Londons Most Famous Events - Coursework Example

Table of Contents Introduction 2 The Rationale for, and Background to, the City’s Events Strategy 2 The Different Events the City Has Staged 4 Problems and Issues Associated with the City’s Events Strategy  6 An Overall Assessment of How Successful the City’s Events Strategy Has Been 7 Recommendations for Future Practice 9 Conclusion 9 References 10 Introduction London is recognised for its plethora of world’s most famous events, being conducted in the city on a yearly basis. For successful implementation of these events, high amount of safety and health concerns have also been taken into consideration by the authoritative bodies in London. Adequate and proper knowledge of adverse weather conditions, artists’ and audiences’ profiles, communication systems, method statements, risk assessments and contracts, infrastructural appropriateness, emergency planning, as well as other amenities to suffice the need of the professionals participating in events and audiences, have also been a major concern to the authorities when formulating event management strategies. Contextually, the common norms of event management indicate that the proper implementation of these issues will help in overcoming barriers to conduct events in an objective oriented manner (Holland-Moritz & Vandenhouten, 2013). Emphasising this particular notion, the study conducted henceforth will focus on illustrating London’s most famous events and how these events are conducted, with due significance to the problems faced during its conduct and the factors playing a crucial role for successful event management in future. The Rationale for, and Background to, the City’s Events Strategy The cultural industry of London is famous for its experimentation and innovation, its risk-taking abilities and entrepreneurial synergies. It is this fact, which gives an idea to the reasons as to why London’s theatre shows, books, music, arts and films are so popular and are enjoyed internationally. It is also owing to these attributes that London is known as the ‘City of tradition, conquests and variety’, and has undoubtedly been living upto its expectations (Livingstone, 2011). Considering the economic value of the city, it can be asserted as one of the most visited cities globally by international tourists. The wide variety of events conducted every year can be regarded as a major attraction to tourists in this regard. For instance, the Mayor of London, traditionally organises a yearly program of 8 core events to celebrate London’s traditions and communities including St. Patrick’s Day Parade and festival, Diwali festival, Liberty Festival, New Year’s Eve fireworks, Eid, Vaisakhi Festival and Feast of St. George. The mayor also initiates a plethora of other events, such as exhibitions at city hall and celebrations across London that keeps the inflow of both national and international tourists intact throughout a year (Greater London Authority, n.d.). While creativity and variety remains at the core of the cultural industry in London, its event management strategy has also been emphasising proper administrative techniques. It is in this context that the London Cultural Strategy Group was established to advice on promoting London as an excellent city of culture and shaping its expansion and provision of cultural activities under the direction of the city Mayor. As the strategic authority of London, the Greater London Authority is also bestowed with the statutory responsibilities for development and implementation of the cultural event’s strategies. Correspondingly, the journal named ‘Cultural Metropolis’ was launched by the mayor, focusing on the London’s culture strategies, achievements and next steps to be implemented for further expansion of the city that had also proved effective in building and enhancing the relationship of the authorities with targeted audiences of the event conducted in London (Greater London Authority, 2013). The Different Events the City Has Staged London is a diverse and exciting city with some of the planet’s best sightseeing, activities, mesmerising attractions and plethora of events that are being organised annually at an uninterrupted basis. London features a few of the top attractions in the world, such as Madame Tussauds, British Museum, and Natural History Museum among many others. London’s famous skyline continues to evolve even in the current era. Flagship stores, such as Oxford streets, Europe’s principal urban shopping court, Westfield Stratford and iconic megamalls such as Harrods or Selfridges are shopping destinations among locals and visitors. London also features free attractions such as among the most preferred British Museum, Tate Modern, Natural History Museum or the Science Museum, where the entire collection of displays can be browsed in a cost effective manner. In addition, the traditional events organised in London includes the New Year’s Day Parade, London Boat Show, London Marathon, London Book Fair, Festival of Architecture, Carnival De Cuba, The Proms, Notting Hill Carnival, City of London Festival and the London Film Festival among others (London Attractions, n.d.). One of the most famous events organised in London is ‘Trooping the Color’, which is a parade that shows the British pageantry and pomp at its best, being held with the purpose of celebrating the Queen’s official birthday in June. The next best attraction is ‘Lord Mayor’s Show’, which takes place when the newly nominated mayor rides his coach from Mansion House to Royal Court of