Stakeholder Analysis as a Critical Aspect in Event Management - Case Study Example

Stakeholder Case Analysis Student’s Name Institution A. Stakeholder Definition A stakeholder is a distinctive party that has significant level of interest to activities of a company or project in general. They can affect or be affected by the underlying level of project or organisations goals, rules and regulations. Harrison and Wicks (2013) note that it is important to understand that; for every set of event or organisation, there lies two forms of stakeholders- primary and secondary stakeholders. Primary stakeholders are usually; internal set of parties that are directly engaged with activities related to economic transactions of an event or business operation. On the other hand, secondary stakeholders are external parties that do not engage with an event in a direct economic level hence can affect or be affected by the event or organizations’ actions. B. Relationship Between Event Management And Stakeholders The process of organizing a festival is indeed implemented by a given set of stakeholders that include; public; private and even some voluntary organisations. The fundamental purpose of events making efforts to incorporate stakeholders lies in the formulation of a given festival and its overall image, which is later meant to attract the attention and thus, interest of the audience (Long, 2000). For instance, the interaction of different participants results to competition thereby leading to substantive attraction of even more audience to the specific performance product at hand. Thus, it can be noted that the interaction that exists between different participants result to conflicts like the one that arises when they compete on time of participant’s performance given that a later time may be more attractive in comparison to an early time or conflicts that emanates for who to occupy the best performance spots since central location are far much preferred in comparison to the peripheral spots. Different stakeholders portray a unique set of interests, objectives and even marketing strategies that they use for ensuring a successful event organisation (Getz, 2002). In essence, it is crucial to note that different stakeholders-regardless of whether they are internal or external to a music event- complement the existing product and services performance in order to add further forms of commercial value- which means that they greatly involve a set of value-adding new. A music festival that is set to offer a wider spectrum of activities is expected to attract more audiences from different market segments (Getz, 2002). A good example is a music and culture festival that I attended recently where both regional and international artists took to stage to perform on eight set of stages within the city. The event took a period of nine days with the main performance associated with music program. It is also important to note that the event further involved a set of other forms of activities as restaurant street and amusement park. In the course of the day, the event was marred with distinctive set of theatre performances; street artist skits as well as sports competition. The very climax of the event involved a speech that was given by the Festival president at midnight. The purpose of the speech was meant to integrate the cultural aspects of the local communities to their respective identities. The event attracted a set of stakeholders that are discussed as follows; First, there were the paying audience who formed an important aspect of the event since most of the proceeds from the event arose from ticket sales to the group. Subsequently, a substantial number of the audience helps to legitimize the festivals and can thus result to a higher negotiation power in relation to other notable stakeholders. The music festival I attended has indeed matured in regards to the number of audience it attracts each year. The event has continued to garner more level of interest and thus, helps to attract not only local but also regional audiences. The purpose of understanding these set of stakeholders rest with further analysing the specific aspects that help attract them to the event (Getz, 2002). It is important for the event management to understand their behavioural patterns especially in how they purchase tickets and their preference for specific performances. This way, the management will be able to even plan effectively and efficiently in the future. Understanding this set of primary stakeholders’ further help to determine the viability of the event in general (Getz, 2002). In fact, it is proper to focus on their growth rates in order to establish whether or not they have grounds to conduct the event in the future and specific areas they would need to improve in order to satisfy the audience expectations. Consequently, the event’s another important stakeholder is the music and artist industry. This stakeholder helps to supply a set of live music to the festival. They are also engaged for purpose of ensuring that the scenes and set up lights as well as sound systems for the entire production are set in place in perfect time. Following this line of reasoning, it can be noted that the festivals are thus the immediate consumers of the contracts as well as the