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Objectives

1. To discover the world of event planning.

2. To examine how event planners manage different events and functions.

3. To show the different facets of event planning.

4. To analyze how the components of an event work together.

5. To discuss careers in event planning.

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Main Menu

• Event Planning Basics

• Event Marketing

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Event Planning

• Is the process involved in forming an event such as a press conference, sporting event, movie premiere or awards ceremony

• Involves the following three steps:– preparing– executing– following up

• Is important so an event can be executed successfully with minimal problems

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Event Planning

• Includes many aspects which can include the following:– booking a popular band – coordinating downtown traffic and

parking – planning the order of events– ensuring guest satisfaction

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Event Planning Stages

• Preparing• Executing• Following up

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Preparing for an Event

• Involves planning for the event• Also involves predicting how many

people will attend the event• Organizes the event up until the

executing stage

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Executing the Event

• Is the most important stage in event planning– the best preparation is a waste if an event

is executed poorly

• Requires the event to be completed• Also involves overcoming any problems

occurring during the event

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Common Event Problems

• Can include the following:– weather

– lighting issues

– technical issues

– fan discipline

– ticketing problems

– overcrowding (concerts)

– performer safety

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Following Up After Events

• Involves evaluating how the execution and planning stages were performed

• Also involves making any changes for future events

• Proves to be a valuable stage for learning • May involve sharing experiences with

others in the industry

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Event Planning

• Involves fulfilling the following needs:

concessions

merchandising

seating

ticketing

staffing and training

personal seat licensees

luxury boxes

season tickets

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Concessions

• Are food and drinks sold at events• Prove to be large revenue generators

The Baltimore Ravens average almost $13 per fan in concessions. With over 61,000 fans per game, concessions bring in $793,000 per game, or roughly $6.3 million per season.

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Concession Sales

• Vary with the weather and must be planned accordingly– extreme heat or cold temperatures tends to

increase concession sales

• Can be forecasted, or predicted, based on past attendance at an event– event planners can use statistical tools to

plan – past statistics prove useful when deciding

item quantities

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Concession Sales

• Are usually higher if the team is allowed to sell alcohol– alcohol sales generate more money since

alcohol is more expensive than most other drinks

Is it logical to assume the more fans at an event, the more revenue generated by concession sales? Revenue is money brought in to a business by the sale of a product or service.

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Merchandising

• Is the sale of logoed apparel for events– can include the following:

t-shirts sold at a local 5k race replica jerseys for sporting events CD sales, posters and drum sticks at

concerts foam fingers

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Merchandising

• Continues for the team, concert or event after the event is over– serves as free advertising when someone

wears an event t-shirt

• Serves as memorabilia for event attendees

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Planning Merchandising

• Is similar to planning concessions– event planners must estimate:

what each customer will purchase how much each customer will purchase

• Involves coordinating the purchasing of merchandise for the event

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Seating

• Involves planning where attendees will sit

• Is much easier at a stadium where seating is stationary than at a temporary venue like an outdoor concert

• Must provide everyone with a seat worth the price of admission

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Seating

• Comes in multiple forms: – chairs– bleachers– luxury boxes

• Is arranged in sections to offer a variety of prices

• Is synonymous with ticketing

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Ticketing

• Is one of the most complicated aspects of event planning

• Involves pricing tickets at a level drawing the maximum amount of customers and profits

• Also involves printing the actual tickets

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Ticketing a Large Event

• Involves printing off tickets for thousands of people

• Also involves online ticket capabilities• Has expanded into bar code ticketing

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Bar Code Ticketing

• Is a new method of ticketing

• Allows attendees to print tickets on home

computers

• Saves people time by not visiting a

ticket counter

• Can also be used with concessions

and merchandising

• For example, a San Diego Padres

bar code ticket costs $45 but may include $20

worth of merchandise or concessions

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Ticketing Systems

• Help event planners manage hundreds of thousands of tickets

• Are now mostly online• Can track which attendees actually

show up• Range from simple to use to extremely

complex, depending on the application

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Common Ticket Systems

• Include the following:– Ticketmaster Archtics– Etix– Paciolan – Prologue

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Personal Seat Licenses (PSLs)

• Are fees charged to ticket holders for the right to buy a season ticket– after paying for the personal seat license, the

ticket holder can buy a season ticket

• Offer an additional way for stadiums or teams to generate revenue

• May be used to finance new stadiums’ additional revenue

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Personal Seat Licenses

• Are controversial if they are implemented in an existing venue because many long-time season ticket holders may feel they already have the “right” to own a seat

• May make fans angry if they do not receive additional value for the right to their PSL

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Staffing & Training

• Is needed by employees working an event

• Must be coordinated by an event manager

• Can have hundreds of part time employees for large events

Think about how much training goes on behind the scenes of a major event. Everyone from the ticket takers to the ushers must be trained. How important to you is a stadium employee being able to direct you to a merchandise counter? What about a first aid center?

