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Events and Entertainment Operations

Student name

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2

A. The Critical Success Factors of the event and factors considered when selecting the location. 2

Type and nature of the event.......................................................................................................2

The critical success factors..........................................................................................................2

The selection of the venue...........................................................................................................3

B. An Event Operations Plan for running the event on the day......................................................4

1) Licensing and Legal Issues......................................................................................................4

2) Risk Management....................................................................................................................5

3) Health & Safety (Security and crowd control)........................................................................6

4) Supply chain Management......................................................................................................6

5) CSR and Sustainability............................................................................................................7

6) Waste Management.................................................................................................................7

C. Reflection on own operational learning journey.........................................................................8

Changes that I was able to bring to the planning process............................................................8

Practice of operations management theories at the event designing...........................................8

The challenges encountered when creating the operations plan and the progress made in
overcoming them.........................................................................................................................9

Interactions with a professional in the industry.........................................................................10

Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10

References..................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Lend me your ears productions is a Christian fine arts company that stages productions and
creates audio dramas for target audiences of all ages. The company has a strong involvement
with community welfare and social goodwill activities. As part of its annual CSR, the company
now plans on staging a corporate event for the World Vision’s children charity purpose. The
event will invite around 500 attendees. The planned location for holding the event is Congress
Hall at Congress Centre located in Tottenham Court Road Station (Congresscentre.co.uk, 2018).

A. The Critical Success Factors of the event and factors considered

when selecting the location
Type and nature of the event
The chosen type of event is a corporate event. A corporate event is “a gathering that is sponsored
by a business for its employees, business partners, clients and/or prospective clients”
(Mehndiratta, 2008). This definition gives a clear idea of the nature of the event planned by Lend
me your ears productions. The target audience of the event involves the employees, the
customers of the business, and the business partners. The estimated number of invitees is around
500 (Congresscentre.co.uk, 2018). The company sees this event as an opportunity to perform its
corporate social responsibilities in a more meaningful and impactful way, as the purpose of the
event is to raise money for children charity of World Vision.

The critical success factors

Critical success factors are effective project control and evaluation tools necessarily used for
assessing the effectiveness of the event in meeting the objectives and delivering a long-lasting
message among the participants (Boag and Cuskelly, 2018). The selection of critical success
factors is very important before finalizing the planning process on the event.

The critical success factors for this event involve the following;

 The number of attendees,

 The participants’ feedback,

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 A strong storytelling,
 Effectiveness and efficiency of event design,
 The effectiveness of communication,
 The amount of charity fund generated compared against the expected amount to be
collected,
 The quality of the event experience and
 The value against ticket price (Whitford, Dunn and Cooper, 2013).

Each of the critical success factors have been considered during the planning phase. The success
of the event will be determined upon these success factors.

The selection of the venue

The selection of Congress Hall at Congress Centre as the event venue has been decided upon in
consideration of the mentioned critical success factors. For example, to make the event cost-
effective, the cost-effectiveness of the venue was prioritized. In order to ensure a greater number
of attendees, the safety of the location (Tottenham Court Road Station), and the transport
facilities to the location from the office have been considered. To provide a valued guest
experience, the glamour and décor of the venue have been considered (Whitford, Dunn and
Cooper, 2013). The Congress Hall is a relatively more affordable event venue in London. The
venue only costs £56 hire fee/ per hour. While most of the venues in London crosses hundred
pounds of the hire fee per hour, the hire fee of the Congress Hall is very decent. The venue can
hold up to 700 guests. The location of the venue has a very least rate of crime records if not any,
which makes the place a very safe venue location (O'Toole and Mikolaitis, 2018). It takes only
an hour at most to reach the venue from the office. Thus, in overall consideration, the particular
venue selection for the event can be well justified.

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Accessibility issues involve the location of the event venue and the distance of the venue from
the company (O'Toole and Mikolaitis, 2018). As mentioned earlier, it only takes an hour most to
reach to the venue from the office location. The accessibility issue also involves issuing entry
tickets to restrict outsiders entrance to the event venue. Since the event is entirely a corporate
event targeting only a selected group of individuals or interest groups therefore, outsiders would
not be allowed to access to the event.

B. An Event Operations Plan for running the event on the day

1) Licensing and Legal Issues
Several legal issues come into consideration when planning and designing a fundraising event.
First of all, the primary legal concerns followed for a fundraising event is as same as any other
forms of the event (Mehndiratta, 2008).

First thing first, the organizing company and the event management company must come into a
legal contract with each other, agreeing on the terms and conditions of the deal. Without a legal
contract between the parties, the event management function would not have a legal standpoint

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(Rojek, 2014). Secondly, the organizers need to ask for permission from the local authority. The
local authority will issue a license to the organizers, allowing them to arrange their event.
However, this is rather an easy procedure since the government of UK does not impose any legal
restrictions on any form of event, unless they go against any civil laws (Whitford, Dunn and
Cooper, 2013).

