PEV202 Events Operations Management Spring 2017 GSM-LONDON

The event being a film festival will definitely host a large group of people who have to be controlled and monitored with best in class security (Conway, 2014). The Royal Parks charity considers the protection and safeguarding of individuals who are a part of the event they are hosting at the venue. The correct choice of venue is a very important feature that has to be addressed by the events planning company so that any sort of inconvenience doesn't bother both the audience and the participants of events.

Target audience: The target audience are the potential customers who are going to be part of event in some form or the other. For example, the film festival generally has two sets of an audience: one belongs to the group of artists that are a part of the film industry while the other group is fans and normal visitors. Classic Entertainment Productions has to arrange the amenities according to the convenience of both these groups. If target audience is happy and satisfied with all the arrangements then, it can be said that the event has been successful. This factor is one of the critical factors which contribute to successful functioning of an event (Adina and Ramona, 2013). Moreover, it is important for both organizers and the host parties to look after the fact that any sort of abuse or harm doesn't take place during the course of event.

Accessibility: The ease of access or mobility is also an important factor that contributes to the success of an event. Being a fund raiser event, which is to be held for 3 days, event planners have to make sure that at-most accessibility is provided to customers and visitors. The audience should be able to reach the venue without any inconvenience (Getz and Page, 2016). Classic Entertainment Productions had opted for Greenwich Fields as the venue for this film festival because of its accessibility. The venue is open from morning 6 am to 8 o'clock in the evening. This provides a plenty of time for organizing different events and planning the activities accordingly.

All these factors are significant for making a decision regarding the choice of venue and planning of activities (Carteni, A. and De Luca, 2012). The event organisers have to plan accordingly by keeping the demands and needs of visiting the audience in preference. Greenwich Park is one of the prime locations which will be helpful in raising large amount of funds for the respective charity through the film festival.

B) Event Operations Plan

Strategies are required for effectively implementing or executing different business activities. Event planning is a complex process and there are various issues which are related with organising of a social gathering (She, Tong and Chen, 2015). When a strategy or operational plan is devised, the solutions to these corporate issues can be acquired quickly. Following details help in understanding the various operational issues which can be experienced by Classic Entertainment Productions when organising the 3-day film festival.

Licensing and legal issues: Every event which is to be planned and organised requires legal considerations. Written contracts and various licenses have to be acquired by the respective company before taking any decision so that legal complications can be avoided (Urmy, Sexton and Curtis, 2015). Amongst the different types of permits and licenses, the most common and popular one is for serving alcohol, permission for noise levels, public liability insurance, etc. These licenses and permits help in getting legal access to certain attributes. It is the prime responsibility of Classic Entertainment Productions to take necessary permissions and licenses for avoiding blockades during the event.

Risk management: The process of evaluating probable risks and threats which can hinder the functioning of event is considered as risk management (Getz, 2012). The Classic Entertainment Productions has to perform risk management at every stage of the operational plan so that proper precautionary measures can be adopted. For example, the possibilities of stampede, fire breakout, withdrawal of sponsorship, any sort of medical emergency, financial breakdown, etc. are some of the risks which prevail during the execution of event. Henceforth, it is important to create an operational plan that helps in reducing risks and threats.

Health and Safety (Crowd security control): The crowd consists of people from diverse backgrounds. Every social gathering or event is addressing a major issue of health and safety. The presence of celebrities creates a different type of excitement amongst the respective fans. This can lead to a sudden outbreak of violence or abusive activities. Hence, the event planners have to implement effective security measures and forces so that any sort of damage or loss of life is not experienced (Jones, 2014). Since this film festival is a charity event, the entire gathering must be peaceful and harmless. This can only be possible when strictly disciplined security arrangements are made. The development of checkpoints and no allowances of arms and ammunitions will help in reducing security threats to the crowd.

Supply Chain Management: An event has to have a different set of arrangements for food and catering, beverages, restrooms, emergency gateways in case of medical help, etc. The supply chain relations should be strong enough for maintaining the supplies and flow of inventory (Ziakas, 2013). Often weak supply chain management results in the delay of services to audiences which results in deterioration of the corporate image of event planners. Since the visitors that are coming to the event are potential customers for the company, Classic Entertainment Productions have to make proper arrangements in delivering effective services to the audiences.

