Event Management (GM1214), 2021

Gothenburg Film Festival Group assignment in Event Management 2020 and 2021 have been very peculiar times for the event industries. Since March 2020, most events have been cancelled or postponed. It is an industry in crisis, but we have also seen exciting innovative (digital) solutions this year. Digital innovations in an event context will also be the topic of this year’s group assignment.

The group assignment will focus on the case of the Film Festival. The festival has made a journey from being a regular physical event attracting over 100 000 visits each year to a (almost) completely digital event in less than one year attracting more than 400.000 visitors in 2021.

The case is introduced through the lecturers and, more importantly, through presentations by the festival organizer and some of their partners on this journey (West Tourism Board and Gothenburg & Co).

You will work in groups during this course and together write a group-work. The process for working in the groups will be assisted by a number of actions and consultations.

1. Introduction to case and discussion at the introductory lecture (March 25) and the seminar on events during the pandemic (March 29). You create groups the 25th and are assigned tasks the 29th. Your group will get a specific task connected to the case. 2. Attend, listen, and pose questions at the seminar with Gothenburg Film Festival, Tourism Board and Gothenburg & Co (March 31). Prepare by reading up on task related literature and look at the homepage of the festival. 3. Extend your literature review for your task, prepare a plan for the group work and prepare an interview guide. 4. Group consultation is available on April 13 (afternoon) with lecturers to discuss and plan relevant literature and the interview guide. 5. Perform interviews (minimum of two interviews). You will get contacts through the festival and their partners (it could be festival visitors, event staff, sponsors, partners etc.) 6. Write a report based on the case, your specific task, relevant research literature and your interview material (see detailed information about content and structure for written report below). 7. Present your report in a seminar on April 26. Detailed instructions will be decided at the beginning of the course. Our suggestion is to have a session where all groups present their report (ca 10 minutes), followed by feedback and discussion with fellow students, lecturers and the Film festival. 8. Hand-in written report before lunch April 27 via Canvas.

Each group will be working with an individual task (see below).

Tasks

You as a group should be guided by the aim, but are free to investigate more specific research questions:

1. The participating hotels – Several hotels in the region of West Sweden participated in a marketing campaign where visitors could buy a film festival package including dinner, hotel room and free streaming of the Film festival. Aim – To analyze the opportunities and challenges of creating a festival experience from the hotel management perspective. 2. The hotel visitors – The hotels received many visitors during the festival week, often from the local area. Aim – To analyze the hotel visitors’ experiences. 3. The Isolated cinema from the organizer perspective – The Isolated cinema was a highly successful marketing campaign. This task focuses on the festival organizer perspective. Aim – To analyze the opportunities and challenges for the festival to develop and deliver the Isolated Cinema. 4. The Isolated cinema from a visitor perspective – A few individuals were chosen to experience the Isolated cinema at Pater Noster, and the Draken cinema. This task focuses on their experience. Aim – To analyze the Isolated cinema participants’ experiences. 5. The digital festival experience from the organizer perspective – Most of the festival went digital and the festival films were streamed on the festival’s streaming service (Draken Film) and enjoyed at people’s homes. Aim – To analyze the opportunities and challenges for the festival to organize a digital festival. 6. The digital festival experience from the visitor perspective – The festival had over 400 000 streams of festival films during the festival week. This task focuses on the digital experience of visitors. Aim – To analyze the digital home festival experience.

Theoretical starting points: At the heart of this assignment, we propose that you apply concepts and theories concerning the event and festival experiences (see Event Experience 1 & 2, Event experience evaluation). However, since each task is unique each group should add other perspectives that are relevant for the task. Please see some propositions in the table below. But, be creative and add other perspectives that fits your aim, and the results of your interviews!

Task Theories, concepts, themes Lectures 1 Destination planning, event marketing Destination planning and events, Event marketing and communication 2 Involvement, serious leisure, event-travel Involvement and Serious leisure career 3 PR, marketing communication, destination Destination planning and events, Event image marketing and communication 4 Involvement, serious leisure, event-travel Involvement and Serious leisure career 5 Stakeholder theory, event marketing, Acquiring resources, Event marketing experience quality and communication 6 Involvement, serious leisure, event-travel Involvement and Serious leisure career

Content and structure of the written report The final report should be between 4000 and 5000 words (including references). This is equivalent to approximately 8-10 pages (Arial 12pts). The report should be structured like a classic report or research article.

The group report should consist of:

1. An abstract summarizing the report (ca ½ page). 2. Introduction and problem background related to your task. Ending with aim and research questions (ca 1 page). 3. Literature review/theory linked to the aim and research questions of your task. Read and use the relevant course literature, and go beyond by finding relevant studies via the library or e.g. Google Scholar (ca 1-2 pages). 4. A short method section where you describe how the interviews were performed (and possible other sources) and possible limitations (ca ½ - 1 page). 5. Findings – describe and discuss the results from the interviews (and possible other sources) using the literature (ca 2-3 pages). 6. End with conclusions and some implications for event and/or destination managers based on your findings (ca 1-2 pages). 7. A reference section (max 1 page).

All team members contribute (equally) to the group work and its presentation. As an appendix to the report, describe how each member of the group has contributed to each part of the group assignment (the preparations, the interview guide and interviews, the writing of different parts of the report, and the final presentation). Max 1 page.

Grading of the group assignment The group assignment counts for 40% of the total grade, which is equivalent to 40 points.