driver's record.

2. The Australian Open, in the past, 'employed' a large number of volunteers. Why have these volunteer positions become paid positions for the 14-day event?

These paid positions have really become rewards for doing such a good job. For the courtesy driver, they are rewarded for doing their job correctly and privately. This organization gets so many applications each year that it gives them the privelidge to choose the best of the best and pay them for being such.

3. List and explain the ways in which the Australian Open and companies such as Deleware North can improve the recruitment, selection and training of the staff the employ for the event. What ways are there to reward and motivate the staff other than those mentioned in the case study?

Ways they can possibly improve their recruitment is to stretch the range from where they recruit. Send out press releases to other cities. They can also post to other on-line sites to make it more accessible. Broadening the range could bring in better, fresh, and more diverse talent. Other ways they can motivate the staff is to possibly pay for their stay while working there. I think a really good thing to do would be to offer some of them (the best) a chance to come back and work for them again, either at the same event or a different event that the catering company may work for. More possible job opportunities usually means better work ethic.

4. The Australian Open is an extremely successful major event in Australia. What are the threats to the success of this event, referring particularly to the management of the human resources?

If the hiring process is underestimated and they let anyone come to work for the Australian Open, they are not only jeopordizing the success and functionalitlty of their event, they are sacrificing the legendary experience of that event. If the wrong type of people work at this event, it may ruin the experience of people attending the event, which means less and less people will attend each year.

Reading 3 Activity

Questions for Activity 3 from on-line topic page:

"Hosting the Summer 2012 Olympics in Indianapolis, IN"

1. Can the community support the size of event I am planning?

The size of Indianapolis, IN is approximately 800,000 people. Comparing this city size to the size of the city that is currently hosting the Olympics, which would be Vancouver at approximately 600,000, I would say that Indianapolis is big enough to support the Olympics.

2. What will be the economic impact of hosting the event?

The Olympics is a world-wide event. People from all over will be coming to participate and watch the Olympics in person. This will bring in so much business for everywhere in Indianapolis. Hotels will be booked solid, restaurants will be packed, camping areas will be full and departments stores will be busy at all hours of operation. A lot of money flow will be coming into the during this event. All businesses in this area will have to stock early and look ahead for what may be coming.

3. Are there other events on at the same time?

If I were to plan for Indianapolis to host the Summer Olympics in 2012, these would be the other events going on at approximately the same time. The summer olympics happen every 4 years in August. So, in August 2012, among many different art, food and culture festivals will be two big events that may disrupt the planning. For one, the annual state fair happens every year in mid-august. The state fair is something very big that a lot of people participate in. The span of the event is 11 days. The visitors coming to the state fair could be affected by the Olympics which are typically held around the same time in August. The other event that could cause a problem would be Superbowl XLVI, which is being held at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The Superbowl, which is the next most popular sporting event watched in the nation, could cause many population problems, as well as business problems if held in the same city as the olympics. Now, granted, the olympics are placed in certain cities many years in advance so the Superbowl would not be placed in the same city if that city had been chosen. So, technically, it would not be an issue.

4. What cultural issues might affect interest in the event?

I don't believe there are any cultural issues in Indianapolis. In fact, I believe they encourage events that focus on different arts and cultures so that they may better expose these topics to the public eye and let people be immersed in different cultures to better experience them.

5. Who is my target market? What is it about this market/s that will ensure support for my event?

The target market is all ages. Participants usually range between 18 and early-mid thirties, but viewers of all ages watch and have interest in the Olympics. Since this market includes everyone that has interest, which is a majority of the nation, there would be no problems with support for hosting the Olympics in Indianapolis.

6. Do I have sufficient resources to professionally promote and operate my event?

Indianapolis, IN is the 14th largest city in the US and the third largest city in the midwest (behind Chicago and Detroit). Being of its size, it has businesses that have some of the best advertisers and companies that will be able to produce and run an event of this size. Being the largest city in Indiana means they will be able to pull from all other cities, if needed, to provide the manpower needed to pull off an event like this.

7. Has a similar event been conducted before? If so, how did it go?

A world-wide event has never been conducted here before. The largest event so far will be the Superbowl in 2012 and it hasn't even happened yet.

