The Management Team and Organizational Chart - Essay Example

Event - Initial Concept Management Plan Financial Planning of Events) of the of the Contents Management team and organizational chart 3 Description of the event 4 Competitive analysis 6 Anticipated challenges / SWOT Analysis 7 Marketing plan 8 Implementation schedule 10 Budget and Admin outline 13 References 15 Management team and organizational chart The management team selected for the event would consist of an event coordinator, an event planner, a client service manager, an event manager and an event assistant. Other than these key personnel, the management team would also include the lower level of team members like the ticket seers, customer service representatives and the general enquiry handlers. The event management team would also include the volunteers who would be participating in carrying out the ancillary activities in the Bern Beer festival. Since the Bern beer festival is a social type of event, therefore, the event management team should also be specifically designed and should include personnel who have the necessary capabilities and prior experiences required for managing such an event successfully and professionally. All the key entities of the event management team would have to work in perfect collaboration and cooperation to ensure the establishment of a smooth flowing and efficiently organized festive event. The hierarchy of the event management team can be represented through the use of an organizational chart. This hierarchy of the event management team for the Bern Beer Festival is given in the following chart. Figure 1: Event management team hierarchy chart (Source: Knapp, 2011, p.650) Description of the event Beer tasting event is a famous event in the counties with cold climate. Slowly it is gaining more popularity in many countries across the world. The beer festival for which the plan is being done will be called the Bern Beer Festival. The festival will be held in Bern in Switzerland. The city of Berne is the capital of Switzerland and is a highly populated and advanced federal city in the country. Beer festivals are common events enjoyed by the people in Bern. Beer tasting is a part of the leisure activities of the people of Switzerland. The festival would be conducted in a large scale with the aim of an international exposure because an international exposure would mean higher visibility of the festival and increased number of visitors which will subsequently lead to more revenues and popularity. Also, this would ensure the creation of a loyal base of visitors and repeat visits from the city as well as from other international regions due to word of mouth publicity (Kay, 2004, pp.191-202). The event would be sponsored by a well-known brewery in Switzerland, Feldschlösschen brewery and co-partnered by a number of international beer manufacturing companies. The beer festival would include more than 100 international liquor brands, especially beer brands. The visitors of the event would be offered unlimited sampling of beer and other liquors in the 4 day beer festival. Other than beer, a number of international wines, ciders and other types of liquors would be provided for free tasting as well as sale in the event venue. Along with the offering of sample drinks and drinks for sale, a number of food items would also be made available in the beer festival. However, the food items would be available only for sale and no samples of food items will be provided. The beer festival would be mainly sponsored by Feldschlösschen which is a famous brand of beer in Switzerland. Feldschlösschen brewery is one of the oldest and most authentic beer brands in the country. The brewery is the biggest brewery operating in Switzerland with its main facility being located in Rheinfelden. Along with this brand there would be certain other local and multinational beer and other liquor brands that would participate in the Bern beer festival. The dates for the beer festival would be selected in a way such that it starts from a Thursday and ends in a Sunday. In this way, the weekends would be included in the four day programme. The inclusion of the weekend would ensure higher participation of the target customers in the beer festival. Many unique arrangements would be made to make sure that the festival is continued efficiently without any hindrances. Basic as well as augmented facilities and amenities like proper lighting, attendants, seating arrangements, gaming arrangements, musical events and dance floor would be included so as to create a unique and valuable experience for the visitors of the beer festival. A clear tornado tent arrangement would be made for conducting the beer festival in Bern over the four days. The clear tornado tent arrangement would ensure the continuity of the festival even in case of any environmental hazards like snowstorm. Many creative beer masters from all across the globe would be hired for providing samples of their unique beer combinations and cocktails which will act as a unique selling proposition for the event (Arnold, 2005, p.130). The festival will include the distribution and sale of a wide variety of tasty beer. The event would also include the hosting of unique programs and competitions. New programs would be hosted in each of the four days of the beer festival. There would be music competitions, karaoke singing, prize distribution and other types of competition which will enhance the experiences of the visitors. Competitive analysis Beer festivals and beer exhibitions are popular events in the western countries. Beer festivals are common events in Switzerland. There are a number of beer festivals that are hosted by many event organizers every year in different cities of Switzerland. Bern being the federal city of Switzerland and