WP3 EVENT MANAGEMENT CASE PUBLIC-PRIVATE SECTOR COOPERATION D3.1.1.3

Barun Patro

Public-private cooperation: municipalities and media in the local event ecosystem

Editors: Jan-Erik Andelin & Camilla Stjernvall-Malmberg

Authors: Jan-Erik Andelin, Karoline Berg, Helena Lehtimäki, Camilla Stjernvall-Malmberg, Keth Strömdahl

Confidentiality: Consortium

Date and status: 30.12.2011 – FINAL

This work was supported by TEKES as part of the Next Media programme of TIVIT (Finnish Strategic Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation in the field of ICT) Next Media − a Tivit Programme Phase 2: 1.1−31.12.2011

Participants

Name Organization Contact data Jan-Erik Andelin KSF Media [email protected] Karoline Berg KSF Media [email protected] Camilla Stjernvall-Malmberg KSF Media [email protected] Keth Strömdahl KSF Media [email protected] ------Helena Lehtimäki (2010 only) Free Time Finland

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Executive Summary

Events do increasingly have an economic potential in local communities. Events are also considered adding social capital by connecting citizens, as well as creating attractivity and branding value to the community. Local ecosystems for event management, however, have yet to be defined for the medium and small size end of the spectrum.

In this report, the local event ecosystems of four municipalities are examined. They are Kimitoön (Kemiönsaari), Raseborg (Raasepori), Vantaa and Kotka.

Municipalities have developed their capacity to handle and participate in local events well. Whereas internal coordination of various public functions is in place, the information functions are often under-developed or weak, especially in relation to the use of social media. They municipalities are, however, catching up and they are doing so, partly independently from the established local media.

It is a challenge for media houses to take a leadership in local event management ecosystems. Media has the opportunity to secure ad revenue streams as well as offering their experience in handling news and calendar-related information as subcontractors to the public sector. This, however, requires media to go into a deeper cooperation with other players in the local event ecosystem.

Concrete steps suggested in this report are (1) the employment of dedicated community producers, (2) more events produced by the media houses themselves and (3) entering the ticket sales business in local communities.

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary ...... 3 1 Introduction ...... 6 1.1 Background ...... 6 1.2 Objectives ...... 6 1.3 Scope ...... 7 1.4 Approach ...... 7 1.5 Context ...... 8 1.6 Authors ...... 8 2 Events in the local community ...... 9 2.1 Local media ...... 11 2.2 The event ecosystem ...... 13 2.3 Roles in the ecosystem ...... 14 2.4 The individual in the event ecosystem ...... 17 2.5 Enthusiasm ...... 19 3 Case studies ...... 20 3.1 Municipality of Kimitoön ...... 20 3.2 City of Raseborg ...... 26 3.3 City of Vantaa ...... 29 3.4 City of Kotka ...... 33 3.5 Finnish Association of Municipalities ...... 35 4 Analysis ...... 37 4.1 The role of the municipality in the event ecosystem...... 37 4.2 The role of media in local ecosystems ...... 42 5 Conclusions ...... 47 5.1 Present state of interaction strategies and ecosystems ...... 47 5.2 Opportunities for media ...... 48 5.3 Suggestions ...... 49 References ...... 53 Links ...... 54 Interviews ...... 54 Appendix: Business canvas, adapted by Cheung & Giesecke (2011) ...... 56

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Table of tables

Table 1. Kimitoön: Roles in the local event management ecosystem ...... 23 Table 2. Raseborg: Roles in the local event management ecosystem ...... 28 Table 3. Vantaa: Roles in the local event management ecosystem ...... 32 Table 4. Kotka: Roles in the local event management ecosystem ...... 34 Table 5. Roles in the local event management ecosystem in all municipalities...... 38

Table of figures

Figure 1. Main roles of the event ecosystem as described by Halonen et al. 2010 ...... 15

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1 Introduction

1.1 Background

The evolution of local event ecosystems has to be modelled on how the local society transforms into becoming a part of the modern, unlimited information society. In extreme, but not at all rare cases, social media or search services like Google turn out to be the best tools for checking out at what time that singer-songwriter will perform in the pub a few blocks down your own street.

Old-time villages, counties and towns with their traditional feasts, holidays and calendarial market-days are turning into venues and events about which anybody today can obtain information. This can be done by a mobile phone, a portable computer tablet, a free public library PC just about anywhere. It can be in your own town, it can be at some antipode location, like Australia.

In building the modern European democracy, the role of the local municipality has grown into fostering the well-informed citizen making independent decisions. Not only is the public sector today to thumb-tack legal notices onto a billboard in the town hall. This study also hints at the manifold role of a Nordic-style local public sector. It coordinates, promotes, funds and (co)organizes events intended for interested members of the general public and informs them about those events. The public sector also uses events as a tool for creating an attractive public image of itself.

Also access to information and data collected by the public sector has been regarded as highly crucial tool in promoting democratic development and prosperity of our society. As a sequel to numerous information acts in western societies the use and exchange of open data is now being actively supported and encouraged.

Once upon a time, traditional media such as newspapers and local broadcasters had the monopoly over local information. This study now evaluates the role of it, facing a future full of evolving social media, the “personal media day” and all devices people use to both disseminate and collect information for specific and personal purposes.

1.2 Objectives

In this document, the relationship between the local public sector – cities and municipalities – and local media is being explored. The aim is to identify possible models for cooperation and business.

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This document also serves the overall objective of the Next Media WP3 Event Management project, which is to describe the event management ecosystem as a whole. The public sector and media are two central players in this ecosystem.

1.3 Scope

Within the local public sector, events are being managed in very different ways from one municipality to another. One central, but rather conservative approach is that public events are organized, managed and coordinated by the cultural administrations of town halls or municipality offices. There may, however, be other approaches, such as local events being handled by municipal agencies for tourism, local entrepreneurship, municipal development or adult education. In larger cities dedicated convention bureaus provide an “all-in-one” participation in local events.

1.4 Approach

This report examines the municipalities and the media in the local event management ecosystem. Being part of a media project the approach is, however, not fully symmetric. The municipalities have been examined as case studies in Chapter 3, whereas the media comments have been included in the analysis chapter, Chapter 4. This also reflects the fact that the final writing of the report was carried out by a media house, albeit with researchers contracted from the culture and community development sector.

A more theoretical framework for the local event management ecosystem has been laid out in a related Next Media deliverable, D3.1.1.2. That study by Zeerim Cheung and Raphael Giesecke at Aalto School of Science also comprises a theoretical approach to value creation and capturing processes, which are challenges to many players in the public and non-profit sector.

For the primary purpose of benchmarking event and calendar services, Osterwalder & Pigneur’s (2010: 16–42) Business Model Canvas was adapted by Cheung & Giesecke (2011 – see appendix 1). As far as applicable, this canvas was used also when collecting information regarding strategy and content from the municipalities involved. This framework was used for the collection of information, generally made through interviews.

Included in the report are also some interview results from the previous Next Media 2010 period, from City of Kotka (chapter 3.4), by Helena Lehtimäki and Camilla Stjernvall- Malmberg.

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1.5 Context

This report has been written in close connection with two co-reports within the same Next Media task.

The report D3.1.1.2 The event ecosystem will be written by Zeerim Cheung and Raphael Giesecke at Aalto University School of Science and Technology. It again will include findings in Cheung’s master thesis Evaluating the fit of business models in the event management ecosystem, submitted in December 2011. The final deliverable is to be completed by April 2012.

The other related report D3.1.1.4 Public-private sector cooperation: available open data about built environment has been finalized by editor Janne Saarela at Profium Oy in December 2011, simultaneously with this report.

1.6 Authors

Jan-Erik Andelin, responsible editor of this report, is project manager and editorial writer at KSF Media, the leading news print media house in Swedish language in Finland, running the event calendar service Evenemax.

Camilla Stjernvall-Malmberg, assisting editor of this report, is a project leader at KSF Media, responsible for Evenemax (see above). She is also a member of a company-internal focus group for future media.

Karoline Berg is an adviser at Svenska kulturfonden, with a focus on issues related to culture politics. She was contracted for interviews with culture office staff in municipalities.

Keth Strömdahl is an independent consultant with a background in regional and municipal development as well as in communication and media. She was contracted for interviews with municipality staff, event organizers and leading media officers.

Helena Lehtimäki, entrepreneur and editor at FreeTime Finland, produced some of the interview material related to the city of Kotka, in a framework preceding the work of this report in 2010.

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2 Events in the local community

The number of public events, especially in the field of culture, has boomed in Finland over the past 20 years. Several studies of the sector show that events are an expanding economical sector, especially in post-industrial cities. In Finland, however, the growth has been concentrated mainly to the big cities in the south of the country.

As shown by Kimmo Kainulainen in his 2005 thesis Kunta ja kulttuurin talous (Municipalities and cultural economy), events have become part of regional development processes. New terms like creative economy, experience economy, symbol economy and content industry have emerged. This study of four municipalities or cities in 2010 and 2011 also supports this understanding of the role of events in local communities.

General policies by the municipalities or regional governments may also be carried out by means of an event. The Maailma kylässä (World in A Village) event in Helsinki is clearly carried out with the intention to integrate immigrants and address their problems and to make the public administration more accessible and transparent to the individual citizen. The organizers also work according to a philosophy that “people will remember a public outdoor event better than any commercial”. (Artes 2010)

Abroad, the Flemish-Belgian support structure for events, Cultuurnet1, examined by Next Media, has also been given a clear task to carry out government policies. The considerable public funding of the project was given on the condition that especially children, immigrants and people with low income, or low experience in participating in cultural events should be provided with relevant event information (Temmerman 2011).

