EVENT MANAGEMENT

Case: The Annual International NIBS Conference in

Lahti, Finland

May 21-23, 2014

LAHTI UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED

SCIENCES
Degree programme in International
Business
Bachelor’s Thesis
Autumn 2014
Phat, Do
Lahti University of Applied Sciences
Degree Programme in International Business

DO, PHAT EVENT MANAGEMENT

Case: The Annual International NIBS Conference in
Lahti, Finland

Bachelor’s Thesis in International Business, 108 pages, 11 pages of appendices.

Autumn 2014

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, the event industry has played a vital role in our society. People have
come up with a lot of occasions for organizing events such as educational events,
birthdays, international conferences, company parties etc. Generally speaking,
events are also a part of human beings’ social life because they get to know and
talk with different people with different backgrounds. However, in order to
organize a good and successful event, it requires a thorough and detailed planning
process. Event managers and event coordinators need to collaborate in order to
formulate the most viable plan for events. In order to make events successful and
well-organized, all of the stages in the entire planning process also need to be in
harmony and be correlated with one another. Risk management has been of great
importance during the entire planning process. Under no circumstances should
risk management be underestimated. Additionally, evaluation process helps event
organizers and event managers to realize which aspects should be improved and
need further development.

There are two main parts in this thesis: the theoretical and the empirical part. The
empirical part focused on elaborating on the Annual International NIBS
Conference in Lahti on May 21-23, 2014. Regarding the research methods,
deductive approach was utilized in this thesis. Both quantitative and qualitative
were also used in this thesis to analyze the collected data. Furthermore, the
process of data collection for the empirical part came directly from interviews,
emails, observations, materials provided by event organizers and surveys.

Eventually, organizing a good and successful event always requires thorough

planning processes and effort.The Annual International NIBS Conference in Lahti
was a success because most of the guests and visitors were satisfied with the
Conference itself. The satisfaction level was calculated by evaluating the feedback
and grade point averages. However, the organizers of the NIBS Conference in
Lahti, Finland should pay attention to the time-management and marketing
aspects (website design). Besides, risk management is of great significance, which
needs to be studied more. Visitors’ impressions are an interesting aspect which
facilitates the evaluation process.

Key words: event management, Lahti, NIBS, conference, international, event

managers, event co-ordinators, planning process
Contents

1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Background Thesis 1
1.2 Objectives and Research Questions 3
1.3 Scope and Limitations 4
1.4 Theoretical Framework 4
1.5 Research Method and Data Collection 5
1.6 Thesis Structure 8

2 INTRODUCTION TO EVENTS 10
2.1 Definition of events 10
2.2 Typologies of events 11
2.3 Characteristics of events 12
2.4 Event manual 19

3 INTRODUCTION TO CONFERENCES 20
3.1 Definition of conferences 20
3.2 Conferences’ purposes 20
3.3 Types of conferences 22

4 PLANNING EVENT 24
4.1 Planning an event 24
4.2 Prior to event planning 24
4.3 During event planning 26
4.3.1 Financial plan 26
4.3.2 Operational plan 29
4.3.3 Marketing plan 43
4.3.4 Organizing and preparing events 48
4.4 After event 49
4.4.1 Evaluation 49
4.4.2 Feedback 55

5 ORGANIZING THE ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL NIBS

CONFERENCE 56
5.1 An overview of NIBS 56
5.1.1 Members and benefits 57
5.1.2 Competitions 59
5.2 The annual international NIBS Conference in Lahti, Finland 60
5.2.1 Prior to the NIBS Conference 61
 5.2.2 During the NIBS Conference 63
5.2.3 After the NIBS Conference 76

6 CONCLUSION 82
6.1 Validity and Reliability 84
6.2 Further research 85

7 SUMMARY 87

REFERENCES 89

APPENDICES 92
LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE 1. Thesis Structure .............................................................................. 8

FIGURE 2. Typologies of events (Raj et al. 2009,3) ......................................... 11
FIGURE 3. Characteristics of events (Modified from Shone & Parry. 2004, 13-18)
....................................................................................................................... 12
FIGURE 4. Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs (Adopted from Maslow 1943) (Bladen
et al. 2012, 7) .................................................................................................. 14
FIGURE 5. Elements in ambience (Modified from Shone & Parry. 2004, 16) .... 15
FIGURE 6. The budgeting process (Bladen et al. 2012, 147) ............................ 26
FIGURE 7. Two important elements in staff planning phase ............................. 30
FIGURE 8. Elements to consider in venue-finding ........................................... 33
FIGURE 9. Potential risks to event management (Modified from Shone & Parry.
2004, 169) ....................................................................................................... 40
FIGURE 10. Four stages of risk management (Modified from Shone & Parry.
2004, 172) ....................................................................................................... 41
FIGURE 11. Event Marketing's Features .......................................................... 44
FIGURE 12. Identifying appropriate improvements (Modified from Shone and
Parry, 2004, 220) ............................................................................................. 51
FIGURE 13. Sources of information for evaluation (Shone & Parry. 2004, 221) 52
FIGURE 14. Factors that impact visitors' impressions (Modified from Shone &
Parry. 2004, 224) ............................................................................................. 54
FIGURE 15. Benefits for NIBS members (Modified from Become a NIBS
Member, 2014) ................................................................................................ 59
FIGURE 16. Average points for practical information ...................................... 77
FIGURE 17. Average points for Conference Program....................................... 78
FIGURE 18. Average points for keynote speakers ............................................ 79
FIGURE 19. Average points of additional conference events ............................ 80
FIGURE 20. Average points for Catering Services ........................................... 81
LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 1. The value of Britain’s events industry by sector. Source: Adapted from
Britain for Events Report 2010 (Bladen et al. 2012, 11) ......................................... 1
TABLE 2. Research method and Data Collection .Error! Bookmark not defined.
TABLE 3. Conference's purposes and description ................................................ 21
TABLE 4. Purposes and types of conferences ...................................................... 23
TABLE 5. Quantitative and qualitative data for the evaluation process (Shone and
Parry, 2010, 146). (Bladen et al. 2012, 373) ......................................................... 53
TABLE 6. Conference staff and tasks ................................................................... 67
TABLE 7. The Annual International NIBS Conference 2014’s venues ............... 69
TABLE 8. Special NIBS Conference rates for accommodation (LUAS, Special
NIBS Conference rate for accommodation, 2014) ................................................ 70
TABLE 9. Meals during a three-day Conference (LUAS, NIBS Conference
Program 2014, 2014) ............................................................................................. 71
TABLE 10. IT Checklist before the Conference ................................................... 72
LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1. Feedback from for the annual international NIBS Conference 2014
in Lahti, Finland .................................................................................................... 92
APPENDIX 2. Interview Form ............................................................................. 98
APPENDIX 3. Questions for the interview with Linnea Sulkanen ....................... 99
APPENDIX 4. Feedback Report ........................................................................... 99
APPENDIX 5. Updated Conference Program ..................................................... 102
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I hereby would like to express my deepest gratitude to those following persons

that have supported and guided me to complete my thesis. If it weren’t for them,
this thesis would not be possible. Without them, I would not be able to fulfill my
goals and feel strong enough to finish what I have started.

First of all, I would like to thank my thesis supervisor – Marja Viljanen. She has
been a great, kind and supportive supervisor full of creative and interesting ideas.
Moreover, she was there to show me the right path. Not to mention, she is also a
responsible supervisor with enthusiasm and high motivation, which I would like to
show appreciation to.

Second of all, my gratitude also goes to my friends, who have chosen to help me to
move on when I feel like giving up on my dreams. Besides, you have made my life
more interesting and lively. I would like to dedicate this thesis especially to Jetro
Ojanen, Minna Savola, Antti Heikkinen, Wang Yujue and Jukka Tapio.

Third of all, this thesis is dedicated to my lovely and wonderful colleagues in

Fellmannia. I have learned a lot of new things since I started my job there. They
make me feel happy and smile all the time.Everything I have learned from my
working life has made me grow up more and helped me to get a substantial
number of life experiences.

Last of all, most importantly, this thesis would not be accomplished without
the support and love from my dear family. My deepest and most sincere
gratitude goes to my father- Hien and my mother-Nga. Without you, I would
be lost. My motivation as well as my strength would not be raised if it weren’t
for your supportive and loving words. My sister, Rachel, is an understanding
and lovely sister, who has made me feel positive, enthusiastic and joyful.

With love,

Phat
1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background Thesis

“Humans are the most socially evolved species on the planet. As such, we
develop social interactions beyond our family structures which can trigger the
need for events” (Bladen et al. 2012, 7). Events have played an important part in
society. The slightest excuse could be regarded as a good celebration in most
societies (Shone and Parry 2004, 2). For example, in Europe, prior to the
industrial revolution, routine daily activities were tightly connected with festivals
and carnivals (Shone and Parry 2004, 2). However, in this modern world, those
historical forces are not as significant as they used to be. As a matter of fact, these
days, people have a general tendency to celebrate events without necessarily
seeing them in the historical context such as Mother’s Day (Shone and Parry
2004, 3). One of the reasons to transform the event from its traditional origins into
modern origins is that culture has changed, and these days, people live in a fast-
paced, developing and global economy (Bladen et al. 2012, 11). As a
consequence, event management has gained fast global recognition and has been
included in my academic programs (Getz 2007, 2). For example, events have
played a vital role in the UK economy (Bladen et al. 2012, 11). According to a
report “Britain for Events”, in 2010, the event sector alone is worth 36 billion
pounds annum to the national economy (Bladen et al. 2012, 11).

TABLE 1. The value of Britain’s events industry by sector. Source: Adapted

from Britain for Events Report 2010 (Bladen et al. 2012, 11)

Total value 36.1 billion pounds

Corporate events Cultural events Sports events Outdoor events

and festivals
30.3 billion pounds 2.3 billion pounds 1 billion pound
2.3 billion pounds
 2

In order to organize good events, event management needs to be studied

thoroughly. Regardless of various types of events, it is crucial that event
managers should be knowledgeable, qualified and professional (Bladen et al.
2012, 21). Due to the thriving need of event management, society has been
demanding than ever because people need professional management of events in
many fields and sectors (Getz 2007, 2).

Moreover, this thesis contributes an event manual about the Annual International
NIBS Conference 2014 to the Network of International Business Schools (NIBS).
By contributions, the author means whether the conference has been a success or
failure. This thesis points out what could be the pluses together with the minuses
after the conference itself. From that point of view, it is pretty much useful to
learn from the advantages and disadvantages so that event organizers endeavor to
manage events successfully in the future.

The Network of International Business Schools, also known as NIBS, was

established to connect all of the business school worldwide. The common belief
amongst all of the members is that both internationalization of business and the
globalization of the economy play a vital role in the evolution of managerial
practices. (Network of International Business Schools, About, 2014)

"Furthering education by uniting Business Schools around the world through

shared ideals and resources" (Network of International Business Schools, About,
2014)

The International NIBS Conference took place from May 21- May 23, 2014 in
Lahti, Finland. The conference is considered being highly internationalized, which
means that it is an academically useful playground for students in Business Plan
Competition and staff from different universities to get to know each other. (Lahti
University of Applied Sciences, NIBS Conference 2014, 2014)

For Lahti University of Applied Sciences, both the management and organization
of the Annual International NIBS Conference have certainly facilitated the self-
study of how to organize the international conference in different areas and
aspects. Moreover, learning the whole process of conference organization is also
one of the important goals (Sulkanen, 2014).
 3

Having been selected as one of the candidates for the International NIBS
Conference Project, the author has taken a passionate interest in writing this
thesis. Apart from that, he has been seeking opportunities to work on
international projects where he could expand his horizons. Furthermore, the NIBS
Conference Project has aroused his own interest in organizing events or
conferences because the author himself is keen on learning more about the
effective ways to organize events.

1.2 Objectives and Research Questions

The objective of this thesis is to assist the Network of International Business

Schools to accumulate more experiences about the event management through the
real-life case of the Annual International NIBS Conference hold in Lahti, Finland
in 2014. Apart from that, part of this thesis acts as an event manual for the
organization of the Annual International NIBS Conference in the future. This
thesis demonstrates good practice of well-organized events. In order to get better
and clear understanding of the main objective, the author provides readers with
both theoretical and practical frameworks. Regarding the practical framework,
the International NIBS Conference will be taken into consideration.

The key research question of this thesis is: “How should one event be planned
and managed successfully and flexibly?”

Apart from the principal research questions, it is suggested that some following
sub-questions be mentioned in this thesis to support the main research question:
1. What is the definition of events/conferences?
2. What factors should be taken into consideration before/during/after
one event/conference?
3. What are potential risks to an event/conference? How can we
mitigate them?
4. Which sources of information should be collected for the evaluation
process and for record?
 4

1.3 Scope and Limitations

This thesis has been based on the current situation in Lahti, Finland.
Therefore, the critical factors of organizing good events may not be applicable
to other countries. The author suggests that readers should check his or her
country’s situation thoroughly and carefully before applying this thesis to his
or her own events.

Apart from that, the conference makes use of modern devices available at Lahti
University of Applied Science in order to produce the most effective and
comprehensible output whereby it is not sensible to use the same modern devices.

The author wants to point out that his thesis does not concentrate on unnecessary,
tiny details of the conference. As a result, some irrelevant details will be left out
or not be mentioned in this thesis. Eventually, this thesis is more or less concerned
with the International NIBS Conference in Lahti where some international
business schools from different countries attend. Thus, the thesis itself may not act
as a solid event manual for all types of events. The author wants to place an
emphasis on the fact that different types of events do require different
preparations and procedures.

1.4 Theoretical Framework

In order to let readers gain better understanding of this thesis, the author will
introduce theories about events and conferences. All of the theories will be
explained from chapter two to chapter five. This theoretical framework is a
general description of the theories that will be gone through in following chapters.
All of the theories in this thesis are in support of understanding the case study
“The Annual International NIBS Conference in Lahti, Finland”.

Theoretical framework examines theories related to events such as definitions of

events, conferences, event planning etc. Events are defined in numerous ways.
According to Anton Shone and Bryn Parry,-the author of Successful Event
Management – A practical handbook, special events are defined as follows:
 5

“That phenomenon arising from those non-routine occasions which have leisure,
cultural, personal or organizational objectives set apart from the normal activity
of daily life, whose purpose is to enlighten, celebrate, entertain or challenge the
experience of a group of people.” (Shone & Parry. 2004, 3)

Furthermore, an introduction to conferences is reviewed as well because this

thesis’s case study focuses on the International NIBS Conference taking place in
Lahti, Finland on May 21-23, 2014 (Lahti University of Applied Sciences, NIBS
Conference 2014, 2014).

In order to let readers follow this thesis easily, the author will concentrate on
dividing the theoretical framework into: Prior to event planning, during event
planning and after event planning.

1.5 Research Method and Data Collection

For this thesis, the author has chosen deductive as research approach and
qualitative together with quantitative as research method. The reasons for
choosing them can be explained as follows. To begin with, regarding the research
approach, there are two principal research approaches for making a conclusion:
deductive approach and inductive approach (About Education, Deductive
Reasoning Versus Inductive Reasoning, 2014):

 Deductive approach is utilized when a researcher wants to narrow the

general information down to specific. Deductive approach is also known
as the “top-down” approach because the researcher formulates their
specific conclusion from a very large and broad spectrum of information
(About Education, Deductive Reasoning Versus Inductive Reasoning,
2014).

 Unlike deductive approach, inductive approach works the other way
around. Inductive approach places a high emphasis on general or broad
spectrum of information. In other words, a researcher starts from a
particular source of information to broader and more general theories
(About Education, Deductive Reasoning Versus Inductive Reasoning,
2014).
 6

Deductive research approach will be utilized in this thesis because the general
information of an event or conference is given first, and then the case of the
International NIBS Conference is analyzed and examined. As explained the sub-
chapter of theoretical framework, all the theories related to the event and the
event-organization will be studied carefully. Those theories are in favor of
better understanding of the International NIBS Conference.

There are two main research methodologies: qualitative and quantitative

research. A close look at two important questions “why” and “how” is highly
important in qualitative research. The significant output of a qualitative research
revolves around observation, notes, behaviors and motivation. Qualitative
research originally comes from the word “quality, therefore, it does not deal with
numeric data or values. Qualitative research is more related to social sciences,
and in a sense, it involves the understanding of the social interaction between
people in their own surroundings. (American Intercontinental University, 2012)

If qualitative research does not deal with numeric values or data, quantitative
research does fully rely on numeric data or values. The word “quantitative” is
from the word “quantity”. As a result, in quantitative research, dada are measured
and counted. The general collected information is related to those questions:
“how many”, “how much”, “when”, “where”. Quantitative research brings about
statistics. Moreover, quantitative research does play a significant role in
chemistry, mathematics, physics, biology etc. Quantitative and qualitative are
used nowadays in every single field. They are either utilized independently or
mixed. The combination of those two research methods helps the researcher to
collect thorough and complete sources of information together with better insights
into what the researcher is studying (American Intercontinental University, 2012).

Both quantitative and qualitative research methods will be utilized in this thesis,
however, qualitative is mostly used because it assists the author to collect a great
deal of information. Firstly, non-numeric data or value will be analyzed.
Secondly, numeric date or value collected from interviews or surveys will
be taken in consideration, hence quantitative research methods.

The thesis would not be completed without data collection. Data collection advocates
the author’s study by providing him with further information, useful hypotheses
related to his thesis topic. In order to conduct his study, the author will
 7

collect both primary and secondary data. Since the author is part of the project
team, the primary data are collected by meetings, emails, interviews and surveys.
Apart from that, primary data can also be collected through observation as well as
some tasks assigned by the project manager. Books, e-sources, articles, internet
are secondary data. Secondary data do support the data collection for the
theoretical part of this thesis, whilst primary data are utilized to collect the data for
the empirical part for this thesis.

