Project Management Techniques For Local Art Festival Event

Organisational Issues in Project Management

Event management is a program, which includes managing an event planned, organized, monitor, and controlled effectively. An event manager plays an important role in this case. In the report, event management with six major techniques will be discussed. Events could be a festival, ceremonies, weddings, concerts, conventions, and conferences, which are created and implemented effectively, and completed on time and within the budget decided.

Project management has various techniques, which will be helpful in managing the project effectively, and competition of the event on time and within the estimated budget. The major six techniques included in the report are SWOT analysis, Work breakdown structure, Gantt chart, Risk analysis, RACI matrix, and stakeholder management strategy. Through these techniques, the project strengths, weakness will be identified, which may be used to gain opportunity and avoid threats related to the project. The activities and task to be performed for project management, their scheduled activities, and who will perform the activities are identified through these techniques. Moreover, the strategy to manage various stakeholders of the projects is also planned for the successful completion of the project. Three major things needed to implement a project plan is money, people, and schedule, which will be included in the report while discussing the project management techniques (Kerzner, 2017).

In the report, the project to be managed and taken for discussion is a local art festival event that is to be created and managed for environmental sustainability promotion that has to be held across the city next summer, which will be conducted from May to September. The Chief Executive of Metropolis City Council is willing to organize these events. The project plan is to be developed, for the Culture and Leisure Committee that will include the way the team is going to manage the project for timely completion of the project and with the budget estimated that is £ 50,000.

The activities or task that needs to be included in the project is identifying a theme for the festival; managing relationships with stakeholders; planning appropriate events; ensuring licenses are in place; managing health and safety and developing media and publicity for events (Tuner, 2014).

The project plan and methods used for project management are taken because the major aspects to consider for management of the project were time, budget, schedule, and activities. For this, the SWOT analysis was done for internal and external analysis of the project. The activities to be conducted and managed are analyzed through a work breakdown structure. The schedule of the activities, to ensure that they are completed on time is done through Gantt chart understanding. The personnel and its due responsibility are delegated with the use of the RACI matrix. The risk which can be responsible for crossing the budget were analyzed and mitigate through risk management strategies, and the stakeholders, who are important aspect in the project, needs to be managed, for which they are classified according to the priority, and the respective strategies are formed through stakeholder management strategy method (Lock, 2017).

Project Management Techniques for Local Art Festival Event

This technique is helpful in identifying the key strength and weakness of the project that has to be managed, and major opportunities and threats are identified which are attached to the event. From Appendix 1, SWOT table key points to be discussed are:

 Strength

• Natural attraction – for this local art festival, the aim is to promote environmental sustainability, where attraction through the natural beauty of the city is presented, which one of the major tourist attraction as well
• Cultural attractions – in the art festival, the culture of the region is majorly included in the event, while promoting environmental sustainability. Therefore, this event has a responsibility to attract culture, which is one of the key strength of the project
• Institutional infrastructure
• Environmental sustainability – as already discussed, the major motive of the whole event is to promote environmental sustainability, and this is implemented through the event effectively, which is a great strength of this project (Harding, 2017)

Weakness

• Lack of publicity – since the local art festival is not as popular as other musical events, promotional techniques could not include publicity
• Lack of stakeholders participation – stakeholders are not interested in participating in such events, therefore it is one of the weaknesses of the project
• Lack of shopping points – since it is an art festival, the shopping points are not there in the event, which could be one of the attractions for the guest, but unfortunately, this is one of the weaknesses of the project
• Lack of entertainment – the environmental stability is the major focus, due to which the entertainment source is low in the event, which is another weakness observed in the project
• Limited resource capacity – resources are limited, as it is to be planned in the city, therefore it seems to be another weakness or limitation of the project
• Coordination – since it is an event, which will run from May to September, the coordination could one of the problematic points of the program
• Funding limitations – the source of funds are limited to the local art festival, which could restrict the resources used and required for execution