8. Does the event traditionally attract interest?

Everyone I know has an interest in the Olympics. It's something the world, as a whole, participates in and enjoys watching. Even though some countries may be worse than others, it's something that each country can take pride in at one time or another.

9. What is the attitude to the event of the various levels of public sector agencies that I will be dealing with?

I believe the attitudes of the public sector agencies will be skeptical. They will want a through analysis and planning of an event of this magnitude. They will make sure that nothing is overlooked before going through on such a major event. They will also want a lot of public feedback. Nothing can be overlooked they are going to be OK with going on with an event of this magnitude. If even the slightest calculation is off, it might be back to the drawing boards for everything.

10. Are the public sector agencies supportive of hosting events in their communities?

Indianapolis is known for hosting many public events. These events are happening all the time. Whether it be food festival in the mall, an art walk in the downtown streets or a big Superbowl, Indianapolis always seems to be involved in hosting major and minor public events.

11. Are the participants, teams or entertainers that will constitute the event, available, affordable, and willing to do so?

For most participants in the Olympics, it is an honor to even be in the Olympics. This event is also held somewhere different in the world every year and each country always shows up. Being in the Olympics is a chance for anyone participating to be seen by the world, represent your country, and compete against other champions in your field, which isn't given to just anyone. I believe anyone involved in the Olympics are willing to go anywhere, including Indianapolis.

12. What special events are currently available that my city or sporting organization can bid for? What lead time do these events have?

A special event that my city can bid for would be the Superbowl. We have a large enough city to accommodate many people and we have a big enough stadium to house the event. The lead time for a Superbowl is about 5 years. They cut down to 3 cities 5 years in advance. Then they vote on one city 3 years in advance. 5 years in advance, they bid, 3 years in advance, the winner is chosen.

Reading 2 Responses

Questions in packet (page 85):

1. Identify the main types of positive and negative event impact with the use of your own researched examples. Evaluate the extent and nature of the short- and long-term impacts involved.

In Indianapolis, they just built a new stadium for the Indianapolis Colts called the Lucas Oil Stadium. The stadium was built for when the colts play their football games (of course). The positive impacts from this stadium being built was that it created more jobs to run the facility, people are proud of the stadium because it's nice and new, which makes them proud for their city, and it also brings accommodates more people than their other stadium so it brings more business into the city when they have a game. Some negative impacts are that the stadium is not used for anything else, only the colts football games. The use should be shared a little more. Another negative impact is that from building this stadium, they are making the rest of the people in the state pay an extra tax called "tax 2." It's a 2% tax when you buy food at restaurants or shop at a department store. Even though it's only a small tax, this could anger people who do not live anywhere near Indy, people who do not have any interest in being in attendance at the games or people who simply can't ever be in attendance at the games. Another negative impact is that, over time, the city may not be able to accommodate all of the people that come to the games. Being a big town already, they may be prepared to handle the big crowds, but over time, this could become a situation since the city has been expanding a lot. Short-term impacts include being proud of the city for the stadium, increasing attendance at the games due to the nice facilities and bringing in more business to the local business. Some long-term impacts will be increasing in the number of jobs to maintain the facility, better efficiency in running games due to repetitiveness and the stadium becoming nationally known.

2. Research and analyze how one city of your choice has used sports event-led strategies to achieve wider municipal objectives?

In Muncie, the city council has started many different kinds of youth programs and events for a few municipal objectives. Through these small-time, cheap programs, they plan to increase the level of sports played in the city. They would also like to increase the amount of participation in sports and physical activities. One of their main concerns that triggered this was the childhood obesity problem in the US. They want to try to increase the participation of children in sports by building better facilities, while also decreasing the cost of the program. They plan on doing this through volunteerism and physical education programs through the city school department and county school department. Some incentives to join programs are awards in school and sport, discounts for so many years in the program and a first year discount. With Muncie being a poorer city than most, they strive to make programs like this inexpensive to keep their children actively involved.