production companies. For the festival to have attracted such good international artists then it was crucial that it formulated a perfect contact of net of contractors. Most importantly, the booking of artists is thus linked with the music festival identity and prospective visitors’ perceived image of the festival as a whole (Batt & Purchase, 2004). The festival organisers could go ahead and exploit a rather high or low commercial strategy, which means that they could adapt a distinctive artist initiative that is more or less directed to the underlying market. Public authorities further form an important section of stakeholders. There are involved in the music event at the municipality, police as well as the environmental government. Of all these authorities, the municipality is deemed to be the most influential one since it has the capacity to decide how and when the event would be executed (Batt & Purchase, 2004). Research indicates that in stakeholder analysis, to be irreplaceable is indeed a crucial source of power (Sharma, 1993). For the case of the music festival at hand, the sources of power are the rules and regulations that relate to a wider array of activities like the use of the city centre. In contrast, the municipality represent the local citizens and thus, a famous festival help improve the overall legitimacy of the festival hence the underlying level of power in relation to the organisers’ increases substantially. Another important stakeholder for this case is the underlying media industry as whole. The media industry represents the journalists that help cover the event in such important communication tools as television and radio stations. To assume that this stakeholder is not important is detrimental to the overall success of the music event (Batt & Purchase, 2004). The event, at hand, used a significant number of communication platforms to inform potential audiences. For instance, it used both local and international radio and television stations to advertise the event; whereby distinctive set of details were provided that ranged from the venue to the price for each ticket. C. Risk of Not Conducting Stakeholder Analysis It is argued that one of the most distinctive set of reasons for conducting a failed festival relate to insufficient recourses; a factor that is easily brought about by ineffective stakeholder analysis. A lack of recourse can further result to substantial weakness of the festival management to attract enough or even any sponsors and volunteers as well as a high level of competition for recourses within the overall event industry. The fundamental aspect of any given successful event lies in the organisers formulating effective and efficient ways of handling and integrating their stakeholders in a manner that would help reduce their imminent reliance to their stakeholders (Tantalo & Priem, 2014). Notably, the efforts directed towards interacting stakeholders results to the formulation of a music festival as well as its overall image; which rest with attracting the best of the audiences. A stakeholder analysis conducted under stringent platforms helps organisers to come up with ways of ensuring that each and every aspect of the event is covered to the fullest (De Brucker, Macharis, & Verbeke, 2013). It seeks to ensure that different rules and regulations are met like securing performance permits and environmental-related compliance certificates from the relevant authorities in order to make sure that the event goes on as planned (De Brucker, Macharis, & Verbeke, 2013). In fact, the organisers are likely to experience the risk associated with a lack of recourse in the event that they fail to conduct a well-informed and wide stakeholder analysis. Conclusion To sum up, the paper has indicated that stakeholder analysis is indeed a critical aspect in event management. The paper notes that the fundamental purpose of events making efforts to incorporate stakeholders lies in the formulation of a given festival and its overall image, which is later meant to attract the attention and thus, interest of the audience. Certainly, the paper has successfully argued that that one of the most distinctive set of reasons for conducting a failed festival relates to insufficient recourses; a factor that is easily brought about by ineffective stakeholder analysis. References Batt P. J. & Purchase S. (2004) Managing collaboration within networks and relationships Industrial marketing management 33(3): 169-174 De Brucker, K., Macharis, C., & Verbeke, A. (2013). Multi-criteria analysis and the resolution of sustainable development dilemmas: A stakeholder management approach. European journal of operational research, 224(1), 122-131. Getz D. (2002) Editorial: On the Nature and Significance of Events Studies. Event Management 7(3): 141-142. Harrison, J. S., & Wicks, A. C. (2013). Stakeholder theory, value, and firm performance. Business ethics quarterly, 23(01), 97-124 Long P. (2000) After the Event: Perspectives on Organizational Partnerships in the Management of a Themed Festival Year. Event Management 6: 45-59. Sharma D. D. (1993) Industrial Networks in Marketing. Advances in International Marketing 5: 1-9. Tantalo, C., & Priem, R. L. (2014). Value creation through stakeholder synergy. Strategic Management Journal Read More