One of the main features of the Finnish cultural life is its many cultural institutions. The comprehensive institutional network includes e.g. public libraries, museums and theatres. There are some 70 major cultural centres that arrange cultural events, as well as hundreds of local cultural centres: public libraries, free adult education centres (kansalaisopisto, työväenopisto) etc. In addition, many entrepreneurs, the private sector, and a wealth of civic organizations, the third sector, coordinate, promote, fund and (co)organize local events.

The majority of local and regional cultural services in Finland are provided, and financed, by local authorities. Coordinating, promoting, funding and (co)organizing events may not be the local public sector’s main responsibility, but it is one of them.

1 Cultuurnet in Flemish Belgium is a network funded by the regional parliament. Cultuurnet currently serves 198 municipalities (2011) with a media platform for promoting culture and leisure events to the general public. A brand, UiT, has been established and is offered to municipalities in a franchise-style agreement at very low costs. The concept also comprises the children’s Vlieg (The Little Fly) brand and support for the Belgian municipalities’ information magazines, a well-established form of media in the country. Cultuurnet has a 4.3 m€ annual budget.

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Kuntaliitto, the Finnish Association of Municipalities, makes the distinction that events organized by the municipality itself traditionally have been considered the jurisdiction of the municipality’s cultural administration. (Winqvist 2011)

In most municipalities, the events organized are usually cultural events, thus with the Culture Office is in charge – even though the bodies for tourism, local entrepreneurship, education, development or even the central administration of the municipality itself may assume a significant role. Studies, however, show that sectorization and categorization of events are rapidly disappearing on the local level (Halonen 2004, 2010).

Large “flagship events” run by cities are considered to have a multiple effect on the local community. They do not create only jobs, but they also strengthen the city’s image and attractivity, create social cohesion and offer new possibilities for citizen participation. A large festival branded on the city also creates a fertile ground for a concentration of other local cultural activities (Kainulainen 2005a). There are also spin-off effects for local businesses, entrepreneurs and in the employment of citizens in general.

A holistic approach is also apparent in the EU-funded Tuottaja 2020 (Producer 2020) project, which aims at predicting changes in event managements and in the skills needed by future culture producers (Kainulainen 2005a, 2005b, Halonen 2010).

In larger cities, e.g. in Helsinki, the city administration may set up convention or festival bureaus providing events with an all-in-one service ranging from obtaining various permits to the coordination of visitor traffic or even funding issues.

Also the event organizations in themselves try to find new synergies to raise more revenue by offering services related to the events such as sightseeing tours, dining, spa services or parallel activities to attract whole families. Several large events do also build customer relation management systems (CRM) to track loyal customers and to keep them in the loop from one year to another. (Artes 2010)

In smaller communities, the need for a central strategy for marketing event is necessary. In several cases the key question is often whose responsibility marketing an event is. In the literature about event and culture management, this understanding has also created the term organizing context, which may be considered as a basis for the event management ecosystem this report wants to describe.

In the event management ecosystem to be described, the increased networking of municipalities, as well as cultural and art associations has to be considered. The same also applies for sports and youth associations, which are usually well connected on regional and national levels.

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On the individual level, cultural actors and artists are still themselves rarely ready to determine the success or results of events in analytical terms used in marketing and sales. Their role in the leadership of events is also diminishing in favour of more “money-makers” being employed to secure a well-functioning event on an event market with increasing competition (Artes 2010).

2.1 Local media 2.1.1 Media in the local event ecosystem

Local media has an important role in the ecosystem as being a node of information. With the development of the non-partisan omnibus newspaper in Nordic societies, local media at times nearly had a monopoly in distributing local information. With the deregulation of electronic media from the 1980’s and on, a growing number of media channels in both radio and TV effectively dismantled the monopoly. With the evolution of social media during the past decade, the monopoly is definitely gone.

Most local communities in Finland are mainly dominated by a large regional newspaper. Especially in more provincial regions the maakuntalehti has a strong position. Also the local YLE public network may be important channel of information. In addition, local newspapers, usually not dailies, and free sheet papers are important forms of traditional media.

Local events are highly regarded as news by the media. By traditional news criteria they attract and interest a lot of media readers and users; they are also often a spectacular element in the daily life of a local community.

In media economy, a sound media business is expected to raise more than half of its revenue from selling advertisements in the media channel – many publications are fully funded by ad revenue only.

The dismantled monopoly also reflects in the ad market in local communities. In Finland, the traditional media, however, maintains a strong grip on the market especially outside the big cities. Despite Finland’s image as a high-end and broadly permeated ICT country, web advertising is growing considerably slower than in the other Nordic countries or the UK.

Local events are a challenge in local ad sales, because many events are run on a low-budget, high volunteering basis. In many cases, the media houses covertly sponsor local events by a high deduction on ad fees, leaving themselves with a very low yield on the event advertising. This also puts pressure on the newsrooms to stay loyal to local event organizers and to publish news stories about their events.

In some cases, event organizers and local media have constructed win-win concepts. They usually involve an event publication being published with an extraordinarily greater number

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of advertisers joining to reach the event audience. The media house reaps the result of the ad sales, while the event organizer can refer their audience to the publication for essential information about, or mirroring of, the event.

2.1.2 Media traditions and convergence

To most media, neutrality and independent assessment are important values to be traded towards their readers and users. This implies that a deeper cooperation with the event organizer becomes complicated, as the media house easily feels its “media freedoms” can be compromised or jeopardized. The media also understands itself to represent the general public versus the event organizer, should the event consumers be served an event that would not fulfil the audience’s expectations.

In the context of this report, both the municipalities and the event organizers are also setting up rather informative and rich websites. In this study it is necessary to examine to what extent this implies a shift away from traditional media or if the new operational models are complementing the old ones.

In a changing media landscape the traditional media players face a situation where they are losing influence with a number of new information outlets growing rapidly. The traditional media and broad local events, however, both share the same value proposition towards their customer – creating a sense of local community. This study therefore calls for a re-assessment of how the apparent conflict of journalistic integrity and a devoted participation in the local ecosystem can be understood, and solved.

This study also calls for a closer examination of how the commercial interests of a media house, and the monetary goals of an event could be more closely coordinated in the interest of both, and of the event ecosystem as a whole.

2.1.3 Self-perception of media players

A certain set of journalistic ethics is apparent on most levels of newsroom work, also on the local one. Within the media house, journalists and reporters often see themselves representing “another side of the coin”, versus the staff at ad sales, subscription sales or customer service.

The same notion of “the healthy distance” between the media and other players in the local community is also reflected on the individual level. At times different forms of trust or mistrust may have built up in a way that affects the individual role. As this study also examines the role of the individual in the event ecosystem, also the traditional role of the journalist and reporter needs to be addressed.

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2.2 The event ecosystem

This study finds that a local event management ecosystem can be very dynamic and complex. Organizations as well as individuals in the local community may take up different roles simultaneously, and may even be difficult to assess or balance.

It also contains the elements of the innovative ecosystem as described by Antti Hautamäki (2008), where cultural factors – such as social capital, the mobility of individuals as well as attitudes towards entrepreneurship and risk – play a role. Hautamäki also emphasizes that ecosystems usually have an optimal size in order to work efficiently: a certain amount of people, companies, institutions – and a certain optimal degree of diversity.

Another important aspect pointed out by Kai Artes et alia is the time cycle aspect of the ecosystem. Several productive ecosystems are multiannual with a distinct cycle of an active period ranging from three to nine months.

The organization patterns in an event ecosystem are also most commonly flat, without an extensive hierarchy. There are career possibilities for skilled players in the system, but those opportunities are usually horizontal. The ecosystems are also very flexible in terms of employing people during a year, ranging from only a few full-time employees to the temporary peak staff of a big event like the Savonlinna Opera Festival hiring up to 900 people. Even fully commercial events may benefit from attracting a considerable number of volunteering enthusiasts (Artes 2010, Cheung 2011).

Cooperation patterns between different bodies and participants are crucial and should also be evaluated by examining hard-to-measure values such as enthusiasm, commitment or sense of community. Innovative ways to formulate win-win setups are essential; this is likely to happen when the right components, and the interests and potentials of individuals and the collective match.

Conflict patterns do also need to be evaluated, as conflicts of interest easily arise when participants with different interest join the same event project. This occurs especially in ad hoc situations or when the cooperation is not formally set or regulated. Also the dynamics between the enthusiast, initiator or driving force as a leading individual – the set typical for many a successful event – versus the collective need to be examined.

In this study, the case studies are not events but municipalities. In fact, Finnish municipalities are involved in both minor and major events, both amateur and professional culture, which calls for this study. What different interaction strategies do the local public sector utilize, related to events? It is to be expected that the big variation among the local events call for not too rigid strategies among the professionals working in the cultural field of public administration. (Johansson 2010, Halonen 2010)

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We will also examine the role of local media, which has an important role in creating the image of an event and to provide the information about it. Especially radio, TV and video media are often today important co-producers and partners of events. Also the traditional role of media as a critic of cultural performances is important to control the quality of content produced. (Halonen 2010).

2.3 Roles in the ecosystem

The manifold meaning of the word community guides one into the complex world of how local events emanate. Local events involve diametrical interests. They can be bare commercial interests or general governmental policies, or they can be based on phenomena such as community spirit, volunteering or enthusiasm.

Even the public sector itself plays several different roles in the event management ecosystem, which has also been acknowledged by Halonen et al. (2010). Other common players in the ecosystem are the third sector, the private sector, volunteers and key partners, including the media.

As described by Cheung & Giesecke (2011) and Cheung (2011), the public sector is the most diverse actor in the ecosystem. The four interviewed municipalities combined were actors in five different roles: funding provider, event provider, event-related service provider, event calendar provider and ticket seller. Of these, the most important roles of the public sector were those of funding and event provider. By acting in these roles they enable many events. Sponsors also enable events, but their goal is to associate their brand to the events they sponsor. Cheung’s definition of the roles has been used as a basis for sub-chapter 2.3.1.

