Chapter 1.
The EVENT.
Events have existed throughout human history in all times and cultures performing a powerful role in society and pursuing almost any objective. Since the dawn of time, human beings have found ways to mark important events in their lives: the changing of seasons, the phases of the moon, the eternal cycle of birth, death and the miraculous renewal of life each spring. A historical overview (Bowdin et Al., 2001
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) sees British culture rich with traditions of rituals and ceremonies. Nineteenth century has seen industrialisation progressively reduce spontaneous celebration and increase professionally organised events. The ruling elite often decided the form and content of public celebrations but an alternative tradition of popular celebrations arouse from the interest and pursue of ordinary people. Through the Twentieth century, changes in the society were mirrored by changes in the style of public events, while other entertainment survived from the 1800s. Notions of high culture were challenged by a more pluralistic and democratic popular culture, which reinvigorated festivals and community events. With the coming of the 1980s corporate sector recognised the economic and promotional value of events, and the events industry massively emerged in the 1990s, especially developing the business-related sectors.
After this rapid overview and a rapid screening of modern events in our experience, we can recognise that the term "Event" comprises such a large range of elements that giving a universal definition is not a simple deal. As for this study we can say with Getz (1997 2 ) that events are temporary occurrences, either planned or unplanned, with a finite length. In particular, we will consider only those events that are planned (with fixed and publicised dates as well as a finite length) and require some structured management. Events are transient, and every event is a unique blending of its duration, setting, management and people. They can be classified in a range that includes wide and flexible categories, related to different elements. Classification criteria may be the benefits they create, the needs they satisfy or the reasons behind their institution. Furthermore, they may be classified with regard to their setting, the reach they have on the audience and their target, their tradition, the kind of patronage they have and many other factors.
___________ inizio file STRATEGY (insert)
1 Bowdin, G. et Al. (2001). Events Management.
Oxford: Butterworth-Heinmann.

After we considered the events as intangible packages of services, we can now go further and start analysing them as tools created on purpose by the management and organising bodies.
Of course the first question we have to answer is "why". Why are events created at a more and more frequent rate? Why are they so important, and what goal do they achieve with such effectiveness?
We can see, in fact, that the supply of special events is increasing and has been used by many different actors for different purposes. We are going to analyse the most relevant of those, from a management point of view. In this approach we will keep into consideration a scheme proposed by Getz (1997) dividing the macrocosm of public events into a few typologies. It is important to note that to regard an event as public, not only tickets must be sold, but also the format should be made by and for the public.
First of all we can consider events promoted as cultural celebrations: religious events or parades and heritage commemorations, for example, are among these.
Festivals are some of the most common representatives of this category and are characterised by a theme that can be sacred or mundane, traditional or innovative. In particular festivals have a great symbolic significance and social function. Festivals, as all the happenings displaying cultural performances, strengthen social spirit and cohesion, and an awareness of a cultural identity and historical continuity, ideology, world vision and physical survival (Falassi, 1987 3 ). In this approach we can understand how much events like these can be used by the political forces or the civil parties to create the described kind of awareness.
After these we can mention art events in a great variety of typologies: we have performing art, visual art, mixed genres, single or multicultural, competitive versus festive, or again amateur versus professional. Almost by definition, a temporary art exhibition is a special event: concerts, exhibitions, performances, improvisations that can also tour in different places. The interesting case of the International Council of
Organisations for Folklore Festivals and Folk Art can stand for all. It is an example of how arts and cultural festivals can seek the mission of integrating different Countries
2 Getz, D. 1997. Event management and event tourism . Cognizant Communication Corporation.
3 Falassi, A. Time out of time: essays on the festival . Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
1987.
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and encouraging a peaceful understanding and a profound friendship by stimulating different expressions of culture and arts.
Fairs, expositions and shows have a long tradition of trade and commerce and pertain to a business sphere. They nominally have a purpose of education and spread of knowledge, with a particular attention to technological progress. Actually, most of the exhibitors interpret these events as marketing tools towards trade and consumer segments, pursuing visibility and publicity, in order to strengthen their image and brand, seeking economic and strategic benefits.
Continuing on the business side, we have events like conventions that have the purpose of stimulating employees and personnel of a company within the mission and corporate philosophy and to give them an extra benefit, usually for their good economic performance. In the case of meetings the aim is mainly of education and improvement of the staff.
