Event Management - Fork on the Road - Case Study Example

Event Management – Fork on the Road Name: Lecturer: Course: Date: 1. Executive Summary Fork on the Road is a monthly cultural event that showcases Adelaide’s variety of culinary arts on trucks. The stakeholders at the event get to realise the economic benefits of staging the event and meetings. Operators and the local government are making substantial capital investment in ensuring that the event has infrastructure and facilities that are up to the standards. The event can cause risks of environmental pollution due to generation of garbage, extensive use of electricity, and leaving of carbon footprint because of plenty of travel by the audience and the food trucks. The environmental cost of the event will have to be minimised by embedding the concept of sustainability into the participants’ operational and buying behaviour. Due to the nature of the event, risks such as crime and health safety are also considered as likely in the event. The expertise of security personnel will be obtained to oversee and monitor security at the event. Public health practitioners will also be hired to ensure compliance with health and safety issues, such as healthy waste disposal. Legal issues will also need to be addressed during, before and after the event. This would require signing contracts with the suppliers, vendors, contractors and volunteers. Getting the necessary insurance and conforming to the taxation issues is also crucial. Compliance with State Government and Adelaide City Council regulations on food vending, noise, and alcohol approval will also be obtained. 2. Introduction An event is a theme-based meeting of individuals drawn together by certain prearrangement for a common purpose. Essentially, an event consists of a festival or show of certain theme, through which the public is invited for a restricted period of time annually, monthly or infrequently (Presbury & Edwards 2005). They are themed public occurrences intended to celebrate certain treasured aspects of community life. This business report consists of an event management plan centred for Fork on the Road event, a monthly cultural event that showcases Adelaide’s variety of gastronomy or culinary arts on trucks (Fork on the Road 2014). These trucks serve a range of dishes, mainly Australian specialties, local seafood, gourmet grilled cheese, barbecue, and burgers. The activities featured at the event bring people from different places in and outside Adelaide, as well as offer communities a chance to celebrate and exhibit their cultures and traditions (Fork on the Road 2014). Additionally, the stakeholders in the event get to realise the economic benefits of staging the event and meetings. Operators and the local government are making substantial capital investment in ensuring that the event has infrastructure and facilities that are up to the standards. Consequently, the event advances the interests of traveller, businesses and surrounding communities. The event is a significant component of the tourism sector (Fork on the Road 2014). 3. Background Started in November 2012, the Food on the Truck event is held each month in Adelaide. The first one was held at Victoria Square, and with time, others have been held in other suburban locations. The objective of the event is to create a platform for exhibiting food trucks and cats in Adelaide (Fork on the Road 2014). However, food in itself is the main attraction of the event. It also shows how spaces can be managed innovatively to ensure convenience of use and movement. The event also creates a platform for entrepreneurs to try out their novel business ideas. It showcases the start-up businesses, and emerging food cultures in Adelaide. Additionally, up-and-coming entertainers and musicians are given an opportunity for exposure and to perform before a live audience. The event has community objectives, where the people in Adelaide are provided with an opportunity to meet, interact and build relationship and networks. The event is a joint initiative of the State, Government, Adelaide City Council, and other partners such as Splash Adelaide. 8. Environment sustainable and social responsibility While slew activities at the event have a range of positive economic effects such as job creation and revenue generation, several potential negative implications do exist. In particular, the qualities of social, economic and natural environments, where the series of the Fork On The Road events are held, are often exposed to risks of environmental pollution. Some of the negative impacts include generation of garbage, extensive use of electricity, and leaving of carbon footprint because of plenty of travel by the audience and the food trucks (Larson 2005). Consequently, the event needs to incorporate sustainability into event management. The Fork on the Road event will therefore be based on sustainable principles that need to be practiced in various aspects of tourism operations (Presbury & Edwards 2005). The event can be managed sustainably. The principle of minimising the implications of purchasing, transport, energy production, sanitation and waste is applicable in this situation. This implies that business strategies and processes that meet the stakeholder and business needs, while at the same time ensuring the protection, sustenance, and enhancement of the natural and human resources that would be needed for future use, will have to be used (Presbury & Edwards 2005). Hence, sustainable management of the Fork on the Road event implies management of resources in a manner that aesthetic, social and economic needs have to be met while at the same time ensuring the ecological processes and cultural integrity needs are met. Therefore, the Fork on the Road event will comply with the guiding principles of sustainability (Saayman & Saayman 2004). To ensure that the event becomes eco-friendly and sustainable, the resources used should be minimised through the use of environmentally-sound technologies (EST), in addition to all the potentially negative environmental implications. Greening the event would mean would require collaboration with all stakeholders of the event including the suppliers, producers, and the audience. The environmental cost of the event will have to be minimised by embedding