3. Identify the event management that is required to ensure that risks are minimal and benefits are optimal.

Effective planning is always number one in event management. Failure to plan out everything in detail equals pitfalls and, sometimes, complete devastation. Planning for how many people will be in attendance to your event is required. When you plan for a certain amount of people and are accurate, this means that you have enough facilities available to accommodate everyone. This also means you have enough security, food, and other assets that might be useful or necessary throughout the game. You will have enough space, manpower, and surveillance to control any situation that may come up whether it be safety related or business related. Choosing the right venue for a particular event (or building one) is also something to consider. If you are arranging a small event, but plan for too many people, millions of dollars could be wasted. On the other hand, if you plan a big event, but choose a small venue, people will be hard to control or accommodate so millions of dollars could also be wasted with the aftermath of such an event. When building a venue for a specific event, things to be considered are the size, how many people will be in attendance, efficiency, after-use, and affordability. If any of these things are overlooked, the after effects could be devastating to the host business or city.

4. Consider how Restormel Council will make a success of the intended new developments at Fistral Beach.

Even though Fistral Beach only has a few facilities to take on much capacity, the town still attracts thousands, sometimes millions, of visitors, tourists, and competitors each year. This is due to this beach being part of a world competition. This little town relies on the surfing industry to bring in business. New developments include a new Life-Saving Surf club, British Surfing Association, and an event training and headquarters. With all of these businesses coming in to fund the surfing industry, it will attract more and more entrepreneurs to bring in start-up businesses like hotels, department stores, tourist boutiques, and more visitor friendly facilities like lavatories. To bring in more tourism to the town 365 days out of the year, restaurants, museums, sight-seeing tours, and other tourist business may open over the course of these developments. Bringing in these developments will provide more jobs so that more people may come to live in this town. With more people living in the town, they will need more long-term/everyday businesses like contractors to build houses and realtors to sell those houses. In a few years, this town could be a booming town full of tourism and excitement all due to this event that comes through the town each year.

Reading 1 Responses

Questions in packet (Reading 1, page 18):

1. Why are special events created, and what purpose do they serve in society?

Special events are created to mark a special time in someone's life like a birthday or retirement. They are also created to celebrate key moments and special times of their lives that they wish to remember well. Some events are large enough to create milestones throughout one's life so that someone may "measure their private lives." Examples of these milestones are the millennium, WW2, Australia's Bicentenary, and the Sydney Olympics. Special events play an important role in celebrating one's life and is therefore, very important to society.

2. Do special events mirror changes in society, or do they have a role in creating and changing values? Give some examples to illustrate your answers.

I do believe some events mirror changes in society. For example, rock concerts in the 70s were created through a new kind of hippie culture that developed during the war. In Nimbin, they used to hold a kind of "Woodstock" concert there. It was here that hippie culture began to thrive because of the concert that was held here every year. Since it was such a small town, the same group of people never left. Because these people never leave, the same kind of concerts and special events keep coming to the same place. I also believe that they have a role in creating and changing values. For example, charity walks, protests, and speeches bring people together to state a value or reiterate a value that has already been said. Either way, they are trying to create this value, change the value, or reaffirm the value of the people participating.

3. Why have special events emerged so strongly in recent years in Australia?

Special events have emerged so strongly because Australia is getting more popular since the Olympic games were held in Sydney. The opera house is also a world-known building and is known for being in Sydney, which , in turn, brings more and more tourism, which brings more acts or events to the area. These events also bring writers and journalists, who then write books about the country. In his book, A Sunburned Country (also known as the Down Under), Bill Bryson talks about how his first visit to Australia was through a conference in Melbourne. After arriving here, he wanted desperately to come back. Another one of his visits was through the same conference, this time in Sydney. It was after this that he wrote his book on Australia. In turn, his book would probably make other people interested in Australia so they will want to come here. So, after all that, the main reason why special events have emerged is because each event brings more people here who will then, in the future, hold other events here.

4. Why are the key political, cultural, and social trends that determine the current climate of events in Australia and how would you expect these to influence the nature of events in the coming years?

