Importance of Analyzing the Target Audience

A corporate event is one of the types of events which are nowadays celebrated across the globe. Like the other types of events, corporate events hold a unique importance in raising awareness towards a cause, appreciating employees for their achievement and building up the teamwork in organisations (Bessembinder and Zhang 2013). The background for this study is also centred on one of such purposes. “Purpose Productions” is being assigned with a task to organise a corporate event for the client. The main purpose of this event would be to generate awareness for cancer affected people and generating funds for the “Cancer Research UK”. ‘Cancer Research UK’ is engaged in bringing new and beneficial findings in terms of medication and treatments for people suffering from cancer. They utilise those funds by allocating to doctors, nurses and the scientists, so that, the level of research work and the treatment could both be improved (Cancer Research UK 2018).

This would be a corporate event targeting both the client’s purpose for the event and also to raise funds for the ‘Cancer Research UK’. ‘Purpose Productions’, the case-study event organising firm, is aimed at generating funds to support cancer affected people by donating those to the chosen charity. There can be a number of purposes for the case study client such as encouraging teamwork, celebrating the achievements and supporting a charity.

This is the first and foremost thing which the event operations manager is needed to consider. A good analysis of the target audience is always required to identify the target audience. This can be done by using the suitable tools and statistical facts of the recently held corporate events. The effort should be on to generate a sufficient piece of data, so that, everything from presentation to fun sessions and to the food menus is relevant to the attendees (Gatzert 2015). Hence, the loss of the target audience would include such as the follows:

• Corporate firms and the case study client
• Potential donors in the city
• Volunteer audience

It is important that the event establishes an effective tie between the cause and corporations intending to look good in terms of corporate social responsibility. This is necessary to raise the level of interest in them and also to encourage for making huge donations.

The purpose of any event can only be served or partially achieved if it is being planned considering all the factors associated with it. On a very similar note, the case-fundraising event would need to fulfil a few success factors to attract a good number of attendees. Following are a few success factors for the event:

Success Factors for the Event

Making of plans:

This includes the venue for the event and budget. Event organising firm generally requires an at least 15-16 weeks of time prior to the timeline of the event. During the span of time, event organisers take care of the necessary kinds of stuff without which the event can never happen.  

Venue

Plaisterers’ Hall in London is being chosen because it does not only fulfil the client’s requirement for a 500 sitter place but is also accessible. It has transport links with Moorgate, St. Paul’s and Barbican stations. The reasons do not end here as it also offers an award-winning catering experience to its guests.  The venue is very supportive to the charity causes because it saves on money, supports in the marketing of the event, attracts more people to the hall and donates the auction items to support the charity (Plaisterers Hall 2018).

Budget

· From £15663 to £23494

Marketing: 

Goals

• Be able to attract at least a 50% of the visitors from the recent three events
• Generate a huge business and community awareness and impacting at least to two new sponsors
• Attract new customers

Key messages

• Brand name and logo
• Venue and date of the event
• Specific messages
• Prompting to book tickets on an urgent basis or else the tickets will be sold out

It is required to partner with suitable bodies such as social media experts, website designers, printing suppliers, and media sponsors etc. (Low and Pyun 2016)

(Add stakeholders in the provided template relevant to the event)

Marketing tools will include word of mouth factor, direct mail, ticketing, signature, return visitation event, media releases, radio, newspapers and magazines. Marketing platform to be used are the website, event apps, social media, blogs forums, online advertising, banners and notice boards. Communication will be required with local politicians, council, businesses and co-promoters (Duffett 2017).

Design:

This is another success factor which can be used to make the positive impacts on the attendees. The design will include everything from sitting arrangements to foods and to the presentation to the feedback gathering session. List of presentation include but is not limited to, launch, functions, promotions, guest speaking opportunities, media releases and media editorial.

Data:

This is one of the success factors. The event must identify its attendees based on the priority levels ranging from potential to the active clients.

All the data needs to be followed with priority based strategies.

1) Licensing and Legal Issues 

Licensing or legal permission is required for which it is advisable to approach the local council to know the types of permissions required. This may include anything from the entertainment or catering licenses. The council will advise of the ways needed to conduct the event safely and legally as well (Todd, Leask and Ensor 2017).

It is important for the client to ensure that their funds are utilised for no wrong purposes. They need to monitor the collection boxes to know the expenses made on the different contents. Few people can be made engaged in counting and noting the money. The funds raised at the event should immediately be processed to the chosen charity (Phi, Dredge and Whitford 2014).

