International Journal Of Event Management: A Case Study On The ‘Save Your Beach’ Festival

Event Concept

Discuss About The International Journal Of Event Management.

This event plan will be based on the hypothetical organization Pigeon, which is situated in Gold Coast, Queensland. For the first time, this company will offer the event of a beach festival. It will be a small event for entertaining the local community (Bennett & Green, 2015). There was no previous record of such festival in Queensland and it will be a new experience for the Pigeon organization. The purpose of this event will be to focus on the sustainable activities and make the local community aware about the same. In the course of this event plan, the event concept will be described along with the operational issues, impact of the event and post event plan.

The purpose of this event is to create awareness among the local community of Queensland through a beach festival. This will be a new festival in the locality and targeted towards the local community as well as a larger population of Queensland. This event will be aimed at the sustainability practices of the community (Biswas, 2016). The equipments that will be used in the festival will be eco- friendly and not harm the environment in any way. The beach festival will take place at the gold coast, Queensland from 10 July 2018 to 14 July 2018. The timing will be fixed on all the 4 days, from 2 pm to 8 pm. The venue will be gold coast beach and it will remain the same for all the 4 days. Sustainability practices will be the underlying concept of this event and it will range from keeping the sea clean to use of bio- toilets at the venue. The name selected for this event is ‘save your beach’ and the logo is given below-

Fig: Event Logo

Source: As created by the author

The vision for this event is to create an eco- friendly region with the cooperation of the local community. This event will create awareness among the public on the wise use of natural resources and the visitors will have to follow the same policies of keeping the environment clean. The volunteers of the event will be assigned with the responsibility of keeping an eye on those who are not following the guidelines and penalty will be imposed on them.  

The goal of this event is given below-

Goal 1: To practice sustainability in the Queensland region

Goal 2: To make the local community understand about the importance conserving natural resources

Goal 3: To keep the environment, beach and the sea clean

S	This festival will be specific to the local community of the gold coast, Queensland area
M	The number of visitors attending the festival will be measured to estimate the reach of awareness
A	The activities of the festival will help in achieving the goal of the event
R	It will be relevant as sustainability is the recent fad all over
T	The time has been given in particular for the event schedule

Vision Statement

The event will be based on the theme of sustainability and eco- friendly activities. It will be implemented by setting up bio toilets at the venue. The bio- degradable waste and the non- biodegradable waste will be collected on two different bins. Food and beverages will be served on paper plates and cups, instead of plastic equipments. This is because plastic materials are not decomposed easily (Burton, 2016). The visitors who will not follow these rules will be charged heavy penalty. 

The event will be targeted towards the local community so that they can take care of the gold coast beach and stop polluting the seawater. The foreign tourists and visitors will also be targeted through the festival, who come to spend their vacation and do not care about the cleanliness of the beach (Rigney, 2018). The target market will be communicated by handing them leaflets and pamphlets, which will carry the details of the event.

Other stakeholders of the event will be the sellers who will put up their stalls in the festival; volunteers who will look after the beach during these four days; the sponsors of the festival; government officials; and the marketers of the event. They are selected as the stakeholders because this event will have a significant impact on them and they need to be aware of the sustainability practices. 

Fig: Staffing diagram for the beach festival

Source: As created by the author

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish
Stakeholder Meeting of Pigeon	2 days	Thu 6/14/18	Fri 6/15/18
Passing of the plan	1 day	Mon 6/18/18	Mon 6/18/18
Discussion of the plan	5 days	Tue 6/19/18	Mon 6/25/18
Approval of the plan from the board members	1 day	Tue 6/26/18	Tue 6/26/18
Submitting the plan to the Local Governing Body	1 day	Wed 6/27/18	Wed 6/27/18
Approval of the local governing body	3 days	Thu 6/28/18	Mon 7/2/18
Training Program of the Festival	5 days	Tue 7/3/18	Mon 7/9/18
Start of the beach festival	1 day	Tue 7/10/18	Tue 7/10/18

Fig: Event timeline

Source: As created by the author

1. The estimated expenses are given below-

Activities	Amount (AUD)
Rent of venue	1000
Marketing and promotion	2000
Resource procurement	3000
Payment of volunteers	10000
Miscellaneous	5000
Total	21000

The event will get the funding from government officials and private sponsors. Moreover, the foreign visitors will need to pay a token amount of money for entering the festival. It will help in bearing the additional cost of the event.

The event location was selected to be the Gold Coast beach of Queensland as it was relevant to the theme of the event. The organizers, Pigeon had intended to make the local community aware about keeping the beach and surrounding clean from pollution. There was appropriate contingency planning in case of any change in the climatic condition. The stalls were made up in such a way that they could be easily shifted to a safe zone in case of low tide or sudden storm. Moreover, the venue will be easily accessible by bus and personal vehicles as it was located in the prominent area of Queensland. It was a well- secured area as there were civic police always guarding off the coast.

Goals and Objectives

The event date and time was selected in the 2^nd week of July as it is the perfect time for tourist visit. This time was selected because rainfall remains the highest until the month of June, therefore the climate can be expected to be suitable during July (Cartlidge, 2015). There will not be much need for additional lighting as the beach already has sufficient lights. Only the stalls that will be put up will have lights and decorations to attract the visitors. The stalls will be decked up with LEDs as they use less energy, cost- effective and last longer. There will be other events such as Willow Rotary Markets, Vineyards lunch, history talk, workshops but these will not hamper the beach festival (Coghlan et al., 2017). This is because it is a new event concept and people always get attracted to something new and innovative. 