At this point we can now remind events related to the political life, like anniversaries, investitures, political events, VIP visits and inaugurations. For sure these events seek benefits related to political adherence and agreement, and are used by politicians to create a positive image around their persons. It often happens with the celebrations of political parties or ideals. With regard to diplomatic bodies and authorities the aim is to improve and strengthen international relationships between
Countries.
Final but not last, we have sport events that are those that interest us the most in the study we will undertake. Though usually regarding competition and challenge, the basic difference in classification of sport events is represented by the kind of athletes they host, if amateurs or pros. This reflects in the different appeal and reach they have on the audience: of course Pro events attract massive audience and involve many other subjects. Of course there are some sports with a larger number of interested people and other that constitute a niche sport, or that are targeted to an audience with a precise profile. Other criteria to define the event may be as follows: indoor versus outdoor, land versus water based, events where spectators directly participate or simply watch, oneoff versus regularly scheduled, public versus private, or events involving a bidding process versus events that simply happen.
In this perspective it is interesting to analyse the outcome on the hosting community in term of tourism, accommodation, services provided generated by all these
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events, with a special attention to sport events. We will go specifically through these topics in the study case.
Events can be seen not only as we defined, since their flexibility allow them to get many possible formats. This reflects in the fact that they are suitable to pursue different goals in different ways. And understanding the objectives is one of the first steps to be undertaken.
These objectives are set in many different fields and are based on many different segments of actors.
_______________ fine file STRATEGY (insert)
In this wide universe, we can give a partial definition of these typologies of events through the categories commonly used in the literature that include them in their broader context: mega , hallmark , major , media , and special events.
1.1. Classification of events
As regards mega-events , the prefix gives a connotation of something huge, large and signifies a superior scale expressly pursuing international scope: they affect whole economies and reverberate in global media. Hallmark events are those that celebrate a particular anniversary, and enhance so much the awareness, appeal and profitability of a specific city or region that their name becomes synonymous with the name of the place as well as representative of its spirit. They are regarded, usually in the long term, as generators of competitive advantage to the destination that can rely on event's uniqueness, status or timely significance to create interest and attract attention (Ritchie,
1984
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). Another commonly used category of events describes them as major and relates to those events with a wide, interregional scope, pursuing wide impacts on the territory like economic benefits, media coverage and visitor numbers. This category hosts a number of top international championships: these are the events government and national sporting organisations principally bid for. In particular, UK Sport has set three
4 Ritchie, B. (1984). Assessing the impact of Hallmark events.conceptual and research issues. Journal of travel research. 23 (1), 2-111.
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precise requirements in order to class major sporting event (UK Sport, 1999 in Bowdin et al., 2001 5 ):
it involves competition between teams and/or individuals representing a number of nations
it attracts significant public interest, nationally and internationally, through spectator attendance and media coverage
it is of international significance to the sport(s) concerned and features prominently on their international calendar.
As suggested, a unique definition can not be assessed yet, being a matter of relative significance in subjective evaluations. Some authors refer to a scale based on different variables in terms of attendance, target market, public financial involvement, political effects, television and media coverage, construction of facilities, or impact on economic and social fabric of the host community (Hall, 1997
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). Furthermore the definitions do not set precise measures to distinguish properly.
Within the types of events we presented, particular features can be taken out of the so-called " media events ": they are particular kind of events that, although for some reason they don't physically attract a large audience, they obtain a massive media coverage and arouse extensive interest through these channels. In this context it is very important that the audience can reach the event, in order to give the event a public appeal. That means that the event may take place too faraway from the audience or in a hardly reachable place, or maybe in a studio, but it is broadcast through TV, satellite, radio or the Internet, which implies that it has a potentially huge audience. In this case happenings become "news", something arousing interest in people, while events not involving relevant media coverage remain such only to a smaller group if not attended
"live". In particular, scholars refer to direct or indirect audience with regard to physical participation of spectators rather than people following the event through media. All events to deserve this proper name need to be reachable by an audience, even though on different scale and nature (public or private events). The broadcasting issue represents an important step in the development of event management, and the continuous development of media and technologies allows organisers to create new formats and opportunities. Our study though will focus on public events and the different approach and impact the different types of happenings have on the context and the interaction
5 Cit. Ref. See note 1.
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visitors can have with them. Within public events we can include for sure sporting and cultural events, happenings like festivals, artistic exhibitions as well as fairs, parades open to the public participation. Public events involve public funding, are open to public and usually free of charge or adopt a symbolic fee. We can regard as private, instead, besides typical birthday parties or family recurrences, competitions or events promoted for example by companies and corporations for their employees, as well as conventions or congresses where the access is limited and controlled. In these cases funding is usually private and access is restricted to categories or specifically selected targets. We have to be careful, though, because corporate often fund events and happenings open to the public in order to pursue private benefits, thus generating an event that is utterly similar to a public one. The only thing that differs from properly "public" events is the objective that is sought after.
