Event Business and Financial Plan - Essay Example

? Events Management and Operations Contents Financial Plan 5 Marketing Plan 6 Personnel 7 Health and Safety 8 Conclusion and Recommendations 9 Events Management and Operations Introduction The Event Concept The concept of the event will be to develop an event for the University of Bedfordshire to learn, teach and sharing of the experiences of academic scholars, researchers and industry professionals in the event. The event will be based on a single day and will be held in a conference room. The bid is proposed by the event organizing company on the basis of 3 different locations. The final choice rests with the Board of University to decide the desired option. Overview of the Location Three different locations will be associated with the event which carries separate cost. These are described below: Bedfordshire University The company has a choice of consuming the university place for conducting the desired event which can also be very economical for the University due to the exclusion of space rent. However, the cost associated with developing breakout rooms and other extra facilities will be rented out by the company itself which will increase the overall cost for both the university and company. The University is situated in Luton, England. Strathmore Hotel The Strathmore Hotel can be considered as an event organizing place which is very near to the University of Bedfordshire. The hotel has the availability of providing necessary equipments and space for the desired amount of audiences. However, a huge cost is associated with the rent of the space of hotel but all the necessary equipments are offered by the Hotel itself. UK Centre for Carnival Arts This location is also considered ideal for conducting an event which is situated at the opposite side of the University of Bedfordshire. However, the conference rooms and other space are to be designed accordingly by the event director. Furthermore, the equipments will be outsourced from a different company for the purpose of rent for a single day. Event Business Plan Vision The vision of the company is to create a long lasting impression in the mind of consumers about the event organized by the company. The company understands the value of retaining their customers over a longer period so they shall become potential customers. In order to make the vision successful, the company communicates the vision along with the desired preferences of audiences of event. The key stakeholders of the company are its audiences and the management people who make the event successful. The various strengths of the company involves targeting VIP’s and have relevant experience in serving them according to their needs. However, the company is very particular about using venues events because the company considers that many requirements are dependent to location of the event. The other strength of the company is their presentation which is likely to gain attention of audience. Operations The program will start with an opening ceremony which shall be performed by the chief guest appointed by the University of Bedfordshire itself. Different ideas and learning experience will be shared by professionals, which will be decided with the collaboration of University. The guests will then be transferred to 4 different breakout rooms where breakfast and tea will be served. The program will be resumed after guest entering the main conference room to discuss further involvement in event operations and hospitality. At precisely 1 pm lunch will be served to audiences to which they will again be transferred to their separate breakout rooms. The idea for developing 4 breakout rooms is that different individuals from similar related fields could join and share their ideas. For example, industry professionals can consume an entire breakout room, whereas, academic scholars can consume the other breakout room. The lunch will be followed by another session of conferences amongst audiences sharing their experiences and ideas on hospitality and event operations. It will be followed by the afternoon tea and then the dinner will be served at 7 pm. A closing ceremony will be held by the chief guest (Robinson, 2010). Requirements The location will consist of an auditorium in which different audiences will share their experience about hospitality and events operations. The location will also consist of 4 breakout rooms which refer to a small collaboration meeting rooms for different professionals. Each breakout room will consist of a round table that will have the capacity for 25 individuals. The rooms will have facility of audio and visuals, and a screen to assist with the idea of presenting their ideas visually through the use of a projector and a laptop. Apart from that, the event will consider a place for audience that needs to take rest for a short period. A rest room will be located beside the breakout room to assist audiences to use bathrooms or to relax for the moment (Van der Wagen, 2010). The large conference room will be located beside the main room of auditorium which would be much bigger than the breakout rooms and it will have the capacity to place the entire audience in neat arrangements. The room will contain a huge screen to offer the services of providing PowerPoint presentations. These will be the specific rooms which will be the part of event and it’s up to the event organizing company how best they decorate and present the event (Bowdin et al., 2011). Financial Plan Event Budget Summary Description University Hotel UK Carnival Art Income Sponsorship 25,000 25,000 25,000 Grant 50,000 50,000 50,000 Other Income - - - Total Income 75,000 75,000 75,000 Expenditure General Administration 2000 2000 2000 General Insurance 500 500 500 Travel 200 200 200 Staff Salaries and Fees 20000 15000 15000 Other Administration Expenses 1000 1000 1000 Subtotal Administration Cost 23700 18700 18700 Event Cost Event Evaluation/Bid cost 5000 8000 6000 Facility/Venue Rent 0 6000 5000 Health and Safety 8000 1000 8000 Ceremonies 250 250 250 Entertainment 200 200 200 Hospitality 200 200 200 Subtotal Event Cost 13650 15650 19650 