Contemporary Issues in Event Management

Event management can act as a fundamental part of service delivery for many organisations, thus the focus on contemporary issues that occur within and impact upon the event management industry is an important topic of discussion within this field. This essay will explore key two contemporary issues that make an impact upon the management of events and the consumers that take part in the events. The two issues that will be discussed are firstly, whether the current concerns over healthy eating and the promotion of a healthy nation affect events management and also the accessibility of events: how age, gender, class factors might affect attendance for the events management industry. This essay will critique both issues by referring to theoretical, conceptual and practical examples in order to demonstrate how prevalent these issues actually are within event management. Alongside this discussion will be a critical analysis into the development of these two issues, in reference to their socio-cultural, political and economic contexts, this hopes to further answer whether contemporary issues in events management are really driven by these shifting patterns of leisure consumption. A full conclusion will close the essay with an explanation into, based on the discussion within the essay, the level of impact that the two contemporary issues have upon the management and consumers within the events management industry: as well as reviewing how these issues are developed with regards to the external context.
With obesity rates rising faster than ever, James (2003), health problems and over eating have become prevalent issues in the UK due to behavioural patterns that include decreased physical activity as well as an increase in the consumption of foods with a high concentration of saturated fat. The later part of this section will explore in more depth, the external issues that have led to the development of this important contemporary issue.
Event management is described as a social marketing tool by LMBS (2008), of which one of its many uses include: increasing levels of sport participation in the UK. With the current increasing opinion that physical activity in the UK remains low combined with, Sport England’s goal of transforming England into one of the most successful and active sporting countries in the world, as outlined by Sport England (2004), social marketing concepts such as events management are increasingly required in order to encourage participation in sport. O’Reilly and Madill (2007) discuss how events management is a tool that can be used improve sporting behaviours. In addition, research conducted by Gordon et al (2006) reveals that social marketing activities, such as events management have successfully been applied in order to increase levels of physical activity in the UK. Thus one can agree with the statement that this contemporary issue of over eating affects events management companies.
Therefore, it can be suggested that contemporary issues of the importance in improving the nation’s health has affected the events management industry as a whole as it has been demonstrated in the increasing demand for events management activities, as explored above. Following this outline, the following section hopes to explore the deeper effect that this contemporary issue has made on firstly, the management perspective of events management and secondly the actual consumers that participate in events management activities.
Due to the increasing contemporary issue of over eating in the UK, the planning and management of events management activities have been affected by the management needing to ensure that the event promotes a healthy lifestyle and does not directly encourage over eating. In addition, the increasing demand for events within the sport and physical health domain could also suggest that the managers’ of events management organisations should expand into offering events management support for sporting and active events. This is discussed by Goldblatt (2000) who proposes that there is a numerous increase in world sporting events, coinciding with the pressures on society to improve healthy living, the events managers’ should begin to take event management planning from the perspective of how their events can benefit the overall health of their consumers. Thus one can agree that this contemporary issue does affect the event management industry, especially from the manager’s perspective. Events managers’ that seek to promote healthy lifestyles within their events could also, according to Goldblatt (2000) gain support from the government or non-profit agencies, as according to him, they have a goal of increasing the number of events that can lead to an increase in health people in their particular nation.
When analysing the development of health problems and over eating in the UK, a political reference has to be made and discussed. In regards to a political context, Hawkes (2006) proposes that the process of globalisation has contributed to the rise of obesity and over eating in the UK. This is due to globalisation transforming the availability, cost and types of food that are available. Popkin (1998) agrees with this view and suggests that globalisation has led to an increased consumption of fatty food in developed countries, such as the UK and a decrease of the consumption of nutritional foods such as cereal. Thus, this further highlights the importance of events management in encouraging healthy eating within the UK. One can agree with the statement that this contemporary issue has affected the event management industry a great deal.