The local governing body will be approached for taking permission to conduct this event and a list of the activities will be provided to assure that the event will not harm the environment in any way. On the contrary, this event will be aimed at protecting the surroundings by preventing seawater pollution and keeping the beach clean.

It will be highly dependent on the volunteers, as they will look after the visitors. They will be responsible for looking after the cleanliness of the beach and seawater and penalize those who will be caught doing any illicit activity (Raybould et al., 2015). They will be given 1 day training prior to the event so that they are acquainted with their job role.

Other logistical considerations will include effectiveness of the sustainability practices conveyed through the event and the extent to which the visitors were ready to imply the same on their daily life.

The event of beach festival will take into consideration the socio- cultural, economic and environmental impacts. In terms of socio- cultural impact, the event will be helpful in creating awareness among the society regarding sustainability practices in the gold coast beach of Queensland. The event will be effective in bridging the gap among the different classes of the Queensland region and the community members will get some time off from their monotonous life to be involved in entertaining activities. The impact will be felt in terms of cultural aspects too, as the activities of the event will be aimed at the sustainable practices, which require involvement of the local community. It will enhance the traditional culture of Queensland and the local community will help in maintain the tradition (Gardiner & Scott, 2015).   

Event Theme and Rationale

In terms of the economic factors, it can be said that the event will be helpful in boosting the economy of the local region. This is because the tourists will pay a token amount for entering the festival, which will be useful in improving the infrastructure of eth beach. Moreover, the money that will be gained from the stall selling will be an additional income for the people with lower income level. It will be helpful in maintaining s per the high GDP rate of the country and the additional finance will be used as surplus for similar events in the future (Harmer & Rogerson, 2017).

There will not be any negative impacts on the environment of the country as the festival is intended to initiate sustainable approaches among the community members. The volunteers will be responsible for the cleanliness of the beach and seawater. Use of eco- friendly materials at the festival will not put any burden on the decomposition of materials.

As the strengths and weaknesses of the socio- cultural, economic and environmental factors are outlined, therefore this event will continue the legacy of sustainable practices in the future days. This unique event targeted at saving the beach, surrounding areas, will open eyes of the local community, and they will not get involved in any such activities, which will pollute the environment. The festival ‘save the beach’ was effective in meeting the demands of the stakeholders. It will create alertness among the local and foreign visitors. It was an approach in addition to the government’s aim to reduce the negative impacts on the sea beach and surrounding areas (Mackellar, 2014).      

After successful completion of the event, an evaluation will be done among the visitors. It will be a 3- month long process to analyze the impact of the event on the visitors and the change in their behavior. At the exit gate, there will be a register where the visitors will leave their remarks about the event along with their contact details. After 14 July, that register will help in reaching the visitors through phone calls messages and emails. A survey will be conducted online to measure the impact of the event and experience gained by the visitors. A follow up will be taken from the local governing body and the beach guards to know about the change in behavior among the local community people and the tourists as well.

Conclusion

This event plan has described in detail the name, theme, venue, date and logo of the beach festival. It has clearly explained the purpose behind conducting such a unique event. The impact of the event 742117in terms of socio- cultural, economic and environmental factors helped in realizing the legacy of the beach festival.

References

Bennett, A., & Green, B. (2015). Contemporary Music Plan: Accessing Live Music on the Gold Coast. Report prepared for Economic Development and Major Projects, City of Gold Coast. Gold Coast: Griffith University.

Biswas, S. N. (2016). Analysing Promotion and Visitor Expectations of Beach Tourism in Odisha with Special Reference to Puri Beach. In Handbook of Research on Promotional Strategies and Consumer Influence in the Service Sector (pp. 342-354). IGI Global.

Burton, P. (2016). The Gold Coast as a City of’Adolescent Urbanism’. Built Environment, 42(1), 189-204.

Cartlidge, N. (2015). Lines in the Sand: Urban Design Attributes, Characteristics and Values of Selected Gold Coast Beach Precincts.

Coghlan, A., Sparks, B., Liu, W., & Winlaw, M. (2017). Reconnecting with place through events: Collaborating with precinct managers in the placemaking agenda. International Journal of Event and Festival Management, 8(1), 66-83.

Gardiner, S., & Scott, N. (2015). Australian Tourism Demand for Domestic Travel Experiences: Insights for the Gold Coast. Griffith Institute for Tourism, Griffith University.

Harmer, D., & Rogerson, J. M. (2017). Festival Processes, Innovation, and Locality Response: Evidence From South Africa’s Rage Youth Festival. Tourism Review International, 21(2), 169-179.

Mackellar, J. (2014). Surfing the Fringe: An Examination of Event Tourism Strategies of the Bleach Festival—Coolangatta Queensland. Event Management, 18(4), 447-455.

Raybould, M., Anning, D., Fredline, L., & Ware, D. (2015). Urban beach venues: Vulnerability and sustainability in the face of climate change. International Journal of Event Management Research, 10(1), 84.

Rigney, V. (2018). Souveniring paradise: Popular culture and creative identity at the Gold Coast. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, 7(1)