It is also important to make the attendees aware of a few certain things like the charity’s registration number, the registered address and the full name of the company (Bhatt, Manadhata and Zomlot 2014). Donors and attendees must feel that they are into the event for a genuine cause. This also ensures a transparent relationship with all those who will attend the event.

Marketing Strategies

Fundraising can be done in two ways either through a raffle or lottery. A lottery will require a license for it as it falls under the gambling law. Fundraising on such a large scale may require a large society lottery license (Arantes do Amaral, Petroni and Hess 2016).

An auction can also be used to generate the funds; however, this does not need any license. This indeed requires an adherence to consumer legislation specific to auctions. Moreover, the Trade Descriptions Act 1968 will be needed to abide by to ensure that the auction items are valued accurately and correctly (Edwards and List 2014).  

To manage the risks, certain things need to be ensured like checking whether the food stalls have insurance, they follow a quality risk management and they are from an identified trade body. Insurance schedules should also be checked to identify whether they are actually insured. It is advisable to design a risk map which would not just support in avoiding or minimising the risks but would also prevent from a reputational damage. The risk map will act as a documented proof. The fundraising event should also have one essential cover such as the public liability insurance. This will prevent the client from any allegations of unwanted accident and illness of a third party member. This will also prevent any claim to severe injury (Thirdsector.co.uk 2018).

It is advisable to transfer the financial consequences to the third parties mostly by outsourcing or insurance. Activities that can potentially cause the risks must be avoided. For example, any unwanted accident during the event can affect its productivity. Floors should be kept dry to avoid the slips. This is one of the most common causes of the accident at the fundraising events. Battery powered candles should be used rather than the traditional candles to avoid a fire risk. An effective communication with staffs taking care of the event can provide a much of a support to the risk management (Pika et al. 2016).

The corporate event is not a kind of events where crowd control will be a factor for the event team. It is mainly a corporate event which would only sit around a close to 500 attendees. Hence, crowd management should not be a big factor as it is in musical or any other event. However, security-related threats can be a part of it and must be controlled with effective measures. A first aid arrangement is a compulsory service to assist any unwanted incident spontaneously. This may also be a good way to connect with people which would eventually encourage them to make the donations. Moreover, nutritional values of foods must be maintained to the level of possibilities. This will help to influence people who are increasingly growing with health-specific concerns (Drury, Novelli and Stott 2015).

Designing the Event

Supply chain operation is a complex and challenging process to execute. However, the complexity level can be controlled or reduced by applying a few suitable theories to the practice. Nonetheless, theories alone will not make an impact provided that it has the assistance of effective leaders who are equipped with the decision-making skills, required resources and the strategic capabilities of management. One such theory is ‘Channel Coordination’ which states the importance of establishing an effective coordination between the supply networks (Silvestre 2015). It means that different divisions operating under one supply network must have an effective coordination between each division. For example, a lack of coordination between suppliers and the manufacturers or brands would in operational term mean an untimely delivery of products & services, failure in meeting the quality standards, reputational damage of the firm, monetary losses and lot more. In a similar way, an ineffective coordination between the operations and advertising team can affect the quality of the advertisement campaign. Operations team will not be able to control the advertising campaigns in real-time (Carter, Rogers and Choi 2015).

In the context of the corporate event, an effective coordination between the event organising firm and the client will ensure a timely conduction of the event. Moreover, the client will also be able to make the necessary upgrades to the preparation if required. The suppliers of event shows are the venue owners, the event organising firm and the places where the event team gets all the required things from. Supply chain operation in case of events can be explained as follows:

5) CSR and Sustainability 

Corporate social responsibility places the economic, social and environmental responsibilities on organisations across the globe. Businesses nowadays are not only judged on the traditional parameters but also on a few contemporary parameters. These contemporary parameters include the likes of air & water pollutions, waste management, use of renewable energy resources, the economic contribution of the business, social impact and a lot. The theory of CSR states that the contemporary firms must ensure that its operations are intended at improving a few sectors such as the community it operates in, the local economy and the environment. These things are required for a sustainable business (Slager et al. 2018).

In the context of the case study, the event must also be fulfilling the three basic needs of a business such as the society, environment and the economy. The event is a type of corporate event which will also aim to raise funds for the chosen charitable firm. The charitable firm chosen for this study is engaged in providing monetary support to doctors, nurses and the scientists. It does so to effectively treat cancer affected people under a joint collaboration of R&D works and the treatment facilities. Nonetheless, cancer is a worldwide growing concern which is also causing thousands of deaths every year across the globe (Ginsburg et al. 2017). By raising some funds for the case charitable firm will be no less than a notable social cause.

