What is an event impact?

Event impact can be defined as the lasting impact of an event that continues to exist even when the event is over. As per Fringeworld.com.au (2022), event possess both positive and negative impacts on the community. While impact poses the potential to take a series of forms, it includes, but is not limited to economic impacts, political impact, environmental impacts and social impacts.

Attendance, economic, environmental, social, and media effect are the five forms of event impact. Attendance is one of the most basic indicators of an event’s success, although it is frequently misconstrued or calculated incorrectly. Because so many other measures rely on the total event attendance data, it’s vital to get the numbers right. The entire amount of increased expenditure produced within a specific region as a direct result of organising the event is referred to as the ‘economic effect’ of a significant event. Expenditure by visitors in the local region (particularly on lodging) is the most essential aspect in producing economic benefit for most events; but, expenditure by event organisers is also crucial (McKeon, 2003). Environmental impact includes effects from activities like building, energy usage, and spectator as well as participant transportation, all of which have an impact on important environmental challenges like as climate change as well as natural resource depletion. Members of the society organizing the event or event goers who gain socially from the event are examples of social effect. 

An event manager is responsible for designing, setting up as well as execution of events in order to bring people together.  While positive event impact ensures successful event, negative impact of the event impose adverse impact not only on their profession, but also on the society.

FRINGE WORLD is a hugely popular yearly festival in Perth that attracts thousands of tourists each year. FRINGE WORLD’S amazing assortment of entertainment has something for everyone; including comedy, music and musicals, circus, and much more, and ticket rates are exceptional value, allowing you to see numerous performances in one night. Due to the consequences of COVID-19, the 2021 FRINGE WORLD Festival was less in size and magnitude than prior Festivals (ABC Radio Adelaide., 2015). However, over 559 events were held at 130 sites around Perth as well as regional Western Australia. A total of 5.9 million dollars was spent at the box office, with 226, 800 tickets sold. The Festival in 2022 will take place from fourteenth January to thirteenth February.

Major impact of ‘fringe festival’ in Perth on its stakeholder

The 2020/2021 FRINGE WORLD festival had 500,000 attendances and has imposed cultural, social as well as economic impact not only on the society. As per Beresford (2020), the aim of the festival is to celebrate the home grown artists of WA. The management of the festival has declared that, this year, the event managers have successfully supported the artists with overall box office payment more than 5.7 million dollars. This indicates positive social as well as economic impact on the society.  Given the Covid 19 outbreak, the last 12 months were highly challenging for artists since it recorded an income loss of 1.08 million dollars from more than 60 thousand tickets refunded as a result of lockdown. The sudden drop in income has resulted in negative impact on the artists leading to financial crisis. However, in spite of the difficulties, the Impact Report demonstrates favourable audience as well as artist attitude, along with the success of new initiatives like Lifeline cooperation and environmental sustainability projects (Chamberlain et al., 2019). Given the fact that the money earned during the festival has been used for supporting the artists who got impact due to the lockdown, a positive social impact can be encountered.

When it comes to the economic impact, the total fund raised from the Perth FRINGE WORLD Festival has raised a fund of $91,248.81 including significant donation from Ungar Family foundation, patron donations, donation from Festival partner Woodside as well as Gage Roads Brew Co. Thus the festival has definitely imposed positive economic impact. The Total direct economic impact of FRINGE WORLD 2021 was $19.9 Million. 

The cultural impact of the festival was also found to be positive since  a wide  range of audiences have attended the festival leading to an effective development of bondage between  different culture and race. As per Gajjar and Parmar, (2020), festivals like FRINGE World helps in bringing the community together through music and thus impose positive impact on the culture.

When it comes to the environmental impact, it has been found that arrange of sustainable measures have been applied in order to reduce environmental degradation. In spite of this, it the waste generated was significant. However it can be said that the environmental impact of the festival was moderate compared to previous years.

As per Marenah et al. (2019), given the fact that impacts are the lasting effects of event, it continues to exists even after the event is over. Hence, lack of effective event impact analysis can result ineffective impacts that will influence the community even after the event is over. For Event angers, it is highly crucial to have a through understanding of the potential cultural, social, environmental and economic impact of the event on the society.  Effective understanding the same helps the event managers to plan their event so that they can have more positive impacts and less negative impact.

