Operational and Management Factors that Influence Success in Event Management - Assignment Example

Operational and Management Factors that Influence Success in Event Management Table of Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. Discussion of the Plan 3 3. Type and Level of Service to be provided at the Event 4 4. Assessment of the Health, Safety and Hygiene Problems 4 5. Marketing, Human Resources and Quality Control Issues 5 6. Importance of Relationship between Event Management Team Members and Clients 6 7. Skills to be Used for Developing a Good Relationship 6 8. Review of Contracts can be Used in Negotiation for Business 7 Fixed-Price Contract 7 Cost-Plus Contracts 7 9. Stages of Drawing Up A Contract For the Event 8 10. Assessment of the Financial Issues of the Contract for the Event. 9 Level of Complexity 9 General Economic Factors 11 11. Strategy to Generate New Business 11 12. Evaluating Success in Carrying-out the Proposed Contract 11 13. Conclusion 12 14. Self-Evaluation of Roles in the Event 12 References 14 Bibliography 16 1. Introduction The primary objective of this assignment is to develop an event management plan of hospitality contract for the Christmas event in the institution campus. The selected date for the event has been scheduled on 16/12/2014 from 13:00hrs to 15:00hrs. The date of the proposed event has been selected in accordance with the schedule of the institution. The venue for the Christmas Event will be the class LCUCK B6 with a capacity of more than 100 students. In order to successfully achieve objective of the event, the management team will be demarcated into 2 managers and 1 supervisor for providing support to control activities associated with the event. According to the planned numbers and targets for the event, catering for 35 to 40 individuals including both students and teaching staff members will be arranged. 2. Discussion of the Plan The plan of the proposed Christmas event has been integrated as a well-structured design through encompassing different essential activities and elements. In order to deal with possible issues regarding event activities, the proposed plan also determines factors may have major influence on the event to achieve its postulated goals and objectives. In order to deal with issues associated with location of the Christmas event, the event management team will seek a prior consent from the management and authoritative committee of the institution regarding the use of LCUCK B6 for organizing the proposed Christmas event. The process would provide a major support of making arrangement of the required resources linked with the event. In the context of liaison of event activities, the programs such as decoration of the class room along with food items for each involved members and guest in accordance with an appropriate sequence and priority will be ensured. In addition, the event management committee will also be led by the managers with an agreement of each individual member in the group. The managing committee of the event will be accountable of designing, aligning, controlling and directing of each activity to be performed in the event. 3. Type and Level of Service to be provided at the Event The services to be provided in the event are characterised into few key segments in order to minimise possible flaws in the event. The key segments of the services include invitation, decoration, menu and food service. The segmentation of services associated with the Christmas event will help to easily perform activities on each level of the program without any delay or confusion. With due regards to the experience acquired in the summer party event organized earlier on June, would provide a major support to attain the key objectives of this particular event and will further ensure eliminating the problems that were faced earlier in the summer party event. 4. Assessment of the Health, Safety and Hygiene Problems Operational and management factors while performing hospitality services involves numerous problems. In the context of hospitality industry, issues associated with health, safety and hygiene problems are the key issues that have major influence on a particular event management program (University of Reading, 2012). In relation to the proposed event, the operations and management functions will be focus on meeting appropriate policies regarding health, safety and hygiene issues. With respect to the health, safety and hygiene plan, the members will be trained and communicated to comply with the established guiding principles. Moreover, the event also includes a set of emergency tools and equipment to meet the any uncertain situation or accidents that may acquire during the event. In order to maintain adequate hygiene, the event management committee will also focus on maintaining adequate clean and hygienic environment. In this regard, significant attention will be placed on hygiene related to food items that would to be served to the guests visiting the event. 5. Marketing, Human Resources and Quality Control Issues The concept of marketing in the event management is extremely important. Role of marketing tools such as advertising, campaigning and promotional activities are paramount to draw the attention of target audiences as well as to ensure the success of the event. In relation to the proposed Christmas event, the programs such as celebration of activities and food items to be offered to the guests will be centrally marketed across the institution campus (Pizam & Holcomb, 2010). Besides, the use of social networking sites will be extensively made particularly to inform and intimate students about the event features. In the context of human resource management, the availability of required individuals along with their alignments and allocation in each event activities can be taken into account. In relation to the proposed Christmas event, the human resource function of the program will focus on selecting and appointing, and providing training about the catering services and different other operations will be considered (Wagen, 2007). The quality control team on the other hand, will highly focused on maintaining quality parameters of associated with the event services including hospitality, operations and other functions of the event (Raj & Musgrave, 2009). 