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Another description of the event ecosystem has been presented by Halonen (2010) as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Main roles of the event ecosystem as described by Halonen et al. 2010

3RD SECTOR Organisations as partners Organisation funding Organisations as communication channels Organisations as content producers COMPANIES/SUBCONTRACTORS Technology | Content PUBLIC SECTOR Safety | Catering | Merchandise Municipalities as partners Tickets | Marketing | Sponsors Municipalities as regulators Lodging | Transport | Energy Municipalities as infra providers Risk management Regional funding EVENTS State funding

AFFILIATES VOLUNTEERS Media as content Work Media as communication Word of mouth Media as activators Knowledge Media as social media Building event content Other festivals: content Research and trainees

Winqvist (2011) makes a similar distinction of the role of municipalities in the management of events. She also stresses the role of the commonly known and well-established Finnish system of subsidies in place for providing public support for numerous small and medium- size actors in the field of culture and other leisure activities. Many subsidies do not imply further involvement of municipal authorities in the activities funded. Volunteers are also a considerable resource in organizing many events.

2.3.1 Ecosystem roles of the public sector

2.3.1.1 Funding provider

Funding providers and sponsors form the first group that provides capital for different actors in different roles to enable them to realise their goals. Funding providers, especially public organisations, use indirect funding methods such as providing venues or advisory services to event providers for free.

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Sponsors are similar to funding providers that they provide monetary support or services for reduced prices or free of charge. However, sponsorship is often used by companies for marketing purposes and to be associated with the brand of the sponsored actor. (Cheung 2011)

Sponsorships are, however considered deeper relationships, where the event and the sponsor exchange brand associations and values.

2.3.1.2 Event provider

Event providers range from huge multinational event agencies to local associations or individuals who promote their events even only by word of mouth or hyperlocal websites. The event providers are still self-evidently in a central role in the event management ecosystem.

One form of providing events in conjunction with funding is the partnership, where a player in the ecosystem supports an event by buying a number of tickets of seats in advance, thus granting part of the expected revenue.

2.3.1.3 Event-related service provider

Event-related service providers are a diverse group of actors that provide services for event providers and consumers. They provide services that complement the event and services that decrease the barrier to attend events. (Cheung 2011)

Event-related servjce providers can be venue owners, artists and performers, or vendors, that sell event-related items or food at events.

2.3.1.4 Event calendar provider

Event calendar providers are event aggregators that offer a calendar of events to customers either online, in print, or both. They are also owners of databases of events. (Cheung 2011)

2.3.1.5 Ticket seller

Ticket sellers provide ticket retailing services that are often commission based. By having the rights to sell tickets to events from event providers, ticket sellers can offer extensive retail location networks and online ticket retail service. (Cheung 2011)

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2.3.2 Ecosystem roles of media

2.3.2.1 Content producer

Media content producers supply information about events; before, during and after them. In traditional media, the content falls into one of three categories (1) promoting content such as the advance notice institution, the puffi, (2) reporting content in regular news style, also including critical angles about traffic arrangements flopping or tickets being too expensive and, finally (3) artistic criticism, institutionalized also on a local level, albeit often moderate, referring and rather encouraging in style in the local context.

Traditional media houses may also decide to publish (4) event supplements, which, however, rarely is a journalistic decision, but more motivated by ad sales in relation to the event. Also in cooperation with broadcasting media there may be more extensive schemes, where the event gets a broad exposure, the media again gets a well-packaged, concentrated source of quality content.

In new, social media, media content is much more made up of news and information items generated by users and visitors. Important forms are the fan forums, photo galleries and the tracking of friends participating in events. This element of event content has been exploited by many event sites, run by the event organizers themselves, but they are also continuously being developed by specialized event sites or general platforms like Facebook.

2.3.2.2 Media sales organizers

Media sales organizations continuously strive to identify target groups within their readership or user databases which may be attractive to advertisers. Events are interesting targets in themselves, as another player in the ecosystem efficiently rounds up a great number of the people with the same interests, properties and focus.

Media sales organizations may cooperate with event providers in the setup of events. In a local context there may be competition about the local share of advertising money, as the event by definition can be perceived as single, repetitive or annual mass medium in itself.

2.4 The individual in the event ecosystem

As shown in chapter 2.2, several events are dependent on skilled individuals, who become “the heart and soul of the event” – by their organizational skills, by keeping volunteers’ enthusiasm alive or by being visionary, artistic leaders.

A crucial element in the ecosystem is the paid employment of individuals, usually of coordinators or leaders. Employing full-time or full-year staff usually implies a major step for the whole understanding and scale of the event concerned.

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2.4.1 The driving force

Several events are dependent on a single individual as the driving force behind it. The essential skills of the driving force is in general a congeniality in combining artistic vision with coordinating skills, enthusiasm and volunteering to channel energy towards a common goal.

In the organization or in a network, the driving force, however, needs to enjoy the confidence of superiors and partners. In interviews, it also appears that especially when the public sector takes up a supportive role, the driving force can also be an employee within the municipality.

The event, dependent only on a driving force, also easily becomes vulnerable as this person or his/her skills cannot be easily replicated. There is a need to study how a driving force can be complemented by the ecosystem to ensure the continuity and further development of successful events.

In one case, examined in this study, the driving force behind a popular local event for historical houses and homes, attracting 14 000 annual visitors, was a senior journalist. In her role, she had fostered a vision, embraced by volunteering enthusiasts, which was taken further by her skills to convert the event into attractive media content for leading Finnish media. In a few years, the event reached regional and national popularity at very low costs for advertising and marketing. (Schulgin 2011)

2.4.2 The facilitator

In the public sector, the role of a dynamic employee is often to be a facilitator, who coordinates different kind of players, associations and skills. The facilitator usually initiates a constructive dialogue about the substance of the event with the skills to find necessary network. This person also often reflects the role of the public sector as the provider of infrastructure such as premises, facilities and technical or administrative assistance. The role of a tacit coordinator is often a substantial support for many events.

2.4.3 The wizard

In creating the preconditions for successful events, practical assistance and community spirit are often crucial. Regardless even of what the event is about, there is certain element of enthusiasm is participating in creating a common good. This is often operationalized in one of several persons, taking up roles like giving technical assistance or providing collateral services such as security or catering for events.

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2.5 Enthusiasm

In local contexts, grass root enthusiasm, is a driving force “moving mountains”. An important role of the local community is to facilitate and to foster enthusiasm among their citizen. The role of local media is to expose this enthusiasm and to create community among their readers and users by showing what people are enthusiastic about.

Enthusiasm and community spirit are not only a matter of organization, productivity or efficiency but also of well-being. In the collective, it is also essential to create a non- hierarchical environment, where there is a sense of equality and where the participants do not fear to being exploited by anyone. It is also important to create an accepting environment where participants perceive that their input is being valued and needed for the entity.

The ecosystem is not only a complex organization; it is also dynamic and elastic. The event ecosystem is also often non-hierarchical organization, where there is a value in creating joy and sense of community for others. This is not to be understood as work in a traditional way, creating community is being done out of free will and creates a value, which cannot be measured in terms of money or revenue. This is also in parallel with the traditional task of the municipality, the commune or the community – to produce a common good, not necessarily tradable to monetary value. This is also an important element of a creative process.

Enthusiasm also involves a genuine curiosity towards other humans. In a changing ecosystem the actors have to think out of the box. It is not a game and it is not about winning and profit for one individual but in the end it is a process that benefits the whole ecosystem.

Enthusiasm grows in a teamwork where individuals with all their roles, skills and capacity are working for something more, to create a spirit that brings more fun and joy for the whole group. In a good spirit, ambiance and atmosphere everyone wants to be connected, to share and to express one’s creativity and capacity.

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3 Case studies

3.1 Municipality of Kimitoön

The rural setting of Kimitoön (Kemiönsaari) dominates life in this 7,000-inhabitant municipality in south-western Finland, defined by an island, close to and well-connected to the mainland. Together with neighbouring municipalities the Kimito (Kemiö) region forms an attractive archipelago region highly regarded for summer holidays and leisure activities. Important tourist and leisure attractions are a lighthouse island, historical steel works, manors and churches. Kimitoön municipality was formed in 2009 by a merger of three minuscule municipalities dominated by agriculture and primary-level manufacturing industries.

3.1.1 Interaction strategy

The main roles of Kimitoön municipality in relation to events are the roles of funding provider, event provider, event calendar provider, event-related service provider and ticket seller.

The municipality is a funding provider for several youth project, which in general have priority in Kimitoön’s event strategy. One of the most important is a large junior football cup, attracting young players regionally.

The municipality acts as an event-related service provider by facilitating ambitious summer events such as two music festivals, one for classical music and one for jazz. The latter event is being described as a case in Chapter 3.1.1.1. The municipality also has a coordinating role in setting up several seasonal local fairs and markets. This involves initiations networks for local enterprises, associations and schools. It also involves support from the municipality regarding electricity and water supply, or traffic arrangements.

The municipality acts as an event calendar provider: In 2011, the municipality joined a regional event calendar in addition to event information displayed for years also on the municipality’s website.

The municipality acts as a ticket seller, which generates revenue. This is being done by the Luckan concept – a chain of non-profit information offices to promote Swedish culture and events.

Contrary to other municipalities of its size, Kimitoön has a fairly large development department. The department is responsible for local entrepreneurship, marketing and tourism, archipelago and country-side matters, village activities as well as projects in general. The department also actively assumes the role of branding the municipality, which is also done by

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local events. In interviews with central municipality staff the role of the development department was described as crucial to the local event ecosystem.

In the more traditional field of events, related to traditional “high culture”, the municipality produces very few events on its own, due to the lack of employed cultural producers. Furthermore, most of the people who work with events also have other responsibilities (e.g. the cultural secretary also works in aikuisopisto, the local centre for adult education).