TABLE 2. Research method and Data Collection

RESEARCH METHOD RESEARCH APPROACH DATA COLLECTION

Qualitative Research Deductive (from general to -Primary data

specific) (interviews, meetings,
(non-numeric data or value,
emails, feedback form)
“why” and “how”)
-Secondary data
Quantitative Research
(published references and
(numeric data or value, “how
e-sources)
much”, “how many”, “when”,
“where”)

Regarding the sources for the theoretical part, published references will be utilized to
provide more information about the event management theme in general. In addition
to published references, e-sources will also be added to the theoretical part. In order
to complete the empirical part for this thesis, the author did conduct two interviews
together with communication via e-mails, create a feedback form and observation.
Regarding the interviews, all of the information was collected via oral interviews
with Laura Montonen- Administrative Coordinator on February 19, 2014 together
with Linnea Sulkanen, Senior Lecturer of Lahti University of Applied Sciences as
well as NIBS Board Member on April 22, 2014. In addition to interviews, a feedback
form for the Annual International NIBS Conference was also created for the
evaluation process. Furthermore, the sources of information for the empirical part
came from e-mails between the author and the project team
 8

members. Eventually, the author had the privilege to participate in the

Conference. As a result, observation was also made in order to realize how both
visitors and guests would feel during the Conference, what activities there were
and any other issues during the discussions. The feedback form also played a vital
role in supporting the process of evaluating the Conference itself. The empirical
part also made use of the information gathered from the feedback form.

1.6 Thesis Structure

The thesis structure is described as follows:

1. Introduction

2. Introduction to events

3. Introduction to conferences

4. Event planning

5. Case Analysis: The International NIBS Conference in Lahti

6. Conclusion

7. Summary

FIGURE 1. Thesis Structure

 9

Overall, there are seven main chapters in this thesis. Initially, the thesis starts with
the Introduction, which is chapter one. In this chapter, readers will have a general
picture what this thesis is about. Chapter two, chapter three and chapter four are
more hypothesis-oriented. More specifically, an introduction to events will be
studied in chapter two. Chapter three focuses on theories related to conferences.
Regarding chapter four, readers will get to know about theories about event
planning.

Whilst the theoretical part of this thesis is reviewed from chapter two to chapter
four, chapter five backs up the theories by analyzing a real-life conference. In
chapter five, readers obtain general information about NIBS Network in terms of
activities, internationalism, goals, etc. The International NIBS Conference
exemplifies a real-life event for this thesis. Besides, chapter five advocates better
understanding of all of the theories reviewed in those previous chapters by
analyzing and studying the International NIBS Conference held in Lahti in May
2014. More importantly, in chapter six, conclusions about the International NIBS
Conference are made. In the end, chapter seven reiterates what has been
reviewed in the author’s thesis.
 10

2 INTRODUCTION TO EVENTS

The theoretical part starts with “introduction to events”. Before one event is
initiated, some of the following matters should be taken into consideration. The
definition of an event as well as that of a conference should be carefully studied.
Thereafter, goals and objectives of an event are of great importance when one
event is marketed and organized. Once goals and objectives are clearly
identified, the next approach is how an event should be planned, which means
the event planning process should be thoroughly studied and agreed by all of the
involved parties.

In this theoretical part, public awareness is carefully defined as well so that 4 P’s
marketing plan can be drawn from that. Last but not least, feedback plays a vital role
in one event marketing and organization. If it weren’t for feedback, event organizers
could not learn about the pros and cons as well as what improvement should be made
for the next possible event in the future. In all, it should be taken into consideration
that whether planning an event is viable depending on available resources of a firm
or organizations (Raj, Walters, Rashid 2009, 26). Available resources will determine
if the event is well-organized or successfully managed.

2.1 Definition of events

Getz (1997) illustrated the definition of events as follows, “To the customer…a
special event is an opportunity for a leisure, social or cultural experience outside
the normal range of choices or beyond everyday experience” (Shone & Parry.
2004, 3). Historically, before the fall of the Western Roman Empire (A.D.476),
both events and festivals appeared in the historical period (Raj et al. 2009, 1).
Events have had certain functions within society with the purpose of sharing
rituals and celebrations and affirm identities with other people. Also, events
have played a significant role in reflecting any nation’s culture and contributing
to economic development (Raj et al. 2009. 2).

Through events, generally, social and cultural needs are fully acknowledged, and
economic benefits are generated as well because such events will draw attention
to different visitors from different countries, local people, etc.(Raj et al. 200, 2).
Simply put, international relationships can also be established through events on
both national and international scales. (Raj et al. 200, 2)
 11

Event industry is service-oriented, which means that people have a tendency to

enjoy the time of their lives. Customers are in need of making it possible, and
afterwards, they would like to share their good moments with some other people.
In order to deliver the best performances at events, there should be a well-adjusted
balance between task management and people management. That being said,
event managers should clarify responsibilities for different aspects of the events
and be prepared for the worst scenario (Der Wagen 2001, 3).

2.2 Typologies of events

Depending of the event’s purpose itself, it can be put into different categories such
as religious events, cultural events, musical events, etc. The following figure lists
eight different typologies of events.

Cultural events

Religious
Musical events
events

Corporate events Typologies Sporting events

of events

Commercial/Busines Personal/Private
s events events
Political/Governme
nt events

FIGURE 2. Typologies of events (Raj et al. 2009,3)

Different typologies of events have been established worldwide depending on

purposes of events. Events have been part of any nation’s cultures and
traditions. As a matter of fact, organizing good events is beneficial to host
country. More specifically, it promotes the host country’s tourism and economic
development. Furthermore, to the local people, they can learn more about their
own identity in depth as well as boost up their sense of pride (Raj et al. 2009, 3).
 12

2.3 Characteristics of events

The definition of an event is highly recommended to be taken into consideration

before one starts up planning and marketing one certain event. The author thinks
that it is also advisable that the key characteristics of an event management
should be briefly discussed in this sub-chapter. An event plays an important role
in daily activities. As a result, it is important that key characteristics of events be
examined thoroughly. Events are said to have some following characteristics:
uniqueness, perishability, labor-intensiveness, fix timescales, intangibility,
personal interaction, and last but not least, ritual or ceremony (Shone & Parry.
2004, 13).

Uniqueness

Parishability
Fixed time scale

Personal interactions EVENT Intangibility

Labor -intensiveness Ritual and ceremony

Ambience and service

FIGURE 3. Characteristics of events (Modified from Shone & Parry. 2004, 13-18)

Uniqueness

It is certainly comprehensible that being unique is one of the main elements of all
events regardless of purposes. That being said, the consecutive repetition of one
event is not advisable. Nevertheless, event organizers and coordinators should bear
in mind that what makes one event become unique certainly depends on the
participants, the surroundings, the guests, etc. When it comes to uniqueness, it is
inevitable that depending on types of events, events may reoccur in terms of both
 13

format and time interval i.e. the Olympic Games (Shone & Parry. 2004, 14). As
mentioned above, different locations, different time, different reasons and
different participants are also an important factor that impact on the success of an
event (Shone & Parry. 2004, 14 & Bladen et al. 2012, 8). Nonetheless, organizing
events is not any identical to a routine, nor is it considered producing the same
type of work continuously. As a consequence, owing to that, event organizers and
coordinators have to find out further improvements (Shone & Parry. 2004, 14).
Even if the same event is held annually, the event itself can be considerably
different in terms of characteristics (Bladen et al. 2012, 8).

Perishability of events

Apart from being unique, events need to be “perishable. Perishability of events

refers to the fact that events should not be repeated in the same way all the time.
In fact, in spite of the repetition of events, a wide range of different activities have
to be included in order to avoid the boredom and attract more attention.
Perishability is also related to the utilization of facilities and services for events.
Depending on each event, it is fundamental that event organizers learn about
which facilities and services can be used and how to use them effectively (Shone
& Parry. 2004, 15)

Intangibility

Intangibility of events is related to mental values, whereas tangibility refers to

something that can be seen or touched. When attendees attend one event, they
would like to receive some intangible values such as happiness, memories etc.
The aspect of intangibility plays an important role in service sectors or activities.
Nevertheless, event organizers should make the event tangible by boosting up the
tangibility of events. Simply put, event organizers can offer participants, visitors,
guests etc. postcards, chocolates, cakes, etc. It should be noted that even small
tangible items have played a significant role in how well the event has been
organized. Therefore, event organizers and coordinators should endeavor to make
one event intangible by making it more tangible (Shone & Parry. 2004, 15).
 14

Ritual and ceremony

As mentioned in the chapter “Introduction”, “Humans are considered the most

socially evolved species on the planet” (Bladen et al. 2012, 7). Consequently,
human beings find the reason to trigger the needs for events. Maslow (1943)
indicated some human needs that are related to human needs as follows (Bladen et
al. 2012, 7):

Self-
actualization

Esteem needs

Love needs

Safety needs

Physicological needs

FIGURE 4. Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs (Adopted from Maslow 1943)

(Bladen et al. 2012, 7)

Events are also characterized by rituals, symbols, and artefacts which certainly
have some special meanings (Bladen et al. 2012, 8 & Shone & Parry. 2004, 16).
In the past, dating back thousands of years ago, ritual and ceremony were already
evidentially of great importance. Ritual and ceremony should not be
underestimated because both of them reflect any nation’s community, lifestyle,
cultures etc. Modern events, on the other hand, may not have to follow old
tradition and established ceremony. In other words, it is not unusual to create new
ceremonies accompanied by new traditions (Shone & Parry. 2004, 16)
 15

Ambience and services

Without a doubt, ambience is regarded as one of the most important and decisive
characteristics to the outcome. Whether an event gains a huge success or is
considered a big failure depends on ambience. Ambience refers to the
surroundings, participants, catering services etc. at the event. For example, at one
conference, guest speakers, decoration, technology could be considered
ambience. However, even though ambience makes quite an impact on the success
of events, some events do need help to go smooth. The fact that event offers the
great presence of ambience does not always assure that everything will happen
according to the plan. Consequently, event organizers and coordinators, by any
means, have to pay full attention to every single detail, even the smallest one and
certainly try to accomplish the desired outcome. Most importantly, it does not
make a good sense that the participants have to enjoy the event forcefully because
each participant is in different mood. There are two possibilities. First, the event
will boost up their moods and make them feel better. On the other hand, the
second possibility is that they will not enjoy the event to the fullest because they
are already in a bad mood. As a result, ambience is one of the most important key
characteristics (Shone & Parry. 2004, 16).

Food and
drink
Socializati
on and Decoration
integration
Ambience
Elements

Music Conversation
stimulating

Games

FIGURE 5. Elements in ambience (Modified from Shone & Parry. 2004, 16)
 16

Personal contact and interaction

There are a certain number of people in any events, and such a number of
attendees do have an effect on the event (Bladen et al. 2012, 5). Therefore, it
could be argued that events are gatherings of people where personal contact and
interaction are inevitable. In service sector, personal contact and interaction
should be fully paid attention to. In manufacturing industry, it is not necessary
that customers have to interact with manufacturer a lot, however, there is a good
chance that customers or clients will have to interact with salespeople or sales
team. Service situations, on the other hand, are quite different because frequent
contact between customers and staff is quite normal (Shone & Parry. 2004, 17).
As a matter of fact, it is personal contact and interaction that determine the quality
of the service, ambience, experience etc. (Shone & Parry. 2004, 17)

For example, at an event, it is understandable that guests, visitors, participants,

etc. get to interact with the staff if they are in need of specific items, food, drinks
etc. That being said, participants, visitors etc. at an event get involved with the
entire process. At a conference, for example, guest speakers are the ones who get
to talk to participants, and participants have somehow contributed their part to the
conference itself by asking guest speakers questions, creating the atmosphere.
Guest speakers will also interact with other guest speakers, and participants get to
have conversations with other participants as well. Above all, in order to enhance
social interaction at an event, event managers have to learn that the success of the
event is thoroughly decided by how people will interact with one another.
Attendees will set the mood for the event and determine whether the event has
been successfully organized or not (Shone & Parry. 2004, 17).

Labor-intensiveness

At an event, staffing is quite crucial. More specifically, without having any staff at
an event, the event itself would become a disaster. Staff play an important role in
organizing a good event as well as helping the event to reach its objectives. The
level of labor intensiveness depends on the complexity together with the
uniqueness of the event. Only if the event is quite complex and unique is the
labor-intensiveness highly required. The issue of labor intensiveness can be
explained at organizational and operational level.( Shone & Parry. 2004, 17).
Firstly, in terms of an organizational level, it involves complicated planning to
 17

support a good and successful event. Furthermore, organizational level can also
be reflected by communication. The communication level between event
organizers and event managers should be effective and well-defined. The high
communication level between organizers and managers is determined by good
timing as well as effort from both parties even if the event can be organized by
repeating a well-known formula or similar framework such as a conference
(Shone & Parry. 2004, 17). Secondly, in terms of an operational level, it
accentuates the high level of staffing. It is the high level of staffing that helps one
event to reach its target groups and objectives by delivering an event
appropriately. (Shone & Parry. 2004, 17)

Event managers should have clear understanding of staffing needs for specific
types of events based on his or her experience, forecast, the number of
participants and guest speakers etc. Therefore, event managers may have
difficulty in determining the labor-intensiveness owing to uncertainties. It means
that event manager will have to be actively in contact with event organizers to
request information about the event’s objectives, needs etc. More importantly, the
level of labor-intensiveness is based on the experience of the event manager as
well (Shone & Parry. 2004, 17). Nowadays, due to the fast-moving nature,
complexity, it is highly likely that the effective management is impossible
(Bladen et al. 2012, 8). Therefore, event managers’ tasks become more
challenging, which means there should be a greater need for trained specialists in
the event management field (Bladen et al. 2012, 8)

Fixed time scale

According to Getzt, he regarded time as a “commodity” (Getz. 2007, 19). People

are willing to pay for “quality time” with their friends and families, and event
experiences can get people involved in such “quality time” (Getz. 2007, 19). As a
consequent, it is argued that it is crucial to take a good use of time in event
studies and event management (Getz. 2007, 20).

It is important that events should be based on a fix time scale. A fix-time scale can
create a sense of organization and somehow a sense of achievement (Shone and
Parry 2004, 17). A fix-time scale clearly points out some certain periods that some
certain tasks need to be accomplished. A time scale is not necessarily long.
Indeed, some of the events consist of short activities, which means pauses or
 18

breaks are expected in between. For example, during a conference, it is not

highly advisable that guest speakers will talk for several hours. Coffee break or
tea break should be included in order that participants can have time for
processing all of the information shared by guest speakers as well as gain better
concentration after a short break. As event managers, timing should be taken into
consideration so that one event can be successful, impressive as well as
memorable, and what should be emphasized is the overall experience (Shone &
Parry. 2004, 18 & Getz. 2007, 20)

An interesting event naturally draws attention to all of the participants, visitors

etc. As a consequence, a good time scale is mandatory, and a good time scale
enables event manage to be capable to break one event into different sections
rather than to let all of the sections happen simultaneously (Shone & Parry.2004,
17-18).

Those characteristics of events should be studied thoroughly in order to have a

good event. Events have always of great importance in society. The mutual
purpose of events, regardless of typologies of events, is to brighten human
beings’ daily life. These days, modern technology has taken over all over the
world, and it could be translated as the fact that modern events need to live up to
the current expectations. Moreover, if it weren’t for good managerial skills, there
would not be such a well-organized event. Event managers should be skillful
enough to support the success of the event as well as assist event organizers to
reach their own targets and objectives (Shone & Parry.2004, 18).

Lynn Van Der Wagen has also added another important characteristic of events.
Events are crucial. At the event, everybody wants to bring out the best
performances. Failures are usually avoided. For example, at the conference, guest
speakers are willing to show how knowledgeable they are as well as try to deliver
what they have learned and experienced to the audience in the best and
appropriate manner. As a consequence, event managers and event team have to
collaborate well in order to deliver the best possible performances and outcome
(Der Wagen 2001, 3).
 19

2.4 Event manual

The output of this thesis acts as an event manual for Network of International
Business Schools (NIBS). According to Network of International Business
Schools (2014), manuals are regarded as planning resources for both host
institutions and participants (Network of International Business Schools,
Manuals, 2014). According to Linnea Sulkanen, member of NIBS Board of
Directors, she places importance on manuals as a helping tool for universities that
plan the Annual International NIBS Conference in the future (Sulkanen, 2014).

The manual provides host institutions and participants with sources of information
about guidelines about what a NIBS Conference is, what it is comprised of in
addition to a regular reference together with what responsibilities the host should
assume when planning and organizing the Conference. Timing, important
stakeholders, i.e. NIBS Board, NIBS President, etc., communication tools are also
included in the manual is also issues about timing, important stakeholders,
communication tools etc. (Sulkanen, 2014)
 20

3 INTRODUCTION TO CONFERENCES

In this chapter “Introduction to Conferences”, readers will get to know more

about Conferences. More specifically, definition of conferences will be examined.
Additionally, conferences’ purposes should be taken into consideration during the
whole planning process. Another essential issue is that event organizers and
coordinators should get themselves familiarize with various types of conferences.

3.1 Definition of conferences

A conference is an event. According to Oxford Dictionaries, a conference is a

formal meeting in which people share their own mutual interest. A conference
usually lasts several days (Oxford Dictionaries, Conference, 2014).

According to a more detailed description of to the webpage of evenues-

Marketplace for Meeting and Event Space, in general, a conference is a meeting
place where several people attend in order that they can have a deep discussion
about one particular topic. A conference should be clearly distinguished from a
convention, colloquia or symposium. For example, a convention is much larger
than a conference. Furthermore, it is a meeting point different delegates represent
several groups. At a conference, new information is discussed and exchange
among experts. In addition to exchanging information, innovative ideas are also a
main topic at a conference. (Evenues-Marketplace for Meeting and Event Space,
What is a Conference, 2014)

3.2 Conferences’ purposes

Different topics are expected to discuss depending on the purpose of conference.

