Analysis of The Rocks Aroma Festival in Australia - Case Study Example

Sydney Harbor Foreshore Authority (The Rocks Aroma Festival) Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Executive summary The purpose of this study was to take detailed analysis of The Rocks Aroma Festival in Australia and report on the technical, site and logistical requirements, risks associated with the event, staffing requirements, budgetary requirements, promotion mix for the event and the activities that will added to improve on the performance of the event in future. This study has established that there are numerous technical, site and logistical requirements which must be met and include health standards, environmental conservation and adhering to business policy by the authority. The risks associated with the event include scarcity of land and infrastructure, lack of sponsors and lack of enough rooms and space for the participants. On the other hand, the staffing requirements include experience, integrity and competence in handling customers. The budgetary requirements for the event organizers include rent, staffing, transport and promotion activities. The promotion mix and activities used by the event organizers to boost its performance include Aroma include direct marketing, advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and exhibitions. The recommended activities for the event organizers to increase the attendance in future include Creativity and innovation in product and service design, increased use of new communication and technology to reach more customers and involving the participants and the community in planning and organizing the event in the future occasions. Introduction The Rocks Aroma Festival is an annual event held once every year in NSW Australia. The event that is held at Sydney Harbor Foreshore Authority is known for it is plan to bring different coffee, chocolate and tea from various parts of Australia to present their coffee and other cultural activities to the community in NSW Australia. This is a community and cultural event that is aimed at bringing together people from various parts of the country to enjoy the tastes of coffee, tea and chocolate that has been prepared by various hoteliers. The Rocks Aroma Festival is the “biggest coffee” festival that is being held in the continent. The objective of this event is to showcase various drinks such as coffees; chocolates and tea spice both from within and outside the country. The event is the organization and the management of the Sydney Harbor Foreshow Authority. The other programs that accompany this event and that have been very instrumental in promoting its performance by adding on its recipe of offers include The Oasis, The Orient, The Latin Quarter, The Rocks Square and the Nurses Walk. The Rocks Aroma Festival has been on existence for over 15 years since it was first held in Sydney in 1997 (The Rocks 2012). The purpose of this report is to take a critical view of its programs and plans and organization as well as its performance and then recommend on those activities that can be added to improve on its performance in future. Technical, site and logistical requirements First and foremost, the festival is being organized and managed by the Sydney Harbor Foreshow Authority a whereby its expected to meet certain requirements as high level health standards, environment conservation and management, business policies and business premises renting and leasing (Allen 2005). These are important requirements that the business presenters who are coffee, chocolate and tea makers must observe while trying to show their experience and products to the NSW market. Since the festival is more about serving the community with drinks, health concerns is the major requirement for the Authority. This is because given the large population which comes to the site to have fun during the event, it is feared that contamination is likely to be a big challenge. The requirement by the Sydney Harbor Foreshore Authority, which represents the federal government, is therefore to ensure that all matters related to health starting with drink content to the operating environment both from within and outside are observed so as to safeguard the attendants from any illness related to contamination. This requirement is met by registering respective business programs with the authority and how they plan to maintain high health standards (Allen 2005). Environmental conservation and management is also another important requirement that must be met by the event organizers. This is especially with regard to noise making from the events related to various activities. Further, proper management of available resources such as water, buildings and other public utilities is paramount. This is to ensure that sustainability of the event both socially and economically is met. Maintenance of sewerage systems and playing soft music are some of the ways reducing pollution on water bodies and air (Lifestyle Media 2012). Business policy with regard to booking for space, leasing and hiring of stalls is a requirement for all businesses. The businesses according to the council are expected to register their books for available stalls for easier planning and organizing for the festival. The Sydney Harbor Foreshore Authority is the only body responsible for public space venues that at The Rocks and Darling Harbor. With booking therefore, the authority will be able to allocate spaces accordingly for various activities such as displays, hospitality, and exhibitions as well as promotions, filming and photographing. This requirement is met by ensuring that all those wish to participate in showcasing their products are registered with the authority for earlier planning for space (Allen 2005). Risks associated with the event It is emerging that space and other important resources as land and infrastructure are becoming more and scarcer as time goes at NSW. This is because private investors with commercial interests have continued to develop their own premises which fit their own business development needs. What this means is that the