Contrary to other bilingual municipalities, Kimitoön has chosen to integrate Luckan onto the municipality’s premises and into its staff administration in the culture and community centre Villa Lande in municipality centre Kimito (Kemiö). This creates further synergies and coordination among local events.

In interviews, the staff at the municipality offices is in general content about the top administration being ready to cooperate and to forge new alliances with other actors in the municipality. This helps everybody to reach common goals and to work towards a common vision and strategy. A positive atmosphere, enthusiasm and entrepreneurship are mentioned. Success and value are also expressed as creating more job opportunities and attracting new inhabitants to the municipality. At several national tourism fairs, the municipality is being presented as attractive both for leisure and permanent residence.

”We are known for our good service and for trusting our customers. You’ll see it everywhere; in the bank, in the pharmacy, at the municipality. Our services have a high standard.” (Wretdahl-Lindström 2011)

In a small municipality, every local player counts. In Kimitoön, the municipality in general advocates cooperation, in particular with the third sector. Also the local church congregations and the local centre for adult education are important event organizers.

The municipality is facing constant pressure to cut public spending, thus preferring to co- organize, coordinate, fund and promote events organized by others. Initiatives, enthusiasm and networking are reported to be encouraged by the top management in the municipality. There is also an easy access to, and an open dialogue with, the municipality staff. Also informal ad hoc project groups are common, even in private–public cooperation.

The on-going discussion to reduce the number of municipalities considerably, led by the Finnish government, is being perceived as a threat. Interviewees fear it will affect local identity and diminish the role of local municipality centres.

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One advantage of a small municipality is that the coordination of events benefits from being planned by people whose responsibilities often include different sectors of the municipality. A challenge in being small is that there is only a limited amount, and type, of premises available, and as the municipality itself does not organize much, it is sometimes difficult to secure variety among the events.

The cuts in spending are also affecting media as advertising of events and fairs is moving away from print advertising to the municipality’s own web channels.

The municipality’s role as an event organizer is emphasised during winter, because the local activists and civic organizations prefer to organize their events during summer when there are more people in the area – thanks to the more than 4 500 summer houses and cottages within this coastal municipality. The municipality focuses on organizing and funding events locally; this excludes for example theatre tours outside the boundaries of Kimitoön.

The municipality has a central role as a coordinator and facilitator of events. The municipality also actively acts to promote cooperation between local associations as well as businesses.

One strategic focus group in Kimitoön is children and the young as they are less mobile and able to consume events outside the municipality. Local enterprises also plan to organize a children’s fair. This is as a sequel to the wedding fairs of 2009 and 2010 (described later in section 3.1.1.2). There is a clear ambition to encourage immigration of young families with children to Kimitoön and there are plans to create the image of the island municipality as a “children’s island”.

For commercial event organizers children are not, however, of top interest. For instance private concert organizers are clearly tempted to suggest artists for an elderly audience. Every fourth inhabitant in Kimitoön is 65 years or older (the national average is 17 %), and the potential audience is quite small to begin with. The demographical threat of the age pyramid especially affects the peripheral southern parts of the island, with the ageing population of partly post-industrial Dalsbruk (Taalintehdas).

Important cooperation includes regional theatres, national film centres and regional organizations that coordinate and co-fund cultural events. As a newly merged municipality, Kimitoön is still in a fairly dynamic state. Current plans related to events involve e.g. more cooperation with the neighbouring municipalities as well as a network for all players involved in events for children. The municipality also eyes new web solutions related to events.

The value proposition in the municipality, beyond providing basic public service, was described as providing well-being, communication, information and visibility for local actors in the ecosystem. In communication, there was an effort to develop the municipality’s website and to promote blogging.

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Table 1. Kimitoön: Roles in the local event management ecosystem

Role How? Funding provider Funds, or co-funds, events and local event providers, including festivals (e.g. Baltic Jazz).

Event provider Provides events that otherwise would be unavailable for the inhabitants.

Event-related Provides premises and infrastructure for events. Initiates new projects and events, an activity service provider that often requires applying for external project funding.

Event calendar Provides an online event calendar on the municipality’s website. provider Ticket seller Sells tickets.

3.1.1.1 Local event case – the jazz festival

The jazz festival Baltic Jazz in Kimitoön, established in 1987, is an example of close cooperation between local enthusiasts, the municipality and local entrepreneurs and businesses. In the setting of the historical steel manufacturing plant in Dalsbruk, the festival attracts some 8 000 to 9 000 visitors every year – about half of them attend paid concerts.

Baltic Jazz is being run by a local association. Since 2008, the association has one full-time employee, the administrative director, working all-year. The artistic director, an internationally renowned musician, volunteers as the artistic director of the festival. Locals and associations work in practical support such as security and traffic arrangements rounding up some 120 volunteers –locals as well as summer residents and enthusiasts coming to Kimitoön for the event.

The festival works economically on zero-profit basis. There is, however, an increasing discrepancy in costs for artists and equipment going up, while ticket revenues will not do so accordingly.

Focusing on summer as the optimal time for high-attendance events, Baltic Jazz has coordinated its concerts with another similarly major event, a local but renowned festival for classical music. The two festivals take place subsequently during two weeks in July, in 2011 even with one joint event, Opera meets Jazz.

Baltic Jazz also faces competition from an annual sailing regatta in nearby Hanko and a renowned rock festival in nearby Turku.

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Baltic Jazz is considering related events such as a food festival. Also concepts related to the archipelago or the sea is being eyed. There is, however, a clear plan not to pick up the Pori Jazz concept 200 kilometres away; a considerably larger festival, grown into a broader music festival, comprising more than just the jazz genre. Baltic Jazz intends to remain a traditional jazz festival with music at an international standard. Despite this, the festival has had a close cooperation with Pori Jazz, as well as with the European Culture Capital 2011 project in Turku, the nearest big city, 60 kilometres away.

Baltic Jazz also suffers from limited marketing resources. TV commercials are used only very cautiously, whereas social media and Facebook increasingly play a role. A festival magazine is distributed in cooperation with the municipality at public facilities such as tourist offices and local marinas.

In interviews with both representatives of the festival, as well as of the local press, the relationship is mutually considered good. The Baltic Jazz organizers are content with the coverage done by regional newspapers in Salo and with a Swedish-language regional paper in Turku. The main Finnish-language regional newspaper in Turku has, however, remained a distant partner.

Pending the 25th anniversary of the festival, the event founders were appointed “Ambassadors of the Municipality 2011” by the local public administration. The municipality is described as not being very much exposed or insisting on being visibly present.

3.1.1.2 Local event case – a wedding fair

A local wedding fair has been organized in Kimitoön in 2009 and 2010. The initiative was taken by two entrepreneurs, one florist and a local marketing entrepreneur (also contracted for marketing tasks within the municipality).

The wedding fair was organized related to weddings; including restaurants, food and catering services, lodging, fashion, flower arrangements, marriage courses and counselling and legal issues. The idea created an innovative cooperation among local businesses.

There was also visible support from the municipality’s development department, which saw the role of enhancing the municipality’s image as “the good-life municipality” to attract people to move to Kimitoön and to become residents of municipality.

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The municipality’s development manager clearly used the occasion to market the municipality with its “600 thriving businesses, 200 farms and numerous events; theatre plays, concerts, festivals and other events all the year round” and urged the fair visitors

“... to say yes to the ones you love, start a family, and increase the number of people who live in Kimitoön”

3.1.2 Media strategy

The official homepage of Kimitoön municipality, www.kimitoon.fi, includes a local event calendar. Events are fed into the calendar manually, mainly by the municipality’s employees. In September 2011, the municipality also decided to join Evenemax, which is maintained by a media house and which covers mainly the southern coast, east of Kimitoön. This might benefit for example the people who come to Kimitoön only for the summer.

The municipality is also asking local event organizers to check and fill in their planned events in a planning calendar on kimitoon.fi. The idea is that both the event organizers themselves and the inhabitants of Kimitoön would benefit from coordination: there is not too much happening in the municipality in the winter, and only a limited local audience potential (7 184 inhabitants, November 2011). Still, most local organizers only check the planning calendar so far. In order for it to work properly, the event organizers should also add their own event plans to the calendar.

Other important local information channels include a bilingual free sheet newspaper for local advertisers (circulation 5 000), which uses event data from the municipality’s event calendar, and Kulturnytt, a free PDF newsletter sent out to anyone requesting it. The municipality administration also moderates the Facebook group Kimitoön – Kemiönsaari. The group is open to anyone and has 600 members (December 2011).

Cooperation with the a nationwide commercial TV network has led to the municipality being exposed on TV, commercials to attract inhabitants to Kimitoön.

In Kimitoön, important media include the regional radio channels and newspapers – available in both Finnish and Swedish plus a local free sheet paper in Swedish.

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3.2 City of Raseborg

Raseborg (Raasepori) on the southern coast with some 29,000 inhabitants saw prospects for rethinking city administration following the merger of three smaller municipalities in 2009. The region hosts a rich heritage of craftsmanship, industry, manors and idyllic small-town culture dating back to the 17th century. Following developments of the past decades, Raseborg is evolving into an attractive green region within commuting distance to both Helsinki and Turku.

3.2.1 Interaction strategy

The cultural services in Raseborg is not the only actor as event producer or coordinator. The city also co-organizes, acts as a funding provider, event provider, event-related service provider and event calendar provider.

Raseborg municipality is an important event provider, producing nationwide events locally, such as the Runeberg Day, Svenska dagen or Independence Day. The municipality also produces large local events for all ages such as the winter festivity Vinterspektaklet and the city’s own festivities during the Raseborg Day.

The municipality also co-organizes and sponsors several bigger events, and thus assumes the role as an event-related service provider. In interviews, city administration staff says that the individual staff members roles are currently shifting from being event providers towards becoming coordinators. It has become more urgent to activate both the third sector of associations and communities as well as local entrepreneurs. Within the municipality organization there is a lot of cross-sector activities e.g. between the public library, the cultural services, the youth council and the youth office.