As a result, based on its purpose, it could be categorized as follows (Evenues-
Marketplace for Meeting and Event Space, What is a Conference, 2014 ):
 21

TABLE 3. Conference's purposes and description

Purpose Description

An academic conference is a gathering where scientists or

academicians present their research findings. At an academic
Academic conference, a workshop may be possibly conducted as well.

Unlike an academic conference, a business conference

focuses on
people who work in the same firm or industry. At a business

Business conference, new trends and business opportunities are brought up

and discussed in depth.

A trade conference is not identical to a business

conference. For more specifically, a trade conference is
on a larger scale. Regarding participants, not only are
there businesspeople but there are also

Trade members of the public. The trade conference is the place where both

connections and network are made. Workshop and white paper

presentations are officially included in a trade conference

When it comes to an unconference, it should be noted

that high costs, top-down organizational hierarchy
together with sponsored presentations are high avoided.
Hence, it is different from a
Unconference traditional conference. At an unconference, it is highly asserted
that all the attendees have an equal amount of knowledge of the topic and
the discussion.
 22

A successful conference significantly depends on keynote speakers. There are one

or more keynote speakers at one conference. Those speakers take responsibility of
delivering keynote speech. It is very common that keynote speech is made at
academic and business conference. Regarding keynote speakers, in order to
attract more attendants at a conference, the selected speakers are normally well-
known ones that are knowledgeable about the related field. (Evenues-Marketplace
for Meeting and Event Space, What is a Conference, 2014)

3.3 Types of conferences

Not only are conferences categorized based on its natural purposes but they are also
classified based on the real nature of conferences themselves. Consequently, various
types of conference can be discussed in detail as follows (Evenues-Marketplace for
Meeting and Event Space, What is a Conference, 2014):

 A symposium: A symposium is regarded as a casual gathering

where refreshments and entertainment are normally included

 A seminar: A seminar is where a particular topic is brought and discussed.
A seminar puts high emphasis on education purposes. At the end of the
seminar, all of the attendees will be able to obtain certain sources of
knowledge.

 A workshop: The principal focus of workshop is on a hands-on
experience. Consequently, demonstration and activities can be found at
a workshop.

 A round-table: A round-table where people can exchange thoughts and
opinions on a particular topic. The number of participants is limited sitting
around the table. Therefore, eye contact is highly maintained because all of
the participants face each other.
 23

TABLE 4. Purposes and types of conferences (Evenues-Marketplace for Meeting

and Event Space, What is a Conference, 2014)

Purpose Types

Academic Symposium

Business Seminar

Trade Workshop

Unconference Round-table
 24

4 PLANNING EVENT

4.1 Planning an event

Planning an event does teach the firm or organization itself how to utilize all of
the resources as well as how to formulate best strategies to meet up with the
current needs. From that perspective, the firm or organization has good knowledge
of how to boost up their own business. (Shone & Parry. 2004, 15-16)

4.2 Prior to event planning

Before planning an event, event managers should pay attention to developing

purpose of events, developing objectives of events, preparing an event proposal
and planning budget for the event.

Developing purpose of events:

The very first step prior to planning events is to formulate a simple statement that
reveals the prime purpose of events. The main purpose varies in accordance with
different types of events. Developing purpose of events assures that planning and
implementation of events are well-conducted, and the introductory intent is highly
focused and realized (Der Wagen 2001, 113).

Developing objectives of events:

The prime purpose of events can be broken into small objectives.Objectives are
formulated in order to help event managers to realize the initial intent.
Consequently, objectives should be specific and detailed (Der Wagen 2001, 115).
Specific and clear objectives are vitally important because the organization or the
firm itself is able to set benchmarks as well as figure out a process for developing
events.Furthermore, evaluation process will be much easier when objectives have
been developed specifically and in detail (Raj et al. 2009, 26).

While developing objectives of events, one should take into consideration

SMART objectives. SMART objectives have been well-utilized these days in
different fields. In general, objectives should be specific, measurable,
attainable, realistic and time-bound.
 25

According to Watt (1988), SMART objectives can be described as follows (Event

Management Handbook, Sapienza University of Rome, 2014):

 Specific: The event should be specific, not abstract or general.

The purpose should be well-clarified to ensure that steps of
planning are correct and appropriate.

 Measurable: The event should be measurable in terms of statistics.


 Attainable: Not only is the event measurable but it can be
attainable by all the involved parties

 Time-bound: Time-bound concerns the time-management,
time-frame and schedule.

Preparing an event proposal:

An event proposal is highly recommended. An event proposal can be made online or

by some specific tools such as Microsoft Excel, Google Drive etc. In order to make a
good event proposal, purposes, objectives, organizations, venues, time scale etc.
should be included in an event proposal. An event proposal is useful for follow-ups,
and the whole event team can have a general picture of what an event is about, how
an event will be managed in the future etc. (Der Wagen 2001, 116).

Budget:

Each and every event always has a specific budget plan. In all likelihood, event
managers will encounter with difficulty in budget predictions (Bladen et al. 2012,
24). Calculations will not remain constant, therefore, such calculations should not
be considered solid and reliable owing to the other changeable factors during the
event planning process such as schedules, timelines, etc. (Bladen et al. 2012, 24).
Furthermore, budget planning is an ongoing process other than a time-limited one
(Bladen et al. 2012, 146). As a consequently, budget should be planned
thoroughly prior to, during and after event. Budgeting is meant to help event
managers in different stages of planning, decision-making and control (Bladen et
al. 2012, 146). According to Bladen et al. (2012), the budgeting process has nine
stages as follows:
 26

Define
objectives
Act to control Audit
the event resources

Measure Operationaliz
performance e strategies

Implement Allocate
budgets responsibility
Prepare
budgets

FIGURE 6. The budgeting process (Bladen et al. 2012, 147)

4.3 During event planning

4.3.1 Financial plan

Financial management for events is significant because it determines the success of

events. A good financial plan does require a lot of time, effort and care (Shone
& Parry. 2004, 97). Depending on the nature of events, a financial plan may be
different from one another. When events are organized on a larger scale, i.e.
international or regional scales, it is highly indispensable to make a careful and
detailed financial plan. According to Hall (1997), he argues that either regional
or international events requires event organizers to pay full attention to financial
aspects based on possible techniques, cost-benefit analysis etc. (Shone & Parry.
2004, 97). There are many factors that need to be taken into consideration when a
financial plan is carried out. Under no circumstances should a financial plan be
dismissed because it may result in unexpected occurrences. Event organizers
should keep in mind that a financial plan should be linked with event objectives
and purposes. The objectives and financial management are interdependent and
closely linked. (Shone & Parry. 2004, 97)

Financial management does not stress on the fact that all the events should be
profit oriented. (Der Wagen 2001, 79). Budget, income, sponsorship and cash
flow are discussed as follows:
 27

Budget

Preparing a budget plan is included in the financial plan. In fact, a budget plan is
the very first step in planning finance for events. The preparation of a budget plan
advocates event organizers to estimate projected revenue together with
expenditure. Furthermore, the budget is made based on exact quotes collected
from all the contractors, suppliers together with thorough research in order to
make sure that all of the expenses are correctly calculated and are not
overlooked. (Der Wagen 2001, 81)

A careful budget plan enables the organization to take control of expenditure and
ensure that the finance management is on the right track (Der Wagen 2001, 81).
As a consequence, creating a budget form is highly recommended. Creating a
budget form is quite challenging because not only is a great deal of information
collected but some essential techniques should be learned as well. Nevertheless, a
well-prepared budget form really pays off because it brings about the big success
of event together with gaining a financial control. A list of revenues and costs
should be included in a budget form. It is vitally important that a well-prepared
budget always goes with the objectives of the event. It is not highly advisable that
the financial plan or a budget exceeds the available resources of the organization
or a large profit is expected. (Shone & Parry. 2004, 100)

Income

As mentioned above, events should not always focus on making profit (Der
Wagen 2001, 79). There are some certain types of events that do not generalize
profit at all such as product promotion, introducing a new brand of perfume or a
street parade etc. (Der Wagen 2001, 93). Income is usually included in the profit
and loss statement (or income statement). An organization’s revenue,
expenditure and net profit are included in the income statement. Normally, in the
event industry, only after the event will the income statement be prepared. An
event industry requires the preparation of the budget before the event actually
happens, and the income statement afterwards as mentioned above, whilst both
the budget and income statement are usually done frequently in other fields. (Der
Wagen 2001, 93)
 28

Sponsorship

Events are usually linked with sponsorship. In the event industry, sponsorship has
played a vital role in event organizations. Depending on the nature of events,
sponsorship will be taken into account by event managers or event organizers. It is
argued that sponsorship has revolved over the past few years (Raj et al. 2009,
124). As a matter of fact, sponsorship is regarded as a specialist area in the
marketing framework. Furthermore, sponsorship exists in many forms. As a
result, when it comes to organizing any event, it is highly advisable that event
organizers or managers have good understanding of what type of events. From
that perspective, they can learn about what type of sponsorship is needed in terms
of goods, services, techniques etc. in accordance with the type of events. (Raj et
al. 2009, 124)

It should be noted that it is not obligatory to link with sponsorship in event

organization. It is believed that not all sponsorship expects to boost up the market
share or the competiveness of certain products or services in a direct way. Some
firms or organizations see event sponsoring as one way or another to build up
good public image. Apart from that, in order to remove negative or unacceptable
publicity, event sponsoring is such an optimal method to redeem public image.
(Raj et al. 2009, 124)

When event organizers or managers have decided to apply event sponsorship to

the planning process, it is crucial that event organizers or managers find an
appropriate sponsor or sponsors in such a manner that the strategic vision of the
event and the sponsoring company will be well-combined. Particularly, finance
assistance is an indispensable business requirement to sustain the event. (Raj et al.
2009, 124-125)

Before selecting the right sponsor or sponsors, event organizers or managers

should spend time and effort collecting a great deal of information about the
sponsor or sponsors in order to make the event itself go smooth. Historical data
about what type of events sponsored by the desired company or organization
should be examined thoroughly. Information can also be obtained from various
sources such as the firm’s or organization’s website, local or regional newspapers.
(Raj et al. 2009, 125)
 29

After having chosen the appropriate sponsor or sponsors, the firm needs to
evaluate different levels of sponsorship deals offered in a sponsorship package.
Normally, those sponsorship deals are closely related to financial commitment
from the sponsor or sponsors. A wide range of deals within a package will
determine the level of exposure prior to, during and after event. (Raj et al. 2009,
126)

Cash flow

Cash flow also belongs to one of the important issues in event’s financial
management. In order to generate the event planning phase, it is strictly crucial to
control the capital. Capital is such a decisive factor that event organizers or
managers should always keep track on it while planning an event because the
planning phase can be prolonged and complicated, otherwise, the company might
end up being ignorant of where the money comes from and how it is actually
spent (Der Wagen 2001, 92).

Therefore, it is highly advisable that all of the monthly expenses and projected
revenue need to be recorded in any form such as spreadsheet. From that
perspective, cash flow can be well-managed. In the event industry, funding
crisis, especially in such a short notice, is not usual (Der Wagen 2001, 92).

4.3.2 Operational plan

What comes after the financial planning phase is operational plan. Operation plan
is one of the most important phases because it requires a lot of resources such as
staff, equipment, etc. in order to make the event actually happen (Shone & Parry
2004, 88). When talking about operation plan, Donald Getz also argued,
“Operations” refers to all those systems that must be in place and the actions that
have to be taken to produce the event.”(Getz 2007, 275). Nevertheless, in reality,
time is of great importance when it comes to planning an event (Shone & Parry
2004, 88). It actually means that professional event managers or organizers need
the sufficient amount of time to plan an event thoroughly and efficiently.
Consequently, a fixed timescale is indispensable for a follow-up (Shone & Parry
2004, 88). There are some factors that need to be taken into consideration during
the operational plan such as resources, staffing, logistics, services, equipment,
production schedule etc.
 30

Resources

Resources may refer to human resources, financial resources etc. The company or
organization should not plan one event that exceeds its available resources.
Furthermore, all of the resources need to be well managed and used wisely. When
it comes to resources, it is best to avoid resources dependency. However,
interestingly, Donald Getz believes that it will be to the firm’s own benefits if
dependence on committed stakeholders is a wise strategy (Getz 2007, 284).

Staffing

In each event, staff are always needed to handle different types of tasks.
Depending on the nature of each event, the number of staff will be determined
accordingly. In general, Donald Getz proposes that a specific need of volunteers,
external suppliers together with contractors should not be dismissed in all
circumstances because of unexpected occurrences (Getz 2007, 286).

According to Lynn Van Der Wagen, she has placed importance on staff planning
for event. More specifically, there are two considerable processes during the staff
planning phase: developing organization charts and developing job descriptions
(Der Wagen 2001, 159). Developing organization charts assists the whole event
team to have better understanding of their reporting relationships, while
developing job description indicates clear roles and responsibilities in order that
people know exactly what they are actually doing (Der Wagen 2001, 159).

Organization Job STAFF

charts descriptions PLANNING

FIGURE 7. Two important elements in staff planning phase

Developing organization charts: Organization charts can be complicated because

each different stage of event planning may require different organization charts.
According to Lynn Van Der Wagen, organization charts should be developed
prior to the event, during the event and after the event. To put it simply, in all
 31

likelihood, different workforces will be needed in accordance with the amount

of work in different stages. (Der Wagen 2007, 160)

Prior to events, organization charts need to show people who take responsibility
for main functions such as finance, marketing entertainment, etc. As long as
organization charts are well-formulated prior to the event, it will get easier when
charts are developed during the event (Der Wagen 2007, 160). During the event,
charts should be well-developed because there will be more people getting
involved in the planning process. Therefore, the size of organization will increase
dramatically, and charts need some modifications in order to match with the
current situation. During the event, emergency reporting relationships should be
clearly indicated in the charts (Der Wagen 2007, 160). Additional staff, along with
reporting relationships, should be also included in the charts. Regarding “after the
event” phase, the event team will start to disperse. As a result, the number of
people involved in the event team is reduced because there are merely a few
individuals left. Those individuals assume responsibility for evaluating events,
collecting feedback, financing reporting and some primary issues etc. “After-
event-chart”, as a consequence, needs to focus on showing key personnel that are
assigned to complete those above tasks. Not only do organization charts place a
high emphasis on key necessary personnel prior to the event, during the event and
after the event but it also can point out a list of tasks completed by each individual
or roles of each person. In that case, organization charts boosts up communication
between parties as well as clarifies roles and responsibilities. (Der Wagen 2007,
160)

Preparing job descriptions:It is the second important element of staff planning

because people will understand their roles and responsibilities better by studying
job descriptions carefully. Tasks, position title, reporting relationships, duties are
included in job descriptions. Start and finish dates should be clarified in job
descriptions too. In order to recruit the right candidates for specific positions, it is
vitally important and essential to develop personal specification in which required
skills, knowledge, experience etc. for certain positions are specified. (Der Wagen
2007, 164)

Volunteer management: As mentioned above, event volunteers are always an

important workforce in event planning. It is paramount to ascertain that the number
of event volunteers does not exceed than needed and that the right event
 32

volunteers are chosen. Volunteer management for event does require a good
command of human resources and event strategies (Getz 2007, 290). In order to
manage event volunteers successfully, event managers and organizers should
stress on volunteer motivation, satisfaction, commitment and experience.
Motivation is the most important element that has quite an impact on volunteers
in particular and other personnel in general. Therefore, motivation needs to be
maintained in order that volunteers enjoy event experiences in a way that they
belong to the whole team, share all of the necessary information and put all-out
effort into building a good team for the event. (Getz 2007, 290)

Training: Training is an indispensable part for event industry. All of the staff
involved in event planning should be trained carefully in order to avoid
unexpected occurrences at the event. It is highly stressed that event staff must
be trained in accordance with three following areas: the objectives of the event,
the venue and their specific duties (Der Wagen 2007, 170). The training must
meet the objectives of the event so that staff will not get confused. Therefore,
the objectives need to be communicated amongst all the staff before the training
process. Regarding venue, one event can take place at different venues. Getting
familiarized with the venue is also part of training. A tour of the venue enable
staff to learn more about the location of facilities, areas and departments,
emergency procedure (Der Wagen 2001.170).

It should be noted that indoctrination, training and supervision have to be related

to service quality, the active participation of all staff, volunteers, suppliers etc. in
order to boost up the facilitation of event experiences. Donald Getz posed a
question to which degree satisfactory staff and volunteers experiences can
contribute their part to satisfy all guests, visitors, etc. In an event industry, it is not
all about a service quality issue. As a matter of fact, it should be highly stressed
that what matters most is how to put the service quality to work to get to the heart
of how event experiences are shaped. (Getz 2007, 290-291).

Venues and Logistics

Venues: It is paramount to find a good venue for the event. A good venue plays a
significant role in the success of the event as well as has an impact on the general
atmosphere. The location of venue varies depending on the real nature of event.
Venue-finding is perhaps one of the most vital aspects of the event planning
 33

phase. When it comes to venue-finding, there are two possibilities event

organizers may come across:

1. There is a good chance that event organizers already have good knowledge
of which venue to choose
2. Event organizers might find it difficult to find a venue because of
limited choices, especially in rural area.

Nevertheless, generally speaking, an appropriate choice of venue will be available

if event organizers have tried to obtain as much information as possible. (Shone
& Parry 2004, 121)

There are some certain criteria to bear in mind before the decision on which
venue to choose is irrevocably made. First of all, the location of venue should be
weighed up, and the choice of the venue’s location is said to match with the
objectives of the event. Second of all, event organizers should keep a look out for
more venues that may be available within that location. Both the number of
audience and the type of audience are taken into account thereafter. (Shone &
Parry 2004, 122-123).

