Unit 13 - Organising an Event

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GCE in Applied Business - Unit 13 – Organising An Event        Gavin Smith (4179)

GCE in Applied Business

Unit 13 – Organising an Event

By Gavin Smith

Candidate:         4179

Centre No:         61101

Contents Page

Appendix for this unit can be found at the back of this unit

Introduction to Unit

Within this unit we have to conduct research and provide detailed and concise recommendations based upon the collected research. The unit consists of four tasks and a presentation.

The first task is evaluating the feasibility of the event, I will have to consider;

  • The reasons for holding the event
  • The aims, objectives and outcomes of the event
  • Carrying out research into the feasibility of the event
  • Financial constraints
  • Risk assessment

The second task is planning the event, I will have to consider;

  • The procedures
  • Undertaking a risk assessment
  • Evaluating what physical resources are required
  • Making a time allocation table
  • Consider what teachers are going on the trip
  • Information on the importance of management and communication
  • Insurance plans

The third task is staging the event, I will have to consider;

  • Contacts for venues, suppliers and personnel
  • Marketing and publicity
  • Operations (organisation and communication)
  • Equality of access
  • Financial recording and security
  • Health and safety issues

The forth task is reviewing and evaluating the visit, I will have to consider;

  • If the aims, objectives and outcomes were met
  • If the visit met the needs of students and business studies
  • Evaluating how we resolved problems we encountered on the trip
  • Evaluating if the visit was ‘fit for purpose’
  • The feedback received back from the party
  • Identify successes , failures and make recommendations for improvement

The unit will be based on the business trip being hosted in November 2007 by the Post 16 (Year 13’s). The trip will be organised primarily by the students but with the teacher observing the communication between third party companies (i.e. tour operator, coach companies, etc).

Task 1: Feasibility Of An Event

Why Are We Organising This Trip?

This trip is being organised for business students at the Leigh Academy to explore international business, as well as to see how these businesses operate and function according to their culture and beliefs. There are several tasks that must be undertaken, such as researching the feasibility of the event, planning the event, staging the event and making sensible and concise recommendations.

Before I start I will define the word Feasibility, it defines as a determination that a process, procedure or plan can be successfully accomplished. In some cases it may not be feasible to run an event due to practicalities. Before any plans can take place for an event a feasibility study should be undertaken, this will determine if such plans could be practically undertaken. This includes ensuring everything is satisfactory with the party that is going, to make sure enterprise and business activities are taking place, and to make sure that there is enough interest to make the event worthwhile.

What are the reasons for holding an event?

Within our society there are many reasons why people attend events, for instance for cultural, national and exciting reasons.  Before I name a few examples I will list different types of events below. 

  • Special Event

This is an event that is explicit and/or significant and that is outside of a normal set of events. For example ‘Live Aid’.

  • Mega Event

This is an event that is on a large-scale, that usually influences a national society, such as the Olympic Games or Premier League Football.

  • Hallmark Events

This type of event is usually specified at a certain religion or party, this could include Easter Sunday at church or a party celebrating the age of a town.

  • Major Events

This type of event is there to provide important benefits and substantial interest to the local community, such as the local MP elections.

  • Cultural Events

This type of event relates to the interest of specific segments of society, such as political parties (e.g. conservative and labor).

  • Business Events

This event is staged by a business organisation, such as the AGM.

  • Other Events

This categorizes a huge range of events. Arranging from an exchange trip, the traveling party will have to take into account factors such as currency, native languages, different cultures and accommodation.

I will now below discuss different events and provide a real-life example for each.

  • Social Events

This can be any event that allows us to be with friends and experience an event that is considered to be ‘fun’. For example agricultural fairs, night clubs and parties.

  • Festivals and Religious Events

All religions around the globe have their own religious events annually, for example Christians celebrate Easter and the Jews celebrate Yom Kippur.

  • Conferences and Exhibitions

These are primarily for businesses to enhance its image to other businesses and individuals, these types of events vary in size and audience. For example a business introducing a new product to the market.

  • Work-Based Events

These types of events are usually hosted by certain businesses, to increase relationships between staff within a business, it is also there to increase motivation within a business, such events include Christmas parties and product launches.

  • Fund Raising Events

These types of events are there to encourage people to donate money for a good cause, for example for a charity group. For example for a ‘disabilities charity’.

  • Corporate Hospitality

These are events that are set up by businesses to provide hospitality and entertainment to invited individuals and parties to develop relationships and new to introduce new business. For example Microsoft could host a party to attract new clients like banks (e.g. HSBC) to use its software.

