Project Management for the Greenwich Park Music Festival - Business Plan Example

Project management: The Greenwich Park Music Festival – 16 June BY YOU YOUR SCHOOL INFO HERE HERE The Greenwich Park Music Festival Background A UK music promoter has enlisted our support for planning and developing a one day music festival at Greenwich Park. With a capacity to sustain 10,000 visitors, the 183 acre Greenwich Park (The Royal Parks 2012), the project is feasible in terms of environment. At a low price structure of only £40 per patron, marketing will be highly critical to the success of this music festival. The festival will be scheduled for 16 June 2014. 2. Objectives The Greenwich Park Music Festival maintains several distinct objectives: 1. Ensure that the full capacity of the park is realised, selling all available 10,000 tickets. 2. To provide an opportunity for community citizens to meet and share their musical interests as a public relations strategy. 3. To promote the establishment of an enduring human interest in music as a lifelong experience. 4. Promote brand recognition with the music promoter and increase the company’s marketing visibility. 3. Project scope The scope of a special project entails the specific work that requires accomplishment to deliver a product and a set of services that will result in achievement of identified objectives (Nokes 2007). It is a fundamental part of project planning that is inclusive of tasks, deadlines, important deliverables and project goals (PMI 2008). This project is based on a fixed price contract with contractor commitment estimate at £56,000. 3.1 Deliverables Construction of a temporary 40 x 40 metre performance stage constructed of wood, aluminium and reinforced stainless steel. Eight portable toilet facilities for festival patrons to supplement existing bathroom facilities at the Park. Construction of a temporary 6 x 8 metre visitor and promotional centre sustaining pamphlets highlighting the music promoter and the various artists spotlighted at the festival. Low cost promotional merchandise inclusive of keychains, beverage glasses and posters with varying themes and highlights related to the festival and its artists/promoters. 3.2 Milestones Permission approvals with administrators at the Royal Parks 20 March Local permits approved by council government 25 March Firm scheduling and commitment by portable restroom provider 1 April Promotional merchandise manufactured 5 April Ticket printing and low-cost online website for sales 10 April Procurement completed for raw materials, beverages and identified foodstuffs 27 April Completed development of integrated marketing communications materials and strategy 1 May Construction of portable visitor centre 20 May Construction of temporary stage at the Park 25 May Inspection completed of constructed stage and centre by local inspection agents 28 May 4. Work breakdown structure 1. Engagement strategies with the music promoter to support marketing visibility. 2. Blueprint construction and raw materials procurement 3. Administrative functions between Royal Parks and project manager 4. Ticketing production and distribution 5. Rental and procurement for food and beverage stations 6. Tangible construction of artist stage and visitor centre 7. Promotional merchandise and communications development 8. Recruitment of contracted security services for event 9. Labour Recruitment 10. Cleaning Services 5. Activity network and critical path 6. Team structure and responsibilities The following is representative of the organisational structure for the music festival: Project Manager Marketing Director Local labour talent for service delivery Subcontracted information technology specialists Subcontracted construction management and labour Subcontracted security service management The project will consist of a decentralised hierarchy of control with all support managers and subordinate labour reporting directly to the PM who will serve as chief executive officer during all pre- and post-launch activities. The establishment of a cohesive and committed organisational culture is vital to the service success of this project venture. Boke and Nalla (2009) iterate that the leadership capacities of managers contribute to a positive organisational culture and guarantee better employee motivation and job satisfaction (Schultz and Schultz 2010). This is why emphasis on human resources, facilitated by the project manager, will be critical elements to ensure that the music festival achieves a positive return on investment and patron satisfaction levels. A Board governance system will be established, consisting of the PM, the external marketing representative, and the music promoter client. This Board system will consist of bi-monthly staff meetings to discuss strategic development, how to enhance customer service, how to best satisfy recruited labourers, and generally build a solid marketing brand for the event. Effective governance of a business or an event is critical to the success of strategies identified and ensures alignment with internal practices and external stakeholder needs (Tricker 2009; Clarke 2007). As previously identified, marketing prowess and competency will be absolutely critical to ticket sales volumes and establishing a perception in desirable buyer markets of an interesting and engaging brand for the festival. Zhang and Chan (2009) assert that when a service brand gives consumers the belief that the