Location
of venue

The type Other

Venue-
of venues
audience finding
within the
location

The
number of
audience

FIGURE 8. Elements to consider in venue-finding

 34

It is also advisable that even organizers should pay a visit to the venue if the
sources of information about the venue are limited or are not trustworthy (Shone
& Parry 2004, 123). Furthermore, event organizers are capable of listing all of the
necessary questions concerning the venue such as selection criteria or surroundings.
During a visit to a venue, the first impressions are of great importance (Shone &
Parry 2004, 123). The first impression should be judged based on the outlook of the
venue, the surroundings, attractiveness, etc. The first impression can be different
from one person to another. Nonetheless, it is highly likely that the first impression
event organizers have may be the same as audience has. Not to mention, on the first
visit, it is paramount to ascertain that all of the areas such as toilets, entrances,
corridors, car parks are well-kept and well-
maintained. If all of the indicators meet up with event organizers’ expectation, it
will get easier when planning process goes further subsequently. (Shone & Parry
2004, 123).

Logistics: Logistics has been defined in many different ways. Donald Getz has
defined, “The basic idea of logistics is to move people, goods and equipment
(even money and tickets) to the right place at the right time.” (Getz 2007, 276).
While Shone and Perry have defined logistics as “the discipline of planning and
organizing the flow of goods, equipment and people to their point of use” (Shone
& Parry 2004, 121). Even though two definitions are written in two different
ways, there are some mutual points when it comes to logistics. Logistics is to
move one or more items from place to another, and those items can be
people, goods, equipment, money, tickets etc. at the right designated time
(Getz 2007, 276).

The firm or organization should work on logistical requirements for the movement
of different items such as goods, equipment, people, etc. Therefore, a logistics
plan needs to be prepared in order that various needs will be listed and prioritized
(Shone & Parry 2004, 124). During the process of logistical planning, it is
uttermost to make sure that only variables and needs that have an impact on the
logistical process are taken into consideration (Raj et al 2009, 203). More
importantly, there is a good chance that all of unexpected occurrences, potential
problems will be surely inevitable (Raj et al 2009, 203). It literally translates into
the fact that it does not appear possible to prevent the logistical process from risks,
problematic issues, unforeseen outcomes etc. Nevertheless, a great care and
 35

careful attention will let event organizers manage logistical planning process
successfully. (Raj et al 2009, 203). It is always crucial that all of data should be
up-to-date (Raj et al 2009, 203). In most cases, firms or organizations will appoint
a logistical manager to manage the logistical planning process such as updating
the plan, amending any arising problems. A professional logistical manager
knows how to communicate excellently with other departments in logistical
process planning in particular and in event planning phase in general. The
logistical planning process should not be considered an isolated process and be
disengaged from the whole event planning process. As a matter of fact, all of the
planning processes within the entire planning are interconnected and strongly
tightened. As a logistical manager, he or she should be active at and keen on
obtaining information from different departments, operational areas in order to
ascertain that the logistical planning process is on the right track and that all of the
information is updated. (Raj et al. 2009, 203-204 and Shone & Parry. 2004, 124-
126)

In event industry, logistical activities are various such as ticketing and enquiries.
Other activities can also be named such as arrival and departure of visitors and
guest, the movement of people, goods, equipment, etc. (Shone & Parry. 2004,
126). Logistical activities require the logistical manager to get all of the necessary
elements to the right place at the right time. In case both catering and drink
services are needed, it is also essential that the logistical manager has to double
check with the suppliers in order to ensure that all of the ordered food and drink
will be delivered punctually. Regarding food and drink, it is also predominant to
ascertain that food and drink are hygienic and appropriate to participants at the
event (Shone & Parry. 2004, 131). As mentioned above, it is not possible to
prevent all of the logistical activities from unforeseen happenings or problems. As
a result, alternative suppliers are highly recommended in the event of serious
problems, wrong orders, delays, etc. (Shone & Parry. 2004, 126-127, 131)

Services

After a perfect venue or venues for the event has been found, the next important
step is to provide visitors and guests with some services that can color their own
experiences. Normally, at the event, both catering and drinks services are
included. (Shone & Parry. 2004, 128). Catering and drink services are discussed
as follows.
 36

Catering services:

Depending on the nature of events, different types of catering services can be

considered accordingly. In-house catering, contracted-catering, etc. are choices of
catering services. Types of catering services should be chosen appropriately as
long as organizers can deal with all of those following matters successfully:
profitability, flexibility and convenience. When event organizers start to plan on
catering services, it is vitally important to taken into consideration the number of
attendants, budget and refreshment times. (Shone & Parry. 2004, 128)

A caterer takes care of all the services ranging from handling food orders, food
production to service staff. When it comes to choosing a catering contractor, it is
his or her responsibility to provide menus and other costs relevant to the style
service required by event organizers. The style of cooking has quite an impact on
costs (Der Wagen 2001, 154). For example, it can very cost-effective if food is
prepared off-site. On the other hand, if fresh food needs to be served with superb
presentation, then it is quite comprehensible that it will cost more (Der Wagen
2001, 154). Once again, depending on types of events, the right style of cooking
should be decided appropriately. When event organizers discuss with a caterer or
caterers, the quality of food needs to be explicitly explained. Not only does the
quality of food need to meet the expectations of event organizers and visitors but
it is also significant to point out accurately speed of service and type of food
required. To put it simply, food presented at the event should be of a suitable
standard as well as appropriate to the type of audience. (Shone & Parry. 2004,
130-131 and Der Wagen 2001, 154).

A food safety plan is uttermost in catering services. Event organizers should

place importance on protecting all of the visitors and guests from food poisoning
by formulating a practical plan to deal with cross-contamination and other food-
related factors, e.g. bacteria growth. A good example is that the right temperature
is adjusted when food is transported all the way from factory to the store, and
from the store to the kitchen, etc. Food safety plans need to make sure that the
length of time taken for food to reach guests and visitors is also explicitly
specified and carefully calculated. In event industry, catering is quite demanding
and stressful for those who work in the kitchen. Therefore, the chef should get all
the accurate information about the planned time services for all the courses at the
initial stage of planning. (Der Wagen 2001, 155)
 37

Drinks services:

Besides catering services, drinks services should not be underestimated in all

circumstances. In event industry, drinks services may come in the form of bars.
Usually, there are two different types of bars for events: paid and cash (Shone &
Parry. 2004, 133). Simply put, visitors and guests can get the first drinks for free
because event organizers already pay for those first drinks. However,
subsequently, visitors and guests have to pay for their own drinks. Cash bar is
where guests pay for what they want to drink (Shone & Parry 2004, 133).
Depending on types of events and event organizers, drinks services can be
determined accordingly. However, it should be noted that visitors and guests
will feel pleased to choose a wide variety of beverages, which will be certainly
more expensive for event organizers (Der Wagen 2001, 155). A selection of
beverages needs to go according to the budget as well. (Shone & Parry. 2004,
133 and Der Wagen 2001, 155)

Equipment

When organizing events, event organizers should take into consideration what
type of equipment will be employed at the event. The flow of equipment is also
part of the logistical plan (Bladen et al. 2012, 98).

Safety and security

Safety and security management should also be prioritized during the

whole process of planning an event.

Regarding security management, it is paramount to understand that security

management is a primary factor that has an impact on both event operations and
event logistics (Getz 2007, 293). In order to formulate an efficient security
management plan, event organizers themselves need to obtain a great deal of
information about the crowd, visitors, guests, etc. (Der Wagen 2001, 207). The
understanding of crowd emotions and behavior should be carefully addressed at
all times. It is impossible to figure out the threat of terrorism, bomb attacks etc. at
major events. Consequently, crowd emotions and crowd behavior have
respectively placed importance on potential risk analyses. Not only does security
management center around the crowd management but it also stresses the
security of premises, equipment, cash etc. (Der Wagen 2001, 209). The security
 38

management is also ensured by security staff and security organizations.

Security staff take responsibility of controlling the flow of people at the event,
which means that they allow correct people to have full access to some specific
areas at the event. For example, accreditation badges could be employed so that
security staff will be able to monitor the access. Furthermore, security staff are
fully entitled to refuse access if a person or persons look suspicious. It is also
essential that event managers should check security staff’s valid licenses to
ensure that all of the security staff have been well-trained and meet some
specific requirements. (Getz 2007, 291-293 and Der Wagen 2001, 207-209).

Safety and health management’s sole purpose is to ensure that all of the event
participants, visitors, guests etc. are fully protected from any risk exposures to
their health and safety (Getz 2007, 291). First of all, the safety of the event
audience, staff, event managers and all related parties is of great importance
because all of the events carry safety risks (Getz 2007, 291). Those safety risks
should be mitigated in order to secure the implementation of the event. According
to Goldblatt and Hu (2005), they proposed the use of eSAFE, which is online
management system (Getz 2007, 293). eSAFE is meant to assist event organizers
and managers to deal with ongoing terrorist threats. Second of all, the safety
management also concerns all of the staff, volunteers, etc. Occupational health
and safety aims to prevent accidents and injury in the working environment. Most
importantly, event organizers should ensure that the working environment is safe
for all the workers and that systems work properly (Der Wagen 2001, 212). Also,
one important prerequisite for full-time workers is the compensation insurance.
Compensation insurance covers all of the work-related issues such as injury,
accidents at work etc. (Der Wagen 2001, 212). In all, safety and security issues
should not be underestimated in any circumstances because they play a vital role
in the secure execution of events as well as in ensuring that all of the attendants,
staff, visitors etc. are fully protected from any types of threats. Therefore, policies
and procedures relevant to safety and security issues should be highly addressed
and be understood in depth in the training section. (Der Wagen 2001, 208-212 and
Getz 2007, 293)
 39

Risk management

Risk management has played a vital role in different fields. It is certainly

understandable that every business possesses certain types of risks for example
financial risks, business planning and strategies risks etc. (Bladen et al. 2012,
202). In the event industry, the risk management will center on the overall event
strategy, therefore, event organizers should work on several forms of risk
management in accordance with specific issues such as environmental impact,
marketing and PR, sponsorship, finances and return on investment (Bladen et al.
2012, 202). In the risk management, author will introduce theories about
understanding risk management, managing risks and types of potential risks and
risk management stages.

Understanding risk management:

Above all, it is of utmost importance that event organizers should not dismiss the
possibility of something might not go in accordance with the plan. Therefore, risk
management is utilized to identify and avoid those risks. From that point of view,
appropriate steps will be taken in order to mitigate the risks. Those risks can be
protests, traffic, terrorism, crowding, bad weather etc. Risk management is also a
proactive plan to cope with emergency problems so that events will be managed
successfully. In general, it is stressed that risk management helps event
organizers to identify risks, assess these risks and manage them. In other words,
more specifically, risk management center on anticipating, preventing and
minimizing all the potential costs, losses or problems for the event, organizations,
partners, visitors and guests. (Shone & Parry. 2004, 169, Get 2007, 291 and Der
Wagen 2001, 99)

Managing risks and types of potential risks:

Risk management should be well-managed by both event organizers and event

coordinators. The key duty is to make attendees feel safe and secure at an event.
As a result, event organizers and event coordinators are highly advised to balance
the best achievable duty of care to all the attendees and the guests (Shone & Parry.
2004, 169). It would become frustrated to list all of the possible risks at the first
meeting. Nevertheless, it is critical that all of the potential risks should be well-
established in the most appropriate manner so that the evaluation can be carried
out effectively and correctly. There are different types of unavoidable risks when
 40

an event is organized. That being said, risks could stem from event-marketing,
health and safety issues, catering services, unexpected weather condition, lack of
attendees, etc. Furthermore, risks also arise from organizational and managerial
actions such as untrained staff or volunteer, the poor system management, the lack
of professionalism. (Shone & Parry. 20014, 169 and Getz 2007, 292)

Getz (2007) also mentions that quality control could also pose risks to event
management because it comes down to the fact that it is too much to control. It
means that the use of volunteers, reliance on various suppliers, managing staff and
volunteers, etc. can certainly require appropriate risk management plan.(Getz
2007, 292)

The following figures help reader understand some primary risks when it comes to
event management:

•Risks to staff and other owing to badly-

Human Resources disciplined organization
•Lack of substitutes /replacements

•Risk to being too optimistic about what

will be achieved at the event
Event Marketing •Risk to being unrealistic about the
event's objectives and goals
•Lack of attendees
•Negative sources of information from the media

• Lack of control of the event owing to the

Crowd management overcrowding
• Lack of emergency exits in case of
nexpected happenings

FIGURE 9. Potential risks to event management (Modified from Shone & Parry.
2004, 169)
 41

Besides that, natural disasters could also be considered one of the potential risks
to events. Heavy rain, hail, extreme heat, for instance, can automatically have
quite an impact on the number of participants, guests as well as the mood of all
the attendees. Generally, various types of events bring about different types of
risks. (Der Wagen 2001, 99)

So highly important is the risk management that it helps event organizers or

coordinators to heighten awareness, assessment, evaluation, moderation and
recording (Shone & Parry. 2004, 170). Asking for advice from a professional
consultant, for instance, does also boost up of the awareness of potential risks.
Depending on the nature and purpose of the event, it is wise to gain the advice of
different experts such as firemen, police representatives, local authorities, local
people etc. (Shone & Parry. 2004, 170). From that perspective, event organizers
and coordinators will be able to gain insights into all of the possible risks so that
they can mitigate the risks to make the event go according to the original plan.

Furthermore, not only is it essential to gain advice of different experts but

insurance should be taken into account as well (Shone & Parry. 2004, 171).
Insurance, as a matter of fact, will cover some risks and losses. On the other hand,
insurance may secure the operations. Notwithstanding insurance does compensate
losses and risks, the firm or organization should find some time to answer those
specific questions: (1) will the insurance company cover all of the risks and losses
(as the firm or organization has thought)? (2) In the case of being rejected by the
insurance company, will it still be possible to host the event? (Shone & Parry
2004, 170-171).

Risk management stages:

Assessment Evaluation Control Recording

measurement

FIGURE 10. Four stages of risk management (Modified from Shone & Parry.
2004, 172)
 42

There are four main stages to manage risks of an event. First of all, risk
management begins with assessment. Simply put, assessment is related to
identifying potential risks at an event (Der Wagen 2001, 103). After all of the
risks have clearly been identified, it is paramount to take into consideration the
likelihood or possibility of risks arising as well as what consequences will be
expected. In order to assist the event team to identify all the potential risks, the
brainstorming session is quite indispensable (Der Wagen 2001, 104). Owing to
the brainstorming session, the whole team can assist one another to list out all of
the potential risk. Secondly, after the stage of assessment, the evaluation of the
potential risks can be carried out thoroughly through the preparation of the risk
moderation form (Shone & Parry. 2004, 172). It is also highly advisable to put all
of the identified risks into different categories in terms of priority or potentiality
(Der Wagen 2001, 104). During the stage of evaluation, establishing a committee
to take responsibility for evaluating all the risks is also one of the good options
that need to be taken into consideration as well. (Shone & Parry. 2004, 172 and
Der Wagen 2001, 103-105)

Control measurement comes next after the evaluation and assessment. The risk
moderation form is used during the stage of control measurement. As a matter of
fact, based on the risk moderation form, there come two possibilities: (1) Will it
be necessary to make some advanced preparations before the official launch or
start of the event? (2) Are any special measurements required during the event?
(Shone & Parry. 2004, 172).There is a wide variety of control measures such as
elimination plans, substitution plans, isolation plans, engineering controls,
administrative controls or contingency plans, etc. (Der Wagen 2001, 104). From
that perspective, event organizers and coordinators work together on the most
appropriate and effective ways of managing and mitigating risks in accordance
with the nature and type of events. Eventually, all of the risk management
activities should be carefully recorded and be kept carefully in order to take into
consideration whether those activities will be modified or not, especially
unexpected risks are identified during the event. The practice of recording and
reviewing activities is of great importance because it is such a good and valuable
experience for prospective events. It is highly pointed out that it would be better to
learn from experience than from foresight because unexpected happenings are
always unpredictable. (Shone & Parry. 2004, 172 and Der Wagen 2001, 105)
 43

To reiterate, it is inevitable that event organizers and coordinators will not

certainly be able to speculate about everything that might occur at the event
although it is strongly believed that all of the risks have been successfully
managed. What does matter is that the event organizers and coordinators should
stay alert at an event and pay attention to everything that may turn the event
itself into a disaster (Shone & Parry. 2004, 172).

4.3.3 Marketing plan

Marketing plays an important role in optimizing an event’s publicity. A good

marketing plan attributes to well-organized and successful event. Marketing is
vitally important because it attracts an audience so that the event itself will not
turn out to be a non-vent (Der Wagen 2001, 53).

In general, the concept of marketing mix has been defined in numerous ways.
Marketing is considered the process of planning and implementing the conception,
pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services so that values are
exchanged and individual and organizational objectives are satisfied (Pelsmacker
et al. 2010, 2). Simply put, according to The Economic Times’ article, marketing
mix relates to the set of actions, or tactics, that a company or organization utilizes
in order to promote its own brand or product in the market. Marketing mix,
fundamentally, consists of 4 P’s: Price, Product, Promotion and Place. However,
the Economic Times has also added that marketing mix has been evolved due to
the fast-paced change of the world. Depending on the nature of service, product,
those following P’s can be found in the marketing much: Packaging, Positioning,
People, Politics etc. (Economic Times, Definition of Marketing Mix, 2014).

Marketing mix should be carefully studied because the misusage of marketing

mix can lead to the big failure. More specifically, if the company or organization
has examined marketing in depth, good marketing plan will certainly boost up
company’s business image, profitability. Nevertheless, if the marketing plan is not
fully understood by the company, it leads to the fact that the company’s business,
service will fail. Also, it takes years to recover from the failure (Economic Times,
Definition of Marketing Mix, 2014).

In event marketing, Lynn Van Der Wagen has argued that event products are
much more complicated because events products are regarded as a combination of
 44

goods and services (Der Wagen 2001, 54). As a result, event managers and
organizers may face up with adversities and challenges in event marketing. When
it comes to event marketing, it is important to examine three significant features
of event marketing. Lynn Van Der Wagen has pointed out that event marketing is
intangible, variable and inseparable (Der Wagen 2001, 54). Regarding event
marketing’s intangibility, it refers to service-oriented aspects of event products
because it has been mentioned that event products are both goods and services.
Furthermore, the variability of event marketing depends on the service(s) provided
at the event. What’s more, variability is determined by various responses to the
service(s) provided. Not only is event marketing both intangible and variable but
it is inseparable as well. It is easy to understand that all of the parties involved in
event marketing are vitally closely connected. Additionally, parties involved in
event marketing depend on each other. For example, a conference organizer has to
rely on his staff, guest speakers, technical crew etc. in order that the conference
will be able to satisfy specific needs to the audience. (Der Wagen 2010, 54).