Justice, taking the oath of allegiance in front of the Queen, which is followed by a firework show. Europe’s biggest street party, the ‘Notting Hill Carnival’, which takes place in the month of August on bank holiday, attracts more than a million people who enjoy the parade of floats, colourful costumes and live music. Another major event held in London is the ‘State opening of Parliament’, which takes place every year, when the Queen makes her way from The Mall to the Parliament Square. Next big event conducted is during the last night of ‘The Proms’, gathering a large number of traditional musicians from worldwide in the Royal Albert Hall. Additionally, the ‘Christmas Tree in Trafalgar Square’ is also another attraction that motivates a significant number of footsteps in the city. Besides traditional culture, in the field of sports, London has the privilege to conduct the ‘Wimbledon Tennis Championships’. With smoke and firecrackers banging loudly on the roads and huge papier-mâché dragon dancing throughout the streets of London’s Chinatown, the ‘Chinese New Year’ celebration is yet another important event, where over 300,000 people turn up in the parade proceedings. In honour and remembrance of those who have died for the service of the country, the ‘Remembrance Day Parade’, which is a wreath laying ceremony, takes place with the Queen, politicians and members of military along with thousands of veterans doing march past is held in the month of November every year (London Drum, 2014). To be mentioned in this context, forthcoming events in London are ‘Winter festival’, ‘Hogwarts in Christmas’, ‘Winter Wonderland’, ‘Burns Night’, ‘London Boat Show’, ‘ London Art Fair’, ‘ London Fashion Weekend’, ‘ Valentine Day’, ‘Chelsea Flower Show’ and the ‘Olympia Arts and Antiques Fair’ (Visitlondon.com, n.d.). Problems and Issues Associated with the City’s Events Strategy  Despite the richness in London’s art and culture, and its importance to the residents, the point of concern that strikes is that the events distribution is uneven in the city, which has its effects apparent on the economic cycle of the different districts. To overcome these hurdles, the Mayor has been emphasising with the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Arts Council of England to plan the possible venues to host an event and increase uniformity in the distribution of its resources. With the same concern, many cultural events that were associated with the Olympic Games of 2012 were planned in a way that people from almost every district of London could take part in it. For instance, Showtime, which is London’s largest outdoor festival, conducted 1500 shows throughout the city in 7 weeks. The games event of London in 2012 provided a momentum to tackle well-documented barriers for people with disability. The next problem with organising events in London is financing the events and budgetary problems, wherein targeted consumers often develop a perception of costly venues and services. Hence, event organisers in London always experience a pressure of serving the customers with excellent facilities but in a cost-effective manner. Another area where attention is much demanded from the event organisers is the transportation system of London. As a range of popular & new events are conducted and added to the events list every year, London needs to focus on transportation to be able to handle incoming visitors continually that the city attracts during such events (Cultural Metropolis, 2014). London’s is known to be an important place due to its rich cultural background. The success of its events is mostly dependent on its excellent haulage amenities available for the residents as well as visitors. Coach travel during events is a major trouble in the city, but the mayor has taken considerable steps in increasing the parking capacity around London, to make it easier for coach drivers to drop the visitors outside their venues. In addition, to deal with the issue of transportation, the mayor has decided to make major investments in schemes like Crossrails along with expansion of London over ground. This has reduced the problems faced by guests and residents to have access to venues such as events conducted in the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, the Roundhouse, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Hackney Empire and the Horniman Museum. Threats to the events conducted in London also pose a high risk to vulnerabilities owing to factors such as thefts, blackmails, failure in transportation systems, sabotages, kidnappings, loss of valuable resources, hijacks and hooliganism to the visitors and residents of London itself. In general, these events are also encountered with high risks due to gathering of crowds, influx of national as well as international participants, audiences and knowledge of the date, time and location of the event to be organised (UK Sport, 2006). An Overall Assessment of How Successful the City’s Events Strategy Has Been Events are planned to convey a multifaceted range of economic, social and cultural impacts. Prior to the enactment of the event, an estimation of the impacts need to be considered to ensure whether the event is to be conducted. As tools for advocacy, evaluation and directing policy, the organiser needs to focus on Impact Assessment. To ensure long-term success and event sustainability, addressing the environmental, social, political and cultural issues are also important, as they are in direct relation to the events and their proper conduct. As London