The most significant of these events are a literature event or a series of summer concerts with classical music. Larger events often imply cooperation between different offices within the municipality, such as cultural services working together with youth services, as well as public- private cooperation with local entrepreneurs or volunteers.

The city administration also acts as a sponsor or event-related service provider by helping marketing events and distributing information about them. Raseborg also provides premises to local artists, e.g. by maintaining two art galleries.

The third sector and associations, such as those for culture and sports, and communities are expected to take a more profound role in organizing events. The municipality would rather take the role as a coordinator, providing infrastructure such as premises, parking arrangements etc., which is also seen as a form of sponsoring. On request, the city administration also helps local associations and cultural institutions promote their events by for example mailing posters and flyers via the city administration.

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With the exception of the Events publication three times a year and cooperating with a regional event calendar, the municipality also takes up the role of event calendar provider. The web-site of Raseborg municipality is also a regional portal with a rich supply of information.

Like Kimitoön, Raseborg is the result of a merger. As municipality mergers always have an impact on the ways things are done, and some of the key positions in departments responsible for events in Raseborg currently are either vacant or new, the city’s interaction strategy is best described as a strategy in progress. The city is expected to have restructured this part of its organization by early 2012.

Further, as the present Finnish Government Programme, set in June 2011, suggests that there will be more mergers like the ones in Kimitoön and Raseborg, these cases suggest that many local interaction and cooperation strategies will need to be adjusted in the near future.

An overall strategy of Raseborg is to develop the city to attract more tax-payers, preferably young families with children. Image and branding is also supposed to boost the sale of real estate. The departments in Raseborg participating in the events ecosystem would like to organize more events primarily for children, youth and the elderly. Another challenge is the many students that live in Raseborg.

One reason to the focus on events is also to attract tourists, even though many of the events are intended for locals. Raseborg also wants to be visible in connection with the historical iron mills in the region or with success of local teams in the rare sport of handball, common in this region. Raseborg is also the domicile of the national chef team, highlighting the region as a centre of Finnish gastronomy and the municipal administration wants to strengthen the brand also with this event.

In interviews, staff members say that there is clearly stated overall vision for Raseborg city, but that there is a concern that this vision is not clearly enough shared within the field of culture and events, as not with the administration’s 1 800 employees either.

It is also apparent that the local event management ecosystem needs to be further explicated. In order to have needs and wishes of the local audiences and event organizers formulated, the city has organized culture conferences and “culture chats” with local actors in the field of culture and events. The city is also actively following developments in an EU-funded network that links culture professionals and producers.

Raseborg also wants to cooperate with local companies that can supply service and entertainment to bigger national events. The municipality’s development department assists in this. For regional networking and marketing, there is also a regional development company available.

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The municipality also wants to cooperate with several kinds of stakeholders such as the region’s local army unit, the hospitals, handicraft communities, amateur theatres as well as numerous small associations and societies with lots of enthusiasts and groups who get things going. The cooperation with the local parish is also important.

The average age among the municipality employees is high and there is a lack of skills especially regarding IT, media, information, marketing and promotion. The municipal administration considers it not to be sufficient only to run an efficient bureaucracy, but also to demonstrate proactive skills in terms of dynamic cooperation with different players in the local community.

Table 2. Raseborg: Roles in the local event management ecosystem

Role How? Funding provider Funds and co-funds events and festivals.

Event provider Organizes several events.

Event-related Supports several local event providers by promoting and informing about events. service provider

Event calendar Provides an online event calendar on the municipality’s website. provider

Ticket seller No activities.

3.2.2 Media strategy

In Raseborg, one important aspect in the media strategy is that the information has to be available in both Swedish, the majority language (approx. 66 %), and the local minority language Finnish.

In interviews, staff in the city administration says that the media relations are good in both languages. One challenge is that the local media try to cover a fairly large geographical area. The Swedish-language regional newspaper is considered a very important source of information on what’s happening in Raseborg, but the newspaper also allocates its resources to serve readers in neighbouring municipalities.

However, local news media, both print and radio, tend to reach mostly the elderly in Raseborg. In order to reach young people, too, the city of Raseborg is present on Facebook (many of the local events and cultural institutions have their own profiles).

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Other important information channels include a printed bilingual event calendar (circulation 20 000) that the city of Raseborg publishes three times a year, also as an online PDF publication. The city has no other official event calendar but recommends and links to a regional calendar for southern Finland, but without abilities to stream data. The regional Swedish newspaper also publishes event information from the regional calendar.

When the city itself organizes annual culture seminars for the local culture field, amateurs as well as professionals, email is used as one further information channel. A new cultural information service provided by an external partner, the network for professional culture producers and actors, cannot fully replace the city’s own communications. Posters and other graphical materials are commissioned by graphical designers. The city has its own information officer based at the tourist office.

Ad sections in newspaper supplements are produced to attract people from the Helsinki area. In marketing and information announcement, social media, websites, supplements and tourist brochures are used.

3.3 City of Vantaa

Vantaa, in the Helsinki metropolitan area with some 203 000 inhabitants, is a suburb- dominated area of industry, trade and transport centred at the country’s leading airport. The age structure is considerably leaning towards the young, with more than 18 % of the population being younger than 14 years. The city also has a relatively high number of immigrants, with about every 16th citizen having their roots in a foreign country.

The city has traditionally grown as a periphery to the country’s capital Helsinki, and 55 % of the inhabitants of Vantaa do cross their city’s boundaries for work. For long time, Vantaa has lacked a clear city centre, although internal infrastructure is building up. An efficient internal public transport system is developing fast, including a new cross-city railway to be opened in 2014. Still people in general, though, look for events and entertainment beyond the city borders, especially in Helsinki.

3.3.1 Interaction strategy

The city of Vantaa has adopted an overall strategy to become a globally known city, especially mirroring the status of the country’s leading international airport Helsinki-Vantaa as the gateway to Asia. One aim of the strategy is creating “a Silicon Valley of culture”, which is also expected to have an effect on employment, revenue and creating pleasant environments for living. The city administration lists local businesses, entrepreneurs and associations as key partners for the production of events.

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The international goals also reflect into the city administration’s strategy for culture and events, where multiculturalism is a priority, in addition to more common target groups for municipalities – such as children, youth and seniors. In interviews, the staff says that the city’s cultural services are not felt to be sufficiently branded.

The city has a large variety in terms of socio-economy. There are several areas with a high number of immigrants and low-income households, large rural areas and a hi-tech and business cluster centered at the Aviapolis area around the airport.

There is also the need to create community in the suburbia, and to promote the image that not all high-class culture needs to be produced and consumed in the Helsinki metropolis downtown. The city administration also provides events by bringing culture to everyday contexts as e.g. shopping malls, swimming halls, schools and day care centers. One of the city’s culture coordinators is employed by the city’s social and health services.

The city also has the strategy of creating the sense of providing a continuous supply of events, not only for free for selected target groups, but also for the average “paying consumer”. For instance events related to pop music culture, or events that are environmentally disputable, such as fireworks, are usually offered at higher, market-related entrance fees.

The city of Vantaa acts as an event provider by organizing national and international events locally such as the War Veterans’ Day or local Christmas events. A high focus is placed on multiculturalism by Multicultural Women’s Day or the Multicultural Independence Day. A main local festival is the Vantaa City Festival and a large rock music festival. The city administration also organizes participation in events outside the city borders, such as the world’s largest orienteering mass event taking place outside the city borders.

The city of Vantaa is a funding provider for a local orchestra for entertainment music, an aviation museum, theatres and for many cultural and artists’ societies. The city administration also sponsors several events by buying ticket lots to be distributed for free to the citizens of Vantaa, thus granting the event organizer revenue.

Vantaa acts as an event-related service provider by offering facilities and venues for events. Those includes a concert hall, libraries, culture and art houses, auditoria and workshop facilities in the main community centers Myyrmäki, Martinlaakso, Tikkurila and Korso. The city hosts the country’s only animation museum. The administration also provides studios and training facilities for artists for free or at reasonable rents.

The city of Vantaa administers a considerable number of donated manor houses, which are a potential for growing tourism, for instance for Christmas season activities. Several larger commercial establishments such as a leisure centre for shopping, spa vacations, dining and entertainment; or a science center, are promoted for tourists by the city administration.

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In the Helsinki metropolitan area, there is a co-operation between the municipal administrations for venues and event facilities. In Helsinki there are a lot of unused buildings available for events, whereas the suburbs in surrounding Espoo and Vantaa again can provide a lot of outdoor public spaces for events such as pedestrian and shopping zones or open squares.

The Vantaa city administration works extensively in coordinating actors within the field of events. In interviews, the city administration staff says that creating networks is important to facilitate stable and strong enough productions, that are not dependent on given single individuals. It is also deemed important to bring tacit knowledge to a minimum and to create plans, procedures and methods that are generally applicable.

Vantaa also acts as an event calendar provider by offering two municipal event calendars (one of them more targeted at tourists) and also feeds data into other regional calendars.

Following the strategy of multiculturalism and Vantaa as a bridge to Asia, an intense relationship to China is being reflected in some events. The annual Chinese Moon festival and a Chinese culture week are being organized with invited artists from Vantaa’s Chinese partnership city. Local associations maintaining Finnish-Chinese connections participate in the events; so does the fairly large group of Vantaa citizens of Chinese origin, whose businesses are exposed at the event. The event is a low-budget production and one of the challenges is for the city to facilitate the arrangements for it, including necessary administrative permits.

Vantaa is part of the city cluster that, including Helsinki, was elected World Design Capital 2012. The city administration participates together with the cities of Espoo and Lahti and the town of Kauniainen in bringing art and design to daycare centers and schools with the Treasure Trove project, invented in Vantaa. The city also organizes the Art Life Philosophy series of lectures and public debates.