Variable

EVENT
MARKETING

FIGURE 11. Event Marketing's Features

 45

Generally, as mentioned above, marketing mix comprises 4 important P’s:

product, price, place and promotion. Products, to begin with, refer to the item sold
to customers or clients. Products have to satisfy the needs of consumers
(Economic Times, Definition of “Marketing Mix”, 2014). Additionally, products
have to bring out some unique benefits to consumers. The product tool is made up
of three primary layers: the core product, the augmented product and product
features. The core product emphasizes the unique benefits of the product when
consumers have decided to purchase the product. The augmented products is
determined by service-oriented aspects such as after-sales services, prompt
delivery etc. Product features, on the other hand, refer to packaging, design, etc.
(Economic Times, Definition of “Marketing Mix”, 2014; Pelsmacker et al. 2010,
2)

The second P is price. Price is the only element that does not cost anything in the
marketing mix (Pelsmacker et al. 2010, 2). Price relates to the official price of a
product. The third element in marketing mix is place or distribution. After
production, it is critical that the company manages to bring its products from the
manufactory to the customer. Some activities such as transporting products,
keeping inventory, choosing wholesalers and retailers take place in this element
(Pelsmacker etc. 2010, 3). Distribution also places an emphasis on retaining co-
operation between the company itself and distribution channel, i.e. wholesalers,
retailers, etc. Last but not least, promotion or marketing communication is the
fourth element in the marketing mix. Furthermore, promotion or marketing
communication is also considered the most feasible element (Pelsmacker et al.
2010, 3). Marketing communication plays an important part in communications
between the company and its stakeholders together with its target groups.
Marketing communications assist the company to promote its products or
services and the company itself. (Pelsmacker et al. 2010, 3)

“Marketing communications are the tools a company uses to deliver a range of

promotional messages to its target markets”

(What are marketing communications? The Charter of Institute of Marketing, 2009)

 46

Research

Marketing research is said to be in support of effective planning and decision in

markets. As a matter of fact, it has played a vital role in the implementation of
effective marketing strategies. (Raj et al. 2009, 87)

Before starting to formulate a marketing plan, it is paramount to ascertain that

researches should be conducted in order to collect information about target group,
environment, etc. In the stage of research, first of all, Both Donald Getz and
Shone and Parry have placed importance on event’s key purpose. The purpose of
the event should be well-identified and well-defined in order to facilitate the
process of researching. As a matter of fact, the purpose of event can be broken
into several smaller objectives. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the number
of small objectives are not expected to exceed five because the more objectives
there are, the more challenging and difficult to accomplish all of them. (Shone &
Parry. 2004, 155 and Getz. 2007, 281)

Doing research on the environment has also played a vital role in formulating
marketing plan. Donald Getz together with Shone and Parry argues that researches
enable event managers to collect a great deal of information about environmental
scanning, customer analysis, competitor analysis, other events that take place at the
same time and might take away all of the potential attendees ( Shone & Parry. 2004,
155 and Getz. 2007, 281). In order to initiate the data collection process, event
managers can take advantages of different data collection tools such as surveys,
interview, focus groups, observation etc. (Getz. 2007, 281)

Besides, according to Lynn Der Wagen, during the process of collecting data for
the marketing plan, motivation should be taken into consideration as well.
Customers’ motivation is unpredictable depending on many external and internal
factors. It is highly likely that different customers respond differently to some
aspects of an event. Those responses are either negative or positive. Customers’
motivation may be one of the hardest factors to be influenced. (Der Wagen. 2001,
58)

Furthermore, during the process of making the marketing plan, budget should also
be considered carefully because it is not wise to formulate the marketing plan that
exceeds the firm’s or the organization’s available budget. (Shone & Parry. 2004,
93)
 47

Target

Market segmentation is the process of identifying and analyzing customers in

different groups. Lyn Der Wagen has placed importance on thorough analyses of
various motivations of the audience. From that point of view, it will easier to put
customers into different profiles (Der Wagen. 2001, 58). Donald Getz has
supported the idea of Lyn Der Wagen by supplementing basic variables for the
segmentation. The segmentation can based on geography, demographics (age and
gender), social-economics (income and class), consumption patterns, visitation
patterns (loyalty, seasonality etc.) etc. (Getz. 2007, 281). Moreover, in the stage
of market segmentation, learning about what media should be used for each target
group is highly recommended (Shone & Parry. 2004, 156).

Promotions and public relations

Optimizing the publicity of events is always challenging and time-consuming. In

order to attract the more attendants the better, event managers have to weigh up
which would be the best ways to promote the event depending on the purpose, the
nature of the event. There is a wide diversity of promotion forms such as personal
selling, brochures, banners, Internet advertising, posters, magazines, newspaper, radio
etc. (Der Wagen. 2001, 60). The message to promote one event is significant because
it needs to sound convincing to all the target groups (Der Wagen 2001, 60). Lynn Der
Wagen also argues that the evaluation of marketing efforts should be carried out as
well. Evaluation is normally done systematically by asking when and how
participants have found out about the event. The stage of evaluation can take place
prior to, during and after the event. (Der Wagen, 2001, 60)

Marketing schedule

Under no circumstances should the marketing schedule be dismissed. Some of the

marketing activities can take a longer time than expected (Shone & Parry.2004,
145). Lynn Der Wagen argues that timing has quite an impact on consumer
decision-making process as well because it is closely related to the promotion
budget, and bad-timing will result in unpredictable consequences. (Der Wagen,
2001, 58).
 48

Marketing schedule should be prepared while the process of planning and

budgeting of the marketing program takes place. The marketing schedule gives
event managers a general idea of lead times for different marketing activities (for
example: when does that activity start? When does it need to be done?). It is quite
important to keep in mind that some marketing activities take a lot of time. As a
consequence, it is advisable that the lead times should be checked thoroughly. For
example, it will take two to four months to advertise one event on national
magazines. (Shone & Parry. 2004, 158)

4.3.4 Organizing and preparing events

After the sufficient amount of information has been gathered, it is critical that
there should be a pause (Shone & Parry. 2004, 94). The pause is quite
indispensable because it ensures that event managers have the sufficient amount
of time to check the planning progress and the status of the plans because it may
take plenty of time to deal with feedback and all of the discussions (Shone &
Parry. 2004, 94). Therefore, meetings are vitally important (Der Wagen 2001,
191). As a matter of fact, meetings are always necessary in the entire planning
process –before, during and after the event. Some meetings can be very effective,
but others may be considered a waste of time (Der Wagen 2001, 191). In order to
be prepared for the stage of organizing and preparing events, time-line should be
clearly set. During the meetings, note-taking is highly recommended so that
attendees have an idea of what tasks needs to be completed, what have been gone
through etc.(Der Wagen 2001, 192) Documentation from the meeting should be
done thoroughly and made public to those who attend the meeting. At meetings,
it is also important to address what else needs to be done, what still needs to be
achieved etc. and to take into consideration whether further arrangements should
be made. Policies should be carefully made to point out some general principles
for the event (Der Wagen 2001, 197). Each and every event requires policy in
order to prevent fraud, misrepresentation, manage staff, procedures etc.
Furthermore, motivation, team-spirit, stress relief should be emphasized at
meetings as well. (Shone & Parry 2004, 94 & Der Wagen 2001, 191-192 & 197)

When the event approaches, it is critical that event managers should learn how to
deal with the deadlines, arrangements, operational plans, marketing plans etc.
(Shone & Parry 2004, 94). Therefore, it is advisable that event managers should
 49

go through some certain procedures. The procedures can be in the form of a check
list or tasks (Der Wagen 2001, 198). The clear procedures certainly facilitate
event managers to reduce stress and to assure that all of the pieces fit together.
Apart from that, all of the procedures planned by event managers should be
carefully timed so as to meet the needs of other functional areas. It literally means
that all of the planning process should be harmonized with one another, and so
should all of the procedures. The careful planning will certainly result in the
operational success of the event. Besides the procedures, all of the activities in the
event should be recorded and kept carefully for evaluation and feedback sessions.
(Shone & Parry 2004, 94 & Der Wagen 2001, 198)

4.4 After event

It is paramount to ascertain that evaluation process and feedback collection should be

conducted thoroughly after the event. Those both processes act as useful and
indispensable planning resources for planning some other events in the future.

4.4.1 Evaluation

Evaluation process concerns the understanding of evaluation process, the purpose

of evaluation, collecting information for the process and visitors’ impressions.

Understanding the significance of evaluation

After the implementation of an event, the final evaluation should be taken into
consideration and carried out thoroughly. The evaluation should include all of the
necessary and various sources of information. Not only does the evaluation
concern participants’ perception but event organizers’ perception should be
included in the evaluation as well. In all likelihood, event organizers tend to leave
out tiny, little information of the evaluation. Nevertheless, it is highly
recommended that recording and keeping tiny, little information are significantly
indispensable during the process of evaluating the event. Therefore, from that
point of view, having considerable expertise in collecting and recording useful
information is one of the benefits to organizations or firms when they have
carried out the evaluation. The main idea is that the evaluation should be handled
with care and should not be neglected, which certainly facilitates further planning.
(Shone & Parry. 2004, 220)
 50

Lynn Der Wagen also adds that evaluation is usually neglected after the event
(Der Wagen 2001, 239). However, evaluation gives the firm or organization
various perspectives gained from the event organization and management. For
example, from the evaluation session, the firm can learn from their experience and
gain deeper understanding of operational success, etc. Normally, the evaluation
process is guided by the event’s goals and objectives. Tzelepi and Quick (2002)
also pointed out various approaches to event evaluation such as “effectiveness”,
“goal attainment”, “systems resource approach”, “ competing values” etc. (Getz
2007, 300). Moreover, in the evaluation process, both clients and stakeholders in
events insist a report on how their resources have been used and to which extent
objectives have been accomplished. (Der Wagen 2001, 239 and Getz 2007, 300)

Furthermore, Der Wagen also places importance on the impact of events such as
economic, political, physical etc. impact on the community itself (Der Wagen
2001, 244). Those impacts can also be included in the evaluation process. For
example, regarding the political impact, event promotes the city, the country, the
people, the cultures etc. where the event has taken place. Moreover, the social
impact can be seen through the enhancement of community spirit and the outcome
of social benefits as well. (Der Wagen 2001, 244)

The purpose of evaluation

What could hindrance the evaluation process is the incapability of utilizing the
process itself. Firms and organizations, in point of fact, usually hold a meeting to
go through major points of the event, and the process probably ends there (Shone
& Parry. 2004, 220).

Fundamentally, the purpose of evaluation is to have a general look and examine

how the event went together with what should be done to better future events
(Shone & Parry. 2004, 220 and Bladen et al. 2012, 372). Improvements should be
made in accordance with those three different scenarios. Firstly, the event went
well, however, further improvements could be weighed up to optimize the event.
Secondly, some activities in the event went badly, and they do need improving
and changing. Thirdly, like the first scenario, the event went well, but it should
remain that way and no further improvements are needed (Shone & Parry. 2004,
220). Those improvements need to be done appropriately, even though it can be
void of necessary sources of information by any means such as in a form of
 51

questionnaires, in the form of electronic surveys etc. Collecting those sources of

information is very constructive for the evaluation. (Shone & Parry 2004, 220)

Badly- Serious improvements

organized and necessary changes

Further improvements

Well- to make the event even

organized
event
No further
improvements to some

FIGURE 12. Identifying appropriate improvements (Modified from Shone

and Parry, 2004, 220)

It is argued that evaluation should be an ongoing process. The process itself is

part of the management of event (Bladen et al. 2012, 372). Additionally,
according to Getz (2005), the evaluation does require the appropriate investment
in time and resources (Bladen et al. 2012, 372)
 52

Collecting information

Collecting information for the evaluation process should not be dismissed and
needs to be conducted carefully and appropriately. The amount of information
depends on each event in terms of size, scale, participants etc. However, the
amount of information will exceed one’s expectations even if it is such a small
event where there is no formal research conducted. The collected sources of
information should be well-analyzed, or else the analysis would be
subjectively done, i.e. based on someone’s opinion. The analysis, of course,
turns out to invalid and worthless (Shone & Parry. 2004, 220).

Visitor
observation
Questionnaires
Sponsors Visitors
Views of publicity, 'perceptions
Security/police
level of awareness About crowds,
traffic

Staff & volunteers EVENT Specialists &

View, comments EVALUATION department leaders
& logbooks (incl. budget) Reactions and
notes

Mystery guests Council

Participant Parking, access,
observation community views
Coordinators
Observations &
notes, weather

FIGURE 13. Sources of information for evaluation (Shone & Parry. 2004, 221)

Evaluation process, in general, has placed an emphasis on two prime issues: (1)Did
the event meet its objective? and (2) What can be improved for the next edition, if
there is one?(Shone & Parry. 2004, 221). When it comes to organizing events,
identifying the core objectives is highly crucial because it helps event organizers
and coordinators to focus on what should be done to reach the objectives. Event
objectives also play a vital role in assuring stakeholders the event’s effectiveness.
Overall, stakeholders want to make sure that event
 53

organizers and coordinators really put the money to work by spending

it effectively and wisely (Shone & Parry. 2004, 221).

After the process of collecting all of the essential information, what is best and
what is worst are sorted out. Therefore, having knowledge of “what is best” and
“what is worst” can lead to remedies which can boost up the satisfaction and
reduce the dissatisfaction. As a consequence, it is highly recommended to rank
“what is worst” problems, i.e. from “most serious to least serious” or from “most
frequently to least frequently”. The task of ranking is certainly favorable to event
organizers and coordinators because they will be able to perceive which problems
reoccur several times. From that point of view, they could give priority to each
problem and try to sort them all out in order of precedence (Shone & Parry. 2004,
221).

Apart from those sources of information, both qualitative and quantitative data
can also be used in the evaluation process (Bladen et al. 2012, 372).

TABLE 5. Quantitative and qualitative data for the evaluation process (Shone and
Parry, 2010, 146). (Bladen et al. 2012, 373)

Quantitative data Qualitative data

- Attendee statistics, including - Attendee perceptions

market segmentation data
- Interviews with attendees and
- Sales figures staff

- Financial reports and accounts - Management notes and

commentary
- Economic impact analysis

- Social impact analysis

- Environmental impact analysis

- Environmental impact analysis

- Social impact analysis
 54

Visitors’ impressions

In order to make all the visitors feel comfortable at the events, it is important to
examine visitors’ impressions. Needless to say, visitors’ impressions certainly
impact the success of the event itself. Taking into consideration those impressions
can assure that the event will satisfy visitors. According to Love and Crompton
(1999), there are two sets of judgments: satisfiers and dissatisfiers (Shone &
Parry. 2004, 224).

Satisfiers refer to things that satisfy visitors such as the ambience, excitement,
social involvement, relaxation etc. On the contrary, dissatisfiers refer to things
that make visitors become dissatisfied such as the parking, toilets, queues etc.
Therefore, one should fully pay attention to both judgments by doing some
research. In the research, visitors’ perception is uttermost and should be fully paid
attention to. Those factors that cause satisfaction should be well-identified and
advocated, and conversely those that cause dissatisfaction are supposed to be
reduced and improved (Shone & Parry. 2004, 224)

Social Parking
involvement lot

Long
Excitement
queues

VISITORS' Bad
Ambience IMPRESSIONS services

FIGURE 14. Factors that impact visitors' impressions (Modified from Shone &
Parry. 2004, 224)

In brief, setting appropriate and retainable expectations is indispensable because it

is crucial to know what is achievable during the evaluation process. It is
unrealistic that total satisfaction can be achieved because there are both internal
and external factors that can influence human beings’ perception. Even though
event organizers and coordinators have tried their best to find solutions to all the
 55

problems, human beings’ perceptions will change dramatically. (Shone & Parry.
2004, 224)

4.4.2 Feedback

Feedback has played a vital role in event organization and management. As a

matter of fact, feedback is collected and assists the company or organization to
accumulate experience for the prospective events. Feedback should be
thoroughly handled. There are several options to collect feedback from visitors,
guests, participants at the events such as the completion of forms, personal
interviews, small focus group etc. (Der Wagen 2001, 242)
 56

5 ORGANIZING THE ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL NIBS CONFERENCE

This empirical part revolves around the International NIBS Conference that took
place in Lahti, Finland on May 21-23, 2014 (NIBS Conference 2014, 2014). The
empirical part can assist readers to gain better understanding of the theoretical part
and study how previous theories are related to this empirical part. The empirical
part consists of two main chapters: Case Analysis: An overview of NIBS and Case
Analysis: The Annual International NIBS Conference in Lahti, Finland. In the
very first chapter of the empirical part, the author will focus on NIBS’ mission,
members, NIBS Conference together with competitions. The second chapter is
about a real conference organized by Lahti University of Applied Sciences.
Through a real-life conference, an event manual will be formed so to enhance the
quality and organization skills for the upcoming conferences hold by NIBS. Data
for the empirical part came from the NIBS Project team members, e-mails, the
Conference’s websites, personal interviews, team meetings and the author’s
observations.

5.1 An overview of NIBS

NIBS is a short form for the Network of International Business Schools. NIBS is
a useful playground for business schools worldwide. All of the NIBS members
have agreed that both internationalization of business and the globalization of the
economy have played a vital role in the development of managerial practices
(Network of International Business Schools, About, 2014). What’s more, NIBS
places a high emphasis on a strong international dimension in higher education
and training. A strong international dimension is of great importance nowadays
when the whole world has changed at a fast pace. According to NIBS, they
believe that a strong international dimension means practicing foreign languages,
familiarizing with comparative management techniques together with gaining
experience of working and studying abroad (Network of International Business
Schools, About, 2014).

