Corporate and Event Hospitality - Coursework Example

A LITERATURE REVIEW, CRITICALLY ANALYZING AND INDICATING THE UNDERSTANDING CORPORATE AND EVENT HOSPITALITY. Corporate event management is defined asorganizing an event for the corporate purposes and is most often related to some cultural or social festival. It also includes brand promotion, cultural shows, sports and games, musical concerts, kids entertainment (puppet show, magic show etc), debates and discussions, spring/seasonal festivals, flower/art exhibitions, fashion shows, product launches, promotional activities, business meetings, conventions, trade shows etc. Zaidi has defined event management in these words: “Corporate Event Management simply means organizing and arranging an event on some specific occasion for the entertainment of the general public or some specific group of people with the view to celebrate some social or cultural festival or to highlight and project some celebrity/public figure.” (Zaidi, 2004: 4). Event management and enjoying leisure hours have always been very popular among different societies of the world since ever. Brightbill has linked the leisure time consumption with the industrial production and standard of living to prove the presence of event management and celebrations. In his words: “Historically shows that in traditionally democratic countries, the level of industrial production, the standard of living and the amount of leisure, which the people have at their disposal, closely parallel each other. Amount of leisure is consumed in a higher quality level by arranging and attending the events and cultural shows.” (Brightbill, 1962:43) The world is changing into a global village in a fast and speedy way and not only the people but also the states and countries are coming closer to one another. This pleasant change urges the individuals and countries celebrate and share functions jointly and therefore, so many events including sports, games, musical & fashion shows and concerts are celebrated jointly and enthusiastically, and with great vigor and joy at international level. Therefore, event management is becoming more and more popular day by day. The concept of corporate event management is not only vast, but also it obtains other relevant terms in it including corporate hospitality, business hospitality and corporate entertainment. Event Management.com has defined the term CORPORATE HOSPITALITY in the following words: “CORPORATE HOSPITALITY means a hospitality package purchased by the Supplier from a third party.” Corporate hospitality includes offering the parties, for the corporate purposes, business suits, offices, chambers and work places to launch and exercise their capabilities by making investments in some specific area. It also includes the hot desks, meeting rooms, virtual offices conference halls and stall(s) belonging to some specific brand for the corporate and business promotion. The website MINDBRANCH.com has viewed the corporate entertaining very beneficial provided it is handled properly and efficiently, and disastrous if mishandled. According to it: “Corporate entertaining and hospitality can be an effective way of creating networking opportunities and cementing business relationships, if a brand owner knows what it is doing. On the other hand, it can be a complete disaster - in fact it can damage corporate reputation rather than strengthen it”. (Quoted in MINDBRANCH: 2004) The above statement describes the corporate hospitality as the way of creating new opportunities related to business plans and implementing it accordingly. Not only it can boost a company’s commercial activities, but also may ruin the whole business, if it is mismanaged. “Corporate philanthropy towards the arts is of long standing in the United States. There is no such tradition in Europe, but corporate sponsorship of the arts has been in place since the 1960s. The motivations for companies to sponsor arts events are examined in the context both of the literature relating to the motivations for corporate philanthropy and corporate promotional/marketing expenditure.”(Hagan and Harvey, 2000:205. quoted in SpringerLink.com) Different Corporate entertainment organizations offer their places for various entertainment programmes on corporate/commercial basis. Also there is variety in the presentation as it is found in different corporate societies. As the “Freespace” offers the musical services, luxury rooms, buffet dinners and other recreational activities to its corporate guests. According to them: “With our direct access to a wide range of entertainment, we can offer you a complete package at a fraction of the cost you may expect, whilst maintaining the highest professional standard. Whether you want a band, comedian, piper or ceilidh; a 3 course dinner or a buffet, we can build a complete package which suites your needs.”(Quoted in freespace.virgin.net/qc.rooms/corporate.html) Time Out Corporate Recreation has also determined the vastness of the subject and has included the corporate dinner in this. They present different corporate opportunities to the public. In its words: “With Time Out you can choose from a range of experiences and options to provide your organization with tailored and novel entertainment ideas that will result in a unique and individual function for your company.” (Quoted in Time Out Recreation Corporation). Ms. Judy Allen, Event Planning & Management Consultant, also the founder and President of Judy Allen Productions, is a well-known and respectable name in the field of event management. She has created, according to her book Consultant Services, special events in over 31 countries for up to 2000 guests at a time. Her above described book has been the best selling one in which she has described various concepts related to event management in details including EVENT DESIGN, EVENT MANAGEMENT, EVENT ORCHESTRATION, EVENT CO-ORDINATION and others in details. She has spanned the complete outline of the event management from planning to quotation and from budgeting to research and development, time frame, logistics, framework and outline. She has very successfully described all the steps in the event management. She has also narrated the methods and ways to meeting with the clients and suppliers. Her book is authority on the topic of event management. Ms. Judy Allen opines all the steps in the event management are co-related and advertising is the very first step to launch any management programme. Not only Ms. Judy has very beautifully portrayed the scene and scope of the corporate hospitality, along with the steps, plans and proposal of the field, but also many writers and the websites have described the scope and subject-matter of the same. Zaidi has connected the event management in a society with its historical past and old traditions, norms, values, mores, folkways and taboos, and declared the corporate event management not only the way to earn money and run a business successfully, but also a positive and productive method of highlighting the cultural and traditional values of a country. In his words: “The modern age is the age of commercialism in which the ties of historical past and rich heritage have become weak. Lack of sense of values has reduced people to hollow-men of mere flesh and blood. The man of today is a mechanical man, whose life knows only work from dawn to dusk. He looks quite unaware of the utility of recreation and the use of leisure time. So, he cannot distinguish between quality leisure time and mere idleness. The leisure time must be consumed in a productive, systematic and multidimensional way, and if it is utilized keeping in mind the norms and values prevailing in the society, it may surely lead a nation towards the climax of mental growth thus making it the pioneer of modern civilization.” (Zaidi, 2004:7-8). Corporate event management not only opens the doors of opportunities regarding business and commercial activities, and keeps people engaged both financially, physically and mentally, but also it generates the concept of healthy competition in the fields of sports and games, tourism and hotel ling, management and administration and highlights and appraises the socio-cultural heritage. The participation of the masses in an atmosphere where there is equal chances of investment, earning and entertainment, glamorize their collective life and increase their economic growth. REFERENCES 1. ATP Sports Events Hospitality 2005: Corporate Events & Hospitality 2. Brightbill, Charles K. 1962. Man and Leisure: A Philosophy of Recreation, Second Printing. 3. Butlersguild, 2000.Ms. Judy Allen 4. www.Freespace.virgin.net, 2005: Corporate Entertainment 5. Event Management.com, 2005 6. Jerry Solomon, 2001: Sports & Recreation “An Insiders Guide to Managing Sports Events” 7. John OHagan and Denice Harvey, 2000: Journal of Cultural Economics, pp 205-224 8. MIA meetings Industry Associations: 2004/2005 9. Ms. Judy Allen, 2005 Consultant Services, 10. MINDBRANCH, 2005. 11. SportBusiness Group Ltd, Feb 2004: Maximizing the Value of Hospitality 12. Time Out Corporate Recreation.com 13. Zaidi, Mujtaba Haider 2004: LIONIZEVE—-Aims and Objectives. (An unpublished report presented at the STEP Foundation annual seminar held at Pearl Continental Hotel, Karachi, Pakistan). Read More