Marketing and Promotion Expenses Advertising 2000 2000 2000 Design Fees and Printing 4000 4000 4000 Media and PR 2500 2500 2500 Subtotal Marketing Expenses 8500 8500 8500 Total Expenses 45850 42850 46850 Add Contingency (5% of Total Expenses) 2292 2142 2342 Total Expenses + Contingency 48142 44992 49192 Surplus/Deficit 26,858 30,008 25,808 There will be a transparent financial budget presented to the University of Bedfordshire so that it becomes easier for everyone to know the occurrence of funds available. The budget summary accounts for the description of income and the description of expenditure which will combine to provide the necessary surplus or deficit of the entire event. The income of the company will be generated from grants and sponsorships. Grants will be provided by the University of Bedfordshire for the services offered by the company and creating an event. The sponsorships will be acquired by the company’s fundraising manager who will contact with various businesses to promote their advertisements in the light of the event. The sponsors usually pay a higher amount for placing their advertisements in front of a larger crowd (Rukavina & Skinner, 2003). The expenditure of the event is distributed in 3 different sections known as administrative costs, event costs, and marketing and promotion expenses. The administrative cost includes paying salaries to different staffs that will work to promote the event which includes company personnel and outsource personnel. It also includes insurance cost if anything is damaged during the event. The other section of the expenditure includes event cost which consists of the bidding cost, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and tea serving of the event. It covers all those costs which are associated directly with the event. It also includes the cost which is amounted to decorate the ceremony. The third section includes marketing and promotion expenses which include printing of the invitation cards and the money spent on advertisement of the event which includes calling up of media personnel (Chaturvedi, 2009). Marketing Plan Target Market The preferred target market has been defined by the University of Bedfordshire which constitutes of scholars, researchers, and industry professionals to learn and share the working experience of hospitality and event operations. These audiences would be 100 in number and would come from different locations. Positioning The idea is to position the event that will have a long lasting experience in the mind of people who attended the particular event. The company would offer luxurious services to these professionals which would be better than other events. The important part of positioning the event is that the event should be according to the target audience and what appeals them the most (Preston, 2012). Printing Cards 100 invitation cards will be printed instead of tickets and will be sent at the houses of each guest. This would require outsourcing of printing services in order to print executive cards for the guest. These cards would be sent free of charges and would be represented in the expense of the university. At the start of the event in the morning, a leaflet shall be provided to guests, which will describe about the events that will take place in the entire day. This shall provide awareness of events taking place at each hour. At the end of the event, flyers and leaflets will be provided to all guests, which will carry the information of the company and kind of events supported by the company (Lam, 2008). Media Relations and Planning Media personnel would be called up for airing the program in order to appear in the channel. As it is a big event for academic professionals, it requires media attention which would create a positive image on the university of Bedfordshire and as well as the company organizing the event. Media personnel would be hired for one particular day at the time of event. The company will itself identify journalists which will cover the entire event and the company will keep the track of media of the deadline of images released. The company intends to create media relations and be honest with media personnel (Allen, 2010). Corporate Sponsorship This area is critical to the success of the company as it is the second top contributor in the company’s income. The company will make contacts with corporations to receive their support financially in managing the event and in favour they will be allowed to paste their advertisements inside the event. The company will be particular about considering the sponsorship because the nature of their existence should support the interest of academic professionals. Marketing Objectives After identifying the target audience, the other major aim is to define marketing goals and objectives of the company. The goals should SMART which refers to specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time specified. These goals have been described below: To attract particular audience to invest in our company for the future prospects. To raise ?20,000 in net revenues of the event. To achieve the highest satisfaction of 90% among audiences and that they should rate the services as excellent or very good. To achieve a satisfaction level that the audiences shall recommend their peers and family members to receive our services. To achieve excellent media coverage and appraisals from general audience that will view the event on their TV. Personnel The most important part for any event is to designate and appoint right people for the right job so they will not mess up the entire event. Selecting the appropriate team is well desired by the event organizing company because they are the key stakeholder and much of the performance of the event is dependent upon them. The key personnel for managing the entire event have been listed below: Event Director Event Administrator Finance Assistant Marketing Assistant Site Manger Sponsorship Manager Stage Manager Security Officials Servers Coordination amongst the entire personnel is the key in success of the event. Before starting of the event, meetings will be held to discuss how the