Fundraising events are regulated by some additional policies in order to ensure transparency in
the management of raised funds. It protects the rights or interests of all the relevant stakeholders
of the event program (Whitford, Dunn and Cooper, 2013). Thus, the company needs to document
their registered charity number on the event design and the invitation forms.

There are some legal issues to follow, in case the company plans on running a raffle or lottery (in
a larger extent), or if the company plans on running a charity auction. Trade Descriptions Act
1968 will come into effect in this case (Harichandan and Musgrave, 2010).

2) Risk Management
There are some key risk elements that need to be included in the event planning. Some
significant risk concerns involve;

 Medical emergencies (e.g. any invitee having sudden need for medical treatment)
 Equipment or power failure (e.g. In case, the generator of the venue fails)
 Last-minute cancellations (one of the most probable and also one of the most concerning
risk factor)
 Food safety concerns (e.g. food poisoning)
 Sponsor withdrawal (sponsors withdrawing their money)
 Financial troubles
 Severe weather or natural disasters (Bruce and Langdon, 2009).

Proper risk planning should be in place to tackle any of the mentioned or other risk factors
during or prior to the event.

In order to deal with the risks, the event management team needs to take the following measures;

1. Making an initial risk assessment.

2. Developing a Risk Control Plan.

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3. Developing Emergency Management Plan.
4. Preparing a Site safety induction checklist (Laursen and Thorlund, 2018).

Having a checklist of associated risks would provide a greater risk tolerance to the event.
Informed waivers should be managed by the event management company to inform the
organizing company about their side of the responsibilities to deal with certain unwanted
scenarios (Boag and Cuskelly, 2018).

3) Health & Safety (Security and crowd control)

Health and Safety at work Act 1974 will come into effect in terms of the health and safety at the
event. The event would involve arranging foods and beverages for the guests. Therefore, the
event managers need to be very considerate when hiring a particular catering service. The
previous performance records of the caterers should be checked on before hiring them. Also,
during the cooking process, the event management team will monitor whether the quality
standards are being followed in the kitchen or not (The Official ReSound Blog, 2018).

Other than that, the event management team should also check on the surroundings and the water
supply to ensure that no health and safety threats would come from those parts (Mehndiratta,
2008).

4) Supply chain Management

Event managers usually play an intermediary role between the suppliers of event management
systems, tools and hardware, and the organizers of the event.

Here the event management team needs to agree upon with the organizers regarding the quality
and the costs of the event supplies they would consider. These issues need to be listed on the
contract form between the event manager and the organizers.

For the given case scenario, the following supplies have been considered for managing the event
for the company;

1. Floral décor,

2. High quality sound system,

3. Attractive and eye pleasing lighting,

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4. Ticket booths,

5. Stationaries,

6. Computer systems,

7. Tables and chairs,

8. Projectors,

9. event t-shirts and other merchandise, etc (Whitford, Dunn and Cooper, 2013).

PenniBlack Catering Services have been selected as the catering service company for the event
catering. This company has a good market reputation and a 4.8-star rating (Damm, 2012).

In the given case, these supplies would be collected from local vendors and the event firms’
storehouse.

5) CSR and Sustainability

CSR or corporate social responsibility is one of the key themes of the very event organized by
Lend me your ears productions. The company makes annual CSR functions regularly.

So when organizing the event, the CSR issues will also come into consideration. Incorporating
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) into the planned is a potential strategy to go beyond the
CSR functions and start making the fundraising program affect the sustainability of the organizer
company (Mehndiratta, 2008). By installing a CSR program, the company would be able to leave
a legacy in the host community.

It is recommended that the implemented CSR programs are made relatable to the event and the
company. For example, Lend me your ears is an audio and arts company. For them initiating
anti-polythene awareness program is less effective than having an awareness program for
improving the lives of disabled or disadvantaged children (Whitford, Dunn and Cooper, 2013).

6) Waste Management
Events usually leave behind a significant amount of waste. If proper waste management
strategies are not taken into consideration, then it would incur the company more costs, in
activities like waste disposal (Boag and Cuskelly, 2018).

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In the given event management project, the organizers need to set several bins at each corner of
the venue, and stickers should be attached on walls to ensure that the invitees do not filter the
waste elements here and there (O'Toole and Mikolaitis, 2018).

Waste disposal organization, the M J Church Event Waste Management, should be hired for
disposing of the wastes generated at the event (Damm, 2012).

C. Reflection on own operational learning journey

As an event operations manager, my job role involved leading on at least five events per year for
the organization. I was also required to provide events support across the other undertakings.

