Evaluation of Individual and Organisational Creativity on the Leeds City Summer Music Festival - Case Study Example

Leeds Metropolitan University Leslie Silver International Faculty UK Centre for Events Management ASSESSMENT ENTRY DATA SLIP Family Name First Name Date of Birth Student ID CRN ID Leslie Silver International Faculty UK Centre for Events Management Creative Thinking for the Event Professional 2006/2007 M Level Student Name: E-mail address Course Group Module Tutors Barry Blake & Jackie Mulligan E-mail address b.blake@leedsmet.ac.uk and j.mulligan@leedsmet.ac.uk Telephone number 0113 283 3475 or 0113 283 3487 Leeds Metropolitan University, Civic Quarter, Leeds (0113) 2832600 Fax (0113) 2833111 Evaluation of Individual and Organisational Creativity on the Leeds City Summer Music Festival at the Roundhay Park Introduction The Leeds City Council in coordination with the AAA Events Company staged a major three-day music festival at the Roundhay Park over the Summer of 2006. In this paper, using the creative theory, management techniques and examples of other working practices within and external to the ‘events’ sector, the three-day music festival at the Roundhay Park over the Summer of 2006 was evaluated. To do this, the following were addressed: recruiting a creative team and developing a creative environment, devising a range of creative processes; researching, addressing and solving the briefs problems relating to the key factors and current trends facing the industry today; and devising an effective methodology for evaluating whether attendees considered the event “creative”. The ability to integrate creative thinking skills was honed by exploring a range of tools, techniques and processes to gain personal, professional and competitive advantage in the events context. Specifically, after the completion of the project, the following were learned: apply knowledge and understanding of creativity theory within a diverse professional event context; challenge the barriers to personal and organisational creativity; communicate creative ideas to internal / external stakeholders; and develop creative thinking skills in solving problems within different cultural and organisational contexts. Several key skills were developed and mapped against the key skills statement such as communication and presentation, knowledge and understanding, managing tasks and solving problems, self appraisal and reflection on practice, synthesis and creativity and employability. Evaluation of Creative Thinking of Individuals, Teams and Processes A Creative Style Questionnaire can be used to evaluate the creative thinking of individuals. One can be rated accordingly with 1 as the lowest and 10 as the highest. High score means that there are: 1. Originality This can be gauged when the individual initiates change, turns things better, comes up with creative solutions to problems and gives out good ideas 2. Rule sensitivity This is when the individual is found to take risks, challenges accepted practices and bends rules and regulations 3. Openness This can be measured when the individual keeps up to date with developments, tries new approaches and adapts quickly 4. Assertiveness During the activities, an individual with creative thinking express views clearly and sells ideas and proposals for change persuasive. 5. Achievement Individuals with creative thinking are motivated to push for and implement ideas and proposals for change 6. Creative style They possess this when that individual has innovative approaches to creativity problem solving and decision making. Creative thinking of individuals is critical in events organizing. This will spell the overall success of the project. One way to make creative thinking into full use is through mind mapping. It is a technique which Buzan and Buzan (1995) developed to enhance learning as well as improve overall understanding. These authors suggest methods that will help to alleviate learning problems. This diversification is essential for business reason. Likewise, diversification plays an important role for risk management reason. Staging an event is vulnerable to failure or loopholes if the local economy suffers economic hardship. An organized event will be only less vulnerable if it is able to flexibly consider several factors and intensify its promotion and advertising activities on several strategic locations and several media. Creativity is important in events organizing. There is such a thing as a comprehensive guide to "Mind Maps". “Mind Mapping” is a revolutionary method of accessing intelligence, developed over many years by Tony Buzan and his brother Barry. Aside from creative thinking events organizing teams should have work well with every members of the team. Appropriate Creative Techniques for Use by the Events Industry The directed creativity cycle involves analysis, generation, harvesting, enhancement, evaluation, implementation, living with it and observation. During the observation and analysis stage is the preparation phase. During the analysis and generation stage is the imagination phase. During enhancement and evaluation stage is the development phase. During the enhancement and evaluation stage is the development phase. During the evaluation and implementation stage is the action phase. Methodology to Evaluate Customer Perception of Creativity What the customers think, what the do and ultimately what the patronize is driven by perception inside their mind. How potential customers and clients “feel” is the operative word. What are their perceptions? The best methodology to evaluate the customer perception of creativity when it comes to events organizing is through a survey. Conduct a simple and short survey to get feedback from clients. Through this survey method, the perception of creativity by the clients can be determined. The factors that may have an impact on customers' satisfaction and usage can be identified after the evaluation process. Evaluation methodology will enable the events organizing company to anticipate disruptive uses and future telecommunication services, by putting the customer at the start of the development process. It will help determine customers' behaviour and especially their needs, down to the smallest detail. This information helps to explore new, emerging fields for new uses and to build a dynamic vision of the offer