company or service can provide resources toward personal self-expansion, they develop powerful connections to the brand. Self-expansion, under this definition, involves enhancing one’s social status and building a perception of self-diversity. The festival needs to position itself as opportunistic of enhanced community togetherness and the ability to expand patrons’ musical sophistication and refinement. Hence, the Board serves as a joint-staff mechanism to focus strongly on how to best engage and enthuse consumers through marketing strategy development. Jones (2010, p.63) iterates that events management provides the opportunity to build “a short-term mini utopia” by providing opportunities for “reflection on the communitarian nature of our species”. This must be fundamental in marketing in order to position the festival with a type of psycho-social focus that genuinely engages consumers who value social activities and consider music to be an opportunity to expand their urbanity and personal sophistication. 6.1 Detailed work activities Marketing: The project will enlist the talents and expertise of an outsourced marketing agent who will be responsible for promotional strategy and advertising materials. This marketing talent will be responsible for all engagements for strategy development with the music promoter and the performing artists, development of advertising materials and promotional merchandise, as well as distribution and sales of tickets and follow-up of ticket buyers using customer relationship management strategies. Any print advertisements will be coordinated between the marketing agent and local graphic arts agencies, including food and beverage menu production to ensure patrons understand the available options for their cravings both pre- and post-ticket purchase. Procurement: The project manager will take responsibility for ensuring that appropriate visitor centre and stage blueprints are produced and consult with local, small and private, subcontracted construction experts are scheduled for their services. The PM will work directly with the administration of the Royal Parks to determine appropriate stage and visitor centre placement according to Park guidelines and ensuring access to restroom facilities. The PM will gain estimates from local and regional procurement sources to determine the most cost-effective procurement strategy that can fulfil all design parameters. The PM will also be responsible for ensuring that all menu items listed in the food and beverage advertisement are available through local supply channels and perform appropriate quality assurance procedures to assess the viability of labour production of processed food products. Ticket Sales: The PM will work directly with outsourced information technology specialists to build a small-scale, interactive website to enhance convenience in ticket sales. This website will be promoted via online banner advertisements that will be coordinated with the marketing representative. Physical tickets will be produced by the PM via appropriate local graphics artist agencies. The marketing manager will be responsible for coordination of distribution of the tickets via community institutions and commercial centres during the duration of sales ranging from 10 April through 10 June. Construction: Licensed, private subcontracts will utilise established blueprints and construct the stage and temporary visitor centre. PM and city inspector will ensure that the instruments are built specifically against specifications and design parameters. Any appropriate electrical services not inclusive of the current Greenwich Park design will be facilitated with external electrical subcontractor. Any supplemental permits and approvals required for this small-scale construction project will be coordinated with the subcontractor and be inclusive of their subcontractor contract language. Festival labour: The PM will acts as the human resource manager, recruiting local citizens to manage the beverage station, food stations, visitor centre and to act as support hand for stage activities. The PM will enlist this assistance through local online job boards, newspapers and other relevant community media. Enlisted help will have the mandatory experience level of food and beverage services, customer relations management, cleaning services and entertainment services to ensure smooth services operations. Interviews will be conducted by the project manager for interested candidates between 27 May and 4 June. Recruited labourers will be taken on a one-time tour of the Greenwich Park facilities to familiarise contracted labourers with the environment three days prior to the launch of the music festival. Security: Security is a critical task in crowd control in an environment sustaining 10,000 audience members. The PM will be responsible for working with local policing agencies to procure assistance in this direction. To supplement the security needs of the festival, talent from local business security services, equipped with appropriate Billy clubs and pistols, will be procured to maintain a solid security presence and deter any inappropriate behaviours with audience members. This is a critical component of the festival to ensure that illegal activities are curbed and to provide a sense of safety and comfort for all event attendees (Bowdin, McDonnell, Allen and O’Toole 2010; Definitive Security Services 2011). Post-Festival Cleaning Services: To ensure Greenwich Park is left in its pre-festival condition, the services of the temporary labourers recruited for job role activities at the festival will assist in clean-up activities. These are inclusive of trash removal, grass and seed restoration, food and beverage station break-down and travel to appropriate disposal agencies. Cleaning services will be necessary not only against Park regulations and expectations, but also to ensure positive customer relations with The Royal Parks to ensure future opportunities for festival production and planning. 