6. Importance of Relationship between Event Management Team Members and Clients A strong and cooperative relationship among the team members is a crucial aspect for the event management committee to derive successful outcome from the organised event. In this regard, the individual team member will be selected in in accordance with their attribute, behavioural and interpersonal skills. The process would also help the event management committee to reduce the possibility of conflicts and increase individuals’ performance with regard to their assigned roles in the event. In addition, the team will also accountable to build strong relationship with the clients. Delivering adequate value in terms of serving each client with a positive attitude and communication skill will help the event management team to form a productive relationship with the clients. An effective relationship management with clients can provide a major support to the event management team to gain long-term sustainability. Moreover, it will also help the team to increase the number of potential clients for any future events (Liao, 200). 7. Skills to be Used for Developing a Good Relationship The proposed Christmas event will be focused on using a set of effective skills in order to develop relationship with the clients. In this context, an interpersonal skill of the event management team members will be of prime importance. The interpersonal skill of the members will include effective communication process among each individual irrespective of their assigned job roles. Moreover, maintaining cooperative and perception of shared goal will also increase the performance of the members towards developing a strong relationship (Presenza & Iocca, 2012). Correspondingly, the relationship of event management team with client will also focus on improving contract negotiation skills, which will also help to increase the number of potential clients for different events. The contract negotiation skill of the event management committee will further help to improve their capability to improve quality of different services and achieve each defined goal of any types of event. 8. Review of Contracts can be Used in Negotiation for Business Fixed-Price Contract The fixed-price contract can be termed as a negotiation agreement process when a fair and reasonable price of the contract is formed at the outset. In this contractual process, the first party agrees to pay a particular negotiated amount disregarding the actual cost of the contractor. The fixed-price contract is generally an ideal negotiating process for the others as it tends to encourage contractors to comprehensively meet the cost. Fixed-price contract can be characterised into five major types such as Firm-Fixed-Price, Fixed-Price Incentive, Fixed-Price with Economic Price Adjustment, Fixed-Price Redetermination, and Fixed-Price/Level-of-Effort contract (Handfinger, 2012). Cost-Plus Contracts These types of contracts are basically used by the parties when a number of uncertain issues or complexities are involved within a contractual performance. The cost-plus contracts often identify the fund or cost status of the contractors, which can be a major limitation of the contractual parties. There are few numbers of cost-plus contracts that are used by the parties such as Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee, Cost-Plus-Incentive-Fee and Re-determinable, Cost-Plus-Award-Fee, and Cost Sharing contracts (Ferguson, 2010). Grounded on the brief review of the contract used when negotiating for business, it can be identified that a fixed-price contract can help organisation to build a strong relationship amid the contractual parties. 9. Stages of Drawing Up A Contract For the Event In order to build a strong relationship with the respective clients, the contractual process of the Christmas event will comply with a fixed-price contract while negotiating business. The stages to be involved in this particular contract include defining project milestone, clear specification and payment setting stages associated with the project or the event. A clear illustration of the stages has been provided hereunder. Fig: Stages of Contract for the Event According to theoretical viewpoint, the project milestone stage in a fixed-price contract signifies the key aims and goals of the project along with the objectives that have designed for each event activity. In relation to the proposed Christmas event, the milestone stage generally defiines about the goals and objectives of the event. Clear specification in relation to the proposed event will clearly include the event or project activities to be performed. In the context of the proposed event, decoration, menu and food service activities will be included. In relation to the price setting segment in the fixed-price contract, the contractor are likely to estimate total cost including each operational as well as provisional activities. In the context of the proposed event, the price setting stage will mainly include production and service costs. Moreover, the proposed event may also include an uncertain requirementsthat need to be executed for eliminatng any problem arising thereon. Therefore, the price setting segment of the contract will also include provisional cost. 10. Assessment of the Financial Issues of the Contract for the Event. Major financial issues of the contract that might affect the event have been discussed hereunder: Level of Complexity Complexities in the procurement actvities such as payroll or technology related