in the longer term. This will facilitate the development of events services that are unique. The outcome of the evaluation will indicate the competitive edge of an event organizing company. These feedbacks that will be gathered can help the company grow even stronger in the future. Likewise, this will enable the company to continue developing offers that come even closer to customers' expectations. Proposed Solutions The proposed solution is to understand customer perception on the efficiency. With this as a guide, events organizing can be easy and fun. By understanding and working on increasing the positive impression of the customers on the event, the probability of success will be high. Environmental forces that will affect demand within the selected market sector, and how it relates to trends in business and association events should be taken into consideration. These are some of the key factors that relate to successful and high quality events. Aside from these, there are theoretical principles that can be applied to the business world of events organizing. These are clearly discussed above. Conclusion and Recommendation The Leeds City Council spearheaded the conceptualization of the festival which is highlighted by the concert. As a result of careful planning and implementation, they were able to showcase the best contemporary artists and attracted an audience of more than twenty thousand people. Consequently, this event helped strengthen the ‘new Yorkshire’ profile that has emerged from the current music successes. By staging this event, the AAA Events Company was aware of a number of factors and trends. Hence, they explored and considered the saturation of summer festivals, Glastonbury, technology, environmental impacts, poor weather, resident complaints and many others. The organizer should have a contingency for all possible scenarios that they can think of. Best known method is to always be pro-active and try to foresee possible problems that may arise and already thought of immediate solution or workaround while working on a permanent solution. Hosting a big event is not an easy task and as mentioned in the previously, there are certain aspects or possibilities that are beyond control and those types of issues should already have a workable and feasible plan to resolve it. By using techniques in trying to identify possible flaws on the event there are solutions that can be derived by properly addressing the root cause of the problem. It is a known fact that for every event or plan there is bound to be some mishap or miscalculations. However, once this issues crop up, it is best not to panic so that you can think straight. For time really teases us in a way that what would transpire are those things you least expect to happen. After all, hosting a major event is not an easy task. From concepts to design up to the level of the actual performance there are problems that might come up. With regards to electronic gadgets or devices those things can be easily anticipated. Only those things that are beyond the control of the organizers are the most critical and hardest part. Sometimes if those critical scenarios where not properly addressed or anticipated, the whole project might turn into a flop. The committee should be well aware of the possibilities and should come into a consensus as to how to address certain issues quickly and swiftly. There should be an immediate solution so that the event would not turn into a flop. All possible devices and should be well tested. Prior to opening day, these should have a dry run. Unlike with the employment of electronic products for staging an event, there are certain issues that cannot be resolved by technology. For example a gusty wind or even rain would hamper the event. The artist might be well covered but the viewing public always bears the grunt. After careful considerations of numerous aspects of event organizing, this event became a huge success. Organizing an event as mentioned is not a walk in the park. Scheduling and logistics are the most important task that should be checked and double checked before the actual event starts. Perform rigorous checked ups of devices and stage management. The people involved in this type of a setup have to have enough experience to handle big events. Getting the proper time, equipment and proper place is one of the keys to this events success. Those things can be anticipated. Only those problems like rain and acts of nature/god those are the back breakers since we cannot control the weather status or change should be represented to the parents and patterns so as not to hinder the release. Personal problems would tend to make you confused and not thinking clearly. With regards to problems in both personal and business wise, they have their ups and downs. But as long you have done your best that is enough proof of your sincerity. However, that would not change the fact that without these contingent and fluid arrangement with other aspects of this project, it could become the corner stones and would eventually make or break the whole event. And most importantly, in any team effort, the head of the team plays a crucial role. The leader should delegate or assign group members tasks to concentrate on and give updates on a regular basis. Keep track on all groups and their progress and take note on possible flaws that might come up. Make it a point to conduct meetings to asses the status and get a general consensus as to what other members think about possible scenarios that would make them fail the project. Take each suggestion and discuss it with the group. References Carruthers, P (2002). Human creativity: its evolution, its cognitive basis, and its connections with childhood pretence. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 53, 1-25 Harris, P. (2000). The Work of the Imagination. Blackwell. Nichols, S. and Stich, S.(2003). Mindreading: an integrated account of pretence, self-awareness, and understanding other minds. Oxford University Press. Finke, R. (1995). Creative realism. In S. Smith, T Ward, and R. Finke (eds.), The Creative Cognition Approach, Cambridge University Press. Finke, R. Ward, T., and Smith, S. (1992). Creative Cognition. MIT Press. Ward T., Smith, S., and Finke, R. (1999). Creative cognition. In R. Sternberg (ed), Handbook of Creativity, Cambridge University Press. Read More