Ensuring Data Management

Corporate events focussing the charity works will make news in media. People across the globe will get to know that the particular firm has done this noble cause. Such corporate events do not just provide moments for employees to know their colleagues well but also let them know the importance of looking to those who are in some kind of troubles. The success of such events will keep on generating funds for “Cancer Research UK” and the likes of and they will be able to identify the best medication and treatment for the cancerous disease. Other countries would look to get the formula if the R&D in the “Cancer Research UK” is able to bring it. Moreover, this will improve the economy in two ways such as by reducing the expenses being made every year on finding the best treatment for the cancerous diseases and also supplying these to other parts of the world (Masters et al. 2015).

Environmental related concerns can also be raised using such a bigger platform. During the presentation, speakers can also raise concerns for the increasingly growing air & water pollution and the other kinds of pollutants. Such things will be highlighted in news. People will get to know that the case company is seriously engaged in supporting the community through every possible mean (Worsley, Wang and Ridley 2014).

6) Waste Management 

Corporate events particularly aimed to raise money to support a charity cause are a good platform for organisations to establish their image as a socially responsible body. This is the platform which firms can use to show their concerns for communities they belong to and the environment which is getting worse by every single day (Wilson et al. 2015).

In the context of the case study firm, the client can present their feasible plans in a direction to reduce the wastage. Auditing the facility, reducing the packaging, going paperless, getting rid of bottled water, giving food remains to the available animals and measuring the performance are some of the ways which can be used as the waste management strategies (Hannan et al. 2015). The case study firm can pick a few such strategies for making the presentation. Those strategies should be feasible with their resource capacity, so that, no failure occurs in terms of fulfilling the commitments. Points for others taking care of the wastage can also be raised. There are ample numbers of ways which the general people can use to contribute to the waste management activities. During the event, the firm can make the presentation about how to control the wastage and can also suggest the attendees and the people around the globe take few preventive measures to make a difference. Some of the suggestive points could be like as follows: (Lohri, Camenzind and Zurbrügg 2014)

• Be equipped with recycling rules
• Do not use the plastic bags
• Avoid the food wastage by following a meal plan
• Rely on reusable containers
• Prefer to repair rather than discard
• Say no to disposable plates
• Do not promote the buying of plastic bottles

a) The changes in the planning processes as a result of the learning 

Obtaining Licensing and Legal Permission

The learner is still in the learning period and constantly working on a number of projects to enrich its knowledge as the events operations manager. The learner has to make a few changes in the plans such as the selection of location. The change in locations was being done to stage the event on a much better platform. “Plaisterers’ Hall” based in London has everything from the capacity to the designs and to the quality of meals which is required to keep people engaged throughout the corporate event.

b) The use of operations management theory to design and deliver the event 

To design and deliver the event, the total quality management (TQM) theory was one of the theories being used by the events operations manager. The theory states the importance of customer perspectives and motivates to consider its implications throughout the stages of a project (Valmohammadi and Roshanzamir 2015). The events operations manager had used this theory to identify the different elements which will be used at the different stages of the presentation. Hence, efforts are being given to make everything look just the perfect.

The supply chain management theory was also being used to understand the behaviour of supply networks. The theory states that an ineffective coordination between each of the channels of a supply network can lead to serious damage which will eventually disrupt the whole supply network (Brandenburg et al. 2014).

The theory of inventory management states that the entire management of inventories depends on two factors such as dependent and the independent demands. The theory further says that dependent demand is that which is easily predictable (Touboulic and Walker 2015). Hence, the events operations manager has used the dependent form of inventory management theory.   

c) Challenges faced during the operations plan and the ways used to overcome those 

The learner has faced challenges in the form of selecting the most appropriate operations management theories, so that, the impactful arrangements can be made. After doing a lot of research, the learner could find the resources which helped to identify the relevant theories. It was also being challenged for establishing the effective coordination with suppliers. The learner could manage it by being in regular touch with suppliers. Necessary changes and the needs for upgrades were being identified in real-time. In the given budget for the event, the learner was troubled for selecting the most feasible marketing strategies. However, the years of experience did help to analyse the effective ways of marketing.

d) Discussing if any interaction was there with a professional in the industry 

The learner never hesitates to take necessary tips from the industry experts. The learner did so by meeting the expert in personal. Plans were discussed and on common agreement, things were finalised. The learner believes to start working on a project in two ways such as by accessing to genuine article resources and also interacting to one of the industry experts.

Managing Risks

Conclusion 

In summary, this can be concluded that the event should be a success. It has everything in it which is needed to make the attendees engaged with the event. It is being well organised under the guidance of the learner’s experience as an events operations manager and the use of relevant operational theories. The success will definitely be measured against a few goals as mentioned in this study.  

References 

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