Opportunity

• Employment opportunities – the project is a source of income for many people, as it generates employment for many people involves in the project.  
• Cultural tourism integration – various culture could be seen at the same place, or ground, which indicates the integration of the culture
• Accommodation opportunities – accommodation can be provided to the guest in the city, who came to visits the event
• Contribution towards culture, historical value and natural value of the region
• Economic growth – this event can be responsible for the regional and national growth
• Creative exposure – exposure to creativity is another key opportunity from this project
• Sponsorship – as various sponsors are involved, through which the companies can promote their brand name through the event

Threat

• Inadequate governance – the governance required for the project execution could be inadequate, which is a threat for the timely completion of the event
• Loss of unique historical values – as to promote environmental sustainability, the historical values of the city can be ignored
• Disruption of cultural and ecological structure – since the project execution will be responsible for resources utilization, it could disrupt the city’s ecological and cultural structure
• Environmental impact – the waste produced by the project, could impact badly on the environment
• Political effect (Ho, 2014)

This technique of project management, explains the work or activities to be conducted for the project through a structure. From Appendix 2, WBS structure for local art festival management includes seven major work, which will further be diversified into activities:

• Organize event team – initial work in the project to be managed is to create and organize a team by the project manager, this work includes the formation of the executive team, searching and selecting event performers and helpers, such as stalls, and creativity executer, who will be responsible for the promoting environmental stability. Moreover, budget estimation is also done, which is £ 50,000 for this project
• Performance activities – this is another task to be included, which will include the activities to be managed, related to the performance. This work further includes drafting and selecting programs to be included to promote environmental sustainability, and the practice of the performance to be conducted is considered, the progress of the project is reviewed as well, and for the performance to be conducted, the necessary equipment is acquired efficiently.
• Venue acquisition – another work is the management related to the venue, where the event is to be conducted. in this case, the venue is a city area, but in the city, there are particular areas, parks, and places, where this event can be conducted. All the activities like a control room, the layout of the venue is planned in this stage. The major activities under this category are venue proposal, preparing the venue, setting up of the control room, equipment is to be set, decoration of the venue and stage, and layout and seating arrangement within the venue selected and approved(Dindarloo, 2015)
• Refreshment Preparation – under this category, all the work related to managing food and beverage is conducted here. The basic facilities are to be provided to the guest who is visiting the event, for which the arrangement of refreshments are important
• Sponsorship – the sponsors are required to plan and execute any event. Searching for the sponsors is the major task included in this category of work. Moreover, ticket printing and selling is also included in this work category
• Actual event month – this is where the actual project is executed and managed effectively with the estimated budget and on time. This included all the activities related to the implementation and planned and schedule work comes into existence
• Post-event management – the work is not over with the event, management is also required after the event, which includes activities like review meeting to analyze the impact of the project, and is the objective of the project achieved effectively(Heagney, 2016).

This technique of project management is a graphical representation of activities involved in the project and the time of execution of each activity. This is a bar graph, which represents the schedule of the project. Henry Gantt propounded this method in 1910. This technique is helpful in planning, coordinating, and tracking a particular task to be conducted in the project on time. From Appendix 3, the Gantt chart for the local art festival represents various activities, for which Gantt char from January 2019 to October 2019. Those activities were:

• Project Theme – the theme of the project is to be decided, which is done in the initial stage of the project management that is in January and February (Slack, 2015)
• Budget estimate – this one of the most important activity, on which the whole project is planned and managed that, is the cost estimation of the project. For this project, the budget was pound 50,000, which was decided in the first month of the project that is within Jan 2019
• Team formation – the next activity is to form an executive team, which will execute the planned project effectively. This crucial step is conducted in March.
• Event Planning – planning the events in the project is another activity to be performed which will be done for three months, that is February, March, and April
• Stakeholder Relationship Management – the relationship is to be managed among the relationship, which is an ongoing activity in the project, therefore it will be conducted from February to October
• Venue Preparation – venue selection, designing, and preparation activity is scheduled to be conducted in March and April, that is before the actual commencement of the event
• Refreshment Preparation – preparation for the food and beverages is done during the actual event that is from May to September
• Sponsorship – the sponsors are searched and selected before the actual conduct of event that is during the period of March and April
• Health and safety management – arranging the health and safety facility, and managing the same for the whole event that is from May to September(Sharon, 2017)
• Promotional activities – promotion is conducted before the event and during the event is conducted, that is from January to September
• Actual event execution – the actual event is to executed as scheduled from May to September
• Post-event management (Review meeting) – this activity is to be conducted after the completion of the event. It is the last stage of the project to be managed, that’s is to be held in October (Acharya, 2017)