CSR and Sustainability: Corporate social responsibility is a principle aspect that denotes that business activities or processes are arranged with a motive of community welfare and development (Fleischmann, Meyr and Wagner, 2015). The film festival is organized for raising charity. This automatically directs the company to a path where the welfare of other citizens has been thought about. Classic Entertainment Productions has to plan out the event in such a way that no negative impact is assessed by the surrounding environment or people living in nearby communities. Furthermore, sustainability can be achieved only when CSR principles are inhibited in the event operations.

Waste Management: Huge gatherings and social events have a large number of people who are eating, drinking and performing various other activities. People litter plastic bottles, waste food, throw packaging of food materials, etc. everywhere. This is totally unhygienic and takes a lot of cleaning arrangements to post the event (Wates and Thompson, 2013). This implies the overall costs of organizing and planning the event are increased. Hence, waste management has to be performed. There have to be dustbins in every possible corner of the Park with guidelines provided to audiences to throw their waste in respective places. This shall help in reducing efforts regarding waste management post-event.

The following event operational plan has been developed for Classic Entertainment Productions so that the arrangements and administration for a film festival of 3 days can be effectively performed.
Developing a vision:

• The vision of Classic Entertainment Productions is to reach a sustainable competitive advantage with the best quality services to clients and customers.
• The vision for this project or event which is to be organized for three days is to raise maximum charity from this event.

Establishing objectives: The objectives are essential in gaining a workable path. If objectives are not developed, then activities and functions which are to be planned and organized ahead will not be aligned correctly (Sieber and Tolich, 2013). The probability of unsuccessful planning increases without SMART objectives. SMART is the abbreviation used for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound. Following objectives have been designed for this film festival which needs to be attained by Classic Entertainment Productions:

• To develop a platform that will be recognized as the world's finest events.
• To design a security system that will help in controlling and monitoring the gathered crowd.
• To provide proper facilities regarding accommodation so that individuals do not suffer any sort of inconvenience.
• To implement all suppliers and establish arrangements at-least 4 days prior to the event.

Assigning roles and responsibilities: The human resource of the company has to be used effectively so that the best results in terms of productivity and profitability can be achieved. This task has to be attained by designing roles and responsibilities according to top the needs and requirements of the event (Haynes III and et. al., 2013). For example, the basic distribution of responsibilities in an event planning group is transportation, distribution, amenities, ticket collection, and distribution, etc. The event manager has to perform the role of distributing respective authorities and responsibilities to a different set of individuals. Furthermore, this stage of event planning involves the evaluation of resources which will be required at the time of the ongoing event.

Allocating financial resources:Financial resources are required at every point of time during the event planning process. The respective planning or operational manager has to distribute money and other financial resources to the functioning teams. Once, this distribution is done, the main organizing part is initiated. The candidates and workers who have been given the particular responsibilities will bring required raw materials and resources at-least 2-3 months prior to the event according to complexity stage planning.

Setting up of timelines:The timelines and deadlines are useful in meeting the objectives and goals which have been developed by organizational heads (Krumeich, Jacobi and Loos, 2014). If deadlines are not maintained then chances of delay in delivery of services increases.

• Sponsors and marketers have to be confirmed for gaining financial resources to stabilize the prepared operation plan.
• The venue has to be finalized within 1-3 weeks before the implementation of the plan.
• Equipment, devices, amenities and other resources which are required for processing or different functions have to be gathered in 1 month from the activation of an action plan.
• The last deadline for distributing tickets and entry forms should be fixed 5 days prior to the event. This will help in gauging whether individuals are interested in the event or not.

Fixing venue:The venue must be fixed according to the requirements of the client. The accommodation capacity, facilities inside the premises, accessibility towards the target audience and the cost per day are some of the elements which need to be remembered while fixing the venue (Challen and et. al., 2012). For this film festival, Greenwich Park has been selected as the venue.

Setting performance indicators:The manager has to look after the entire operations. The performance of different individuals has to be assessed and monitored so that the overall output of the activities is in accordance with set objectives and principles. Performance indicators have to be developed by the manager for evaluating and comparing the level of skills and competencies which are applied by the employees (Events: Planning and Management, 2015). Standards are also helpful in setting up benchmarks that need to be attained by the engaged personnel so that appropriate rewards and incentives can be distributed. This also helps in monitoring and supervising effectively. The company can further improve its strategic planning regarding human resource management if performances do not meet the required benchmarks.