Risk of not conduct event impact analysis

As per Robertson et al. (2020), lack of effective event analysis often leads to disastrous impact on the community. For instance, if an event takes place that results in cultural degradation, like promotion of drugs, high rate of alcoholism or other social issues, the impact will be prolonged. A single event can enhance the rate of alcoholism or drug abuse amongst the teenagers in the society. Hence, before conducting an event, event mangers needs to thoroughly analyze the social consequences of the same.

Similarly, significant numbers of events are leaving behind negative environmental impact and lack of event impact analysis can be pointed out to be the key reason behind this. As per Glover (2022), it has been found that the FRINGE WORLD festival, like all other festivals, imposed a significant amount of adverse impact on the environment. This includes enhanced usage of plastics as well as waste materials as by-product of the event. However, a series of sustainable practices have also been found to be implemented by the management. For instance, to reduce the impact of the event on the environment, the management have ensured that the usage of paper is reduced. Also, proper planning for waste disposal and partnering with local community have been done as environmental sustainable initiative.  Lack of effective environmental analysis before conducting event can result in long term impact on the environment. For instance the waste materials that get accumulated after the event should be disposed in a proper way. Lack of effective planning may result in appropriate waste disposal that cause soil, water as well as water pollution.

As per Beresford (2020), each and every event will impose some positive and negative impact on the society. It is the role of the event manager to maximize the positive impact of event while minimizing the negative impact of the same. For instance, some of the adverse impact on environment cannot be prevented, however, an effective event managers reduces the negative impacts by taking efficient initiative.   Event managers aim at enhancing the positive impact economic impact of the event and develop as well as implement those strategies. The first action that should be taken by the event managers includes determining the target audience. Effective selection of the targeted audience enhances the probability of higher number of sale of tickets to a great extent. For instance, the target audiences of FRINGE WORLD festivals include teenagers and young adults. On the basis of the target audience selected, promotional tool should be used. For Example for targeting young adults and teenagers, social media platforms can be used.

Also, to enhance the positive impact of event, it is crucial for the managers to use tools like live polling in social media, usage of big emojies and custom and virtual backgrounds. Promotion of community sprit and building network within the community members should be done. Finally it can be said that while majority of the events are organized to enhance financial resources, it is crucial for  event managers, to think in a broader perspective.

References

ABC Radio Adelaide. (2015). Victoria Square ‘dustbowl’ prompts review of Adelaide events. Retrieved 27 March 2022, from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-23/fringe-impact-on-victoria-square-council-review/6340176

Beresford, H. (2020). An Exploration of the Impact of the Fringe Festival on the Authenticity of Edinburgh. Retrieved 27 March 2022, from https://issuu.com/helenberesford/docs/ac6_world_heritage

Chamberlain, D. A., Edwards, D., Lai, J., & Thwala, W. D. (2019). Mega event management of formula one grand prix: an analysis of literature. Facilities.

Fringeworld.com.au. (2022). Impact Report | FRINGE WORLD Festival – 14 January – 13 February 2022. Retrieved 27 March 2022, from https://fringeworld.com.au/impact-report

Gajjar, A., & Parmar, B. J. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on event management industry in India. Global Journal of Management and Business Research.

Glover, J. (2022). Edinburgh’s cultural economy nervously awaits the fate of its festivals. Retrieved 27 March 2022, from https://www.insider.co.uk/news/edinburghs-cultural-economy-nervously-awaits-23738930

Marenah, M., Li, J., Kumar, A., & Murrell, W. (2019). Quality assurance and adverse event management in regenerative medicine for knee osteoarthritis: current concepts. Journal of clinical orthopaedics and trauma, 10(1), 53-58.

McKeon, B. (2003). What are the fringe benefits?. [online] The Irish Times. Available at: <https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/what-are-the-fringe-benefits-1.371907> [Accessed 27 March 2022].

Robertson, J. M., Dias, R. D., Gupta, A., Marshburn, T., Lipsitz, S. R., Pozner, C. N., … & Yule, S. (2020). Medical event management for future deep space exploration missions to Mars. journal of surgical research, 246, 305-314.