According to this technique of project management, the risk that is involved while implementing and completing the project manager identifies the risk at the earlier stage, so that the risk can be mitigated or minimized largely, for more effective and efficient completion of the task. For this purpose, risk management strategies are created to manage the risk. The risk analyzer, as conducted in appendix4 were:

• Risk of cost overrun – one of the major risk involved with the project is that the cost of the project can exceed the estimated cost, which makes the project to overrun the budget planned. For this, the risk can be managed by arranging additional resources, which can be used to decrease the cost of the assets and other expenses. Moreover, the manager can timely monitor and control the cost occurred in the project and estimated, in case of deviation, the cost has to reduced and ensure no difference is there and the actual cost is not exceeded(Jahn, 2018).
• Risk of enough sponsorship – getting sponsorship is a risky element that is if the project or event does not have enough sponsors, the event cannot be run successfully. For this risk to mitigate, the strategy involves to search for the sponsors, well before the event is to be conducted, it can be done once the budget and team for the project execution are formed(McMakin, 2018).
• Risk of inability to acquire equipment – acquiring correct equipment in most efficient cost is an essential activity. The risk involved that equipment is not able to acquire is involved in the project. This can be mitigated through, forming logistic team at the time of executive team formation, as a whole team will be held responsible for accruing of equipment, on time and most cost-effective. Since a whole team will be concentrated over a single task, the risk is minimized to a large extent (Taroun, 2014)
• Risk of timely availability of enough refreshments – the food and beverage is something, which has the maximum risk, as the food can be short according to the guest or there is the risk of damage of food. For this risk to mitigate the strategy is to have a contingency plan and alternative option ready to serve to the customer, like a link with the fast food chain. Moreover, the packed food which does not have a risk to be rotten can be included in the menu (Pinho, 2015) 
• Risk of unapproved venue proposal – the venue proposes have a risk to be unapproved and rejected, in such a scenario, to mitigate this risk; several alternative proposals must be ready. So that, in case of rejection of one proposal, another proposal can be asked for approval (HSE, Risk at Work – Personal protective equipment (PPE), 2018)

This technique of project management includes the graphical presentation of the activities to be performed in the project and the person who is responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed about the activity. Therefore, the delegation of the authority and responsibility of personnel is clearly specified. The four major aspects of the matrix is

• Responsible – the person who will be completing the activity
• Accountable – the person who will take due decisions, and actions would be taken by him or her on the tasks
• Consulted – the person who is consulted, that is asked for the suggestion, and then the  decisions are taken into account for the task
• Informed – people in the project to whom the decision is taken are communicated and updated (Abusharma, 2015)

From Appendix 5, there was some key personnel, who were responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed related to different activities that are to be performed while project management of local art festival. Some of those key personnel were:

• Chief executive – the chief executive of the Metropolis City Councils is the personnel who wish to conduct these events. From the matrix, it can be said that he is accountable for the budget, consulted for the activities decision like Project Theme, Stakeholder Relationship Management, Sponsorship, and Promotional activities, and for rest of the activities he does not show much interest and just informed by the event manager.
• Culture and Leisure Committee – the project plan is developed for this committee, to decide how the team will manage the project. This committee is accountable for Stakeholder Relationship Management, Sponsorship, and Promotional activities; consulted for Project Theme, Budget estimate, Team formation, Event Planning, Venue Preparation, Actual event execution, and Post-event management (Review meeting); and informed for Refreshment Preparation, and Health and safety management.
• Project manager – project manager, is a person managing the project actually. He is accountable for its team and takes a related decision. He is accountable for Project Theme, Team formation, Event Planning, Stakeholder Relationship Management, Venue Preparation, Refreshment Preparation, Health and safety management, Actual event execution, and Post-event management (Review meeting); consulted related to sponsorship task, and responsible for promotional activities, and execution of the budget estimated (William & Facciola, 2017)
• Stakeholders – there are various internal and external stakeholders in the project, who are consulted for the majority of the task and are not accountable much in the project management tasks.
• Execution Team – execution team is largely responsible for most of the task in the project management. as the name suggests the team is to execute the activities planned, therefore, they are held responsible for the activities to be implemented (Tonchia, 2018)