Feedbacks/suggestions:Customers, clients, shareholders, and employees are some of the important stakeholders of the company Classic Entertainment Productions. Any sort of strategy that is applied in the functioning has some impact on these stakeholders. It is important to evaluate and address the feedback that is generated irrespective of their nature (Gaffney, 2013). This shall help in recognizing and implementing necessary changes in the strategy and planning process of events.

C) Processes followed for developing the operations plan

It is critical that events should be planned in a systematic and strategic manner so that the required objectives from the events can be achieved. All the required activities that are needed to be completed have been planed and on the basis of that resources have been allocated (Conway, 2014). Working as an operation manager for the event I have made some changes in the existing process. It has supported for making significant improvements in the event organizing process.

Waste management has been introduced as a new method that will be used for improving the events. I have taken initiatives for involving the support of the group members so that the required objectives from the event can be completed. I have made it mandatory for placing dustbins at small distances in the events that are organized by Classic Entertainment Productions. This approach has supported reducing the cost of clearing the event location after completion of the event. I have instructed the cleaning staff to follow the guidelines that have been given to them. Mutual support given by all the group members has supported in adopting this change in an effectual way. The event organization process has become more successful. I have adopted innovative approaches for introducing waste management.

I have been able to develop an operations management plan which is more effective as compared to the traditional ones adopted by the company. Classic Entertainment Productions considers this event as the most significant one because if effectively managed, this event shall bring in more customers in the near future. I have used the basic principle of operations management theory for implementing the roles and responsibilities of individuals who are a part of my team. When comparing the practicality of a plan with theoretical principles, the chances of getting precise and accurate results increases.

I developed the budgets and provided sufficient resources to the individuals who were distributed into 10 different teams. There were further goals and deadlines set for these teams for bringing more excellence in quality and to avoid mismanagement or confusion. The stage was perfectly developed according to the designs produced by our stage planners. Certain construction activities had to be initiated for developing separate restrooms for audiences who belonged to the celebrity community i.e. one with VIP passes. I personally looked after the security arrangements so that crowd control is effectively achieved.

During the entire process, there were certain challenges that I had experienced while developing the Event Operational Plan. It was not easy to convince higher authorities for constructing an extra restroom so that less chaotic situations will happen. Furthermore, there were certain situations in which the climatic changes had caused a delay in the construction of the platform where the celebrities will perform. This implies that a possibility was generated whether the event will take place on time or not. But we were able to overcome all these consequences and achieve the set goals and objectives. The progress level of the out team was quite appropriate. Despite facing so many challenges, I was able to execute the plan accurately and get the desired results in the form of positive feedback from audiences.

The performance indicators which have been developed by me for comparing the performances of individuals. It helps in identifying the areas that require training and development for gaining a better quality of work. Moreover, the productivity of individuals has to be increased. There cannot be any other option better than the implementation of evaluation techniques. There are a large number of suppliers who are engaged in event planning activities at different stages. I had to make negotiations with the event sponsors so that their financial input would help in facilitating other activities of the company. These professionals demanded written contracts and balance sheets of the organization initially. This posed as a challenge because exposing the secrets and confidential information of an organization to external agents brings in a lot of competitive threats. Hence, I negotiated with them by depicting the potential benefits which they will address after the event. My marketing experiences have helped me in overcoming these challenges and set effective communication channels with business sponsors.

Conclusion

Through this report, one can understand that event planning requires a lot of considerations. Since the film festival is a sort of national event because individuals from across the country are going to participate; there is no scope for negligence and irrelevant practice. The report depicts the major issues which are addressed in the event planning and a detailed Operational Plan which can be executed by Classic Entertainment Productions for bringing in more effectiveness in the working. Furthermore, the reflective account depicts the major changes, challenges, and solutions that have been implemented by the Event Manager of the company for effectively implementing and developing the Event Operations Plan.

References

Adina, F. and Ramona, C., 2013. Innovation in the creative industries-case study of an event planning company.

Carteni, A. and De Luca, S., 2012. Tactical and strategic planning for a container terminal: Modelling issues within a discrete event simulation approach.

Challen, K. and et. al., 2012. Where is the evidence for emergency planning: a scoping review.

Conway, D. G., 2014.The Event Manager's Bible 3rd Edition: The Complete Guide to Planning and Organising a Voluntary or Public Event. Hachette UK.

Fleischmann, B., Meyr, H. and Wagner, M., 2015. Advanced planning. In Supply chain management and advanced planning. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

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