The organization structure is rather flat and the administration of events has a good access to the top management of the city, including the city director.

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Table 3. Vantaa: Roles in the local event management ecosystem

Role How? Funding provider Funds several local event providers, including major players like Vantaan viihdeorkesteri.

Event provider Organizes events.

Event-related Coordinates the event production by appointing members of the staff to be in charge of service provider events and being in touch with local activists. Publishes info materials, e.g. Vandanytt.

Event calendar Promotes both own and other events in the city’s event calendar, promotes events in provider Swedish in the event calendar Evenemax. Publishes audience-specific event calendars such as Kulttuurikaruselli, culture for children.

Ticket seller No activities.

3.3.2 Media strategy

The city administration in Vantaa takes up an important role in informing about events and marketing them. The city has two websites, of which one targets tourists. The city administration also provides event information to the local newspapers, available in both Finnish and Swedish and to radio and TV channels in the region. In the main national daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, published in neighbouring Helsinki (and printed in Vantaa), events in Vantaa rarely make the headlines.

In addition, the media landscape is close to common for the whole Helsinki region. This means that information about events in Vantaa not necessarily reach the citizens as a comparatively large part of the potential event audiences in Vantaa do not specifically read local newspapers or listen to local radio stations.

Information and communication is expensive for the city administration. Vantaa is therefore also using “old-school” information channels, such as 32 modern bus stop shelters, where large posters can be applied. Also for hyperlocal contexts, old-style physical billboards labelled Going on in Vantaa still appeal to organizers of small and hyperlocal events. The coat of arms of Vantaa adds value to this traditional form of media. The local billboards are, however, mainly used by local event organizers and associations, but the city administration has stopped using them.

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3.4 City of Kotka

Kotka in southeastern Finland, with some 55,000 inhabitants, is known for its port, industry and maritime festivals. It is also known as a multifaceted city of educational institutions, culture and events.

For this report, the data was gathered during a previous 2010 Next Media study led by Helena Lehtimäki and it is thus not fully compatible with the other cases presented in Chapter 3. The main goal of the interviews was to identify key players as well as their roles and needs in the event management ecosystem. The questionnaire used was different from the others and therefore the information here may partly be insufficient.

3.4.1 Interaction strategy

Also in Kotka events are organized and coordinated by different departments within the municipality, e.g. the cultural services department, the sports department and the department for services for children and the young. The tourist office, on the other hand, is interested in spreading information about events, not that much in organizing them.

The municipality’s event calendar is maintained by the tourist office and primarily focusing on tourists. Today the calendar is updated mainly by the workers of the office, but the sales manager feels that it should be done by the departments in charge of the events instead, simply because they usually have contact with the organizers of events for other reasons as well.

The most important task for the cultural services department is to arrange events and provide citizens with cultural services of different kinds. Quite often the department is also participating by funding and marketing events organized by others, mainly associations and cultural networks. According to the marketing assistant at the cultural services department the municipality sponsors tens of such events each year.

An interesting point regarding sponsorship is that the municipality in the role of an event organizer can also be the receiving part of sponsor money. For example the maritime festival Kotkan Meripäivät receives marketing money according to the amount of soft drinks produced by a certain company sold during the festival.

Partners play an important role when arranging larger events, e.g. organizers of sub events, ticket sellers, security personnel etc. If the event is organized by the municipality partnership sometimes has to be set out for competition.

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The needs and goals identified during the previous Next Media study were the following:

• public-private cooperation • compatible platform • strategy for implementation • strategy for distribution • strategy for continuity

Table 4. Kotka: Roles in the local event management ecosystem

Role How? Funding provider Funds or co-funds events and local event providers, e.g. associations and cultural networks.

Event provider Organizes several tens of events per year. The maritime festival Kotkan meripäivät is the second largest festival in Finland. Owns Kymi Sinfonietta (together with the City of Kouvola) and Kotka City Theatre, which both function as limited companies (Oy).

Event-related Coordinating some bigger events (i.e. main events), consisting a number of sub events service provider arranged by external organizers. Marketing events organized by others in brochures and a nationwide event calendar, occasionally also in other media such as newspapers, radio and TV.

Event calendar Maintaining an event calendar, to which event organizers can send information about their provider events.

Ticket seller Sells tickets.

3.4.2 Media strategy

In the case of city of Kotka, a coherent media strategy in promoting events could not be determined. On the other hand, it must again be stressed, that was also beyond the scope for the interviews in Kotka, which are here related to earlier research work.

The relationships between the city administration, the local municipal theatre and a regional orchestra for classical music can be described as traditional, polarized relationships. The actors of the cultural field remain informants and advertisers, and the media on its part does not take any active promoting role in relation to local events.

One typical example is the main yearly event, the Kotkan Meripäivät maritime festival for which the city administration feels it has a coordinating role. For the festival, however, the city administration produces its own program leaflet in 40 000 copies – to avoid excess advertising in the local press.

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The traditional contact to the editorial offices and news desks of the local media are, however, described as “good”. In general it is the event organizers, though, that are more active in serving the local reporters and journalists with press releases and information about their events.

Two leading newspapers of the region, with circulations of 27 000 and 23 000, have event calendars, both in print and on the web. The development of them appears to be increasingly restrictive. Instead of allying within the event ecosystem, the event calendars rather welcome organizers of small and single events, while the major players are encouraged to stay with traditional advertising. This is being done by new rules stating that repetitive and serial events – such as theatre performances or regular concerts – no longer can be included in the calendars.

This has also led the event organizers to find other partners in radio advertising, such as the nationwide pop music-driven radio networks like Iskelmäradio and Radio Nova or in the Rondo radio network for classical music. For major events, the local event organizers also advertise in nationwide Helsinki-based tabloids Iltasanomat and Iltalehti.

3.5 Finnish Association of Municipalities

Suomen Kuntaliitto is an association with a track record back to the 1910’s in promoting the interests and working processes of municipalities, cities and other bodies of public administration. In its present form the organization has been representing some 500 local and regional public sector entities since 1993.

Kuntaliitto considers the municipalities in general to have a good internal cooperation to be able to play their role in local event ecosystems. After years of discrepancies and conflicting interests between idealistic, “cultural” goals versus commercial interest around local events, the municipalities have today assumed a more flexible role towards different kinds of mixed financing and various joint ventures.

In an interview, a leading Kuntaliitto official points out (Winqvist 2011) that present research into the Finnish event sector is more focussed on the accumulation of social capital, than delving into the economical benefits an event creates in a local community. Cultural strategies for activities and events are increasingly being integrated with strategies for social welfare, health care and even architectural planning – as being parts of well-being and “good life”.

Kuntaliitto, however, appears to consider structures for information and communication are not very often well enough developed in the municipalities. Regarding local events there is too little effort to facilitate planning of events, or to disseminate information about them. Also within the culture offices, more focus is usually placed on the substance of an event than on informing the public about it. Information work is often a low-priority task, randomly

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performed and without adequate knowledge about a modern media rhythm or new media forms like social media.

Kuntaliitto sees an opportunity for closer cooperation between media houses and municipalities, where the media house, on a commercial basis, could offer its services as a partner or subcontractor, to secure a higher degree of media professionalism.

Kuntaliitto is, however, reluctant towards a standardized, common umbrella platform to be offered to the municipalities, like e.g. the Belgian Cultuurnet solution. Among Finnish municipalities there is large variation in operational structure. Kuntaliitto therefore suggests more customized solutions to be built in cooperation with single municipalities, or a well- cooperating cluster of them.

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4 Analysis

4.1 The role of the municipality in the event ecosystem

A general finding of this report is that it is difficult to identify a coherent or efficient ecosystem for managing events in the average municipality. Amidst a lot of good will and uncountable hours of volunteering citizens, networks, procedures and strategies the overall views remain sketchy.

The municipality also appears to be bound a traditional understanding of space, where events take place. The municipality restricts them very much to the municipality’s spatial jurisdiction, to its old pitäjä boundaries.

The role of media in the local community also appears traditional. In many cases it appears frozen into a decades-long perceived mutual understanding and status quo between local authorities, cultural actors and individual reporters.

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Table 5. Roles in the local event management ecosystem in all municipalities. Role Kimitoön Raseborg Vantaa Kotka Funding Funds, or co-funds, Funds and co-funds Funds several local Funds or co-funds provider events and local event events and festivals. event providers, events and local event providers, including including major players providers, e.g. festivals (e.g. Baltic like Vantaan associations and Jazz). viihdeorkesteri. cultural networks.

Event Provides events that Organizes several Organizes events. Organizes several tens provider otherwise would be events. of events per year. unavailable for the The maritime festival inhabitants. Kotkan meripäivät is the second largest festival in Finland. Owns Kymi Sinfonietta (together with the City of Kouvola) and Kotka City Theatre, which both function as limited companies (Oy).

Event- Provides premises and Supports several local Coordinates the event Coordinating some related infrastructure for events. event providers by production by bigger events (i.e. service Initiates new projects promoting and informing appointing members of main events), provider and events, an activity about events. the staff to be in consisting a number of that often requires charge of events and sub events arranged applying for external being in touch with by external organizers. project funding. local activists. Marketing events Publishes info organized by others in materials, e.g. brochures and a Vandanytt. nationwide event calendar, occasionally also in other media such as newspapers, radio and TV.

Event Provides an online Provides an online event Promotes both own Maintaining an event calendar event calendar on the calendar on the and other events in the calendar, to which provider municipality’s website. municipality’s website. city’s event calendar, event organizers can promotes events in send information about Swedish in the event their events. calendar Evenemax. Publishes audience- specific event calendars such as Kulttuurikaruselli, culture for children.