creates and stages more events, it needs to extend supplementary mechanisms for dealing with them and to create spaces to stage them. As events develop, they often expand to fill more space within London that had been conceived earlier. Even though events appear to create their own space within the city, it is actually the end consequence of interplay between the consumption and production components of the event and factors that are related to management of public spaces (Slideshare, 2014). Since events are generally short-lived, the question about the use of spaces must be asked frequently. Although the event may build up a sense of tradition that is being regarded as an organisation in its own way, most events continue to be challenged on the situation under which they exist, their organisation and financing, as it relates to the use of access, security and space. In London, the ‘Notting Hill Carnival’ is one such example, wherein the nature and structure of this event is questioned every year, especially just weeks before it is to take place. Alterations are made in the route of carnival proceedings in order to resolve problems of congestion and reduce crime rates. Discussions regarding payment of activities for public spaces acquired by the event and responsibility of event conductors further create a four-cornered argument involving the ‘Great London Authority’, the local council, the police and carnival organisers. A further dimension of the argument about the occupation concerns nature of cultural content in the event. Certain cultural events such as London’s refined art festivals rely on support from dedicated elites of enthusiasts belonging to the same cultural sector indicating the segregation persistent within the London society. As a result, outsiders are unable to grasp the justification of public support for the event that appeals to minority wellbeing too. In other circumstances, traditional events that focus on popular culture may not be supported by the dedicated elites, whose interests focus mainly on modern and contemporary culture (Richards & Palmer, 2012). Recommendations for Future Practice Events are continuously linked to the spatial progress of London, as they assist in providing an inducement for physical restoration of areas and in turn provide an inspiration for events to be conducted. Through rehabilitation and upgrading of spaces in the city, events have its direct contribution to redevelopment of the city in a more sustainable manner. The programs offer vision of hope and acts as a platform for idea generation. A program vision is therefore a kind of mission statement for a city hosting such events (Richards & Palmer, 2012). Conclusion Based on the above discussion, it can be concluded that although the mission and vision of each event may be unique, depending on the nature of contextual factors, there are a number of important questions that should be kept in mind while conducting the events. To be noted, a few of these factors shall range from the reasons and motivations of conducting these events to the viability and infrastructural needs to support events at the desired magnitude. Once the basic requirements are sufficed, hosting events by attracting audiences from the international field also seems to be a general procedure, as witnessed in the case of London. It is in this context that irrespective of few limitations that London has to witness, the city is privileged with advanced technology, skilled professionals and adequate spaces to host events by accommodating people from the global class. References Cultural Metropolis, 2014. Mayor of London. Cultural Metropolis. [Online]Available at: https://www.london.gov.uk/.../1065_CulturalStrategy2014_4web_1.pdf [Accessed December 05, 2014]. Greater London Authority, 2013. London Cultural Strategy Group. DD Template. [Online] Available at: https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/DD1147%20CSGL%20PDF.pdf [Accessed December 05, 2014]. Greater London Authority, No Date. Events. London Assembly. [Online] Available at: http://london.gov.uk/get-involved/events [Accessed December 05, 2014]. Holland-Moritz, R. & Vandenhouten, R., 2013. Detection of Movement Profiles in Facility Management using Complex Event Processing. International Journal of Information Science, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 7-12. Livingstone, K., 2011. You Can't Say That: Memoirs. Faber & Faber. London Attractions, No Date. Annual Events in London. Annual Events. [Online] Available at: http://www.london-attractions.info/annual-events-in-london.htm [Accessed December 05, 2014]. London Drum, 2014. 10 Best Annual Events in London. London Drum City Guide. [Online] Available at: http://www.londondrum.com/planner/10-best-annual-events.php [Accessed December 05, 2014]. Masterman, G., 2014. Strategic Sports Event Management: Third Edition. Routledge. Richards, G., & Palmer, R., 2012. Eventful Cities. Routledge. SlideShare, 2014. Strategic and Impactful Events Management Best Practice, Tools and 4-Phase Process. Strategic and Impactful Events Management. [Online] Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/CharlesCotter/strategic-and-impactful-events-management [Accessed December 05, 2014]. UK Sport, 2006. Major Sports Events: The Guide. Staging Major Sports Events. Visitlondon.com, No Date. London Events Calendar. Special Events. [Online] Available at: http://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/whats-on/special-events/london-events-calendar [Accessed December 05, 2014]. Read More