Scope and Background of the Project

AAPMP (Australian Institute of Project Management, 2017) is an individual body which works towards the positive contribution to the project management industry. SCPM is the project management organization for conducting the two days Master Class at Perth by AAPMP. Total attendees shall be between 200 to 400 people. The overall scope of the project starts from the arrival of the outside attendees, their transportation, accommodation, tea, lunch, dinner, entertainment facilities and off course conducting the Master Class.

The main aim and objective (Thomson, 2014) of the project is to conduct the Master Class event of AAPMP with full satisfaction of AAPMP by increasing the number of members and conducting the session as per plan by receiving more and more sponsors and generating enough revenue to maintain the proper quality of the presentation.

For explaining the strategy SCPM had conceptualized to successfully market and advertise the occasion, we shall divide the whole strategy in to main four stages like objectives and different stages of marketing (Markgraf, 2017):

Objective: the main objective was to attract more and more participants for attending the Master Class event being organized by SCPM for AAPMP. Second objective is to earn more revenue from the event with maintaining positive cash flow from the beginning of the event itself. For gathering the maximum required number of attendees, SCPM shall use all latest technology and old proven techniques of marketing.

Target Market: SCPM has targeted all possible attendees like AAPMP’s members, non-members, corporate members, students, PMP professionals, non-PMP professionals and software field executives from different sectors of industries like construction, defense, mining, engineering, risk management and many more

Modern techniques of marketing: SCPM shall use a mix blend of all latest and old techniques of marketing like a website shall be developed solely for the use of AAPMP’s Master class only and all required information by the attendees must be provided in the site. Even sending the e-mail notifications to registered members and other delegates shall also be done to market the event.

Traditional techniques of marketing: SCPM shall use publications in newspaper, trade publications, posters, banners display in public transports and universities as the marketing strategies.

Venue of the Master Class

Venue: Crown Event & Conference Centre, Perth.

The Centre is the entertainment complex located at banks of river Swan and is very near to the national and international airports.

Events in Functional Room 1

IT session in Functional Room 2

And Construction session in Functional Room 3

Facilities available: state-of-art gymnasium fitness center, day spa center, view of wooden-grill kitchen, bar, VIP gaming facility, salon, gardens and botanicals.

Format of the Master Class

The basic format of the Master Class is to attend two days session with additional provision of attending ancillary functions one evening before the start of the master class and one morning after the completion of master class to facilitate the delegates of having many opportunities to meet and develop networks among other industries.

Duration, Speakers & broad mud-map of the Master Class

Day One

Day Two

Timing associated with the planning, delivery and post implementation review of the event

Like all the common stages of the project execution as described in any project management techniques are Initiation, planning, execution & control and closing (Esposito, 2015). The event of arranging the Master Class by SCPM is also scheduled accordingly by breaking the total scope in mainly four heads the Planning, Marketing, Execution and Post Implementation of the event.

Aims and Objectives of the Project

Start of project in May

Presentation of concept during May and June

Finalization of Concept Design by end of June

Document the development during May to August

Update Plan during May to September

Finalize the budget and venue in August

Plan marketing plans during May to August

Accommodation planning during May to August

Conduct promotional marketing during June to August

Receive registrations or event membership during June to August

Transportation of goods & people in August and September

The Master Class event on 9^th and 10^th September

Receive client’s feedback during September and October

Evaluation of the project by SCPM during September to November

Close out the project and handover in November

It is the main action of the Project Manager to identify the risks at the very initial stage of the project and then after analyzing and putting the ranks the mitigation plan is required to be developed and monitored till the end of the project (Victoria State Government, 2016). Accordingly the Project Manager of SCPM also identified few initial risks and divided them in three main categories ‘Conference Risks’, ‘Venue Risks’ and ‘Project Management’, but the good thing observed is there are no risk identified as ‘HIGH’ impact threat. Few risks are mentioned below:

Conference Risk

If the speaker or presenter falls ill, so the pre-recorded presentations are kept in stock before the start of event

If the presentation gets lost during transit, so the presentations are required to be submitted through e-mail or using the dedicated portal developed for the event

If the materials required for marketing purpose gets delayed by the vendors, so a regular check on the shop progress and several review meetings should be done

If the financial problems occur at SCPM, so to avoid such miss happening the financial status need to be reviewed on monthly basis

If low attendance of attendees happened, so we need to always keep checking the break-even point and if required can sell tickets on cheaper rates

If high attendance of attendees happened, so we need to be always ready with more occupancy planning

If some natural crisis happens and international travellers can’t reach, to avoid such condition proper monitoring is required

Venue Risk

If power loss happens, so to avoid back-up generators need to be installed in place

If some technical issue happens, then to avoid it proper skilled technicians and suppliers are there

If some security threat happens, so proper evacuation plan needs to be present

If the crowd goes out of control, then proper arrangements need to be developed before hand

Project Management Risks

If the communication plan fails, so spot checks are advised to cross check the functionality

If the progress reports are not published, so to avoid proper timing and quality of reporting need to be ensured

If the important milestones get delayed, so to avoid it proper monitoring of the milestones are required to be ensured

Potential sponsorship arrangements and cost structuring for the event in terms of advertising packages, ticket pricing and offers for international delegatesSponsorship arrangements

The benefits which can be attained by getting the sponsorship are developing business networks, getting high level people recruitment, Increase Company’s exposure by providing banners or logos in different parts etc. Different sponsorship arrangements are developed to meet the budget requirement for the event by adjusting pricing for the categories like:

Critical Appraisal of Due Diligence Report

Platinum sponsorship, the choice with maximum facility and rate of $ 35,000

Gold sponsorship with $ 25,000 and maximum two numbers

Silver sponsorship with $ 15,000 and maximum five numbers

Bronze sponsorship with $ 10,000 and maximum eight numbers

Dinner, Meeting, Delegate’s bag, Water bottles and so on with different rates ranging from $ 20,000 to $ 1,000

Cost Structuring

Advertising Package

Since this package is not considered inside the sponsorship calculation, so adding the revenues which can be generated by advertising of outside organization can even add more profit.