Ticket Sells tickets. No activities. No activities. Sells tickets. seller

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4.1.1 Geography, space and mergers

Municipalities appear to have a geographical challenge in relation to events. This is due to the traditional understanding of its geographical jurisdiction, which no longer corresponds to the behaviour of the event-consuming citizen. This affects the municipality’s role as a funding provider and an event provider.

In Finland there are on-going municipality reforms with numerous municipality mergers foreseen to take place in Finland in 2017 latest. In these changes the working models around the handling of events will be open to radical changes.

A flexible handling of geo issues in the management of events is crucial. Terms like vicinity and geo impact need to be operationalized for various sets of users. Children’s daytime event are usually sought for very close while good theatre plays are sought for within more than one hour’s drive by car. Specialized hobbies may cause someone to travel all over the country to participate in a gathering for committed enthusiasts.

In operative studies made at KSF Media’s Evenemax the clear pattern and dynamics regarding day trips has been discovered. Instead of staying within your own local community to enjoy an event, there is a considerable amount of day trip tourism.

The most common flow is from periphery to centre – people traveling from the countryside to the big cities to enjoy their day shopping and going to restaurants and to public events. This is typical for Vantaa, which clearly has to accept Helsinki downtown as the venue for a lot of events.

A great deal of the flow is, however, also from centre to periphery. This applies for cities like Porvoo or Raseborg, where idyllic small-town settings make them both a popular day trip choice for tourists, as well as residents of Helsinki.

4.1.2 Roles, resources and workflows

Many municipalities consider themselves having too small resources for working with events. In the framework laid out for this study this mainly affect the municipality’s role as an event provider and event-related service provider.

The lack of resources – perceived or real – typically reflects on municipality officials performing in many roles. In Kimitoön, for example, the cultural secretary is also simultaneously in charge of adult education. In several small municipalities throughout the country, information tasks are assigned to several officials, which lead to difficulties to be addressed in subchapter 4.1.6.

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In many municipalities the traditional dichotomy of public versus commercial events has been abolished. Still, the lack of resources can often be contributed to the municipalities taking on commercially less attractive events, generating low or no revenue at all.

There is also double complexity in the confusion of roles. They are unclear both within the municipality organization, as well as in the local ecosystem as such. Very often organizational structures are also dependent on individual skills among the municipality employees, for instance interest in new forms of media, like e.g. social media.

A sketchy organization in relation to the management of events also leads to a low degree of automation and syndication in the handling of event information, causing very much manual work.

Opportunity for the media industry: to provide the municipality with more integrated, automated and syndicated one-stop solutions with a wide and flexible distribution of information to multiple channels.

4.1.3 Variety, supply and continuity

Events are season-related phenomena. Outside the summer holiday season, or the Christmas season, the supply of events in the local ecosystems and small municipalities may drift towards a critical low. This affects the municipality’s role as an event provider and an event- related service provider.

This relates well to the spatial self-understanding of the municipality as described above. For the municipality a solution would be to adopt a more flexible scale in listing events. Operative monitoring at KSF Media’s Evenemax event service has shown that the range of the individual in search for a pleasant or interesting event is considerable.

When municipalities traditionally try to offer a sufficient variety of events locally, the event visitors are ready to travel to great length to experience what they are looking for. By linking up to media solutions that can provide a full set of event options at nearby locations, but also outside the municipality’s border a greater sense of a rich and continuous supply could be achieved.

Municipalities may team up with other municipalities in more permanent structures. More ad hoc coverage could be achieved with flexible media solutions e.g. listing music concerts in the nearby region on weekends when no concerts are on offer locally. This flexibility could also involve the supply of information about events in terms of language.

Opportunity for the media industry: to provide the municipality with spatially flexible solutions always granting a good user experience and sense of choice and completeness.

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4.1.4 Coordination and network

The role of coordinator, as well as strategies of networking, appear to be randomly constituted within the municipalities. They apparently play a “kiosk role” – services are made available at opening hours for anybody passing by. In the end this may also lead to uneconomical work processes, which also affect the municipality’s role as funding provider and event related service provider.

Culture offices often consider themselves in the role of coordinator – which demands a stringent, continuous and arduous work. One typical failure is to organize planning tools or planning calendars for the event sector; most attempts have failed.

There appears to be little explicit networking strategies and little follow up of results of various efforts made.

Media cooperation could offer, not only a platform for complete information, but also solutions and entrances for players in the local event ecosystem to cooperate and interact. This also forms a challenge for technological solutions, where databases and open data solutions need to be synchronized and interlinked with similar databases in other municipalities in order to provide a complete and relevant service for the end user.

If a platform is driven by the idea to provide complete information from as many sources as possible, it may also be perceived as a neutral ground, where many players can participate regardless of their own interest.

Opportunity for the media industry: to provide the municipality with solutions that integrates players in a local event ecosystem in a way that facilitates better coordination and networking.

4.1.5 Special target groups

The political goal for the public sector and numerous municipalities is to provide service, including events, to groups of citizens that are less attractive to commercial efforts. This affects the municipality’s role as an event provider, funding provider and event-related service provider.

Children appear to be the #1 special target group for municipalities. Other important groups, defined by political objectives are youth and seniors. In several municipalities there is also a cross-administrational cooperation between culture offices and social welfare offices. In Vantaa cultural events are widely produced for hospitals and elderly people’s homes. In Raseborg and Kimitoön, events were also considered important elements in attracting people to move to become new residents of the municipality.

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The special target groups are usually sought for within the municipality’s own citizens, and are rarely intended for ad hoc Sunday trippers or tourists. In providing information about these events, it is essential that these events can be differentiated from events intended for a broader audience. This adds challenges for flexible media technology solutions operating with parameters related to vicinity or geo impact.

Opportunity for the media industry: to create branded and tailor outlets of syndicated information for special target groups, like e.g. the Belgian Cultuurnet’s web solution Vlieg targeting children and families with children.2

4.1.6 Information skills and media cooperation

The alleged, or real, lack of funding for management of events is also reflected in a scattered role regarding the municipality’s role as an event-related service provider.

Information skills need to be developed, especially in municipalities where the responsibility to spread information is shared by several officials. Also media strategies are somewhat undeveloped. This, however, also related to the media being passive towards the public sector, where a closer companionship could have been initiated much earlier.

Opportunity for the media industry: to offer knowledge-based solutions to the public sector.

4.2 The role of media in local ecosystems

A general finding of this report is how the traditional media still considers itself to have a central role in being an information player in the local community. Very often this is being expressed by referring to the central values the traditional media claims to uphold, such as the freedom of information and the independence of the individual journalists and their assessments.

Given that the media landscape is changing rapidly, it is necessary to ask if this self-depiction is correct. The monopoly status of the local media, usually a newspaper, is fading. A prime challenge is not the occasional free sheet papers emerging, usually driven by one or two disappointed major local advertisers – but rather the fact that channels of communications are now available to many other skilled players outside traditional media. Anyone, or any organization, can be the publisher; the event providers themselves, or the public sector as the common facilitator of local cultural and event-related life.

2 http://www.uitmetvlieg.be/

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Some media houses have a track record of cooperation with cities and municipalities, or intend to do something about it. Others appear overconfident that no deeper cooperation is necessary, sometimes with rather ill-founded arguments.

A southern Finnish media house in the maakuntalehti category says it cooperates about local information with nearly all municipalities in the region it covers. The chief editor of a local newspaper in the Swedish-language KSF Media group says that local media should be ready to look into cooperation with municipalities “as they reach the same clients, customers and users as we do”. (Kaikkonen 2011, Westerlund 2011)

The upcoming changes in the municipality structure will create both opportunities as well as threats to local media. Not only will the networks and sources of information, both formal and informal, in the public sector undergo changes. Also the focus of the local citizen will shift. The changes in participating in cultural, sports or entertainment events already show that the local citizen’s geographical range has expanded considerably beyond the municipality borders.

One example was given when a local, enthusiast-driven project in a southern Finnish town grew to attract people also from other outside the municipality borders. After many years of cooperation with local media about producing event supplements in the local papers, the event organizer chose to cooperate with a regional free sheet paper with a broader distribution, based outside the municipality instead. This may also pinpoint the difficulties in the possible dialogue triangle of local enthusiasts, public sector and media in the local community – the local focus of events are lost and have been replaced by a new form of a wider geo focus. (Henriksson 2011)

4.2.1 Knowledge provider

Media in general still consider themselves the leader in knowledge about information processes. In interviews, a representative of a medium-size, regional media house says that there is opportunity for media houses to assume the role of a municipal information service, especially in the field of social and non-print media.

In a future cooperation with the municipality sector, the media houses regard themselves as providing services that are more user-oriented and more customer-friendly. They also consider themselves to be the more able party to help the municipality to build its communication. The websites of the municipalities are considered less informative and representing a tradition of presenting the administration hierarchy, rather than meeting the web visitor’s needs. In cooperation, the mutual roles of the municipality and media need to be clearly defined (Kaikkonen 2011)

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One chief editor sees the role of the media house to provide the platform, the event calendar or even other services to facilitate local events – as the media websites have more visitors and traffic than municipal websites. New-generation web tools can facilitate a more extensive cooperation with the municipality. There is, however, already a competition as some municipalities have been more successful in using e.g. Facebook than the local media house.

So far there are only few innovative win-win setups in the reasoning of the media houses. Basically, the media house only sees the opportunity to sell its know-how and services to create revenue and securing its own economy; “we need some kind of payment if we do the PR and marketing work”. At present, the promotion of the municipalities concerned is considered part of normal journalism. (Westerlund 2011)

Challenge for the media industry: to secure the achieved advantage in being ahead of other players in information management; to find mutually attractive and cost-effective modes of cooperation with the municipality sector.

4.2.2 Co-provider of events

Local media still very often has a stunningly high coverage in local communities. In fact, next only to the municipality and the church, the media is still one of the local top overall structures in local communities.