NIBS does say that co-operation between different institutions in different

countries is uttermost. The main goal is to bridge the gap between those countries
in terms of cultures and social practices. Having become a member of NIBS
means agreeing on a mutual goal of collaboration and being an active participant
in student exchanges/ interactions, faculty exchanges/interactions, exchanges of
 57

ideas for teaching programs and joint teaching and research programs (Network
of International Business Schools, About, 2014). All of the NIBS member have
the rights to recognize each other’s qualifications and take part in case
competitions and conferences (Network of International Business Schools, About,
2014). NIBS’ registered office is located in Hertogstraat 178, 3001 Heverlee,
Belgium. (Network of International Business Schools, About, 2014)

5.1.1 Members and benefits

A large number of business schools all over the world have become official
members of NIBS. All of the NIBS members have some certain benefits to take
part in some following activities (Network of International Business Schools,
Benefits of NIBS Membership, NIBS, 2014):

NIBS International Conference

The conference is held annually. The main of focus of the conference is a current
theme in international business education. The conference enables a window of
opportunity to have thorough discussion about common problems. Additionally,
establishing network with other member schools is one of the main benefits at
NIBS International Conference. (Network of International Business Schools,
Benefits of NIBS Membership, NIBS, 2014)

NIBS International Undergraduate Student Case Competition

The competition is meant for undergraduate students who are in pursuit of a

bachelor degree or equivalent at any NIBS member schools or are especially
invited to join the competition by the host institution. In this competition, a team
of four members has a chance to compete with other teams in a written case study
analysis. Those chosen well-analyzed case studies will advance to the next round
in which case presentations are given. This case competition is regarded as a role
model for a life-changing experience which does support students to succeed in
prospective job applications. (Network of International Business Schools, Benefits
of NIBS Membership, NIBS, 2014)

NIBS International Accreditation

 58

Unlike those two above activities, NIBS International Accreditation

recognizes the internationalism of its member institutions. NIBS Accreditation
is not regarded as a competition. In fact, it is meant to be a supplement to other
accreditations along with an award. NIBS Accreditation has indicated that the
development of internationalism should not be dismissed. It is an ongoing
process. (Network of International Business Schools, Benefits of NIBS
Membership, NIBS, 2014)

NIBS Entrepreneurship Education

A shorter name for NIBS Entrepreneurship Education is officially known as start-

up café. Start-up café is a constructive concept which boosts entrepreneurial
spirit. The important objective of Start-up café is to bring about the significant
shift in entrepreneurship on campus as well as advocating the development of
students and staff. NIBS member schools are fully entitled to become the start-up
café host. (Network of International Business Schools, Benefits of NIBS
Membership, NIBS, 2014)

NIBS Projects

NIBS member institutions do have a chance to participate in collaborative

projects as well. Intellectual Property and Youth Entrepreneurship are discussed
in current projects. (Network of International Business Schools, Benefits of NIBS
Membership, NIBS, 2014)

NIBS online Forum

NIBS online forum is a good tool to enable NIBS member schools to initiate
online discussions about international business-related topics. (Network of
International Business Schools, Benefits of NIBS Membership, NIBS, 2014)

Other outputs from NIBS

Other activities do benefit NIBS member schools as well. Students from NIBS
member institutions from England, Denmark and Belgium are entitled to pursue
a joint undergraduate degree in international business. (Network of International
Business Schools, Benefits of NIBS Membership, NIBS, 2014)
 59

International
conference

Case
Other outputs
Competition

NIBS
Online forum Accreditation

Entrepreneurs
Projects
hip

FIGURE 15. Benefits for NIBS members (Modified from Become a NIBS
Member, 2014)

In order to be qualified as a NIBS members, an institution has to meet

the following requirements (Becomes a NIBS Member, 2014):

 An institution is a nationally-recognized business school.


 The institution offers a Bachelor Degree in Business or Management.

 That institution consents to accept NIBS’ principles.

 Regional representation can be seen from different areas of the world.

5.1.2 Competitions

NIBS has had the honor to hold two worldwide competitions that are intended
for undergraduate students. They are Case Competition and Business Plan
Competition (Network of International Business Schools, Competitions, 2014)
 60

Case Competition

The Case Competition was initiated since 1993. The Case Competition would be
considered a huge success because it has drawn attention to the large number of
institutions around the globe. According to the Case Competition’s rules, 16
qualified schools will be chosen and invited to compete with each other in a final
round hosted by one of the NIBS members. Locations of the Case Competition,
therefore, are different from one year to another. So far, Canada, the USA,
France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Norway and New Zealand
have had the chance to host the Case Competition. (Network of International
Business Schools, Competitions, 2014)

Business Plan Competition

The Business Plan Competition was newly born in 2011. The Business Plan
Competition, like the Case Competition, consists of a qualifying and a final
round. The Business Competition’s final around occurs on line through a video or
Skype conversation at the Annual Conference. (Network of International Business
Schools, Competitions, 2014)

5.2 The annual international NIBS Conference in Lahti, Finland

NIBS Conference, this year, was held in Lahti, Finland from May 21 through May
23, 2014 (LUAS, NIBS Conference, 2014). Lahti University of Applied Sciences
took pride in holding the International NIBS Conference because this is the very
first time the annual international NIBS conference has taken place in Lahti. This
year, the Conference stresses on the theme “New Business Opportunities in the
Global Economy: from Opportunities to New Business Creation”. The
International NIBS Conference is divided into three different parts:

 Business Plan Competition


 Conference

 Annual Meeting and Corporate visits. (Lahti University of
Applied Sciences, NIBS Conference 2014, 2014)

As mentioned above, the author was selected to be in the project team that is in
charge of organizing the International NIBS Conference. Therefore, all of the
information is given via project team meetings, interviews, emails etc.
 61

5.2.1 Prior to the NIBS Conference

First time in Lahti, Finland

This year, the International NIBS Conference was held in Lahti on May 21-23,
2014. The reason why NIBS had chosen Lahti because it says that each NIBS
member can volunteer every year to host a yearly conference, and the location is
decided by the NIBS Board (NIBS- The Network of International Business
Schools, interview with Ian Charles, the president of NIBS, 2014). Furthermore,
Finland has not organized the annual conference, therefore, NIBS has decided to
assign Finland to hold the NIBS Conference. According to Laura Montonen –
administrative coordinator and general secretary of the Conference, she also
explained the reason why NIBS has chosen Lahti, Finland to hold the next
international conference due to the themes. This year, the conference in Lahti
places a high emphasis on a theme “New Business Opportunities in the Global
Economy: from Opportunities to New Business Creation”. A main theme is
broken down into four small subtitles: “Process of New Business Creation”,
“Small Business Opportunities”, “New Sustainable Business Opportunities” and
“Business Opportunities in BRIC Countries and Africa”. (Lahti University of
Applied Sciences, About Conference, 2014)

Since Russia is quite close to Finland, Finland had the opportunity to hold the
annual conference (Montonen, 2014). Moreover, Ian Charles- NIBS President, he
argued that visitors can learn more about Finland, Finnish culture as well as one
of the best education systems in the world. Besides that, Charles also pointed out
that NIBS was delighted to choose a school in a country that had not had the
honor to host the annual conference before and had not been visited by other
NIBS members (Lahti University of Applied Sciences, NIBS-The Network of
International Business Schools, interview with Ian Charles, the president of NIBS,
2014).

Linnea Sulkanen, the senior lecturer of Marketing at Lahti University of Applied

Sciences and a NIBS Board of Directors Member, also mentioned that the
promotion of different cultures, countries and languages is also one of the objectives
when the International NIBS Conference was held initially in Lahti, Finland. Linnea
Sulkanen placed a high emphasis on the fact that not only is the NIBS Conference a
useful gathering and meeting point for teachers and staff, but
 62

it also stresses on local values and cultures. Therefore, Linnea Sulkanen promised
that the International NIBS Conference would certainly bring about a True Nordic
Experience. (Lahti University of Applied Sciences, NIBS Conference – first time
in Finland, 2014)

Purpose

An interview Ian Charles, the president of NIBS, has pointed out that the purpose
of the conference is to enable all the NIBS members to meet and establish
network, listen to all the speeches and presentations on the conference theme and
attend the paper sessions or present a paper. The conference itself has also
reflected the important goal of NIBS that internationalization of business and
globalization of the economy have placed high emphasis on managerial practices.
All of the NIBS members have the mutual belief in the highly significant value of
internationalization for schools, students and faculties. The value is demonstrated
through the annual conference, student competitions, forums etc. (Lahti
University of Applied Sciences, NIBS- The Network of International Business
Schools, interview of with Ian Charles, the president of NIBS, 2014).

Apart from that, Ian Charles also pointed out that non-NIBS members can
also take part in the conference. (Lahti University of Applied Sciences, NIBS-
The Network of International Business Schools, interview of with Ian
Charles, the president of NIBS, 2014)

Objective

Linnea Sulkanen stated that Lahti University of Applied Sciences aimed at

arranging not only a well-organized, interesting and international conference in
true NIBS spirit. From that perspective, both guests and visitors had an
opportunity to learn about interesting presentations, to socialize as well as to get
to know more about the Finnish culture. Regarding the financial goal, it is highly
stressed that the break-even should be accomplished. (Sulkanen, 2014)

Additionally, Linnea Sulkanen also pointed out that different aspects were
thoroughly learned as well during the entire process of organizing the
Annual International NIBS Conference 2014 in Lahti, Finland such as
Business Plan Competition (Sulkanen, 2014).
 63

Preparing an event proposal

According to Linnea Sulkanen did not make any event proposal at all when it
came to organizing the Annual International NIBS Conference. Linnea Sulkanen
said that in 2010, at the Conference in Turkey, Erja Turunen, who was the former
Dean of Business Faculty of Lahti University of Applied Sciences, announced
that Lahti University of Applied Sciences would arrange the Annual International
NIBS Conference within the next five years. That is the reason why the Annual
International NIBS Conference was held in Lahti, Finland in May, 2014.
(Sulkanen, 2014)

Additionally, Linnea Sulkanen also mentioned the process of selecting the host
for the Conference as well. The school that is interested in organizing the Annual
International NIBS Conference will express their wish to the Board of NIBS.
Afterwards, the Board of NIBS will make the final decision which school will be
honored to host the Annual International NIBS Conference. (Sulkanen, 2014)

Laura Montonen, the administrative coordinator of Lahti University of Applied

Sciences, also added that the proposal was sent to the Dean Tuija Salminen
because Faculty of Business Studies took responsibility for the budget of
organizing the Annual International NIBS Conference 2014. (Montonen, 2014)

5.2.2 During the NIBS Conference

Financial Plan

The financial support is from the budget of Business Faculty, Lahti University of
Applied Sciences and the fees from the participants. Linnea Sulkanen says that the
organization of the Annual International NIBS Conference does not aim at gaining
profits. However, profitability will also benefit Lahti University of Applied
Sciences. Laura Montonen, on the other hand, places emphasis on the value of
networking during the Conference (Montonen, 2014). More importantly, Linnea
Sulkanen does place great importance on break-even. She actually meant that
Lahti University of Applied Sciences would try to cover the costs with the fees
from participants (Sulkanen, 2014). Furthermore, a grant application was also sent
to the organization called Tieteellisten Seurain Valtuuskunta (TSV) – in English:
Federation of Finnish Learned Societies located in Helsinki, Finland (Montonen,
2014)
 64

In the event of any unexpected additional costs, it is paramount to ascertain that

the project team should have a discussion with the Dean of Faculty of Business
Studies. Apart from that, the team will have to take into consideration whether
it is possible to make some cuts (Montonen, 2014).

Operational Plan

Operational plan concentrates on resources, staffing-porject team, registration,

venue and logistics, accommodation, catering services, keynote speakers,
equipment and technical issues; safety and security as well as risk management.

Resources

Human resources play an important part in the organization of the Annual

International NIBS Conference. According to Laura Montonen and Linnea
Sulkanen, they both place great importance on the available staff
resources.(Mononen and Sulkanen, 2014). Furthermore, venues and technical
equipment are also the available resources at hands (Sulkanen, 2014).

Since a 3-day Annual International NIBS Conference took place at the premises
of Lahti University of Applied Sciences, event organizers did not have to pay for
those premises. (Sulkanen, 2014)

Staffing – Project team

The general process for selecting the project team for the International NIBS
Conference was also explained during the interview. There are four main
members involved in the project: Linnea Sulkanen – senior lecturer of Lahti
University of Applied Sciences and NIBS Board Members, Laura Montonen-
administrative coordinator and general secretary of the Conference, Brett Fifield-
principal lecturer and the chair of the Conference and Anu Suomäki-Dean’s
assistant and general secretary of the Conference. According to Laura Montonen,
NIBS contacts the board member of the country holding the annual NIBS
Conference. In this case, Linnea Sulkanen is the board member of NIBS who
keeps contact with NIBS on behalf of Lahti University of Applied Sciences.
Linnea Sulkanen has been a NIBS Board of Directors Member since 2011 (Lahti
University of Applied Sciences, NIBS Conference – First time in Finland, 2014).
 65

Moreover, Laura Montonen also indicated that Linnea Sulkanen has had great
opportunities to attend many conferences, therefore, she has had some great
knowledge of what should be done and included in a conference. Regarding
practical arrangements, Laura Montonen has been appointed to handle all practical
arrangements such as dinners, activities etc. Another reason why Laura Montonen
is responsible for practical matters is that she has organized a lot of international
events. As a consequence, she has accumulated hands-on experience to organize a
good conference. (Montonen, 2014)

The third member of the project team is Brett Fifield, who is the project manager
himself. Brett Fifield would like to get himself involved in the project. Also, due
to his international background and his academic sense, Brett Fifield is also
responsible for organizing activities. The last member of the project team is Anu
Suomäki. She is asked to make sure that everything works and under control.
Anu Suomäki works with Laura Montonen.( Montonen, 2014)

In the event of emergency or unexpected happenings to Laura Montonen, Anu

Suomäki will be Laura Montonen’s replacement and assumes responsibility for
continuing what Laura Montonen has done recently and so on. Depending on
each person’s strengths and weaknesses, the four members of the project are
complementary. They understand substance, finance etc. according to Laura
Montonen. She also pointed out that the NIBS Conference in Lahti offers a great
balance between academic tasks and leisure time. Participants get to learn new
sources of knowledge from others and get to enjoy good time right here in Lahti,
Finland simultaneously. That’s the core reason for all the participants to attend
the conference. (Montonen, 2014)

Business Plan Competition was also included in the Annual International NIBS
Conference 2014 in Lahti, Finland. Marja Viljanen, Lecturer of Lahti University of
Applied Sciences, took responsibility of organizing Business Plan Competition.
However, there were also six students that assisted Viljanen during the process of
organizing the Business Plan Competition and ICT for the whole Conference. More
specifically, there were six students in general: one student from the Business faculty
and five students from the Technical faculty. Elisa Maijamaa, the student from
Business Faculty, helped Viljanen with some practical issues during the planning
process for Business Plan Competition. While the other five IT students were in
charge of testing connections such as Skype connections, Adobe
 66

connections prior to and during Business Plan Competition, five IT students got
involved in the planning process due to the school project. Heikki Paananen,
lecturer of Lahti University of Applied Sciences, was the one who supervised the
school project and advised the IT students what and how to carry out all the
assigned tasks. Last but not least, Joonas Jämsen was also the one that represented
the IT department during the planning process. (Viljanen, 2014)

Not only are both staff and teacher fully involved in this project but students also
get to be part of the project team as well. The process of selecting students
initiated in the beginning of November. Three main students were selected to be
involved in the project: Thuy Ngoc Dinh, Phat Vi Do and Sirpa Inkinen. Three
students have studied at Lahti University of Applied Sciences majoring in
International Business. However, there will be more students at the conference
in order to assist one another. According to Laura Montonen, she argues that the
number of students involved in the project should not in exceed six (6), and three
(3) students would be viable as well. Besides two selected students, the first idea
was that the rest of the students would be chosen by Pirjo Haverinen, who is the
lecturer of a course called “Messu-ja tapahtumamarkkinointi” (in English: Fair
and Event Management). Students from that course will work with the two
selected students in order to reduce the amount of work as well as assist each
other at the conference. However, none of the students from that course will
be able to attend the conference. (Meetings with NIBS Team, 2014)

Regarding the technique, the International NIBS conference in Lahti needs the
assistance of IT students as well in case the presenters allow participants to
record or film their presentations.
 67

TABLE 6. Conference staff and tasks

Staff Tasks

Linnea Sulkanen The board member of NIBS who keeps

contact with NIBS on behalf of Lahti
Senior Lecturer and NIBS Boad
University of Applied Sciences
Members

Bret Fifield

Project manager
Principal Lecturer and The Chair of
The Conference

Laura Montonen
Dealing with all practical arrangements
Administrative Coordinator and such as dinners, activities
General Secretary of the Conference

Anu Suomäki
Working with Laura Montonen to make
Dean’s Assistant and General Secretary sure everything work and be under control
of the Conference

Marja Viljanen Responsible for organizing the Business

Plan Competition
Lecturer of Lahti University of Applied
Sciences ICT arrangements during the Conference

6 students (1 business student + 5 IT Assisting Marja Viljanen with the process

students) of planning “Business Plan Competition”

Heikki Paananen

Supervising five IT students

Lecturer of Lahti University of Applied
Sciences

Joonas Jämsen IT-department representer

3 students from Business Faculty Assisting the NIBS project team

 68

Each of the involved staff needs to prepare the hour-working sheet. Laura
Montonen and Anu Suomäki each had spent 300 working hours on the whole
planning process. According to Linnea Sulkanen, she stated that she had spent
130 hours on the project (Sulkanen, 2014). Marja Viljanen had estimated that she
had used approximately 80 hours for the Business Plan Competition’s planning
(Viljanen, 2014). Five IT students had spent approximately 130 hours on the
Business Plan Competition’s planning process. Besides five IT-students, there
were also three students from the Business Faculty spending around 200 hours
assisting other project staff members with the process of planning the whole
Conference (Montonen, 2015)

Registration

Registration form is done via www.lyyti.fi. Registration for the NIBS Conference
starts on February 14, 2014 and ends on April 27, 2014. The registration system is
managed by Laura Montonen mostly. Registration fee varies. Early bird pays 450
euros. The early bird fee is only valid until March 31, 2014, 12:00 AM (Central
European Time). After April 1, 2014, the fee will be 490 euros. Furthermore,
registration fee includes 3-day participation at the Conference together with the
additional events in the Conference Program. (Lahti University of Applied
Sciences, NIBS 2014 Conference, Registration, 2014)

In the registration regulations, cancellation policy is also well explained. All of

the participants are kindly asked to notify any changes in reservations and
cancellations by sending personal emails to the Conference email: [email protected].
It is important to note that cancellation policy varies as well depending on the day
when the notification of cancellation is received. In the event of no-shows, it is
certainly that fees are not refundable (Lahti University of Applied Sciences, NIBS
2014 Conference, Registration, 2014). According to Laura Montonen, the invoice
is also needed for the registration because some institutions pay the registration
fee for the participants (Montonen, 2014)
 69

Venue and Logistics

Venue:

The Annual International NIBS Conference in Lahti, Finland was a three-day

conference from May 21 to May 23, 2014. The NIBS Conference Program 2014
takes place at two different Campus: Niemi Campus, Fellmannia- the learning
center and library and the Auditorium of Lahti Ski Museum. (Lahti University of
Applied Sciences, NIBS Conference Program, 2014)

Having been inquired of those both chosen venues, Linnea Sulkanen argued that
there were two specific reasons why the Annual International NIBS Conference
took place at Niemi Campus and Fellmannia- the learning center and library. First
of all, guests can get to see Lahti University of Applied Sciences’ premises.
Currently, the faculty of Business Studies is located in Niemi Campus, and
Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality is in Fellmannia. Those two campuses are part
of faculty functions. Another reason is that since those places belong to Lahti
University of Applied Sciences, there was no need to pay anything for those both
venues. (Sulkanen, 2014)

The Annual International NIBS Conference Program 2014 will be attached to this
thesis so that readers will get to know more the program.