With reference to placing these contemporary issues of over eating in the UK, within a socio-cultural context, it can be argued that this issue was developed out of the view that men in particular, do not consider losing weight as an activity that should be carried out by men, but rather women, according to Wilkins (date unknown). As a consequence, it could be argued that having a balanced diet has not been seen as a popular activity and that social marketing experts such as event managers could assist in changing this view. In addition, further socio-cultural factors which have been implicated in leading towards the increase in obesity in the UK are due to a poor level of education and income, especially in industrialized countries and areas of the UK, Seidell and Flegal (1997) propose that these factors lead to an increase in overweight people. Meanwhile, it is also argued by Seidell and Flegal (1997), that in the UK particularly the efforts that the nation is beginning to place on counteracting obesity and over eating should also be balanced out with the level of effort that needs to be placed by encouraging the underweight individuals to eat more. Thus highlighting how events marketing could be an interactive and demonstrative tool that is used to motivate individuals to carry out certain eating patterns. This point also ties in well with placing this contemporary issue within an economic context, as described above, individuals with a low income are most likely to over eat convenience food. Also, a pivotal development towards over eating in the UK could be brought about by the increase in the actual value of time, particularly for women, as explored by Chou et al (2008). This is due to the increasing amount of time that women are now working meaning that they have less time at home to cook healthy foods and this could be suggested to in turn, lead to an increase demand for convenience food. Another important economical factor that has led to the development of overeating in the UK has been proposed to be the increased availability of fast food and convenience snacks, this increased availability means that it is becoming easier to over eat and eat cheap unhealthy foods. Once again, events management can be applied to demonstrate to people how to cook healthy and nutritional meals quickly.
Successful event management implies that the target audiences of the event have access to the event in addition, age, gender and class factors that occur externally to the event, such as the development of stereotypes which could be argued to affect the attendance of an event. In reference to arts events in particular, age and class specifically affect the attendance at an event, according to Upright (2004), the implication that this has upon the management is that they have to market the event toward a specific target audience. Thus, it can be suggested that issues of age, gender and class stereotypes affect which events are targeted at which audiences. From a consumer perspective, consumers will look to attend events that welcome their age, class and gender, if such events they would like to attend are inaccessible to them, they are likely to be discouraged from seeking to attend similar events. It can be suggested that the accessibility of events in regards to age, gender and class will not affect the attendance of the event because the event is planned in a way that it will target and invite the individuals that would like to attend the event and thus would have access to the event.
In relation to how the socio-cultural context has led to the development of different events being accessible to different social groups, it has been suggested that the upper classes could have more access to an increasing number of events, according to Lareau (1987). However, it could be argued that each social group has access to events; they just desire to attend different events. In this case it could be argued that yes the shifting patterns of leisure consumption certainly drives the contemporary issues in event management because the two fields are so closely linked because the event managers want to target and relate to their audience depending on what that specific gender, class or age group likes. Nevertheless, event management can stand apart and target its own audiences regardless of what age gender and class accessibility issues take place in regards to leisure consumption. As long as event managers adhere to laws in regards to under age drinking and attendance in certain locations such as pubs and clubs, then gender, age and class accessibility issues should not affect the events management industry too much, especially as the events management industry is a business and as with any business, it will ensure their audience can access the event anywhere.
Political factors which have led to the increase in accessibility to event issues in regards to age and gender include for example, stereotypes that have been developed within politics, which can reinforce how either men or women should attend certain events. Williams and Best (1990) explore how men are seen to achieve higher in politics than women do, and thus it could be argued that such political events could be more open to men but also that men are seen as greater achievers than women and therefore would be granted more access to events than women are. The role of the event management companies is to ensure that equal access is promoted. Coinciding with this, there has also been an increase in women only events, particularly in business.
To conclude, it can be suggested that the shifting pattern of the contemporary issue of over eating in the UK and obesity has greatly affected the events management industry as it determines which events are applicable to certain audiences and fashionable at the time and as with all business, the events management industry want to appeal to their audiences likes.
However, the issue of accessibility of events in regards to age, gender and class should not be considered as a contemporary issue that affects the events industry too greatly as the events managers target their audience and ensure their audience have access to the event as a natural part of their business practice and may not consider age, gender and class as an issue that is driven by shifting leisure patterns but as a part of understanding their target audience.
As discussed within this essay, there are political, economical and socio-cultural factors which lead to the development of the two contemporary issues that have been analysed within this essay, and therefore in turn affect how the event management industry responds to these contemporary issues.