My interpersonal and public relations tasks involved selecting, negotiating and managing
relationships with the business partners and the suppliers. I was also required to identify our
clients and to understand their expectations, and thus, ensure them outstanding experience as per
their requirements. The budgetary roles assigned to me involved managing large budgets with
efficiency and productivity. My team working, communication and planning skills also needed to
be at the standard levels to deliver expected performance at my workplace.

Changes that I was able to bring to the planning process

First of all, upon undertaking the event management task for Lend me your ear productions, I
believe that my learning experience came to a great effect in delivering the professional service
that the clients expected from me.

I was able to apply the event design principles to my practice. My event design task involved
catering design, marketing content design, program design, production design, etc. I was able to
plan and communicate a cost effective and guest satisfying event for the company.

Practice of operations management theories at the event designing

As I undertook the event management project for Lend me your ear productions, I got the scope
to apply the operations management theories at event designing. Operations management can be
defined as “the principle of administering business practices within an organization to ensure
the highest level of efficiency possible within the organization” (Bruce and Langdon, 2009).

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While planning and designing the event for our client, I had to follow some critical aspects of
lean manufacturing theory, which is a widely used operations management theory, used for
minimizing the costs of project while increasing the performances. The theory has been defined
as “a systematic method for waste minimization within a manufacturing system without
sacrificing productivity” (Laursen and Thorlund, 2018).

Applying this particular theory at my event designing practice, I was able to demonstrate my
reflective and practical skills at work. In overall, I am satisfied with the outcomes of the event
planning, since the event turned out to be a huge success and thanks to my use of lean
manufacturing theory, the event was able to generate more funds for the charity than it expected
to.

The challenges encountered when creating the operations plan and the progress
made in overcoming them
There have been some issues which I have faced during the operations planning process. These
issues involved;

1. Mismatch between the client’s directions and my own evaluation: To some points, the clients
wanted us to include certain elements to the event, while I was sure that adding those elements
would excessively increase the event expenditures, making the event’s fundraising goals less
achievable. Having the client understand these issues deemed to be quite difficult. On the other
hand, there were certain elements that I thought would improve the guest experience at the event,
but would have required the client to spend some extra cashes on. In such cases as well, the
clients showed disagreements at first. However, my learning on interpersonal and client
negotiation skills finally helped me to deal with such issues.

2. Confusions arising at event designing: Arranging a perfect event meeting all the critical
successful factors deemed to be quite difficult. As a result, in many cases such as menu
designing, décor planning, program and entertainment designing- my team and I faced
confusions regarding which decision would serve our objective better. In such scenarios,
interactions with a professional in the industry helped us a lot.

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Interactions with a professional in the industry
The institution where I am enrolled to develop my event management skills, gave me the
opportunity to meet with professionals in the industry. These interactions appeared to be of huge
advantage for me, because whenever I could not relate certain theory which I have learnt at the
institution to the real life practice, our instructors gave us the necessary guidance to solve our
problem easily.

Conclusion
Event and entertainment management involves set of activities that require much creativity and
practical skills. Therefore, event managers need to have adequate knowledge on the relevant
principles and practices of event management, in order to deliver desired event management
service to their clients. This report has so far discussed some of the practical and theoretical
aspects of event management as well as stating a reflective account on the learner’s experience in
management of a real life corporate event that aimed at raising funds for children charity
purpose. As the study comes to an end, it is expected that the presented discussions would give a
satisfactory reflection on the understanding of event and entertainment management practices
and principles.

References
Boag, A. and Cuskelly, G. (2018). Event management. Belconnen, ACT: Australian Sports
Commission.
Bruce, A. and Langdon, K. (2009). Project management. London: Dorling Kindersley.
Congresscentre.co.uk. (2018). Conference Venues London - Organise your event in the city of
London most versatile Conference Venue. [online] Available at:
https://www.congresscentre.co.uk/Venues/1/Conference-Venues-in-London.aspx [Accessed
5 Mar. 2018].
Damm, S. (2012). Event Management. Hamburg: Diplomica Verlag.
Harichandan, C. and Musgrave, A. (2010). Event management. Delhi, India: Global Vision Pub.
House.
Laursen, G. and Thorlund, J. (2018). Business analytics for managers.
Mehndiratta, V. (2008). Event management. Chandigarh, India: Abhishek Publications.
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[email protected]
O'Toole, W. and Mikolaitis, P. (2018). Corporate event project management. New York: Wiley.
Rojek, C. (2014). Event management. London [u.a.]: Routledge.
The Official ReSound Blog. (2018). Event Marketing Critical Success Factors. [online]
Available at: https://gnresoundblog.com/2013/08/19/event-marketing-critical-success-
factors/ [Accessed 5 Mar. 2018].
Whitford, M., Dunn, A. and Cooper, C. (2013). Event Management. Oxford: Goodfellow
Publishers Ltd.

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