Usually these trends bring in tourism, which means more people coming in. So with these trends, they hold events. For example, in 1980s, there was an economic boom and with a sport event happening in Perth, the industry took it upon themselves to try to put "Perth on the map," or simply, bring in tourism and business to Western Australia. While big events like the Olympics coming in, the industry has tried to put on other big events to keep people coming in while the site is still "fresh" in the public's minds. I believe that as long as these influences were positive, the nature of these events would be bigger and more popular. Although, with the economy getting worse world-wide, it doesn't look good for the events industry. With people trying to save money, they may not want to 'waste' money on something that happens every year or every other month because they know it will come around again. This could cause money loss for these events and a possibility of being cancelled for good. Also, with Australia going green, many events may become more "green." This may make people more interested. Now, I myself, may not have much insight to how this might change events exactly, but I'm sure that because this is a social trend, public events will slowly change to mirror the public values of going green.

5. Identify an event in your city or region which has the capacity to be a hallmark event and give your reasons for placing it in this category.

I believe the Indy 500 has the potential to be a hallmark event. This race is held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, IN. This is the largest single-day sporting event in the world. It's so popular that the stadium itself can hold approximately 400,000 people, which includes the infield. For the most part, it has been publicly broadcasted on radio or television ever since it's existence, although it is blacked out in the Indianapolis market. I believe this is due to wanting to keep attendance up at the actual stadium. It only happens once a year over Memorial day weekend, which means thousands of people from all over the country and world come to see this event. People have associated the Indy 500 with Indiana, which means it will never move from this region/state.

6. What characteristics define an 'industry'? Using these criteria, do you consider that there is an 'events industry' in Australia?

Some characteristics that define an industry are marketability and popularity. If an industry has no marketability, it means there is no way to sell it's ideas, products, or services to the public. An industry can only exist if there is a public out there that is interested in it and is able to access it. For example, an industry must also be able to be 'bought.' If an industry markets to a certain group of people, but they can't afford it, it will not last because it is not marketing to customers that can afford it. An industry also has to be somewhat popular. If an industry tries to start, but is not a popular idea in the area it tries to start in, it will not last either. I believe that there is an events industry in Australia because, where there is an abundance of people, there will be events to be held. Whether it be weddings, surf club tournaments, or the Olympics, people will want to hold events as benchmarks in their life.

7. Do you agree with the attributes and knowledge areas events managers believe they require? Create a list of your own attributes and skills based on these listings.

I do agree with most of the requirements of the events managers. Although, I believe networking should be of higher importance on the list than some of the others. In my opinion, networking is one of the most important skills you can learn in your career. It can lead to so many more opportunities and open so many more doors. Another thing I didn't see on the list was safety and liability knowledge. I think this is another very important attribute any manager should have when managing events. Many things can happen during events that are out of your control and managers need to be able to cover themselves and their company. To do that, they will need that knowledge of safety and liability.

Question from on-line topic page:

Identify an event in your city or region that has the capacity to be a 'hallmark' event. Why do you feel that sporting organizations/cities attempt to stage world-class events?

Cities/ sporting organizations attempt to stage world-class events to bring in tourism and businesses to the area. Where there is tourism and events to go to, there will be people, where there will be people, there is potential for businesses. The more businesses you can bring into the area, the more people are willing to stay in the area. For smaller towns, they can use larger sporting events to put themselves "on the map." This statement basically means to make them more well-known and visited more to keep people coming there.

Case Study Questions (page 22):

1. What roles should events play in current society?

Some roles that events should play in society are providing entertainment to the public, providing benchmarks so people might mark their lives by them, give people a chance to gain or change values, provide a way of awareness to social problems or public organizations, and giving people a way to celebrate key moments in their lives.

2. What is the correlation between events franchised by the host community and those developed from the ground up? Do they both achieve different agendas and if so, what? Which is more valuable and why?

I didn't really understand this question. To me, the two kinds of events noted in the first question seem to be the same thing. There is no difference.

3. Are the enormous resources required to develop a grass roots event justifiable? How can such an event be held accountable over the short and long term?

I believe these types of events are justifiable because people should be able to hold whatever special event they would like to hold if it holds true value or purpose. These grass roots events hold just as much value and purpose as any other kind of event so they shouldn't be unjustified. These events can be held accountable by giving the operations to a certain group of people who will put it on each year. Depending on one person could be problematic due to last-minute interruptions or being too busy; but if the job is given to an organized group of people, it would probably last longer and be able to be held accountable over the short or long term.