  • Sports Events

A sport event usually comprises of different teams competing with one another with particular sport(s), these type of events are usually held to celebrate the sport (e.g. for football, they host the Premiership League). In some cases these are events are their to raise money for charity. For example the ‘Special Olympics’.

Aims and Objectives

The aims and objectives of an event are crucial as these must be met to make the event feasible. All of the objectives have to be SMART, this means that they have to be;

  • Specific

The objectives should identify what you want to accomplish and be focused upon the aim of the event.

  • Measurable

The objectives should be able to be measured wherever you are meeting the objectives or not.

Aims and Objectives (Continued)

  • Achievable

The objectives set must be achievable and reasonable considering the resources and budget for the event.

  • Realistic

The objectives must be realistic considering the resources that are available for the event.

  • Time

Significant time should be organised to achieve the objectives.

The Aims

  • To educate the students about international business, this is to make students aware of how international businesses operate in contrast to how businesses in our local community operate.
  • To provide reasonable health and safety throughout the trip, this is to make sure that all the transportation and accommodation is ‘fit for purpose’ and that it is at a satisfactory standard.
  • To provide the event at a satisfactory price which students can afford, this is arranging a suitable trip that is at a reasonable price considering the things that are included in the trip.
  • To make the trip exciting, this is to make the students focused on the trips, therefore taking them to amenities that are considered to be interesting and will not bore the students.
  • To understand the different cultures and way of life in international countries, this is looking at major differences between our home culture and values compared to international countries.
  • To take appropriate notes for Unit 12 – International Dimensions, this should be done during day-trips and when experiencing Prague life.

The Objectives

  • To go on trips and visit several international businesses, therefore research and asking the tour operators for their views and opinions. It may be worth looking up reviews from other visitors, such as looking on tripadvisor.com. This should be ideally done during the first two weeks of planning the event.
  • To follow the guidelines and policies set by the Academy and Government. Looking at LEA guidelines on international trips in school. This should be done before the Academy agrees with a tour operator going on the trip.  

The Objectives (Continued)

  • To contact several tour operators and negotiate prices, this can be done by gathering different prices, and playing them off with one another, this may encourage them to reduce their prices further to win us over. This can be done during the first two weeks of planning the event; this can be done whilst we were looking at the Academy and Government procedures.
  • Allow students and teachers to choose trips which are to their liking, this would involve conducting a questionnaire (primary research) on what types of trips students want to attend. This should be done before any planning is done of the trip.
  • To do research on the destinations culture and attitudes and observing it on the trip, this can be done by looking at websites that provide information about the different cultures and believes, such as looking on the BBC’s website, this will allow the students to understand these before they arrive. This should be done several weeks before the trip by both the teachers and students.
  • To write down appropriate notes, when assisted by teachers, this will allow students to have sufficient notes when doing the International Dimension unit (after the trip).

Research About The Trip

It is a part of the process reviewing the feasibility for an event. Therefore it is required to do in-depth research, this enables us,  the event planners, to investigate what sort of reaction there might be to an event and then to use the research and collected information to make judgments on the proposed trip.

 

Primary Research

Primary research is information that is new and created to gain information that is for the purpose of the event. Therefore this research will be conducted on behalf of the students and teachers. We will use a range of methods such as discussions, questionnaires and presentations. Although this type of research is quite expensive and time-consuming it does give us reliable information. Within this research we will be able to include findings such as;

  • What sources of funding there might be for the event
  • Wherever students will attend the event
  • What the prospect of the event from those that are attending
  • What costs will be found for the students to pay

Throughout this project the students have held several meetings about organising the trip and allocating tasks to team members, all of the agenda’s, outcomes and other meeting justifications can be found at the back in the projects appendix.

The Choice of Event

When deciding different choices of events, it is important to start thinking about the success of an event being staged. Therefore research must be conducted prior to announcing the event, significant planning must be done, staging the event and acknowledge different individuals contribution to the event, as well as making recommendations that could ideally improve the event.  

We first had a meeting about what destination we should look into going, as a part of this unit we all decided to keep the destination within Europe because the transportation costs will be lower, which will therefore reduce the total cost of the trip. We all then came up with a list of cities which we felt would be most appropriate to use, these were Holland, Greece, Italy, Spain and Czech Republic.