Beyond the specific definitions of events we gave, in this work we will refer to all these types of events as to one all-inclusive category and we will use one name or another to indicate all types of events. This decision is supported by the awareness that they all have in common some basic characteristics as uniqueness, limited time length, festive atmosphere; they are intangible experiences, require some planning and organisation and are addressed to many participants. Furthermore they usually arouse expectations and provide a reason for celebrating. This is basically what Goldblatt
(1990 7 ) defined as a "special" event and what we are interested in analysing throughout this work. Besides the definitions and shapes we can give them, events can have innumerable different contents: they can deal with art, culture, performing arts, politics, business and whatever human fantasy can create, but we will hold a special focus on sporting events.
Although we said that events' universe is fragmented, all events are made of the same categories of features that assume different configuration in any specific realisation. This implies that any process of planning and operative design necessarily has to analyse these multiple dimensions and approach them from different sides. Basic properties may be as follow:
- supplied attractions package (single event/with satellites)
- supplied services package (auxiliary services directly related with the event itself or not)
6 Hall, M. (1997). Hallmark tourist events: Impacts, Management and Planning. Chichester, John Wiley
& Sons.
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- genre (festival, competition, fair, congress, commemoration, expo…)
- typology (religious, political, recreation..)
- theme (commemoration of a historical event, a hero…)
- access (free, ticket, invitation…)
- location (one/many, open-air/close, area/structure…)
- regularity
- time length
- promoters and owners
- stakeholders and organisers (public/private, volunteers, sponsors…)
- reach (local, international, global…)
- visitors number
- level of attention from the media
- target audience (psycographic, social, business/leisure, tourists/locals, experts/not experts, one visit only/repeaters…)
- financial resources (tickets, grants, sponsors, public…)
- purpose (trade/tourist promotion, social, philanthropic…)
To approach this complex analysis in a more structured way, we can consider a model, commonly called the "5W?" (What, Where, When, Who, Why) through which we should be able to investigate the best practise in management with regard to the cited components. We will dedicate a specific paragraph to the WHY and WHO sections since they are key interrelated factors and have to be widely dealt with together.
After discussing all the relevant issues from a theoretical point of view, they will be applied to the America's Cup case further in the paper (see §. XXX?). However, at some stages in the general part, specific examples will be drawn from the interested field, in order to achieve a better explanation both of the case and of the general context.
1. WHAT?
The event is not a tangible product: it is a happening, an experience, an emotion and a feeling, not a thing that can be touched or brought home in a bag. For sure it is made of different tangible factors as structures and facilities, but on the other side it is mainly made by people and activities. We can say it is a package of services, each individually contributing to give a shape to the supplied "product" as a whole.
7 Goldblatt, J.J. Special events: the art and science of celebration . NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990
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In the literature the service's structure is usually regarded as divided into three main parts: the core, the generic and the broaden service. We can assimilate the event to this configuration and organise it in the same way.
The core, as the word says, is the basic service. The one that satisfies the customers' primary needs and gives them the basic benefits they seek. In the case of the events, these benefits are usually the need to spend time, enjoy friends' company, meet new people, educate and so on. In the most extensive benefit of spending time with friends an art exposition can be considered similar to a surf contest or a theatre performance, although they are completely different in their specific features, and pursue other benefits that can impact of the consumer's decision process, also considering their preferences and tastes. This is basically the reason why these
"products" compete altogether one against the other, in the wide market of entertainment.
Besides this core service though, the event is surrounded by many different and extra services that get the name of generic or auxiliary. The generic services differ from the core but are strictly related to it, while auxiliary services are not directly related with the core one and differentiate the package.
