Creative Events Management - 101 (Assignment)

Devise an area of possible development for a small contemporary dance company (real or imagined) that might effectively engage with or explore one current social issue – describe the new activity, suggest why it would be appropriate for the company and describe how this development might affect the organization

The company I have chosen is a hypothetical dance company based in Plymouth in the Southwest. It is made up of a group of 5 dancers who specialize in Hip-Hop, Street and Break Dances. The new activity that they will explore and engage in will help encourage disengaged students back into some form of learning.

The reason why this new area would be appropriate for the dance company comes from a recent article about truancy in Plymouth. Matt Flemming reports that ‘TWO secondary schools and a primary in Plymouth experienced almost twice the national average percentage of children playing truant from school, according to Government statistics’. Its also appropriate for the company as dance can be seen to help tackle some of the issues associated with Truancy and disengagement.

St Francis Xavier Catholic Primary School was a case study from the Foundation of Community Dance. Results from the workshops stated that ‘Behavioral and educational standards increased as hoped’ and ‘Additionally concentration levels, teamwork skills, and the social atmosphere have all improved.’  This proves how dance workshops can be implemented with success.

I would propose that the dance company work closely with local schools implementing compulsory workshops during school hours. These workshops would be less formal than normal lessons and the lessons would be planned and taken by the dancers. The workshops should have a truancy theme and I would encourage the dancers to promote learning by talking about their own personal experiences to which students can relate with. This should then lead to a public performance in the local community, highlighting the problems of truancy. The public performances would give the students the sense of involvement and success they might not have experienced before due to disengagement, which can lead to under achieving.

When looking to develop to company it is important to remember that involving a dance company cannot solve truancy alone. Christine Blower states that it’s a  ‘long hard slog involving cross-local-authority service responses and support’ and ‘Children who do not attend school are far more likely to commit criminal offences.’  Clear and realistic aims must be considered to prevent the company not meeting its triple bottom line approach. Despite this, Dance can provide a fresh alternative approach to initiate the learning experience.

The company would need to develop areas to deal with the application of working with children. It would need to ensure its employees have an up to date CRB check. The company would also be required to ensure training is up to date, such as Health and safety, Child Protection, Managing Challenging Behavior and PTLLS (Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector.) These qualifications are available through ‘City College Plymouth’ but would cost the company to enroll. This could possible mean the company employing a Human Resources Manager.

The government takes truancy and the disengaged learners very seriously. We have seen from the quotes that truancy has detrimental effects on social issues such as crime and unemployment. For a dance company to be able to show evidence that they are playing a role to help improve this would increase its work and business and its relationship in the community.

Sheppard, Jessica, 2010. Truancy at record high. [online] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/mar/25/truancy-pupils-record-high

[Accessed 28 November 2010].

Flemming Matt, 2010. Truancy double national figure at three Plymouth schools. [online] Available at: http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/news/Truancy-double-national-figure-schools/article-1868242-detail/article.html [Accessed 28 November 2010].

Case Studies, 2010. From Special Measures School to Healthy School. [online] Available at: http://www.communitydance.org.uk/metadot/index.pl?id=31545;isa=DBRow;op=show;dbview_id=30793 [Accessed 28 November 2010]

Creative Events Management - 102 (Assignment)

Using a specific event example, consider and write a summary of the operational elements used

Operational elements are the fundamentals that an event organiser and their team would consider to ensure the production process runs effectively, with clear purpose and efficiency. It is a vital part of the process to make the end product a success. Operational elements should relate to ‘Maslow's hierarchy of needs’ (MHoN) in the way they are considered and prioritised.

The event I have chosen to look at is ‘Plymouth Volksfest 2010’. The event is a three-day festival with a Volkswagen theme that has live music, camping, stalls, and car ‘show and shine’ competitions. I decided to look at the operational elements within three categories: Finance, infrastructure and content.

Chris Smith, one of three event co-coordinators, is in charge of the finance. He deals with the business plans and bank accounts, which include applications for loans and grants. Recent spending trends have shown that people are purchasing tickets much closer to the event. Therefore the event cannot rely on ticket sales for initial funding, as most of the infrastructure and content have to be paid for in advance. This means that Chris manages the online ticket sales. He deals with the legal side of the event including licenses such as the PRS and the Local Council. He also holds the relationship with the Landlord and corresponding contract.

