Chapter 6
Designing the
Event
Experience
Chapter Objectives
1. Clearly define the characteristics of the event
experience
2. Recognize the importance of designing an event
experience that creates meaning
3. Understand how to develop an event experience
4. Appreciate that stakeholders will have varied
experiences
5. Identify how the unique elements of an event impact
the experience
Introduction
• Good planning and implementation are only effective
if the event is attractive and compels an audience to
attend (Morgan, 2008).
• The competition, atmosphere, expectations, and
entertainment create meaning; meaning creates and
experience.
• Experience Economy: Consumers desire occurrences
beyond the goods or services alone (Pine & Gilmore,
1999).
Creating the Sport Event Experience
• Experiences are meant to be memorable and to
engage in a personal way.
• Experiences are subjective and heterogeneous.
• Sport event design is meant for the guests (usually
considered to be the fans and other spectators), but
there are a number of other key stakeholders whose
experiences matter greatly:
– Athletes, volunteers, staff
– Sponsors and media
– Local residents
Characteristics of Experiences
• Experiences cannot be designed and delivered like
products due to the subjectivity and heterogeneity of
the individual (Petterson & Getz, 2009).
• Generic experiences:
– Occur at any event
– Relate more to the individual’s state of mind and
expectations for the event rather than the theme,
concept, or setting
– Can be staged to meet the more customary
expectations
Characteristics of Experiences (cont.)
• Specific experiences:
– Are specifically related to that event, and what
makes it unique
– Specific expectations for stakeholders include:
• Intensity: strength of the event experience
• Duration: length the experience stays present
for the attendee
• Meaning felt by the attendee
Experience Dimensions
• Mannell and Kleiber (1997) posit three
dimensions of experience: conative, cognitive,
and affective.
– Conative dimension describes an
experience as actual behavior.
– Cognitive dimension relates to making
sense of the experience through awareness,
perception, memory, learning, and
judgment.
– Affective dimension concerns the emotion
or feelings associated with the experience.
Experience Economy
• Pine and Gilmore’s (1999) Experience Economy, the
authors discuss two dimensions of experience:
customer participation and connection.
• Participation is anchored by:
– Active participation
– Passive participation
• Connection is anchored by:
– Absorption
– Immersion
Four Realms of Experience
• By incorporating the two dimensions, four broad
categories of experiences can be illustrated according
to where they fall into the spectra:
– Entertainment experiences
– Educational experiences
– Escapist experiences
– Aesthetic experiences
Designing Experiences: Theming
• Theming an event is not merely decorations; it
should alter the attendees’ sense of time and
reality through tangible and memorable cues that
leave lasting impressions (Getz, 2012).
• To create impressions that foster meaning, the
theme should convey a story using symbolic
elements like logos, flags, color schemes, and
displays.
• These elements should be layered throughout the
event spaces and places the attendees gather.
Designing Experiences: Theming
• To further immerse the attendee in the event
theme, the design efforts should:
– Maximize positive cues and minimize
negative cues
– Use memorabilia to further enhance the
theme
Designing the Experience: Creating
Liminality
• A sport event tends to elicit a sense of something
more important that transcends sport itself and creates
an energy in the atmosphere that can be shared by all
(Chalip, 2006).
• At the core of an experience is a zone that creates
meaning that transcends the person and creates
meaning outside of normal every day life:
– Liminal: zone created by ritualistic or spiritual
event
– Liminoid: zone created by secular events
– These zones defined by spatial and temporal term
that can be engendered through the event design
and programming
Designing the Experience: Engaging
the Senses
• The theme can be enhanced by stimulating
the senses.
• Engaging the senses is a balancing act, and
the event design should immerse the
attendees in the experience, thereby drawing
them in, but avoiding sensory overload.
• When creating areas for socializing, music
and other sounds should not be set to a
volume that disallows conversation.
Co-creating Experiences
• Co-creation is a design tool that provides additional
value to an event, by allowing the attendee high
quality interactions with the event (Prahalad &
Ramaswamy, 2004; Van Limburg, 2008).
• For co-creation to occur, the attendee and event must
work jointly.
• The goal of co-creation is to move the attendee from
passive-absorbed participant to active-immersed
participant within the Four Realm Experience
dimensions.
Meanings Attached
• In sport, meaning is conveyed through the symbolic
elements used to create the liminoid zone: ceremony,
ritual, logos, flags, banners, and color schemes
(Chalip, 2006; Getz, 2012).
• Meaning attached to an experience; it is highly
dependent on the interaction between the event theme
and the interpretations by the attendee.
• Sport event managers must address attendees’ need
for meaning by understanding the role of meaning
and how to evoke meaning through the event.