having a large population of more than 137,980 as of 2013, is one of the most preferred destinations for hosting beer festivals. Therefore, many domestic as well as international beer companies sponsor beer exhibitions and beer festivals in the city. The beer festival to be held in Bern may face tough competition from the already established beer festivals in the country which are held on a yearly or quarterly basis. These beer festivals are not only enjoyed by the local people of the cities of Switzerland but also people from other cities of the country as well as many international locations attend these festivals as a way of recreation and enjoyment (Wale, Robinson & Dickson, 2010, pp.240-242). The established beer festivals and beer exhibitions are sponsored and co-partnered by famous international and local breweries and often function on an international awareness and attendance level. The annual Raperwill Beer factory Craft beer festival is a very popular beer festival that is held every year in Switzerland which may act as a strong competitor for the Bern beer festival. There are also few domestic company sponsored liquor festivals that may act as competitive events for the Bern Beer festival. Anticipated challenges / SWOT Analysis The SWOT analysis of the Ben Beer Festival is done to analyse the internal strengths and weaknesses and the external opportunities and threats for the festival. Strength: The main strength of the Bern Beer Festival would be the location. Bern is a much populated as well as popular city of Switzerland. The city is considered to be a citadel of culture (Rudgley, 2012, p.90). As a result the people are highly oriented towards supporting and encouraging the organization of different cultural and entertainment related events including, music festivals, food festivals, liquor festivals etc. The high availability of financial and other resources is a key strength. Other than that the partnership with major liquor brands and event management brands would also act as critical success factors of the beer festival. The co-branding with other popular companies in the location and the high level of marketing and advertising would be major strengths as well. Weaknesses: The Bern Beer Festival is a comparatively new entrant in the domain of beer festivals and exhibitions. Therefore, the lack of prior knowledge and experience in this field may act as a weakness for the festival. There are few gaps noted in the fundraising activities of the festival which may also act as a weakness because the availability of financial resources is of high importance in arranging and managing this type festive and cultural event. Opportunities: Beer drinking is a part of the culture of Bern which makes the scopes for the success of the Beer festival much wider. The people in Bern are much likely to attend these kinds of festivals. Also, Bern is a famous tourism destination in Switzerland which makes it possible for the international audiences to attend the festival (Bern Tourism, 2014, p.2). The cool weather of Bern is definitely an opportunity for the festival to be hosted here. The increasing popularity of cultural festivals and the interests of the general public towards entertainment and recreation based activities will also act as potential opportunities for the Bern Beer Festival. Threats: The increasing popularity of the national and international beer festivals have made many event organizers to sit up and take notice of the new scope of beer festivals as cultural and festive events. Therefore, more new companies are likely to enter into this foray thereby decreasing the margin levels and creating a division in the customer segments. The fluctuating weather of Bern may also be a potential threat for the event because any kind of snowstorm or other environmental changes may directly decrease the number of visitors into the beer festival (Anderson, Getz & Mykletun, 2014, p.87). Marketing plan The Bern Beer Festival has to be marketed in a suitable manner so as to ensure maximum sale of tickets and maximum attendance in the festival. This event should be promoted as a fun based leisure event that people should join with the aim of enjoying themselves and creating memorable experiences with friends and families. The best way of promoting an event in the modern world is through the use of digital marketing channels (Johnson, Glover & Yuen, 2009, pp.1-16). Therefore, the event managers for the Bern Beer Festival should start creating awareness and visibility of the event through the popular social media sites like Facebook, Hi5, LinkedIn, twitter etc. Also, the event management team should access database of the past visitors of the beer festivals and similar types of cultural events in Bern city and in other popular beer festivals and exhibitions. Then the event management team can start promoting the Bern Beer Festival through directly emailing the potential visitors from this database of names to reach the people who show a trend of attending beer festivals. Other than these, the event mangers should also consider advertising in pubs, local beer bars, liquor shops and restaurants to ensure that the target group of visitors for the beer festival can be reached adequately (Nelson, 2005, p.44). Leveraging on the unique propositions of the event like the presence of international beer masters, music bands, games and other activities, prizes and world class facilities would help to promote the beer festival in an effective manner( O’Toole, 2011, pp.42-44). Also, the brand values of the co-branding companies should be leveraged upon. The experiential factor and high experience value associated with the beer festivals should be propagated through the marketing activities. This can be done through advertising campaigns which would be popular