As groups we all had to make a presentation on why it would be beneficial to host a trip in such a city, I selected Prague; my presentation can be found in the projects appendix. I recommended Prague because it hosted a whole range of events such as visiting the Skoda factory, as well as several beer factories and a crystal factory. The prices that I researched were very cheap, considering other destinations. I found the total price of flights to come to £69.50 and the price of the hotel room came to £60.28, altogether this came to £129.78.  Although this price did not include the cost of the trips or the travel arrangements going to the airport and coming back from the airport. My research can be found in the appendix at the back of this project. Although this was the country I was researching for my group, I gathered some information about some of the other group’s information about their destinations, this is shown below;

  • Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands; this is situated in Western Europe. Amsterdam is approximately 212 sq. km’s. They spoken language in Amsterdam is Dutch and the currency used is the Euro. The main interests are the beautiful rivers, also the architecture found in number of its buildings.  Although Amsterdam is well known for it’s night-life.  

  • Greece

Greece is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula. The shores of Greece’s Aegean Sea saw the emergence of the first advanced civilizations in Europe that impact is inseparable from today’s western institutions. Greece is 131,940 sq. km’s large.  Its spoken language is Greek.

  • Italy

Italy is located in Europe. Their main spoken language is Italian, and there main currency is the Euro. There are several places to visit, such as The Hadrian’s Mausoleum and Hadrian’s Villa. Italy is well known for it’s food specialty, such as Pasta, Spaghetti, Lasagna and Pizza.

The Choice of Event (Continued)

  • Spain

Spain is located in south-western Europe; the total size of Spain is 499,542 sq. km’s. Their currency is the Euro. Their mainly known for their culture in bullfighting, flamenco (dancing), tomato fighting and festivals. Their main food specialty is Tapas.

  • Prague

Prague is considered to be the heart of Europe, it is also the capital of Czech Republic. The total population of Prague is approximately 1,186,900. Prague is well known for its mediaeval culture, ranging from museums all the way to historic buildings like castles. Prague is also well known for its business culture, such as the breweries and car manufactures (e.g. Skoda).

After each group showed their presentation, we casted votes with the students and one of our teachers. As a result, the majority of the class chose the destination Prague, Amsterdam was the second most selected choice. After this decision was made, I’ve made a questionnaire to give to other potential students who would be going on the trip; this helped us to decide what sort of prices students would be willing to spend as well as what activities they wanted to attend during the trip. The questionnaire can be found at the back of this unit, in the appendix.

Analysis of Results

The analysis of results is based on the 30 respondents that took part in this questionnaire. A detailed analysis will be written about each set of results collected; this will allow us to further our planning into the trip.

The majority of students will be under 18, therefore we must consider activities that can be appropriately done by anyone ages 16 and above, activities such as drinking alcohol would not be suitable as the drinking age in Prague is 18. Teachers and parents should therefore create certain guidelines on what the students are allowed and not allowed to do during the trip.

Analysis of Results (Continued)

This suggests that we must make aware to those that are going on the trip where Prague is situated. This should be made aware to students during class; this can be done by making the students aware of the location and getting them to spread the information around by ‘word of mouth’.

Apart from the above form of communication, we could use the scroll screens around the school, and letters to inform students.

The results suggest that the majority of the students want to visit local businesses and local sites. Therefore we must look into arranging trips to local businesses that are based in Prague, such as the Skoda car factory. When booking a trip it may be best to do some research about the local area to see what sites the group can visit, this must be done quickly and efficiently so that bookings can be made prior to the actual trip taking place.

Students do not want to pay more than £299. This can be negotiated with companies we use to book the trip with, this price range may be able to be met, although under circumstances of health and safety, additional costs may have to be made on top of the booking as well as the number of people going on the trip could affect the price per person, therefore no assumptions can be made on the prices which each person would be paying.

The majority of students want to go to clubs and tours, therefore we will have to look into arranging a trip going to a club, although non-alcoholic beverages would have to be consumed, therefore certain rules would have to apply to students.

Overall this question has allowed us to gather information on what the students want, we have discovered that a large percentage of students may be under the age of 18 when traveling to Prague, therefore certain guidelines must be made, a small percentage of students are unaware of where Prague is situated, therefore this must be made aware to more students. We have also gathered information on where students want to go during the trip, such as to visit local businesses; as well as what type of price students are willing to pay. This information will allow us to prepare for the trip more effectively and efficiently.

At this point of time, the class felt that it would be useful for us to gather quotes from some tour operators, we decided to use NST Travel Group who specialise in educational trips. After two hours, the school received a call from Julia Sizer, a sales consultant from NST. She quotes an original price of
£300, this price included the flights, accommodation, coach fees in Prague, trips and morning breakfast. Although this price was based on a minimum of 30 students going. The price quoted was over the cost that the majority of the students wanted to pay (as quoted from the questionnaire). Extra costs are also involved, such as the coach taking us to the airport and picking us up from the airport, and spending money. Therefore this trip was being portrayed as expensive.