government is losing grip on the development plan to sustain the place for this important event. In order to help deal with this problem, the NSW Planning Department has transferred some authority to Sydney Harbor Foreshore Authority together some financial resources in order to determine the important development plans that should be invested in (Allen 1997). Some of the development activities being worked currently to ensure the sustainability of the council in hosting such big events include The rocks, Wharf 2/3 at Wish Bay, Darling Harbor, the Casino Switching station Site and the Bank Street area of Pyrmont including the Fish Market. Despite the fact that the event planning and organizing is the responsibility of the Sydney Harbor Foreshore, it is emerging that there is a possibility that it could be easily overwhelmed by the number of the events it has to organize throughout the year in terms of financial resources (Allen 1997). This is because the authority is not having enough sponsors to promote community events. Since the events and cultures are important to the society, the organizers have embarked on a journey to creating diverse, creative and more appealing products and services for the sponsor. Further, the organizers are working on programs to provide the sponsors with the opportunity to present themselves as sponsors, major sponsors or supporting sponsors in order to encourage them join in important events held in the region. Space and room for hire and rent is also a big risk to this event. This is because the event has continued to record positive growth in terms of attendance something that has continued to cause a major worry on the availability of enough stalls and rooms to rent to the business participants. The number of events in the authority has continued to increase and various venues are required to hold different events like hospitality functions, product displays and launches, festivals, promotions and exhibitions and photography. This has necessitated the need by the organizers to strategize on ways to deal with capacity management (Allen 1997). Apart from development planning, the organizers have been encouraging the participants in various events in order to book for their space well in advance so as to help to plan on how to utilize available space for various activities. Staffing requirements The staffing and recruitment process to the event is guided by the vision and mission statements of the authority and the event. The authority vision is to make create unique places in and around Sydney that could be talked of across the world. On the other hand, the mission of the authority is to enhance and sustain residing places and offer great experiences by managing available places profitably and socially, promoting sites effectively, developing sites responsibly and managing the organization in a more efficient way (Daft 2010). The objective of the festival event on the other hand, is to improve and promote urban culture, stimulating economic growth by encouraging local consumption and enhance cohesiveness among people of cultures both from within and outside Australia. 1. The first staffing requirement is the expertise that is required in preparing the right recipes for coffee, chocolate and tea. This is to ensure that whatever product that is offered has the best taste that can be more appealing to the customers (Daft, 2010). 2. Second, ability to entice and attract customers to the respective shops is a great character trait that must be considered while staffing. This therefore for careful selection of staff that could make good salespeople who are fluency and confident when interacting with the customers. The objective being to be able to convince the customers to buy the products they offer (Daft 2010). 3. All the staff that works at the event also needs to be people with unquestionable health conditions. This is important in ensuring that high health standards are maintained when serving the public according to the Australian public health policy of 2005. This is to protect the public from any illness that can be easily transmitted through contamination (Daft 2010). 4. Finally, hospitality and high level integrity is an important requirement for staffing. This is important in ensuring that the customers are treated with utmost care and respect in order to win their loyalty and consequently long-term business relationships (Daft 2010). Despite the effort that may be made by the event organizers to recruit the most suited staff to work with during the event, there is also an aspect of volunteers. The volunteers include those people who work as individuals or organized groups that offer supportive services to planning, organizing and managing different events. The volunteers that should be incorporate into this event include the environmentalists, health officers and other well wishers like the corporate world that may wish to sponsor the event (Ramsborg and Miller 2008). Budgetary requirements The budget for the event includes all those expenses that organizers will incur from planning to implementation and completion of the event. Careful consideration of various cost centers is important in ensuring that available resources are well utilized in order to ensure both economic and social development. In this event, there are various cost centers that must have to be taken into account and they include the rental cost, transport cost, staffing and promotion (Bowdin 2003). 1. Rent is an inevitable budget for this event. This is because the event is held once a year and for every participant to have adequate space to run his business from, he might require to have a well furnished room. What this means to the organizers of the event, is that they have to renovate the available facilities including the stalls so as to make them ready for use. This requires substantial budgeting to ensure that all venues are in good condition for use (Bowdin 2003). 2. Transport costs entail the expenses incurred in ferrying customers to the sites and also the participants and their equipment (Arya and Glover 2006). 