Now the event has a location, date, and initial funding, the infrastructure can be planned. Vince Davis oversees this area and site plans are drawn up. This is where MHoN should be taken into account. It is important to consider the physical location for car parks, family and non family camping, arena, food and market stalls, fencing, perimeters, lighting for paths, generators, stages and toilets. The hiring and distributing of these items is also part of this process. Food, water, sleep and excretion are all priorities in ‘MHoN,’ these are then followed by the fencing, lighting and separate camping to ensure security.

The sound systems, lighting and content should then be considered. This is down to Ray Rose, the promoter. He is responsible for booking the bands, and marketing the event. Once the line up has been confirmed, along with the location and date, the marketing process can begin. This can be done via the Internet, flyering and press releases. I work along side Ray as a stage manager. My role is to make sure bands play on time and deal with any problems that arise in this area.

The whole team is responsible for the Health and Safety. When dealing with generators, a qualified professional must sign them off. PPE (personal protection equipment) must be worn where needed. Health and safety is taken very seriously, as every member of staff has a duty of care. The whole team needs to help to make sure marketing fulfils the promises it has made regarding the end product. It is also important to have good ethics with your staff including volunteers as they are equally important. With many finer operational elements it is clear to see how planning and prioritising these can lead to a well thought of, concise event, that meets the needs of its customers.

EASON-BASSETT, Claire. 2010. Lecture 5 - Operations and Health & Safety. PDF Website.

Creative Events Management - 102 (Assignment)

Write a short description (500 words) of how global economics are relevant for the Falmouth Oyster Festival

The Falmouth Oyster Festival is now in its 14^th year and is located in the heart of Falmouth in the events square. It celebrates the start of the oyster-dredging season and encompasses local chefs, seafood, children’s shell painting and live music. The website states that ‘Over 30,000 flocked to Falmouth over the four days,’ and local people and visitors voted this year the ‘Best yet!’

With the recent spending review announcing massive cuts across the cultural sector, how do Macroeconomics affect the Falmouth Oyster Festival.

Macroeconomics or (global) economics, ‘is the branch of economics that studies the overall working of a national economy.’ It looks at spending trends, influences, tax and inflation and employment and unemployment. All these factors can have significant effects on events such as the Falmouth Oyster Festival.

The Falmouth Oyster Festival is supported by sponsors and funded by Falmouth Festivals, Visit Cornwall and St Michael's Hotel & Spa. Without this funding the festival would not be financially possible, as revenue from the traders would not be sufficient enough to support it, therefore relying on this funding. Although not charging 30,000 people an entrance fee would seem like a ‘missed opportunity’, we have to look at the behaviors in the current economy. The Office of National Statistics produced a document called ‘Consumer Trends’. In this document it says that ‘Household final consumption expenditure in 2009 fell by 3.4 per cent’.  This is an indicator that prior to the date of this event UK households aren’t spending money on luxuries. With this in mind its possible that if ticket prices were introduced you would see a decrease in attendees and therefore jeopardising your sponsorship deals. In ‘Consumer Trends’ for 2010 it says ‘In the second quarter of 2010 the main areas of growth (when comparing levels of expenditure) were recreation and culture, which grew by 1.8 per cent.’  This could mean that the current spending trend is about to change and that ticket sales in the future could be an option. However, charging people to see this event might not be appropriate to the organisers due to its nature, but that’s a different matter!

Another factor of Macroeconomics is the date of the event. With the festival being located in October this helps to increase secondary spending and in my opinion this is reflected in the festivals mains sponsors. St Michael’s Hotel & Spa benefit from sponsoring by advertising and increasing revenue in what would normally be out of season dates. ‘Nigel Carpenter, Proprietor of St. Michael’s Hotel & Spa, said, “We are very excited to once again be main sponsors of this important festival”’ Through Visit Cornwall interest to this festival can be generated overseas which would increase foreign tourist spending in the UK.

In my opinion Falmouth Oyster Festival has been clever in decisions regarding how the event is funded. Acquiring strong links with their sponsors, and securing the funded needed to continue this important community festival, has led to a very successful event. However with this currently unstable economy and cuts in cultural funding, they might need to consider other means of finance and sponsors.

Press releases & festival news. 2010.Falmouth Oyster Festival. Available at: http://www.falmouthoysterfestival.co.uk/news_1005.html  [accessed 05 November 2010].

Consumer Trends. 2010.Office for National Statistics. Available at:

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_economy/CT2010Q2.pdf [accessed 2010].

EASON-BASSETT, Claire. 2009. Lecture 4 - Economics. PDF Website.