The design of the event, otherwise called "format", is the supply itself and it is the tool through which management can attract the demand of visitors and customers, as well as sponsors and other actors. Hence, it is the fundamental strategic leverage to be controlled in order to achieve a successful event. In particular, within a specific category of events, the more sensitive elements of the supply that can direct the demand tastes are those described as auxiliary services. In fact, besides the core service that is pretty much given for grant, auxiliary services can make a subtle difference in the offered package that can attract one segment of demand or another. We should also consider how the same content is delivered, being a matter of fact that the atmosphere and the specific ambient created by the event is crucial in the positive or negative outcome of the happening. The same music can be played in a thousand different places and contexts, and for sure one will catch the audience's favour more than another: this evidences that we can't simply think of the core service (that music) but we have to consider all the components that create the happening. And since we deal with a human experience, the aspects to be considered are plenty. They can be clearly explicit or slight, but they all are strategic tools to be used in order to achieve a greater satisfaction in the specific target. Most of these components generate satisfaction in the customer if
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are supplied but without generating disappointment if not. On the contrary the core service usually generates great discontent if not delivered being a feature that is regarded as necessary. This has to be taken in great consideration in order to give the right priorities to the most important elements, penalty could be the failure of the event.
To explain this topic in a better way, an example of this kind of "extra supply" can be drawn from the real cases as regards ticketing services. They avoid long queues to the audience and allow them to be flexible with ticket booking. In fact, it is much easier and more convenient to call the box office in advance or pay with the credit card on the
Internet and easily collect tickets at the counter, rather than buy them directly at the time and place of the performance.
Another kind of benefit that can be offered to the audience of an event is a reduction on the price of a conventioneer parking lot or restaurant for those who exhibit the admission ticket. In this occurrence the management has to negotiate these facilities with third actors and can undertake contracts with specialised companies. This does not strictly pertain to the event's sphere, but can both create benefits to participants and a fundamental bound between the event organisation and the local context. This will be analysed in the Destination Marketing, considering the overall positive outcome that could result from the awareness of strategic business potentials that involve other local actors. Foundation of this new and increasingly dominant approach is the awareness that economy is going towards a more and more various and wide supply of products and services, and that customers have become well informed and sensitive to all the possibilities they have. Thus, organisers have to be really careful in shaping the right supply taking care of the potential demand and competition.
Furthermore, they have to consider that traditions are likely to make roots in the minds of visitors due to the growth of the events sector and audience's increasing experience: in other words, what was born as a collateral service can slowly turn into a core service in the people perceptions. The implications may be relevant: as soon as some services are changed or reduced, visitors that got used to a particular format will consider the change as a sign of decreasing quality or value and this will impact on their choosing process and evaluation. Due to the increasing availability of information, consumers are also allowed to make more and more comparisons among different competitors and evaluate the best supply: with time this makes the market align to homogeneous supply and features. To go back to the same example, it is now unbelievable that a theatre or a sport stadium does not provide an advanced service that
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gives the audience the possibility of buying carnets or booking and getting tickets in advance managing them in a flexible way.
Intangibility and time limit are additional challenging characteristic of the event and translate into the live performance: organisers have no chance to test their product/service in advance. In other words, we can say that it happens or it does not.
There is no mid way. This occurs because the full experience of the happening requires all the actors to be involved, and the event to be realised in all its components and with the greatest intensity in order to create the atmosphere and the proper event. We should match all the parts to understand if the event on the whole works or if it does not. It is much different than what is commonly done with products that are easily tested on some individuals: in that case the difference from the real product is only related to how many people undertake the evaluation. Each tester can fully experience the product though, with no limits, because individual consumption is enough by itself and does not require any further component. Differently, being event a more complete, comprehensive experience, it requires many other factors to accomplish a sense of fulfilment.
Related to this plurality there is a problem that organisers should carefully manage.
It is the cyclic effect that takes place in situations of crowd and live experiences: the good appeal and, we could say, mood created in the satisfied client, is important to build the positive atmosphere of the event. A satisfied customer helps keeping a positive atmosphere around, and keeping away bad influences on other guests. But a single bad word has a much greater power than a good one, and critique runs much faster than appreciation by a word of mouth. Hence, it is very important to control the customers' satisfaction, and manage problems especially in a "group" experience, once again related to the "live" performance. This is an evidence that the contact personnel has to be well trained to face any situation and solve the problems in real time on the field, face to face with the (angry) customer with no need to involve the high levels of the management. And since nobody could test the “product” to solve problems before they emerge, a careful planning is crucial to identify and prevent all possible negative occurrences and to get a positive overall result.
Going back to the intangible nature and limited time length of events, these mean that once the event is over, people can remember it, but cannot experience it again exactly the same way. Of course many events are periodical, but every single time the experience will be different: it is a typical characteristic of services and live shows, that are not completely predictable, and vary on the specific situation depending on a mix of
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different components. We can also note that events generate a strong appeal and have the power to bind people together, because they are related to the universal language of music, art, sport and competitions, trespassing cultural differences and segmentations and touching people in their core nature.