3. Staffing is also a budget requirement for this event. This is because the event organizers will have to recruit people to work at various sites of the site. The staff will include skilled and non-skilled. However, the size of staff and cost is based on the anticipated number of participants and the number of activities that will take place (Bowdi 2003). 4. Finally, there is also a budget for promotion. This is the cost incurred by creating publicity for the event using different advertisement media like print and brochures (Arya and Glover 2006). The budget for the event is funded by different sources including the sponsors, funding from local authority and partly by the revenues generated from past events (NSW 2012). Promotion mix and activities The promotion mix refers to all activities which include direct selling, personal selling, sales promotion, exhibitions, advertisements, corporate image and public relations all of which are aimed at creating and enhancing publicity of organization products and services. In the case of The Rocks Aroma Festival, there are various promotion that are being used by the both the participants and the event organizers to promote their products and services. The commonly used promotional activities at The Rocks Festival Aroma include direct marketing, advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and exhibitions (Friday & Friday 2003). Direct marketing at the event include talking direct to customers trying to explain unto them the significance of their products and why they should buy them. This includes presenting the different brands to the customer for testing and confirmation of the quality level of the three brands. Advertising on the other hand, is being used both by the event organizers and the participants to send messages to the customers about the event and what is available for them (Arya and Glover 2006). Further, sales promotion is applied by walking to potential customers participating in different activities and presenting them with the products available with the aim of selling unto them. Exhibitions is also used by the event when through displaying at the counters product brochures and fliers that talk about the various products that are being offered at respective shops in order to read and get to know on what is available (Ramsborg and Miller 2008). Finally, personal selling is being done by the event organizers to have the sales people talk to the potential customers about the goodness of their brands and taste which is of high quality with the sole purpose of encouraging them to buy their products. Despite the use of various promotional mix activities to improve on the publicity of the event and the services and products being offered, it is still emerging that the greater market outside Sydney and Australia is to be reached. This is because so far the highest population that has ever attended the event is about 100, 000 people in 2012. This is very small as opposed to the current population in Sydney alone. This means that more has to be done to attract more customers to the event (NSW 2012). Recommended activities for the event organizers To increase the number of people who attend The Rocks Aroma Festival is the intention of the event organizers. This is because apart from ensuring that social development is enhanced by bringing people of different cultures together, economic development in terms of creating employment and generating more revenues both for the authority in terms of tax and the participants from the sales (Ware & Laura 2010). However, there are number of obstacles that may be hindering the performance of the event and more especially from the numbers of people that turn for the event. Currently, the number of attendants stand at 100 000 as per the result of 2012 The Rocks Aroma Festival (Sydney Harbor Foreshore Authority 2012). This figure is relatively small as opposed to the country’s urban residents. In order to improve the turn out in following events, the following activities have been recommended: 1. Creativity and innovation in product and service design. Currently, the primary products are coffee, chocolate and tea. These products alone could be able to give more appeal for the customers as some may opt to prepare their own at homes. This is means that a number of services have to be introduced to the event in order to make the event more lively and entertaining by involving all people who attend while they enjoy the cup of their choice. 2. Application of new communication technology to reach more potential customers. For example, the event organizers may choose to extensive marketing through online. This is because it is easy to reach more markets as opposed to use of brochures and local print and electronic media which only reach a small market segment especially from the local community. On the same line, the internet could provide an important add for the market to engage the event organizers by inquiring on what is available both in terms of services and products and space for doing business for those that may be interested in presenting products. 3. Involving the participants and the community in planning and organizing the event in the future occasions. This is to give them the opportunity to contribute on what they want to be incorporated in the event and that they think will have more impact in attracting more people to the event. Conclusion The purpose of this report was to present a detailed analysis of The Rocks Aroma Festival by taking into consideration the technical, site and logistical requirements that the event organizers must meet and the risks associated with the event as well as staffing requirements for the event. The Rocks Aroma Festival is an event that has continued to grow and attracting more and more participants each year. However, the turn out numbers does not reflect the general population living in the urban areas and thus posing a big challenge to the organizers on various ways that can be used improve its performance and attendance in future events. References Allen, A.B. (1997). 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