4. What other agendas should events like Riverfestival be embracing?

I believe Riverfestival should also take into consideration celebrating more than just eating lots of food and setting things on fire. This would be an opportune time to bring up social problems or problems that the city or other groups of people are having with the river. This way, they are making these problems aware to a massive group of people each year. This will take their problem awareness to another level.

5. What are the potential pitfalls of the approach taken by Riverfestival?

This festival plans to get bigger and bigger as the years go on, but it seems to me that this festival already started off pretty big. It's getting so big that eventually the town will not be able to control it. Litter, sewage, police, and space will inevitably become a problem because there will be so many people that the sewers, rubbish bins, police, and hotels will not be able to contain it. It will become out of control before anyone can see it coming.

6. How does a strong fiscal management sustain a good festival? What influence, if any, should fiscal management have on the artistic direction of a festival?

A strong fiscal management can sustain a good festival by being able to provide money for the festival every year. If they didn't have a strong understanding of money management, the festival would go bankrupt very quickly because they wouldn't realize how much money they were spending on entertainment before it was too late. Being conscious of the money situation for a festival is the key to making the festival last for many years. I don't believe there should be any influence on the direction of the festival, although they should have a say on when to cut off the amount being brought in to make it affordable.

Updates of Intramural Project

*Updates will start from most recent date.

Feb. 21- Volleyball had to be cancelled on Sunday due to unknown reasons by the director. We have had to reschedule the volleyball games last minute. We were just going to skip volleyball for this week, but decided not to due to people being upset about not being able to play an "organized" game. So James and I took suggestions and decided to space the 3 volleyball games over the first three days of the week. Game one would be on Monday at 5:30 before Soccer, game 2 would be on Tuesday at 5:30 before basketball and game 3 would be on Wednesday at 5:30 before ultimate frisbee. All other sports remain as schedule.

Feb. 17th- The Monday games have expanded to games being everyday. We're running an Intramural league for volleyball, soccer, basketball, ultimate frisbee, and football (gridiron). They have been doing fairly well. We've only had a few casualties. We're still working out the schedule, but plan to have the tournament in week 9 and 10 while teaching Australian sports to those who wish to learn. In week 11, we plan to have the Australian games tournament, which, as of right now, will include Cricket (short and timed version), netball, and a relay version of Ironman.

Feb. 7th- We had our first volleyball games tonight. 6 teams- 3 winners. I think we've decided to let everyone participate as they wish and try to do all the sports we have already set up once a week. After 6 weeks of playing regular games, we'll host a tournament week, in which one team will be champion. Then we can do one final day of events (we'll probably make new teams) for all Australian sports. These will probably include Cricket, Netball, and Iron Man. They may have to be modified, but this is still a rough idea. The teams will remain the same for all of the final Aussie tournament. Then, at the dinner, we'll present an Australian sport champion team... or something of the sort. As I said, this is the rough idea. Things might change depending on interest.

Feb. 4th- Yesterday, I created a survey for all of the Ball State students. This survey was to find out about the interests of the students so that we can better cater to them with sports they will actually want to play. The survey consisted of asking what sports interested them the most out of Touch Football, Tennis, Ultimate Frisbee, Volleyball, Soccer, and Basketball. Then we asked them to rank them from least favorite to most favorite. Other questions we asked them involved upcoming events. Other questions included how competitive they were on a scale from 1-5, what kind of teams would you like to compete with (CO-ED, male, female...), would they be interested in cabin olympics. would they be interested in learning Netball and Cricket, would they be interested in learning to paddle board and then we allowed them to make further comments.

The results of the surveys were as follows: We wanted to choose 5 sports and tennis was the least liked so we decided Intramurals would include all of the sports mentioned except Tennis. The questions that referred to competitiveness and preference of teams were just references to us for making the teams. A majority of everyone were interested in cabin olympics, learning about netball and cricket, and learning how to paddle board. 2 comments made on the surveys expressed interest in learning lawn bowling as well.