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Luxury Boxes

• Are upscale seats providing venues a chance to attract celebrities or other types of important clients

• Usually include free food and drinks along with televisions and a lounge area

• Are enclosed from the elements– most have windows which can be opened

for a more “stadium-like” experience

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Luxury Boxes

• Are often popular with corporations who use the luxury boxes to entertain and network with top clients

• Bring in substantial revenue for the venues– some luxury boxes cost

thousands of dollars per game

Networking: initiating relationships with new people and using the new relationships to help initiate mutual business

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Luxury Box

• Sales have recently slowed after a huge boom in the 1990s – possibly attributed to changes in tax laws– sales may have slowed due partially to the

explosion of luxury boxes – they are not as rare and “special” as they once were

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Season Tickets

• Offer fans tickets to all of a team’s games for one price– most fans will not come to every game

• Allow a team to have guaranteed money throughout the year

• Also allow fans to buy tickets at a lower price than buying each game individually

• May require the purchase of a personal seat license

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Partial Season Ticket Packages

• Offer fans guaranteed seats to a certain number of games throughout the year

• Are similar to season tickets – come in a variety of options:

some have as few as two games others come in packages of ten

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Partial Season Ticket Packages

• Allow fans to visit more than one game, but less than every single game

• Give teams the flexibility to package an attractive game which would sell well with an unattractive game where attendance would be lower, guaranteeing the team better attendance at the unattractive game

• Can also be packaged with merchandise for increased attractiveness– for example, some teams offer fans

autographed merchandise if they purchase a certain ticket package

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Event Marketing

• Is defined as the ongoing effort of marketing at events; specifically events such as press conferences, sporting events and award ceremonies

• Is commonly thought of as promotions or advertising at events– for example promotion of an athlete’s tennis shoes

at a sporting event or the advertisement of a soda at an outdoor event

Marketing: the pricing, placement and promotion of a product or service

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Event Marketing

• Can be thought of as a component of event planning

• May include a large amount of time spent working on planning an event

• For example, a company responsible for planning an outdoor Fourth of July event may spend a considerable amount of resources searching for event sponsors

Event planning

Event marketing

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Event Marketing

• Includes the following:– sponsorships– promotions– giveaways

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Sponsorships

• Are one of the most common ways events are funded

• Can be used in different ways– one sponsorship may rename an event or an

award, such as the FedEx® Orange Bowl or the Home Depot® Neighborhood MVP Award

• Can also be used on banners or billboards such as the outfield wall at a baseball stadium

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Sponsorships

• Are paid advertising for a company• Allow sponsors to connect with fans• Increase brand awareness among fans

Brand Awareness: the ongoing effort of sponsors and advertisers to keep their brand or product at the forefront of fans minds

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Promotions

• Are in-game or in-concert activities designed to entertain and advertise to consumers

• Provide event marketers with creative ways to entertain fans

• Offer sponsors with memorable ways to advertise to consumers– for example, a popular burger chain may offer

a burger eating competition with three fans at center court of a basketball game, providing entertainment for the fans and advertising for the sponsor

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Giveaways

• Are free materials a team or event can give away – for example, concert schedules, team

magnets and plastic wrist bands

• Usually include both the team/concert and sponsor’s logo

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Giveaways

• For example, programs at an opera include the names of participants and local donors. It may also showcase local businesses sponsoring the show. Other concerts may include logoed glow sticks or pom-poms. After the event many attendees will keep the give-a-ways as memorabilia. Every time they see the giveaway, the sponsor hopes they are connecting the great time they had at the event with the sponsor.

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Careers in Event Planning

• Come in many different shapes and sizes– for example, small arenas and stadiums have

event coordinators whose job is to plan and manage events for the arena

• Also include careers with specific events– for example event planners for the Super Bowl

spend more than three years planning for a single football game

• May include a single aspect of event planning– for example, many sports teams have careers for

people interested in ticket sales, a small component of event planning

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Assessment

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Assessment1. In your own words, what is event planning and how

does it relate to event marketing?

2. Name the three stages to event planning. Which one is most important and why?

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Assessment3. You are in charge of planning concessions for a

large concert in Los Angeles. The event is held every year and there is an expected attendance of 30,000 people. According to health laws, any food or drink not sold cannot be resold. What tools or sources will you use to decide how much food and drink to order?

4. You are in charge of planning a battle of the bands event for your school. The purpose of the event is to raise money. You will hold the battle at a local gymnasium. How will you use event planning and event marketing to raise money?

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Assessment5. A local restaurant contacts you about the battle of

the bands. They would like to do some kind of sponsorship or promotion. The restaurant mainly sells tacos and burritos. Name a sponsorship or promotion you think will be both creative and effective.

6. It is the day before the battle of the bands. A school administrator calls and informs you there has been a change of plans, and the gymnasium will be used for a basketball game. He tells you, “Sorry, but the order came from the top.” What do you do?

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Assessment

7. Your high school sports team is thinking about selling season tickets. There are a few games everyone attends every year. What are the advantages to partial season tickets? Do you think partial season tickets would be a good idea?

8. What are PSLs? Why are they important for a team or concert venue?

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Assessment9. What is your favorite sports team or band? Do you

have any of their branded merchandise? What would you like to buy that they do not currently offer? Do you think others would like to buy these things?

10. You are solely in charge of high school graduation occurring in eight months for the seniors. Where do you start planning such an important event? Do you need to form a committee to help split up the work? The seniors will graduate in eight months.

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Resources

• Padres Announce Single-Game Ticket Pricing and New Seating Optionssandiego.padres.mlb.com

• Impact of the Baltimore Ravens Pro Football Team on the Maryland Economybb.mdstad.com

• Sportslaw Jargon: Personal Seat Licenseswww.sportslawnews.com

• Fans Find Personal Seat Licenses Offer Few perksfindarticles.com

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Acknowledgements

Project Coordinator:Meghan Blanek

Production Manager:Dusty Moore

Executive Producers:Gordon Davis, Ph.D.

Jeff Lansdell

Production Coordinator:Justin Jones

Graphic Designers:Daniel Johnson

Ann Adams

© MMXIIICEV Multimedia, Ltd.

Brand Manager:Megan O’Quinn

Technical Writer:Jessica Odom