7. Measuring success and metrics The priority and most fundamental aspect of ensuring smooth operations during the festival is security management. Contracted security managers will be responsible for providing a detailed configuration of solutions to security needs through assessment of the Park facilities, access points, and distribution of relevant security agents. A reporting system will be required to evaluate the volume of potential security issues that could occur, with supplemental consultation with established Board members. The report and efforts of the Board will brainstorm potential problems and ensure that there are contingency plans in the event of security issues. Such issues will be inclusive of emergency medical responses, behavioural problems with visiting patrons, and ensuring all exit and entrance points are clear and identifiable. Cost control metrics will also be critical to ensure that the planning, development and implementation of the project are within budget expectations. The Project Manager will be establishing a Cost Performance Index. The CPI is a calculation established by dividing the expected total earned value of the festival by actual costs incurred in areas of marketing, construction, subcontracting, procurement and rental expenditures. With each expenditure by relevant team members, receipts and other relevant documentation will be provided to the Project Manager who will maintain an electronic record of all costs. If there are indications that task budgets could potentially over-run established budget allowances, meetings will be held to discuss areas to cut expenditures and streamline operations in a way that is more cost-efficient. The project will also have a strong metric that measures potential risks to the project. Board members will brainstorm probable risk considerations that could impact success of the festival and then break down identified and relevant risks into operational components that are best-suited to reducing threats. The business will be utilising a risk register, a metric that identifies risks, classifies them according to their threat level to the project, the potential impact that might be a consequence if identified risks occur, and the priority by which such risks should be addressed. The risk register provides valuable insight into what types of risks could seriously jeopardise project success. From a qualitative perspective, determining probability and the potential catalysts for risk occurrences can be identified and then subsequently controlled. In quantitative terms, giving risks numerical representations of its potential threat impact allows for statistical evaluation of risk priority that builds better contingency plans (Heldman 2005). The next page illustrates a sample of an appropriate risk register to determine how to properly evaluate risk management successes: Risk I.D. Risk Category Cause Risk Description Consequence Status Overall Likelihood Impact Priority T1 Major Event Natural disasters, terrorist activities Any scenario that halts distribution or the ability to ensure procurement of needed product. Complete disruption of operations Active 1 Very unlikely -5 Crisis Undesirable level of risk T2  Poor strategy adoption  Failures in communication and Board activity Poor marketing, poor cost controls, insufficient auditing  Loss of revenues, loss of customers, risk adoption  Active 4 Likely -3 Significant  Undesirable level of risk T3  IT Systems Failures  Website infunctional Blackouts, poor programs Diminished ticket sales Angry customers, poor revenues. Active 3 Possible -4  Critical  Undesirable level of risk T4  Supplier Failures  Not enough product, distribution failures Cannot get enough stock for food and beverage or raw materials.  Angry customers, poor revenues for the event  Active 2 Unlikely -3  Significant  Undesirable level of risk Once all identified risks have been given priority, consequence and description, the Project Manager will assign appropriate staff members to undertake contingency planning and evaluation of these risks. Each manager will provide monthly reports on their productivity and achievements in controlling risks and identifying appropriate strategies to combat based on priority and threat level. After auditing each monthly report, the PM will determine whether the strategies and activities to control each risk is sufficient for securing smooth festival operations. The project manager will also be demanding productivity reports submitted to self and the governance Board bi-weekly to highlight activities, goal attainment, and compliance to established policies for each team member and manager. These reports will be inclusive of information as to whether identified milestones have been reached according to their schedule and priority. The PM will then audit these functions, using receipts and physical QA evaluation of each