Furthermore, due to its limited duration and the image of uniqueness associated with it, people will try to take the most of the event, because it is likely to be their unique opportunity to take part to it or to something similar.
The blend of all this factors gives the event its power of creating a deep sense of belonging in people who are interested in it. A simple but clear example can be drawn from the behaviour that can originate from a concert where fans and supporters of the band buy t-shirts or merchandising products and then wear them proudly in their every day life. When another supporter in another situation notices the T-shirt a mechanism of remembrance generates feelings of fellowship and expressions of appeal due to the common passion.
This deep involvement is an important leverage for the event managers that can pinch the right chords, in order to involve participants deeply in the happening on the emotional and economic side as well. From this point of view, the perfect combination should be to increase visitors' expenditure patterns, being able to reward them in such a way that they would be still satisfied. In other words the mechanism should make them think "it's definitely worth the expense". And this is the basis for repetitive consumption in the hypothesis of periodical happenings.
Greater involvement can be achieved through the institution of a theme or the adoption of a mascot or testimonial: they will give the event a greater personality and uniqueness related in different spheres like culture, art, sport, business, recreation, politics or education.
Also part of the format is the access and limitation set to the allowance and the entrance ticket or fee. In most cases limits are implicitly determined after the choice of the location and of the venue, even though some times the target is as much as possible : as well this will contribute to determine the atmosphere and type of event. The hypothesis of a theatre with its fixed seats is simple, but limits are also set in open-air places: police forces and civil patrollers are strict in determine allowance and capacities of public places for reasons of security. The choice of free or ticket access can be determined by the overall availability of economic resources and included in a
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marketing perspective (through the Price leverage), as well as by the location decision that will be analysed in the following paragraph.
2. WHERE?
The localisation issue has more than one dimension to be analysed: it includes the type of setting, the single venue, the neighbourhood, the hosting city or even the
Country. The greatest importance given to the location has stand up with main regard to global, especially "mega" sporting events. "Sporting events are often commercially driven entertainment entities representing important part of the overall sport industry from an economical point of view" (Westerbeek et al., 2000
8
).
Because of the high popularity of international sporting contests, hallmark sporting events attract a significant commercial, media and consumer attention. Cities all around the world are beginning to be aware of the potential of using these events to draw attention to the host city, and this is the reason why the market for hallmark sporting events is becoming more and more competitive. Considering the great impact the event has on the destination and the relevance of opportunities and investments, the event owners often require the potential hosts to bid in order to award the hosting of the event to the most suitable organiser. This process is long and careful, and stands on empirical and logical studies that vet many different fields. As we can see in the attached table
(Tab.1) many are the criteria considered in this evaluation and careful the measurements and analysis done on the different cities.
The basic requirements regard the ability of the city to host the event with regard to the facilities such as sport stadiums, playing fields, swimming pools, arenas and the
Another important aspect to be taken into consideration is the availability of accommodation and hospitality facilities for the athletes and their families, as well as for tourists and visitors. Athens is exemplar in this approach, since it has been revealed that it will lack structures when it will stage the 2004 Olympic Games. We should also include here restaurants, entertainment, shops as a broader supply.
An example that could explain the centrality of the housing issue may be drawn considering the candidate city report written by the Sydney Olympics 2000 Ltd in the bidding process that lead the city to host the Games. This relevance is assessed considering the economic value of the tourism sector. Motels, hotels and residence
8 Westerbeek H., Turner P. and Ingerson L. Key success factors in bidding for hallmark sporting events.
Deakine University. Melbourne, Australia. 2000.
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association promoted an agreement where they guaranteed not to exploit the Olympic
Games event to raise their prices. After the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had experienced the incredible increase in housing prices during the Barcelona edition, it looked to this proposal as to an interesting solution, since it could guarantee the price increase within a bearable percentage (3% of the 1998 price). This solution seemed to be pro-visitor, but it was basically used to leverage a strategic action and strengthen the good image of the city towards its candidature. To understand this point of view, we only need to underline a fact. After the bid was won, the associations managed to shape this rule on their needs, initially limiting its application to the "official" accommodations booked by the Sydney Organisation Committee (SOCOG) and in the end achieving an upper limit allowing a higher percentage. In the end, the official accommodations, that were also the best, could increase their prices up to the 170% while many others of a lower quality had no limit in their increase and have been able to ride the wave of the enthusiasm for their business. This can be an example to understand the dynamics that can take place within sectors when a big happening with interesting perspectives take place. This example also suggests that the event of course does not only have a positive impact on the community, since an increase in the prices don't only affect rich tourists and hotels, but the local community as well and all the housing sector. This means that all the people who can hardly afford a house when no expectations were set on the city and the rents were low, may have problems after the final bid outcome.