This technique of the project management, explains the classification and identification of various stakeholders of the project management and for the strategy, a matrix is used, as presented in Appendix 6 through the power and index model. Managing the stakeholders is a difficult task, and the strategies are to be formed according to the classification of the stakeholders

The internal stakeholders of this event were:

• Guest & VIP manager
• Programming Manager
• Medical
• Welfare
• Safety
• Site Manager
• Sound & lighting production
• Traffic Management
• Backstage manage
• Event Assistant
• Production Manager
• Stage Managers
• Security
• Site crew
• Event Manager

 The external stakeholders of this event are :

• Market Stalls
• Exhibitors
• Sponsors
• Contractors and Suppliers
• Regulating Authorities
• Clients Participants/Artists Speakers/Performers
• Volunteers & Stewards
• Relevant Community Organizations
• Local Community
• Interest Groups and Associations
• Program & Promotional Printing
• Audience
• Venue Owner
• Industry Sector Organizations(sustainable-event-alliance, 2018)

SWOT Analysis

From Appendix 6, power and interest model, indicates that while managing the stakeholder the stakeholders can be prioritized according to their interest in the project and impact of them on the ability to influence that is a power of stakeholders.  The four strategies according to the matrix is

1. Keep satisfied – this is the first grid of the matrix, which indicates high power of the stakeholder, but the interest of the stakeholder is low, the strategy is to keep these stakeholders satisfied so that their interest tends to increase in the project.
2. Monitor – according to this grid of the matrix, the power and interest of the stakeholders are low, which indicates that the strategy to manage this stakeholder must be monitoring, as these require lesser effort, and no need to waste time on these stakeholders
3. Keep informed – a grid where the stakeholders are largely interested in the project, but they do don have high power. The strategy for these groups of stakeholders is to keep them informed and updated about the various tasks.
4. Manage closely – this grid includes stakeholders that have high interest in the project and high power to influence. Therefore, for such stakeholders, the most suitable strategy is to manage closely and take the utmost care for such stakeholders. Because these play a major role in the project and needs to be managed for effective competition of project

This model is helpful while creating strategies because it is ensured that the time is not consumed with the stakeholders, which are least important according to the project, and the management does not ignore the stakeholders, which are most important (PMI, 2018).

Conclusion 

To conclude the report, it can be said that project management plays an important role in planning and implementing an event. The report included the management of a project of a local art festival event. For the project management, six techniques were analyzed, first one was SWOT analysis. The strength of the project analyzed was a natural attraction, cultural attractions, institutional infrastructure, and environmental sustainability. The weakness was lack of publicity, lack of stakeholder’s participation, lack of shopping points, lack of entertainment, limited resource capacity, coordination, and funding limitations. The opportunities identified were employment opportunities, cultural tourism integration, and accommodation opportunities contribution towards culture, historical value, and natural value of the region, economic growth, creative exposure, and sponsorship. The threats observed were inadequate governance, loss of unique historical values, and disruption of cultural and ecological structure, environmental impact, and political effect.

The activities to be conducted were identified, which were project theme, budget estimate, team formation, event planning, stakeholder relationship management, venue preparation, refreshment preparation, sponsorship, health, and safety management, promotional activities, actual event execution, and post-event management (review meeting). Through the Gantt chart, these activities were scheduled, and through a RACI matrix, the desired personnel for respective activities were delegated. Moreover, the four stakeholder management strategies identified through the priority matrix were keep satisfied, monitor, keep informed, and manage closely.

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