Ticket pricing is designed in such a way that the attendee, who books early, can get more discounts and it helps SCPM to maintain more positive cash flow at the beginning of the project itself and receives early confirmation for the most of the seats from the beginning of the project. By knowing the trend, advertisement can be further modified.

The international delegates can obtain their desired information like the visa procedure, flight to Australia, accommodation in Australia and many more could be known from the web page itself by dropping a query and further SCPM shall connect them to the local hotels and airlines to provide solution and discounts for them.

Costs associated with running the event and the provision of a cash-flow which links to the project programmeExpected Expenditures:

Registration package = $ 5,000

Bag with inserts = $ 13,000

Catering per day = $ 17,000

Exhibition & additional venue hire = $ 72,000 $ 255,594

Other expenses = $ 92,600

Management fee @ 15% = $ 2,994

Project management fees = $ 53,000

Accommodation, flight & premium services = $ 10,800

Sponsorship & Gala cost = $ 17,892 $ 119,192

Separate charges for dinner, entertainment etc. = $ 37,500

Project management manpower charges = $ 53,000

Total expected expenditure = $ 321,786

Expected Generation of Revenue:

Sponsorship special four types = $ 164,000

Sponsorship of other various categories = $ 165,900 $ 339,900

Advertisement of outsiders during the session = $ 10,000

Target attendees of various categories:

Members = $ 115,000

Non-members = $ 67,500 $ 212,900

Daily = $ 26,000

Gala = $ 4,400

Total expected revenue = $ 552,800

 So, the net present value (NPV) = revenue (552,800) – expenditure (321,786) = $ 231,014

Summary of Project Management Methodology shall be adopted if awarded

As per the above discussed processes and methods, the ideal techniques of project management shall be adopted. The processes are Initiation, Planning, Marketing & Execution of project and Post Implementation for Close-out (Duncan, 1993). So the further steps and deliverables of the above processes are:

In the stage of initiation, Project Brief, Business case, project charter and preliminary project plan shall be developed

Under the stage of planning, SCPM shall develop and share the updated scope document on the basis of the changes in different sectors while conducting the initial study, cost estimate, quality plan, risk management plan, WBS, schedule, communication matrix, resource allocation & updated business case.

During execution stage the marketing, executing the scope of work, monitoring for proper adjustment in plan and finally holding the session on 9^th and 10^th September.

After the session is completed, in the closing stage, SCPM shall gather the feedbacks from the attendees and AAPMP to access the success rate and document the lessons learnt and handover the documents to AAPMP and close the project.

Conclusion

The objective (Soton, 2017) of doing the project for AAPMP is to keep away all the issues related to the session like maintain the adequate skill level of the speakers and lecturers by overcoming the dependencies on the external factors to avoid any delay in the happening of the master class and the objective has been met properly. To ensure the event can happen without any risk or threat the Project Manager of SCPM also identified few initial risks and divided them in three main categories ‘Conference Risks’, ‘Venue Risks’ and ‘Project Management’ and luckily there were no risk fell in to high risk zone and the proper mitigation plan were also developed by the project manager. Different sponsorship arrangements are developed to meet the budget requirement for the event by adjusting pricing for early booking and getting benefits or discounts to ensure the availability of attendees and maintain positive cash flow from the beginning of the project itself. The cost benefit analysis also revealed positive figures for going ahead with the project and positive and good ROI. After the mega event is completed the project manager even handed over the all related procurement documents and feedback report with lessons learnt to AAPMP.

References

Australian Institute of Project Management, 2017. Events. [Online] Available at:

https://www.aipm.com.au/events [Accessed 1 September 2017].

Duncan, W.R., 1993. The process of project management. Project Management Journal, 24(3), pp.5-10.

Esposito, E., 2015. Demystifying the 5 Phases of Project Management. [Online] Smartsheet Inc. Available at:

https://www.smartsheet.com/blog/demystifying-5-phases-project-management [Accessed 1 September 2017].

Markgraf, B., 2017. How to Write a Marketing Strategy Report. [Online] Hearst Newspapers Available at:

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/write-marketing-strategy-report-64160.html [Accessed 1 September 2017].

Pinto, R., 2017. Sample Due diligence report. [Online] LinkedIn Corporation Available at:

https://www.slideshare.net/raptr20/sample-due-diligence-report-27565348 [Accessed 1 September 2017].

Soton, 2017. Aims and objectives. [Online] Available at:

https://www.erm.ecs.soton.ac.uk/theme4/aims_and_objectives.html [Accessed 1 September 2017].

Thomson, P., 2014. Aims and objectives – what’s the difference? [Online] Available at:

https://patthomson.net/2014/06/09/aims-and-objectives-whats-the-difference/ [Accessed 1 September 2017].

Victoria State Government, 2016. Victorian Government Risk Management Framework. Risk Management –Principles and Guidelines.

Waidley, G., 1999. Tips for Writing an Executive Summary. [Online] Available at:

https://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/ExecutiveSummary_Tips.pdf [Accessed 1 September 2017].