among the young to middle age group of customers (Mikolaitis, 2002, p.101). The tickets should be made available through setting up kiosks in high footfall areas. Also, the tickets should be made available for online purchases. The distribution of a limited number of free tickets should be done as a part of the promotional activities. Also, the tickets should be made available for distribution through the partnering brands and sponsors of the festival event (Bowdin & OToole, 2012, p.114). Implementation schedule The planning process is the most significant stages of an event management process. The planning process would involve the formulation of suitable mission and vision for the beer festival. The mission of the beer festival is to be established as a renowned beer festival that would be attended by people from different parts of the country. The vision of the Bern Beer Festival is to establish the event as a part of the culture and entertainment of the people of Switzerland while at the same time ensuring that the event becomes recognized on an international platform (Allen, O’Toole, Harris & McDonnel, 2010, pp.100-102). The time table or the implementation schedule for the planning of the Bern Beer Festival in Switzerland is given below. Month First Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth Seventh Selecting the event partners and sponsors. Acquiring the necessary sanctions and permissions for the conducting the festival Recruitment and training of personnel and key volunteers Fundraising activities and meeting the deadlines of pre fundraising processes. Licensing, insurance and legal issues Budgeting milestones of the festival, holding necessary meetings with all team members including the volunteers Confirmation of the period, dates and the venue of the beer festival, checking the availability of dates and final booking (Jeong & Santos, 2004, pp.640-656). Milestones for pre-production or production A step by step implementation of the devised marketing strategies Commencement of event building and media activities. Evaluation of the event plans and review of the pre-production processes that have been implemented. The time table is prepared for a period of seven months over which the key activities of the even planning and management are divided (Getz, 2005, p.350). Some activities like the drafting of agreements with the fundraisers and partners and raising adequate funds, selling the tickets, evaluation of the event management plan, production and pre-production checking would be the main activities involved in the event management plan of the Bern beer festival and as such would require more time for implementation than the secondary activities. Budget and Admin outline The budget outline prepared for the event management of Bern Beer Festival is given in the following table. EXPLOITATION P R O Gross Income       Sales (tickets, sponsorship,) $ 2,465.00 $ 2,719.00 $ 3,653.00 Other income (TBD) $ 720.00 $ 900.00 $ 900.00     $ - $ - Costs : $ - $ - $ - Costs of Materials, Suppliers, Services $ 256.00 $ 390.00 $ 465.00 Specific Marketing Costs $ 150.00 $ 150.00 $ 200.00 Sales Costs (Commissions and other proportional costs) $ 227.05 $ 523.85 $ 710.35         Gross Margin $ 1,111.95 $ 755.15 $ 1,377.65 The budget for the event indicates that the gross profit margins for the event would be much high. Also, there would be high net margin as expected from a profitable project. The sale of the tickets is also forecasted to be high which adds to the success of the event. The budget is prepared on the basis of three separate views. These views are the pessimistic view in which chances of loss are considered, the realistic view in which the real practical scenario is considered and an optimistic view in which a high sale of tickets is considered. The optimistic budget shows a high profit for the company. The plus point is that the realistic budget as well as the pessimistic budget also shows profits for the company in terms of gross profit margin as shown in the above table. References Allen, J., O’Toole, W., Harris, R. & McDonnel, I. (2010). Festival and Special Event Management. New Jersey: Wiley. Anderson, T. D., Getz, D. & Mykletun, R. J. (2014). Festival and Event Management in Nordic Countries. London: Routledge. Arnold, J. P (2005). Origin and History of Beer and Brewing: From Prehistoric Times to the Beginning of Brewing Science and Technology. Cleveland: Reprint Edition by BeerBooks. Bern tourism. (2014). Events in Bern. Retrieved from http://www.bern.com/en/city-of-bern/events-bern. Bowdin, G. & OToole, W. (2012). Events Management. London: Routledge. Getz, D. (2005). Event Management and Event Tourism. New York: Cognizant Communication Corporation. Jeong, S. & Santos, C. (2004). Cultural politics and contested place identity. Annals of Tourism Research, 31 (3), pp. 640–656. Johnson, A., Glover, T. & Yuen, F. (2009). Supporting effective community representation: Lessons from the Festival of Neighbourhoods. Managing Leisure, 14 (1), pp. 1-16. Kay, P. (2004). Cross-cultural research issues in developing international tourist markets for cultural events. Event Management, 8 (4), pp. 191-202. Knapp, B. W. (2011). Project Managers Guide to Passing the Project Management. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann. Mikolaitis, P. (2002). Corporate Event Project Management. New York: Wiley. Nelson, M. (2005). The Barbarians Beverage: A History of Beer in Ancient Europe. Abingdon: Routledge. O’Toole, W. (2011). Events Feasibility and Development: From Strategy to Operations. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Rudgley, R (2012). The Alchemy of Culture: Intoxicants in Society. London: British Museum Press. Wale, D., Robinson, P. & Dickson, G. (2010). Events Management. London: CABI.  Read More