TABLE 7. The Annual International NIBS Conference 2014’s venues

Day Venue

May 21, 2014 Niemi Campus, Niemenkatu 73, Lahti

May 22, 2014 Fellmannia-the learning center and library,

Kirkkokatu 27, Lahti

May 23, 2014 Lahti Ski Museum, Salpausselänkatu 8,

Lahti
 70

Logistics:

Logistics is taken into consideration thoroughly in order to make sure that

participants will not have to spend a lot of time looking for those revenues.
Those who registered for the Conference will be provided transportation from
their own hotels to those three venues. (Montonen, 2014)

More specifically, on the very first day of the Conference, participants would be
transported from their hotel to the Niemi Campus and back. In the evening,
transportation was also available for some additional Conference programs, such
as buses from participants’ hotels to the restaurant Myllysaari and back to the
hotels. Regarding the second day of the Conference, all of the participants would
get to the Conference Dinner taken place at Restaurant Hollolan Hirvi (Hollola
Elk). On the last day of the Conference, the transportation was provided from
the harbor to the hotels. (Montonen and Lahti University of Applied Sciences,
NIBS Conference Program 2014, 2014)

Accommodation

The attendees are kindly asked to make reservations by themselves by contacting

the desired hotel directly. There are four main hotels that offer special rates for
the International NIBS Conference in Lahti: Hotel Cumulus Lahti, Sokos Hotel
Lahden Seurahuone, Scandic Lahti and Hotel Kauppahotelli Grand. Depending on
the location of the hotel, the offer rates vary (Lahti University of Applied
Sciences, Special NIBS Conference rates for accommodation, 2014)

TABLE 8. Special NIBS Conference rates for accommodation (LUAS, Special

NIBS Conference rate for accommodation, 2014)

Hotel Single room rates Double room rates

Cumulus Lahti 100 euros per night 126 euros per night

Sokos Hotel Lahden 104 euros per night 124 euros per night
Seurahuone

Scandic Lahti 99 euros per night 119 euros per night

Hotel Kauppahotelli Grand 68 euros per night 84 euros per night

 71

Catering services

There are no free meals offered to participants during the Annual International
NIBS Conference 2014 because all of the meal costs were covered by
participants’ fees (Montonen, 2014). The following table includes all of the meals
during a three-day Conference in Lahti, Finland.

TABLE 9. Meals during a three-day Conference (LUAS, NIBS

Conference Program 2014, 2014)

Day Meals Location

- Campus Restaurant
May 21, 2014 - Lunch Kokka, the Niemi
Campus
- Finnish Experience - Restaurant Myllysaari,
Lahti

- Lunch - Fellmannia Restaurant,

May 22, 2014 Fellmannia
- Restaurant Hollolan
- Conference Dinner Hirvi (Holla Elk)

May 23, 2014 - Cruise on lake

- Lunch Cruise
Vesijärvi
One coffee break was sponsored by Satakunta University of Applied Sciences
(Sulkanen, 2014). Additionally, snacks, coffee, tea and fresh refreshment
were also offered during the Conference.

Keynote speakers

As mentioned before, keynote speakers play an essential role in one conference.

There were four main keynote speakers in the Annual International NIBS
Conference 2014 in Lahti: Nina Harjula, Pirjo Karhu, Irmeli Ollila and Bruce
J.Oreck. Nina Harjula is Lahti Region Development LADEC Ltd, Head of
Development, Cleantech. Besides, Ms Harjula is also a co-founder and board
member of the Global Cleantech Cluster Association (GCCA). The second
speaker in Pirjo Karhu is Centre d’ Expertise Ltd, Russina business advisor and
coach. Ms Karhu has had over 30-year experience as an entrepreneur and a leader,
and 20 years of which in Russia. Another important keynote speaker is Bruce
 72

J.Oreck, who is the U.S. Ambassador to Finland. Mr J.Oreck is the author of

several books on taxation and has been regarded as a successful speaker and
lecturer on topics ranging from taxation and process of creative thinking. Last but
not least, Irmeli Ollila, who is the senior advisor at Finpro, was substituted for
Eeva Nuutinen at the NIBS Conference. (Lahti University of Applied Sciences,
NIBS 2014 Conference, Programme, Meet the speakers, 2014 & Montonen, 2014)

Equipment and technical issues

Each room in those three venues has equipment for presentations such as
computers, laptops, tablets, projector etc. Before the Conference days, technical
problems had been examined beforehand. All of the connection was tested
several times. The IT students and IT-personnel were also engaged in the
connection testing in order that most of the technical problems could be avoided.
Nevertheless, should there be any technical problems during the Conference, both
IT-students and IT- personnel would be available to help to sort out the problems.
(Montonen, 2014)

The following checklist points out things that needed checking thoroughly
before the Conference (IT students, 2014):

TABLE 10. IT Checklist before the Conference

Tasks Expected duration

Getting familiar with conference venues 2 hours/place

Checking that venues have all the needed IT 1 hours/place

equipment

Collecting presentations before the Conference

and making sure which software presenter is
going to use

Testing rooms’ equipment before the Conference 2 hours/place

 73

During the business plan competition, making sure 5 minutes/team

that video conference software is working
properly

Checking which video conferencing software needs 0.5 hours

to work (plugins, flash, etc.)

Creating a guide for participants what they need to 0.5 – 1 hour

get everything worked (what has to be installed
and which equipment they need)

Testing the video conference calls with every final 1.5 -2 hours
team at least twice before the competition

Production Schedule

In order to keep track on the status of the planning process, meetings were
usually hold at either the premise of Niemi Campus or at the office of Lahti
Region Educational Consortium. The meeting’s venue were usually discussed
and agreed by all of the NIBS project team members. At those meetings,
agendas would be gone through and reviewed, i.e. program changes, keynote
speakers, catering services etc. Additionally, memos should be kept carefully
in order that the team would get to know which issues have been gone
through and which issues should be worked on.

There are usually four main members in the meeting and three members of the
student team. Each meeting lasted one hour or two depending on what issues
or topics should be gone through.

Furthermore, project members were asked to mark down their working hours
in the Excel sheet in order that they could go through what was done and
what was left undone. For students, the working hour sheet was necessary
because they could transfer those working hours to credit points. Apart from
that, students could have a general look at the learning process, for instance,
what they did for the Conference as well as how they improved their
interpersonal skills.
 74

Safety and Security

Albeit safety and security was examined thoroughly in the theoretical part, it
was not gone through carefully in the empirical part. The Annual International
NIBS Conference took place at the event organizer’s premises, therefore, all
of the safety and security matters have been already arranged beforehand.

Safety and security should not be underestimated in any circumstances when

event organizers and event managers plan on organizing any events. During
the Annual NIBS Conference 2014 in Lahti, Finland, the whole project team
did not need to work very much on the safety and security plan because the
Conference itself took place at Lahti University of Applied Sciences’ own
premises. As a matter of fact, it means that safety plans have been already
formulated in each premise of LUAS (Montonen, 2014).

Furthermore, according to Laura Montonen, in an event of emergency and

personal sickness or injuries, each participant is expected to carry a valid
travel insurance. Avalid travel insurance should cover personal
emergency, sickness and injuries. (Montonen, 2014)

Risk management

During the Annual NIBS Conference 2014 in Lahti, Finland, the project team
paid more attention and place great importance on financial risks. Financial
risks would be frequently brought up at the project team’s meetings.
However, in addition to financial risks, other risks were also taken into
consideration. Laura Montonen pointed out one good example, “What if some
keynote speakers will cancel at a late moment?” (Montonen, 2014)
 75

Marketing plan

Marketing plan concerns about the process of organizing and preparing for the
Conference and implementing the Conference

Organizing and Preparing for the Conference:

In order to make the Conference become known, marketing letters were prepared
and sent to different member institutions and other non-member institutions. More
specifically, marketing letters were sent to Federation of University of Applied
Sciences partners including Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Hämeenlinna
University of Applied Sciences. Additionally, in order to tighten connection
amongst universities of applied sciences in Finland, marketing letters were also
sent out to all of the universities of applied sciences in Finland. Apart from that, it
is inevitable that all of the NIBS member institutions were also cordially invited
to the Annual International NIBS Conference 2014 as well. (Meetings with the
NIBS Team, 2014)

Moreover, in order to give out more information about the Annual NIBS
Conference 2014 in Lahti Finland, all of the information was up-to-date on a
regular basis so that participants could find out more about the Conference itself
together with the city of Lahti. Two primary websites were www.lamk.fi/nibs
and www.nibsweb.org

Implementing the Conference:

After all of the necessary plans were made, it is of utmost importance to put
everything into practice. Before the official Conference days, all of the NIBS
member went through everything thoroughly once again and made the checklist to
make sure that everything was available for those Conference days. During the
Conference days, it is crucial that all of the main project members should be
available in order to guide participants and provide them with further information if
needed. Moreover, all of the IT students were there as well to assist participants to
use all of the equipment available in the room if he or she needed to give a
presentation. Time-management was also taken into consideration in
 76

accordance with the NIBS Conference Program 2014 so that all of the
participants would have a chance to network and to get to know the city.

5.2.3 After the NIBS Conference

After the Conference, it is vital to collect feedback and evaluate the whole
Conference through “Evaluation and Feedback”. Subsequently, feedback
should be kept carefully for other conferences in the future.

How the feedback form was designed

The feedback form was created because of the request of the NIBS Project team.
The author was assigned to create the feedback form. With the hope of learning
more about survey and feedback design, the author agreed to create the feedback
form for the Annual International NIBS Conference. With the support of Riku
Nummikoski – lecturer of Lahti University of Applied Sciences as well as some
comments from the NIBS Project team members, the author was able to find out
appropriate layout together with questions for the feedback form. There were nine
questions in total in the feedback form. The feedback form’s questions were
formulated based on the theoretical part, the NIBS Conference’s program as well
as the wish of the NIBS Project team.

Evaluation and Feedback

Feedback form was prepared by the author through the official website called
www.webropolsurveys.com. Feedback form should be ready beforehand.
Feedback form should include some questions about the International NIBS
Conference in Lahti concerning the registration process, the practical
arrangements, program etc. There were nine questions in the feedback form.
Three main categories: Practical Information, Additional Conference Program
and Overall Experience.

Feedback form the Annual International NIBS Conference 2014 aimed at

enhancing the performance of the Conference organizing. Furthermore, the
feedback form provided further valuable information for the NIBS organization.
 77

The feedback form for the Annual International NIBS Conference 2014 in
Lahti, Finland will be attached to this thesis as well in chapter Appendix.
Average point’s scale is from 0 to 4 in which number zero (0) is rated “poor”
and number four (4) is rated “excellent”. Bar charts with average points are
described as follows:

4,00

3,50

3,00

2,50

2,00

1,50

1,00

0,50

0,00

FIGURE 16. Average points for practical information

Practical Information includes registration process, all of the information on the

website, the information provided by the staff during the Conference, the
Conference staff, transportation, the facilities in Niemi and the facilities in
Fellmannia. Of all, The Conference staff and transportation were respectively
rated 3.90 and 3.93, which are excellent. The least rated part is “all of the
information on the website” of which the average grade was 3.27, which means
that the website needs to be paid more attention and be filled with more detailed
information.
 78

4,00

3,50

3,00

2,50

2,00

1,50

1,00

0,50

0,00
Case Writing Business Plan Panel Parallel the NIBS The Corporate
Workshop Competition Discussion: Sessions Annual General Visit
Business in Meeting
Russia

FIGURE 17. Average points for Conference Program

This figure points out average points for conference program. Conference
program consists of case writing workshop, business plan competition, panel
discussion: Business in Russia, parallel sessions, the NIBS annual general meeting
as well as the corporate visit. According to guests and visitors, business plan
competition was rated the most interesting part with the average point of 3.43. The
second interesting part was the corporate visit with the average point of 3.26.
However, since the parallel sessions were quite new, therefore, it was rated least
interesting with the average point of 3.00
 79

4,00

3,50

3,00

2,50

2,00

1,50

1,00

0,50

0,00
Bruce Oreck Nina Harjula Irmeli Ollila Pirjo Karhu

FIGURE 18. Average points for keynote speakers

This bar chart revealed the average points for keynote speakers. Four keynote
speakers were invited to the Annual International NIBS Conference in Lahti,
Finland. They were Bruce Oreck, Nina Harjula, Irmeli Ollila and Pirjo Karhu.
Guests and visitors took their interests in Bruce Oreck’s speeches and topics
and rated him with the average point of 3.44. The least interesting speaker was
Pirjo Karhu with the average point of 2.48.
 80

4,00

3,50

3,00

2,50

2,00

1,50

1,00

0,50

0,00
Cocktails in Lahti City Finnish Experience in Conference Dinner in Cruise on Vesijärvi
Hall Myllysaari Hollolan Hirvi

FIGURE 19. Average points of additional conference events

Additional conference events were added to the Annual International NIBS

Conference 2014 in order that international guests and visitors got to know the
Finnish culture. Cocktails in Lahti City Hall, Finnish experience in Myllysaari,
Conference dinner in Hollolan Hirvi and Cruise on Vesijärvi. Of all, “Conference
dinner in Hollolan Hirvi” was rated the most excellent with the average grade of
3.82 followed by “Cruise on Vesijärvi” with the average point of 3.85.
Nevertheless, “Cocktails in Lahti City Hall” was the least interesting part with
the average grade of 3.15.
 81

4,0

3,5

3,0

2,5

2,0

1,5

1,0

0,5

0,0
Lunches at Niemi Lunches at Restaurant Restaurant Lunch Cruise on
campus Fellmania Myllysaari Hollolan Hirvi Lake Vesijärvi
(Hollola Elk)

FIGURE 20. Average points for Catering Services

Regarding catering services, there were lunches at Niemi campus, lunches at

Fellmannia, dinner at restaurant Myllysaari, dinner at restaurant Hollolan Hirvi
and lunch on Vesijärvi cruise. Both dinner at restaurant Hollolan Hirvi and lunch
on Vesijärvi cruise were rated excellent with the average point of 3.6 and 3.7
respectively. Lunches at Fellmannia was least rated with the average point of 3.1.

Overall, the Conference was well-organized, and all the average points for each
section were calculated thoroughly and properly. Additionally, the result would be
sent to the NIBS Board for records for further analyses.

Record

The feedback was collected and analyzed thoroughly. Average points for each
question were calculated automatically by the website
www.webropolsurveys.com. Furthermore, the average points directed event
managers and event coordinators to indicate which parts of the Conference
should be improved and which parts of the Conference should be enhanced.
Feedback result was also sent to NIBS in order to evaluate how the Annual
International NIBS Conference was organized in Lahti, Finland for the first time.
 82

6 CONCLUSION

The conclusion chapter will finalize what has been written in this thesis by
giving brief answers to each sub-research questions. In order to find the answers
to each sub-research questions, the author has collected different sources, for
instance, books, e-sources, etc. In this chapter, reliability, validity and further
research will also be discussed.

What is the definition of events/conferences?

In order to answer this question, sources from published books and electric
sources were utilized to find answers to the above question. Events are generally
considered a public gathering with different purposes based on goals and
objectives set by event organizers and coordinators. Conferences are also one
type of events. Conferences are defined as a meeting place where there are certain
numbers of guests, visitors and speakers in order to discuss certain topics.

What factors should be taken into consideration before/during/after one

event/conference?

There are plenty of factors that have quite an impact on the success of the event or
conference such as risk management, financial situation, budget planning,
staffing, venue and logistics. It is always advisable and indispensable to take those
factors into consideration such as prior to, during and after the event. All of the
factors are correlated, which means that event managers and event coordinators
should not underestimate any factors under any circumstances. An overview of
the process between different stages is highly indispensable. Furthermore, it is
also vital to pay attention to every single factor because they may be
interconnected to one another. In other words, they are interdependent. Skilled
event managers and event co-ordinators should not underestimate any factors
before/during/after the event or conference.