responsibility to ensure they are aligned with project objectives and procedure policies. Any failures identified will be discussed with appropriate accountability agents to ensure the project is put back on expected timescale, that cost systems are being adhered to, and that desired outcomes have been achieved for each activity in the work breakdown structure. In addition to this methodology, the PM will be utilising Life Cycle model that clearly outlines the start and end of the project, with support activities identified for each task and obligation of the staff and management. By 15 March, each responsibility, inclusive of all tasks associated with work obligations, will have pre-determined timescales by which all staff members should be adhering. With each bi-weekly report, the life cycle model will be consulted to determine whether each task went over expected timeframe and then determine new methodologies to ensure that the project is back on schedule for each area, where relevant. This model will assist in motivating workers to meet their expected task timeframes and also serve as the tool for reward or chastisement necessary to obtain controls over staff activities and task completions. During facilitation of the event, the project manager will be physically present, performing generic management practices for food and beverage, security, stage hand operations, and the activities of the visitor centre. Using appropriate radio transmission technologies, the PM will be able to respond to any challenges or problems that are occurring within each operational division. The key to success in operations is communications, especially when all staff members are disparately located throughout the Park. Having a high managerial presence can ensure proper auditing of service delivery and respond to such issues as shortages of food and beverage products or security issues that might arise. Post-festival, the project manager will develop a satisfaction survey available to consumers online for a limited period, using SurveyMonkey.com, a trusted survey site with very low-cost construction capabilities. The online survey will be established with questions pertaining to their impressions of the event, its competency in service delivery, security, the role of marketing to the consumer, and food and beverage quality perceptions. This will ensure that the business is able to provide more effective future activities related to how consumers’ felt that the festival gave them return on investment in terms of value. The project will also be utilising ratios to measure ROI, based on known expenditure receipts, fixed costs, and variable costs associated with budget. Prior to actually launching the festival, each activity will be assigned an established budget by which team members are expected to comply. These cost estimates will be compared regularly with actual expenditures to determine whether to slash certain budgeted activities or allocate more resources to ensure that critical work responsibilities receive appropriate financial allowances along the critical path. 8. Conclusion Through a competent blend of governance, auditing practices, reporting metrics, meetings, mathematical calculations, cost controls, and marketing talents, this music festival should be a well-organised and revenue success. With a broad scope of responsibilities by the project manager and the marketing representative, this project can stay under its established budget and ensure that the £56,000 contract provides ample opportunities for profit success for the organiser. By establishing appropriate metrics for each task responsibility and agent obligations, risks can be removed and the project can have proper management right through to the clean-up process post-festival. References Boke, K. & Nalla, M.K. (2009). Police organisational culture and job satisfaction: a comparison of law enforcement officers’ perceptions in two Midwestern states in the U.S., Journal of Criminal Justice and Security, 11(1), pp.55-73. Bowdin, G., McDonnell, I., Allen, J. and O’Toole, W. (2010). Events management, 2nd edn. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Clarke, T. (2007). International corporate governance. London: Routledge. Definitive Security Servies. (2011). The importance of event security. [online] Available at: http://www.definitivesecurityservices.com/blog/event-and-venue-security/the-importance-of-event-security (accessed 20 February 2014). Heldman, K. (2005). Project manager’s spotlight on risk management. Jossey-Bass. Jones, M. (2010). Sustainable event management. UK: Earthscan. Nokes, S. (2007). The definitive guide to project management, 2nd edn. London: FT Prentice Hall. PMI. (2008). A guide to the project management body of knowledge. Newtown Square: Project Management Institute, Inc. Schultz, D.P. & Schultz, S.E. (2010). Psychology and work today: an introduction to industrial and organisational psychology, 10th edn. Prentice Hall. The Royal Parks. (2012). Interactive map of Greenwich Park. [online] Available at: http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/greenwich-park/map-of-greenwich-park (accessed 20 February 2014). Tricker, B. (2009a). Corporate governance: principles, policies and practices. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Zhang, H. and Chan, D. (2009). Self-esteem as a source of evaluative conditioning, European Journal of Social Psychology, 39, pp.1065-1074. Read More