services are likely to create problems while implementing the event plan. The increasing level of complexities may also cause major financial complexities in the contract, which can negatively impact the event (Commonwealth of Australia, 2008). Procurement Value Project with significantly large volume of procurement are more likely to face financial challenges than the other small procurement values. However, the procurement value for the proposed Christmas event has a minimum value, thus the possibility of any subtle risks for the event is less (Commonwealth of Australia, 2008). General Economic Factors The general economic factors such as fluctuation in the labour or procurement cost or increasing demand of required service may also have negative influence on contract terms. In the context of the proposed event, the fluctuation in the economic factor has a moderate impact on the event due to its low amount of financial investment (Commonwealth of Australia, 2008). 11. Strategy to Generate New Business In order to generate new business or increasing number of potential event management contracts, a strategy of fixed-price contract will substantially aid the organisation. The strategy will enable to obtain a strong value from the clients. In order to achieve a competitive position in event management contract business, a set of value-based principles regarding the actual cost of the project activities would help to develop a strong relationship with the client. 12. Evaluating Success in Carrying-out the Proposed Contract In relation to the success of the Christmas event, the process of building good relation with the clients along with quality control issues can substantially satisfy the needs of the clients. Moreover, the incorporation of interpersonal relationship with strong communication approach will facilitate in accomplishing desired goals and objectives of the event. Furthermore, the selection of contract negotiation method i.e. fixed-price approach will also increase value of the event contract management business to attain its sustainable position in the market. 13. Conclusion Planning an event management involves a number of activities that are highly influenced by different internal and external factors. In order to obtain the defined goals and objectives, adequate understanding of the factors both internal and external can provide a major support to the event management team or organisation to successfully and smoothly realize the milestones set for the events. According to an in-depth understanding from the discussion, it has been obtained that the stages in planning of the event along with assessment activities regarding various essential operations of the event can be duly considered as a set of critical aspect for the Christmas event. Moreover, adequate consideration of human resource, marketing and quality control assessment for the event has also been recognised to increase validity and reliability of the proposed event. 14. Self-Evaluation of Roles in the Event Being as a supervisor in the Christmas event, managing and controlling event management activities are few of my major strengths. Moreover, strong communication skill along with well-build interpersonal relationship building capability has also helped me to effectively deal with client in the event. However, inadequate potential in terms of making decisions relating to the contract negotiation activities may reduce my capability to obtain desired performance. References Commonwealth of Australia, 2008. Assessing Financial Viability. Contract Issues. [Online] Available at: http://www.finance.gov.au/procurement/procurement-policy-and-guidance/buying/contract-issues/assessing-financial-viability/practice.html [Accessed November 30, 2014]. Ferguson, J., 2010. Plus and Minuses: Cost-Plus versus Fixed-Price Contracts. Construction Accounting Anotaxation, pp. 14-17. Handfinger, A. P., 2012. Understanding Contractual Pricing Arrangements –Fixed Price, Cost-Plus, and Guaranteed Maximum Price. Pecker & Abramson P.C. [Online] Available at: http://www.pecklaw.com/images/uploads/communications/Client_Alert-Understanding_Contractual_Pricing_Arrangements.pdf [Accessed November 30, 2014]. Liao, S., 20009. Liao, 2009. Building Partnership as the Key Strategy in Developing an Event Management Model for an International Dance Event: A Case Study of the 2WDA. Background of the Study. [Online] Available at: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/30356/1/Shuyi_Liao_Thesis.pdf [Accessed November 30, 2014]. Pizam, A. & Holcomb, J., 2010. International Dictionary of Hospitality Management. Routledge. Presenza, A. & Iocca, S., 2012. The Weight of Stakeholders on Festival Management. The Case of Music Festival in Italy. PASOS, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 25-35. Raj, R. & Musgrave, J., 2009. Event Management and Sustainability. CABI. University of Reading, 2012. Event Management. Safety Code of Practice 33 4th Edition. [Online] Available at: http://www.reading.ac.uk/web/FILES/health-and-safety/CoP_33_Event_Management_December_2012.pdf [Accessed November 30, 2014]. University of Oxford, 2014. ITIL – A guide to Event Management. Event Management Process Information. [Online] Available at: https://www.ucisa.ac.uk/~/media/Files/members/activities/ITIL/service_operation/eventm_management/ITIL_a%20guide%20to%20event%20management%20pdf.ashx [Accessed November 30, 2014]. Wagen, L. V. D., 2007. Human Resource Management for Events. Routledge. Bibliography Epstein, B. J. & Jermakowicz, E. K., 2010. WILEY Interpretation and Application of International Financial Reporting Standards 2010. John Wiley & Sons. Heldman, K. & Mangano, V., 2009. PMP Project Management Professional Exam Review Guide. John Wiley & Sons. World Flying Disc Federation, No Date. Major Event Contract for WFDF World (Event Name) Championships. WFDF Championship Event Generic Contract, p.p. 1-17. Read More