With respect to the Annual International NIBS Conference, all of the team members
had monthly meetings to have a follow-up and check on the whole process.
Financial management was highly emphasized in almost every meeting. Moreover,
program and registration process were well-taken care of. Because the Annual
International NIBS Conference took place at Lahti University of Applied
 83

Sciences’ premises, safety and security management was not fully stressed.
Marketing plan was also carried out during the process of organizing the
Annual International NIBS Conference. However, the design of the website
should have been more attractive by adding more photos and information.

After the event, feedback played a vital role in the evaluation process for the
NIBS project team. The result was kept, archived and sent to the NIBS Board
Members. In this case, the author did not have a chance to participate in the
feedback session, therefore, the lack of information of the evaluation process
is inevitable.

What are potential risks to an event/conference? How can we mitigate them?

Under no circumstances should potential risks be underestimated because they

have a huge impact on the success of the event. Risks should be evaluated during
the entire event planning process. Depending on the nature and purpose of
events, types of risks do vary from one event to another. Risk management is
highly emphasized in the theoretical part, however, it is less mentioned in the
empirical part because the Annual International NIBS Conference took place at
Lahti University of Applied Sciences’ premises. Therefore, there were not so
many potential risks. As mentioned above, financial risks were of great concern
(Montonen, 2014 and Sulkanen 2014). Nevertheless, in the future, provided that
the Conference happens somewhere else other than the institution’s premises,
appropriate risk management should be thoroughly carried out.

Feedback also plays a vital role in providing information for event managers and
event coordinators in order to formulate better planning process in the future.
Moreover, feedback from guests and visitors can give a general picture of how
events were organized, and which potential risks could bring out the negative
effects on the planning process. Eventually, feedback should be well-analyzed and
kept for the future use. For the Annual NIBS Conference in Lahti, Finland, the
feedback form was created with nine questions concerning practical information,
conference program and overall. With respect to conference program, there were
some sub-sections about Conference program, keynote speakers, additional
conference program and catering service. The result of the feedback was kept and
sent to NIBS Board Members for archival purposes. Additionally, the feedback
form also cast a light on whether the Conference was well organized or not.
 84

Which sources of information should be collected for the evaluation process

and for record?

The evaluation process also belongs to the event planning process. Therefore, it
should be taken into consideration. Additionally, what sources of information
collected for the evaluation also plays an important role in facilitating the
evaluation process such as visitors’ impressions, qualitative data and quantitative
data. During the evaluation process, event managers and event coordinators
should go through the whole process and figure out which aspects of an event
are well-organized and which aspects of an event needs further information and
improvement.

In the NIBS Conference organized in Lahti, Finland, some sources concerning

practical information, catering servicesm, keynote speakers, conference program
as well as marketing plan were collected for the evaluation process. However,
visitors’ impressions should be part of the evaluation process as well. Since the
author did not attend some evening events, the lack of information was inevitable.
Therefore, the author suggests that the prospective organizers should pay attention
to visitors’ impressions as well in the next Conference.

6.1 Validity and Reliability

First of all, regarding validity, this thesis has aimed at finding out proper answers
to research questions. Theoretical and empirical parts were included in this thesis.
Regarding the theoretical part, all of the sources for this part were collected from
both from published and from electric resources. The published references are
trustworthy sources because they were published or edited in the 2000’s.
Additionally, electric sources came from Internet and trusted websites.
Furthermore, about the empirical part, since the author got involved in the
project, he attended some meetings organized by the project team, once or twice a
month from November 2013 to May 2014. During those meetings, notes were
kept for future use. Additionally, in order to collect some further information, the
author himself interviewed two members of the project team: Laura Montonen -
the administrative coordinator and general secretary of the Conference and
Linnea Sulkanen - NIBS Board Member and Senior Lecturer at Lahti University
of Applied Sciences. During the interviews, the author also took note while
interviewing Laura Montonen on February 19, 2014. On April 22, 2014, the
 85

author had a chance to interview Linnea Sulkanen, and the interview was also
recorded. During the thesis process, since the supervisor – Marja Viljanen- also
got herself involved in the planning process of the Business Plan Competition,
Viljanen and the author also set up some meeting dates, at least once a month in
order that both of the parties went through the whole process as well as checking
the information thoroughly. As a result, this thesis is regarded as valid.

Second of all, in regard to reliability, the author interviewed two project team
members who have had experience in event organization. Therefore, those ideas may
vary a lot because the interviewees have had experiences at organizing events.
Additionally, the author did not have a chance to attend all of the meetings organized
by the project team. As a result of it, he would miss some sources of information.
What’s more, this thesis acts as an event manual for Network of International
Business Schools, which means that the planning process varies from one institution
to another. Consequently, this thesis is relatively reliable.

6.2 Further research

Since this thesis acts as an event manual, it is also important to work on the
program within the event. With regard to the Annual International NIBS
Conference in Lahti, Finland from May 21-23, 2014, it would be best if the
project team could try not to formulate a tight program where guests and visitors
had to be in a hurry all the time.

Additionally, with respect to marketing aspects, the website needs to be taken into
consideration as well. The author noticed that there were some spelling mistakes
in the website of www.lamk.fi/nibs. It would have been better if there had been
some photos in the website. It does not draw attention to readers if the website is
full of text. Therefore, further research should focus on improving the quality of
the website as well as a less tight program

Moreover, it is indispensable to thoroughly plan what if one of the keynote

speakers cancel in the very last minute, or in the worst case one of the activities in
the program needs to be removed during the Conference day. Viable solutions
should be taken into consideration in case of emergency and last-minute
cancelation. Risk management was not carefully-planned in the Conference’s
planning process. Therefore, risk management should be studied more thoroughly.
 86

Last but not least, a study on visitors’ impressions should also be examined. It is due
to the fact that the author did not attend some evening programs, so he could not do
research on visitors’ impressions. Visitors’ impressions are interesting aspects
because it reveals the better possibility of evaluating the Conference itself.
 87

7 SUMMARY

This thesis has aimed at giving a general picture of how the Annual International
NIBS Conference 2014 in Lahti, Finland was organized for the very first time. In
order to support the understanding of the practical event planning process,
theories were also included in this thesis. Theories were meant to link with the
empirical part. The author got involved in the project “The Annual International
NIBS Conference 2014 in Lahti, Finland”.

This thesis can be divided into three main important parts: Introduction, Theories
and Case-study. In the “Introduction Chapter”, the author initiated with the
background to the thesis. In additional to that, objectives and research questions
were also described and explained in order that readers could easily follow what
this thesis was about and what this thesis aimed at. Additionally, scope and
limitations were also discussed to indicate what would not be included in the
thesis itself. Limitations guided readers to focus on some certain aspects because
the author wanted to pay attention to the most essential parts. The theoretical
framework revealed what sources would be used for the theories. Apart from
that, research method and data collection were also included in the Introduction
chapter. The thesis structure can be found in this chapter as well.

Chapter two, three and four centered on theories related to events and
conferences. Chapter two revolved around theories related to events such as
definition of event, typologies of events, characteristics of events and the event
manual. On the other hand, chapter four concentrated on conferences, where
definition of conferences, conferences’ purposes and types of conferences were
discussed. Additionally, in chapter four, the entire event planning process was
discussed. The timeline played an important role in the success of the whole
process. In order to make it easy for readers to follow, “prior to event
planning”, “during event planning” and “after the event” were three sub-
chapters in chapter four.

The empirical part can be found in chapter five in which the case study of the
Annual International NIBS Conference was examined. NIBS is the short form of
the Network of International Business Schools. It is a useful educational playground
for all of the international business schools all over the world. Once an institution
has joined NIBS, it receives certain benefits. On May 21, 2014, the
 88

Annual International NIBS Conference took place in Lahti, Finland for the first
time. Lahti University of Applied Sciences had the honor to organize the event.
The author was selected for the project, and he collected information through
meetings, emails, observations and interviews. The feedback form for the Annual
International NIBS Conference was also prepared by the author via
www.webropolsurveys.com. The report on the survey was automatically done by
www.webropolsurveys.com. In order to get the information on whether the
Annual International NIBS Conference was successfully organized or not, average
scores were also calculated and sent to Linnea Sulkanen. Generally, the Annual
International NIBS Conference in Lahti, Finland was a success because most of
the guests and visitors were quite satisfied with all the arrangements and the
program itself. Nevertheless, it is significant that the Conference’s orgnaizers
should pay more attention to time-management (not so tight program) and the
marketing aspects of the Conference (website design, photos and text). Apart from
that, it is vital that NIBS organizers should take notice of more appropriate risk
management in the future, even though risk management was not officially carried
out during the Annual International NIBS Conference in Lahti, Finland. However,
risk management should be carefully planned and carried out when the
Conference happens somewhere else other than the university’s premises in the
future. Subsequently, the report of average points was sent to NIBS Board for
further evaluation. The report was also attached to this thesis.
 89

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Der Wagen, Lynn. 2001. Event Management: For tourism, cultural, business
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Getz. 2007. Event Studies: Theory, research and policy for planned events.
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Raj, Walters & Rashid. 2009. Events Management. London: Sage

Shone & Parry. 2004. Successful Event Management: A Practical Handbook.

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Reasoning [referenced: 15 March 2014]. Available in www-form:
http://sociology.about.com/od/Research/a/Deductive-Reasoning-Versus-
Inductive-Reasoning.htm

Economic Times, The, 2014, Definition “Marketing Mix” [referenced: 24

March 2014]. Available in www-form:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/marketing-mix

Lahti University of Applied Sciences, 2014a, NIBS Conference 2014

[referenced: 15 March 2014]. Available in www-form:
http://www.lamk.fi/nibs/Sivut/default.aspx

Lahti University of Applied Sciences, 2014b, Special NIBS Conference rates

for accommodation, [referenced: 26 August 2014]. Available in www-form:
http://www.lamk.fi/nibs/info/Documents/fixed%20room%20rates%20and%2
0duedates%20NIBS.pdf

Lahti University of Applied Sciences, NIBS Conference Programme 2014c :

May 21-23, 2014, Lahti, Finland, [referenced: 26 August 2014]. Available in
www-form: http://www.lamk.fi/nibs/programme/Documents/Programme.pdf

Network of International Business Schools, 2014, Network of

International Business Schools [referenced: 15 March 2014). Available in
www-form: http://www.nibsweb.org/about.html
 91

Oral References

Montonen, Laura,, 2014, administrative coordinator, Lahti University

of Applied Sciences, Interview 19 February 2014

Sulkanen, Linnea,, 2014, member of NIBS Boards of Directors and the senior
lecturer of Marketing at Lahti University of Applied Sciences, Lahti
University of Applied Sciences, Interview 22 April 2014

Email References

Montonen, Laura,, 2014 [Would you specify where the finance for organizing
this Conference comes from? How are you going to handle the situation if there
are any extra costs? How many participants are there at the moment?]. [Would
you please tell me about the marketing process of this Conference? Who is your
main target group? How have you spread the information about the Conference to
the LAMK students?]. Recipient Phat Vi Do. Sent 28 April, 2014 [referenced: 26
August, 2014]

Sulkanen, Linnea,, 2014a. [Would you please specify if there are any specific
reasons why you had chosen Fellmannia and Niemi for the Annual International
NIBS Conference?]. Recipient Phat Vi Do. Sent 3 June, 2014 [referenced: 26
August 2014].

Sulkanen, Linnea, 2014b. [What could be the objectives of the Annual

International NIBS Conference 2014 in Lahti? What did Lahti University of
Applied Sciences learn from the entire planning process for this Conference?].
Recipient Phat Vi Do. Sent 26 June, 2014 [referenced: 26 August 2014]
APPENDICES

APPENDIX 1. Feedback from for the annual international NIBS

Conference 2014 in Lahti, Finland

Feedback for the international NIBS Conference 2014

Lahti University of Applied Science, Faculty of Business Studies together

with Network of International Business Schools arranged the NIBS
Conference 2014.

I. Practical Information

1. How would you rate

I did not
Excellent Good Average Poor
attend

Registration process

All of the information on the

website
The information provided by
the staff during the
Conference

The Conference staff

Transportation

The facilities in Niemi

The facilities in Fellmannia

II. Conference Programme

a) Programme

2. How would you rate

I did not
Excellent Good Average Poor
attend

Case Writing Workshop

Business Plan
Competition
Panel Discussion:
Business in Russia

Parallel Sessions

the NIBS Annual General

Meeting

The Corporate Visit

b) Keynote Speakers

3. How would you rate these following keynote speakers

Excellent Good Average Poor I did not attend

Bruce Oreck

Nina Harjula

Irmeli Ollila

Pirjo Karhu

c) Additional Conference Events

4. How would you rate overall experience

I did not
Excellent Good Average Poor
attend

Cocktails in Lahti City

Hall

Finnish Experience in
Myllysaari

Conference Dinner in
Hollolan Hirvi

Cruise on Vesijärvi

d) Catering Services

5. How would you rate the food

I did not
Excellent Good Average Poor
attend

Lunches at Niemi campus

Lunches at Fellmania
Restaurant Myllysaari

Restaurant Hollolan Hirvi

(Hollola Elk)

Lunch Cruise on Lake

Vesijärvi

III. Overall

6. Did the Conference fullfil your reason for attending?

Yes

No

Comments

________________________________

7. How did you find out about the Conference?

From your school

Conference's website
 Advertisements

Brochures

NIBS Members

Others. Please specify:

________________________________

8. Do you think the registration fee was reasonable?

Yes

No

If not. Please specify the reason why and you could also suggest
the reasonable price for attending the Conference

________________________________

9. Would you please tell us what should have done differently

and better to improve the Conference? We value your comments
for improving our performances next time

________________________________________________________
________
 ________________________________________________________
________

________________________________________________________
________

APPENDIX 2. Interview Form

INTERVIEW FORM

Date:

Interviewer: Do Vi Phat

Interviewee:

Location:

Questions:

1. Why has NIBS chosen Lahti to organize the International

NIBS Conference
2. General process for selecting the project team for the International
NIBS Conference.
3. Objectives? Purposes of the International NIBS Conference?
4. Who is going to be in charge of financial plan, operational plan
(equipment, resources, logistics) and marketing plan?
APPENDIX 3. Questions for the interview with Linnea Sulkanen

INTERVIEW FOR THESIS

1. What can LAMK learn from organizing and managing in International

NIBS Conference (learning process)?
2. Before LAM has decided to hold the International NIBS Conference,
did you make the event proposal to show it to the main Director of
LAMK (Outi)?
3. Where does the financial support come from? What happens if there are
some extra costs? What happens if this Conference does not bring
about the profitability at all?
4. What kind of equipment is needed in the Conference? Do you take into
consideration alternative suppliers? What happens if there are
technical problems on the day the Conference takes place?
5. Do you have any sponsors?
6. What are LAMK’s available resources for this Conference?
7. Logistics? Transport? Which bus company will take students from hotel to
the venue?
8. Regarding catering services, how many free meals are offered?
9. Regarding drink services, how many free coffee/drinks are offered?
10. What are safety and security management for the Conference? Emergency
management?
11. How is the risk management conducted in the International
NIBS Conference?

APPENDIX 4. Feedback Report

I. Practical Information
 I did
Excellent Good Average Poor not Total Average (2)
attend

Registration process 15 10 3 0 2 30 3.43

All of the information on

14 12 3 1 0 30 3.27
the website

The information
provided by the staff 25 4 1 0 0 30 3.80
during the Conference

The Conference staff 27 3 0 0 0 30 3.90

Transportation 26 2 0 0 1 29 3.93

The facilities in Niemi 16 8 0 0 4 28 3.67

The facilities in
19 7 1 0 1 28 3.67
Fellmannia

Total 142 46 8 1 8 205 3.67

II. Conference Programme

a) Programme

I did not
Excellent Good Average Poor Total Average (2)
attend

Case Writing
7 14 3 0 5 29 3.17
Workshop

Business Plan
11 11 1 0 6 29 3.43
Competition

Panel
Discussion:
8 11 5 1 3 28 3.04
Business in
Russia
Parallel Sessions 6 12 4 1 5 28 3.00

the NIBS Annual

6 12 3 0 6 27 3.14
General Meeting

The Corporate
8 13 2 0 3 26 3.26
Visit

Total 46 73 18 2 28 167 3.17

b) Keynote Speakers

I did not
Excellent Good Average Poor Total Average (2)
attend

Bruce Oreck 15 9 3 0 3 30 3.44

Nina Harjula 9 12 3 1 3 28 3.16

Irmeli Ollila 5 6 14 1 4 30 2.58

Pirjo Karhu 4 8 9 4 2 27 2.48

Total 33 35 29 6 12 115 2.92

I did not
Excellent Good Average Poor Total Average (2)
attend

Cocktails in
7 16 3 0 3 29 3.15
Lahti City Hall

Finnish
Experience in 19 5 1 0 4 29 3.72
Myllysaari
Conference
Dinner in 24 3 1 0 1 29 3.82
Hollolan Hirvi

Cruise on
24 2 0 0 3 29 3.85
Vesijärvi

Total 74 26 5 0 11 116 3.64

I did not
Excellent Good Average Poor Total Average (2)
attend

Lunches at Niemi
8 14 2 0 4 28 3.3
campus

Lunches at Fellmania 9 13 5 0 1 28 3.1

Restaurant Myllysaari 14 9 1 0 3 27 3.5

Restaurant Hollolan
17 8 2 0 2 29 3.6
Hirvi (Hollola Elk)

Lunch Cruise on
18 5 1 0 3 27 3.7
Lake Vesijärvi

Total 66 49 11 0 13 139 3.4

c) Additional Conferene Programs

d) Catering Services

APPENDIX 5. Updated Conference Program

Please refer to the following link:
http://www.lamk.fi/nibs/programme/Documents/Programme.pdf