the concept of sustainability into the participants’ operational and buying behaviour. The participants should be educated through posters at the event asking them to avoid negligent and careless behaviours, including careless disposal of plastics and trash. The participants and sellers at the event should be asked to use recycled materials. Walking and cycling to the event will be encouraged (Presbury & Edwards 2005). Compliance with the operational development plans, standards and planning conditions for sustainability will be ensured by monitoring how the participants conform to the standards, and providing incentives to the participants who use eco-friendly products by charging them subsidised fee. All primary stakeholders such as the State, Government, Adelaide City Council, the local community and the tourism department will be involved in developing and implementing tourism plans to promote long-term success of the meetings and events (Presbury & Edwards 2005). Awareness on the ‘best practices’ principles will have to be raised by encouraging free exchange of information between the event stakeholders. This could be ensured through posters and banners or encouraging the stakeholders to establish networks for dialogues on how to implement these principles. At the same time, paper communication should be minimised and reduced. The event will also use sustainable energy, such as ecological alternatives to petrol-powered generators. Power consumption will be reduced. 9. Risk Monitoring & Evaluation system When risk management process is consistently applied in compliance with AS/NZS 4360, it will reduce the risks of disasters at the event (Wodonga 2012). Mitre (2014) outlines that several risks are associated with events, which may lead to negative socio-cultural, environmental, and economic implications. Due to the nature of the event, risks such as crime and health safety are considered as likely in the event. The risks in the event include safety and risk. As a component of the mitigation proves, the risk monitoring tool is applied in recording of the results of the risk prioritisation analysis, providing input in mitigating the security and safety risk and assessing the impact of the risk (Mitre 2014). Risk mitigation planning involves developing actions and alternatives to create opportunities that can reduce threats to the event. In monitoring and evaluating the risks, the identified risks are tracked and the effectiveness of the mitigation processes is evaluated. The expertise of security personnel will be obtained to oversee and monitor security at the event. Public health practitioners will also be hired to ensure compliance with health and safety issues, such as healthy waste disposal. With the help of these professionals, the environment will be regularly scanned to determine any breach in safety and security. The event will require professional security from a private company. The purpose of the security personnel would be crowd control and to respond to situations based on risk assessment. In monitoring the security of the events, consideration is given to target demographic, location of the venue, the number of visitors, whether the event will be fenced or an open site and operating times. Evaluation will be by examining whether there are any security and safety breach incidents, the number of complaints from the audience and other stakeholders, and safety of the food, the marquees, trucks and stands by the participants in the event. 10. Legal compliance The complexity of the Fork on the Road event implies that several legal issues would need to be addressed at the event -- as well as before and after the event. This would require signing contracts with the suppliers, vendors, contractors and volunteers. Getting the necessary insurance and conforming to the taxation issues is also crucial (Larson 2005). In Adelaide, the local government or the ‘Local Council’ is concerned with the event. Consequently, approval for the event should be sought by the organisation. The key areas on consideration include how the event will impact the neighbouring communities. The various approval that will have to be considered include public building approval as required by the Health Act 1911 to certify that the event has addressed public health and safety issues. Consequently, the marquees, trucks and stands will be safe for use by the participants in the event. Based on requirements of the Liquor Control Act, liquor licence will also be required as it is expected that alcohol will be sold at the event. This will be obtained from the Department of Racing, Gaming and Liquor. The vendors at the food and drinks outlets will be required to register with the local government and to display Certificate of Registration at the site during the event in compliance with Food Act 2008. 11. Running Sheet Scheduling components of the event is crucial to ensure every activity in the event goes according to plan. Time Person Activity 10 minutes before start time Time:8.00 am Organising committee leader Event manager Organisers gather at selected area. Security personnel, health personnel, employees also assemble at a designated area to wait for instruction from the organising committee. Vendors allowed into the venue Official start time Time:9.00 am Organiser, Committee management leader Guest of honour Open the event, achievement vendors and participants Welcome vendors, participants, event sponsors, guests Invite participants to celebrate celebration. Official closing of the event Time: 9pm Organiser, Special guest Speech (3-5 mins max) Invite special guest to announce winning participants. Reference List Fork on the Road 2014, What is Fork?, viewed 17 Sept 2014, Presbury, R & Edwards, D 2005, "Incorporating Sustainability In Meetings And Event Management Education," International Journal Of Event Management Research vol. 1 no, 1, 30-45 Larson, M 2005, "Managing Festival Stakeholders, viewed 17 Sept 2014, Mitre 2014, Risk Mitigation Planning, Implementation, and Progress Monitoring, viewed 17 Sept 2014, Saayman, M & Saayman, A 2004, "Does the location of arts festivals matter for the economic impact?" Papers in Regional Science vol 85 no 4, pp.569-584 Wodonga 2012, City of Wodonga: Event management planning guide, viewed 17 Sept 2014, Read More