On the business side of the bid, the choice has to consider that the winner guarantees fair conditions and protection to investors and sponsors. This means that the
Country's legislation must have advanced standards and fulfil some requirements in this sense. As well the destination should be able to provide the necessary facilities and services for the realisation of the event: these range from infrastructures to technical supplies. Furthermore, we should not forget the differences existing between different typologies of events and sports also requiring different amount of supplies. We understand for example that some sports (consider an extreme case like running) only need limited equipment, a field or a stadium where to race and a small number of people. In the case of the America's Cup we can understand the impact it may have on local businesses simply observing the big mobilisation of means it requires: from the teams' dimensions to the sophistication of the challenging boats and the maintenance they require.
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The image and safety of the event cannot be underestimated, and the stability of the political power is considered as well. This includes the ability of the local community and government of organising a force that can guarantee the public order and a smooth taking place of the event. Although important improvements will be made in the Host City in a perspective and strategic direction, the location already has to be a reliable and pleasant place to attract the organisers before the bid.
As to the location, further considerations have to be undertaken after the decision of the Host City is done, because venues have to be chosen depending on the specific format of the event. Organisers should not only consider number of people they think will participate, but the expectation audience has set on the event. For example, it is not that easy to consider a "theatre". A rock concert will require a venue where people can dance as a classical concert needs an auditorium with a particular shape and acoustic qualities; a modern show may need lights and technical support, while an itinerant theatre performance has to be set in a particular place.
This topic is very relevant as lot of the appeal is often achieved thanks to the suggestion given by the location and the surrounding. It happens in theatre, sport, and social events that are challenged in order to get the most unique and peculiar location. A performance in "Sant'Arcangelo dei Teatri", a contemporary theatre festival, was set open-air at the feet of a precipice with actors moving up and down the rock cliff. Sport events often enjoy the most bizarre opportunities, especially with regard to open-air: just one example, extreme Eco-challenge adventure races are always set in beautiful settings, since one of their goals is to appreciate nature and environmental values, as well as prove athletes' physical qualities.
Unless the situation strictly requires it, Armstrong (2001
9
) suggests it is much better to choose the site after the event is designed, instead of shoehorning an event into the chosen location. This assessment not withstanding, there can be good reasons to turn the process upside down: it may be if a new restaurant, theatre or building is opened and a charity secures the right to hold the premiere.
In this relationship between the location and the event, the benefit can be twosided. People may be attracted to the show thanks to its particular setting, and places can rely on participants to the event to make the most of their tourist potential in the present and future (see in depth §. Destination Marketing).
9 Armstrong, J.S. (2001). P lanning special events. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
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3. WHEN?
As we have seen, being live performances, events have a strict relationship with the schedule. The specific time horizon or the particular features of the happening strongly affect the management and organisation of the event.
On the side of the time we can firstly notice that the time length of the event has different impacts on the hosting community and on all the interacting subjects, as well as on the necessary organisation. Thinking about a one-day match race competition or a three months long event like the America's Cup can give us a rough idea of it.
On the side of the schedule, organisers should carefully choose the period of time when they want the event to take place, with regard of the local weather conditions, peak/off period, tourist affluence, economic variables and so on. The choice of the right period can impact on the operational organisation: the limited duration and the choice of a particular day or period to perform require a strict scheduling process with little possibilities of error. The management is under pressure to make everything ready for the right moment: if an event is planned for a precise day, the venue has to be set, the personnel trained, the security ready, the artists or protagonists cast and everything has to be at its place.
In particular we have to care that the planning is undertaken along the whole process of creation and consumption of the event. In order to be the most effective, the
"event development" process (ideation, evaluation, planning and organisation, realisation and control) should intersect the "consumer buying behaviour" (need, anticipation, movement, participation, coming back, remember). In a larger perspective we should match the "life cycle" of the event and of the demand (initiation, growth, maturity, and decline).
4. WHO and WHY?
These two aspects event will be investigated together, since they are indivisibly bound. In fact, we reckon that the actors have to be analysed in quality of stakeholders, with a primary focus on their commitment and on the objectives they have set with regard to the event outcome.
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