event should be organized and onto what location. Communicating about the event is necessary for crew members for being updated. The foremost thing is to describe their job description and to tell them what exactly each person have to do and their responsibility (Damster & Tassiopoulos, 2005). The finance will prepare a budget summary for the event, a marketing manager will devise marketing plan for the success of the event to gain audience attention. The fundraising manager will contact sponsors for promoting their businesses in the event for gaining sponsorships. The stage manager will decorate the stage and will keep in notice of various things required in a particular room. The site or a venue manager will allocate rooms for the particular event because each room is designated according to the size of audience. The event administrator will look over all possible outcomes of the event and will take necessary measures if anything is out of control. The event director will manage the entire event and will make final decisions. The services of security officials and servers will outsourced with the local reputed company. The key is to maintain communication among all staff members (Saget, 2006). Health and Safety Site/Venue Layout The venue layout is considered very important for the security and maintaining comfort level of audiences. The invitation card will also include the map of the desired event location for their safe journey and to locate the place easily for these audiences. Particular flyers will be provided to the audiences at the beginning of the program so they should be able to determine the exact time of the starting of the particular program. Along with the information of program and events, a map of the entire location of the event will also be mentioned to avoid the contingencies of audience in locating their desired rooms (Saget, 2006). Health Room For the prospect of avoiding any accidents, a small temporary room will be situated in which necessary health equipments will be brought in order to attend guest who are in need of medical attention. It will cost higher for the University if the event is proposed inside the university itself because it would require additional cost for setting up of health rooms and to outsource medical staff. However, the medical services are already offered by different hotels and there is no additional cost. The medical room and the availability of medical equipments twill create a strong impression among audiences (Damster & Tassiopoulos, 2005). Placement of Equipments The equipments will be situated closer to the audience to gain their attention without affecting their enjoyment. The necessary equipments like screens and projectors will be placed in a way that they would cause no harm to individuals. These equipments are to be placed in a way that there should be no disturbance what so ever for the audience and will not create any disturbance (Bowdin et al., 2011). Conclusion and Recommendations It is concluded that the event which will be organized by the company will have a vision to create a long lasting impression in the minds of customers and to create 90% audience satisfaction. The bidding proposal allows the university to choose from 3 different locations for conducting an event. The University of Bedfordshire, the Strathmore Hotel and the UK Centre of Carnival Arts are the three desired location. The marketing of the event will be conducted by the marketing manager of the company and the sponsors will be contacted through the fundraising manager of the company. Invitation cards will be sent to the residents of academic scholars, researchers and industry professionals. The venue will consist of an auditorium, one large conference room, and 4 different breakout rooms which are referred to as small collaboration rooms. The financial plan has been represented for each desired locations and the cost associated with each location and the amount profited by the company. The Strathmore Hotel has the lowest cost associated with the event, whereas, the University itself is ranked the second most desired venue for the event. Many personnel are appointed for conducting the event, which have particular job descriptions and responsibilities. The health and safety constraint is also managed by the company in which health rooms are situated for emergency treatment of audiences. Recommendations The company recommends to the University of Bedfordshire to account for the Strathmore hotel because a low cost is associated with the option. The particular location also carries higher profit for the event organizing company, whereas, the other options have higher expenses for the University and lower profitability for the event organizing company. The recommendations are provided on the basis of financial calculations performed by the financial manager of the company if all possible risks are remained constant. List of References Allen, J., 2010. Marketing Your Event Planning Business: A Creative Approach to Gaining the Competitive Edge. 1st Ed. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Bowdin, G. et al., 2011. Events Management. 2nd ed. Burlington: Routledge. Chaturvedi, A., 2009. Event Management: A Professional and Development Approach. 1st Ed. New Delhi: Global India Publications. Damster, G. & Tassiopoulos, D., 2005. Event Management: A Professional and Developmental Approach. 2nd ed. Paarl: Juta and Company Ltd. Lam, C., 2008. Legal aspects of marketing and event management. 1st ed. Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag. Preston, C., 2012. Event Marketing: How to Successfully Promote Events, Festivals, Conventions and Expositions. 1st Ed. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Robinson, P., 2010. Events Management. 1st ed. London: CABI. Rukavina, V. & Skinner, B., 2003. Event Sponsorship. 1st Ed. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Saget, A., 2006. The Event Marketing Handbook: Beyond Logistics and Planning. 1st Ed. New York: Kaplan Publishing. Van der Wagen, L., 2010. Event Management: For Tourism, Cultural, Business and Sporting Events. 1st Ed. New York: Pearson. Read More