It was also important to gather quotes for the transportation going to and from the airport. We again called many coach companies, and asked for quotes (based on 32 passengers), these are all shown below;

  • Cedar Coach Hire                                        Cost:        £560
     (01322) 277977
  • DJ Coaches                                                 Cost:        £550         (+£10)*
     (01322) 552222
  • Mann Coaches                                         Cost:        £530        (+£10)*
     (01474) 358194

Coach Quotations (Continued)

  • Lewis Coaches plc                                        Cost:         £470        
     (0208) 8580031
  • Hextable Coaches                                        Cost:        £500        (+£10)*
     (01322) 666134

* The extra £10 has been quoted for the coach parking fee. Which adds an extra cost to the overall price per person.

Before we booked the trip we asked the majority of the students would they prefer transportation going to and from the airport by coach or by personal travel, the large majority chose coach, although the teachers suggested that a coach journey would be the most appropriate, because it would keep all the students together.

As a result we decided to go ahead and book the coaches with Lewis coaches, as this was the cheapest and the school recommended using them, as the school has used them several times before. The cost per student would be as follows (£480 / 30 = £16).

Secondary Research

A more cost-effective way of conducting research into an event is secondary research. Secondary research is information that is gathered from both internal and external source that has already been published. This type of information tends to be less expensive than primary research as gathering the information is not a cost, although this research is less reliable, this is because of the age of the information and the source. In most cases this type of information was gathered for another purpose and may not be the exact information we require.  Although it will still be quite useful to gather.

  • Internal Information        
    Information that is already held within the business, this information is usually information from previous events and periods of time, such as an Annual Report.

  • External Information        
    This type of information is usually published materials, collected from another business or individual. It can provide a relatively easy and cheap way to collect information in comparison to primary research.

Another way of collecting useful information is by finding it through the media. Although the information may be biased it presents stories about past events and organisations.

Media sources include the following;        

  • Newspaper
  • Magazines
  • Trade Journals
  • TV
  • Radio
  • Electronic Media (Websites and e-mail)        

For my secondary research I will look at three sources, I will first look at last year’s trip; I will look at previous student’s evaluations as well as the teacher’s opinions of the trip. This will be useful because I also went on last year’s trip.  I will then look into reports shown on BBC’s website regarding previous events held by schools. Finally I will conduct research into government instructions to school events, this will provide recommendations and appropriate information for us the students and the teachers to use when continuing to plan the trip.         

Student Evaluations on Previous Business Trip

Jamie Porritt, Previous Yr.13 – Business Trip to Brussels, Belgium

Jamie’s aims and objectives are as follows:

  • To promote business and enterprise in the Academy
  • Have fun, build community spirit and Post 16 bonding
  • Broaden everyone’s horizons
  • Unit 12 assistance for International Dimensions
  • Promote the business studies department
  • Get a better understanding of international business
  • Not going over budget
  • Making sure we go on the dates we set (27/11/06 – 30/11/06)

According to Jamie all of the aims and objectives were met successfully, with many being met better than expected. He felt that the ‘experience’ he received gave him an ‘inner-taste’ of international business. He also felt that the senior team (teachers) and the students interacted very well with one another and realised that a trip can be successfully arranged using both parties.

Further looking into Jamie Porritt’s evaluation he made a questionnaire and handed this out to the students after the trip took place, this allowed him to test the successfulness of the trip, and the analysis of results can be found below.

1. What are your reasons for going on the trip?

If we could ask this question again I think I would give people more options to choose from as you are limited with these choices.

Jamie Porritt’s Account : Analysis of Results (Continued)

2. What was the best part of the trip?

Most people thought that having a tour around the Coca Cola plant in Antwerp was the best part of the trip and if they have to recommend a trip to their friends and family they would tell them to visit the plant. The second best part was one of our main aims so it is good that people socialized with each other.

3. What was the worst part of the trip?

The worst part of the trip for most people was the Port of Antwerp. This was because we had to sit on the coach for two hours while listening to the tour guide talking about the ports history. The second worst part was the hotel food. The service was excellent but the students didn’t like the type of food they were serving, it also didn’t help that there were takeaways on our doorstep like Pizza Hut and McDonalds. The quality of the hotel food was good, e.g. fresh salmon and 3 course meals, etc, so it was not the hotels fault.

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4. Do you thing it was VFM (Value for Money)?

This was a good question to ask as it analyses the trip as a whole and whether it would be a good idea to do it again or at least organise a similar trip. I think it was value for money considering the same trip to Barcelona would have cost £400+ which didn’t include spending money etc. This is why I would recommend this trip to anyone who is thinking about going.

Jamie Porritt’s Account : Analysis of Results (Continued)

5. What would you do different if ...

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