Media also share the very same value proposition as the municipality, creating the sense of community. Still, media is reluctant to take up a role as an active event organizer of public events. In an interview, the customer relations manager of a large media house in southern, urban Finland describes the idea of media producing public events as “rather theoretical”; he refers the idea mainly to business magazines organizing seminars. (Ruosteenoja 2011)

In bigger cities, local media rarely involve in event production, but rather provide services to handle events. One chief editor does not see the media’s newsroom as the initiator of events, but says that rather the event calendar provider owned by his own media house could have a role in introducing the media house to a more outright event production. (Kaijärvi 2011, Westerlund 2011)

Regarding event organizing, local media balances on its double role – to be an active agent or only a rapporteur. Media houses also say that they try to select events more carefully than before. The media house has to maintain its neutrality and its role as a critical watchdog also of the local commercial processes and debate. Interviewed for this study, the chairman of the Finnish organization for local newspapers refers to his own local newspaper, saying that it participates only in a local youth initiative and in sponsoring some sports events. (Ruosteenoja 2011, Henriksson 2011)

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The supreme value proposition of local media is to provide fast and reliable information to as many as possible. Other underlying value propositions, however, are very similar to the ones of the municipality, such as (1) creating a local sense of community and (2) providing service to specific target groups; of which the seniors are well-represented and even heavy users of traditional media.

Similarly, the municipality and the traditional media face the same challenge to brand themselves, to work on their image and to increase their exposure in public life and in the new multitude of information flows. This was not the case in the days when public sector and the local paper had their supreme and given roles in local society.

Challenge for the media industry: to identify value propositions that media share with the municipality and to setup cooperation in these fields, to identify target groups specifically singled out by the public sector, such as children, youth, seniors or immigrants.

4.2.3 Information channel

The very core role of media in the local event ecosystem is distributing the information about events. There is also a clear modus operandi between organizers of events or municipality staff and media about procedures that creates mutual benefits for both parties.

This includes media’s loyal publishing of advance information about events, institutionalized in the puffi practice; as well as the well-organized press conferences, scheduling of interviews, entrance tickets and working premises for the journalists attending and reporting about an event. (Henttonen 2011, Ruosteenoja 2011)

In the age of social media, local newsrooms also look into benefits in crowd-sourcing content from people attending an event. The visitors, and even the performers and artists, at events may create interesting content for the local media to publish in the form of blogs, tweet flows or mobile photos for a common event gallery. The win for the media is that “the news flow creates itself”. (Mykkänen 2011)

Challenge for the media industry: to create smart social media solutions that support the sense of community created by events.

4.2.4 Creating sense of community

In the field of events, some steps to create win-win setups have already been taken. This is related to the fact that local events are a low-revenue activity for the media house, as they very often are produced at low budgets and with a high degree of volunteering. With increasing competition in the media field, the media houses have also become more cautious in using money for direct funding of events.

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This has led to exchange of other values than outright monetary values including an institutionalized bartering. Media houses often covertly support events by providing reduced ad fees in exchange for tickets to be distributed to loyal readers, customers, partners and advertisers.

In return, media houses participating in events also get public exposure and goodwill in local events. The events also become physical interfaces for media houses to meet their readers, users, clients and stakeholders. Events also lead to partnerships with other players in the local ecosystem.

New forms of interaction also emerge in the age of the web and social media. Newspapers still organize “village tours” to meet the people. New media scenarios also open up for new forms or sponsorships, where cooperation with especially big, main sponsors creates win- wins throughout the ecosystem. (Holmberg 2011, Ruosteenoja 2011)

Challenge for the media industry: to create added value for the local event ecosystem by tying up leading advertisers to local events; to offer the media house’s experience in handling ads and advertisers as a service to the entire event ecosystem.

4.2.5 Partnerships for times of change

The rapid changes in the media landscape coincide with other developments in society. At the same time, new municipality structures emerge, together with changes in consumer behavior. Especially in sparsely populated parts of Finland a need for new service structures will emerge, with the media and its daily logistics for distribution information in a central role.

Also the administrative structure of bi- and multilingual communities may call for innovative solutions, where language barriers have to be overcome with practical solutions. Especially in the production of public events, many of them are interesting and attractive to the general public, regardless of language. (Westerlund 2011)

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5 Conclusions

5.1 Present state of interaction strategies and ecosystems

The results of the study suggest that the utilization of distinct interaction strategies is related to two factors: the number of events and local organizers, and the stability of the organization. The results suggest that both old and new municipalities in fact struggle with big challenges related to events.

One challenge is related to the changing media landscape. The municipalities acknowledge that they need new information channels in order to reach all ages, especially the young. As the municipalities aim at equal access to their services, including cultural services, media relations are in no way unimportant.

However, most of the employees within the local public sector that were interviewed seem to think that the media relations are hard to change. One typical answer is that much depends on the local journalists’ own personal interests. Also the interviewees representing the media houses tended to say the same: do not interfere with our journalists’ way of reporting.

This report also shows it to be acknowledged that print and broadcasting media are not sufficient anymore. Social media like Facebook is considered interesting and especially important for events for the young. It is, however, obvious that a common or superficial knowledge of Facebook alone will not solve the problem. There is still a need for deeper cooperation around media technologies and strategies within the ecosystem – the common ground for both the municipality and local media.

The case of Kimitoön suggests several good examples of public-private cooperation, both in the production of events as well as disseminating information about them. There are several successful cases of network-produced events, as well as the fact that the municipality has chosen to join a regional event calendar covering large areas of the south of Finland.

Mergers in the local public sector always have major impacts on local interaction strategies, including strategies related to events. The example of Raseborg suggests that one challenge for mergers is to achieve a dynamic ecosystem related to events, and to distribute the vision of it to the municipality staff.

In the brand-new municipalities emerging from the ongoing national municipality reform, the municipality administrations might have to focus all its energy on organizing internal co- operations. There is nothing wrong with preserving good practices and established events, but at some point, even the best of practices might become outdated.

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In search for a local event management ecosystem, it is obvious that common local strategies between all actors are usually not yet in place. This applies for the context of small and medium-size events, whereas high-profile festivals and events that are intended to boost the municipality’s image are usually well-run, also with their own media products.

It may also be useful to realize that many underlying value propositions at municipalities and media overlap. They are both engaged in creating a local sense of community. They are also both by definition defenders of the single, troubled citizen, and therefore define specific target groups that deserve special attention and priority.

Similarly, the municipality and the traditional media face the same challenge to renew them self from a past, where both were undisputed supremes in local society. Both municipalities and proud media institutions with century-old traditions now need to brand themselves, to work on their image and to be visible in public.

Events are opportunities to develop and brand a municipality, a city, a region – or a media actor in a way that creates a win-win-setup for both the public and the private sector. Cooperation and networking with associations, communities and municipalities must be based on trust and mutual respect, the division of labor must be clear and all parts have to be content with the result. Working together is being done by people, face to face. Structures cannot cooperate and communicate, people can.

5.2 Opportunities for media

There is a clear opportunity for media houses to assume a central role in the event ecosystem. Primarily, the media has the interest in securing ad revenue streams and also serving their audience with information about events, as they have considerable news value to the local community. There is also an apparent need to lower the threshold for the exchange of information between the municipality and the media. Now the successful exchange is often described as a result of an interested and devoted single reporter.

In addition to that, the media houses on local level also have a vast knowledge and experience in handling calendar-like information on a professional basis. This coordinative function has been less developed within the public sector, and there is an opportunity for the media houses to provide these services to the public sector as sub-contractors.

This requires the media houses to adopt state-of-the-art solutions for news and event management themselves. In many cases, it also requires a bold re-defining of the relationship between the local political power and the media. Conservative media leaders might prefer to stick to the old watch-dog role as the only form of communication between two key actors in the life of the local community, whereas innovation may lie in new cooperative structures.

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Media also has to re-think the traditional role setup between traditional journalism and advertisements. Traditional media is reluctant to introduce new professional roles, where these two conflicting interests would be skillfully balanced by a professional. Many activities and events are also both non-commercial and broadly embraced by the community and a deeper cooperation would not compromise the trustworthiness of the media.

The media houses have to cooperate over the language border so that the communication is natural and possible for everyone. Events can be a bridge over languages and improve interaction between people who speak different languages. Language should not be seen as an obstacle but as a possibility. The main thing is communication and there is no need for purism. Bi- and multilingual media houses could be an option.

5.3 Suggestions

In this study, a subtle comparison of the public sector and the media has been made, in the context of the local event ecosystem. In addition to a schematic description of roles that public sector or media organizations may have, also some properties and roles of individuals have been examined.

This study finds that the public sector – traditionally perceived as slow in change and decision-making – can develop into a player with great dynamics to the benefit of the local community. This has best been demonstrated in the case of Kimitoön municipality. Traditional media, perceiving itself as safe in decades of continuity and history, sometimes fails to see the same degree of innovation and readiness to change.

Below some concrete measures to facilitate a closer cooperation between the public and private sector; between municipalities and media, have been suggested. Some are related to individuals’ roles, some to task that have to be taken up by organizations.

5.3.1 Community producers

In the public sector’s cooperation with players in the field of culture and events, individuals as driving forces or facilitators obviously have an important role as “nodes of energy”. In media houses, this study fails to see this same “institutionalized enthusiasm” for local events being supported by media leaders and chief editors.

Media houses could also support enthusiasm and give possibilities to journalists inside the media houses to concentrate on event news coverage. They should also be trained for the necessary economic understanding of event economy, also in terms of the media’s own participation in the process. This role can be formulated as the community producer.

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The community producer generates event content for the media, gets in active contact with the stakeholders, produces content (articles, pictures, videos etc.) and participates in creating the atmosphere and local event brand.

The community producer could also act outside the media house as an independent producer, or be jointly employed by several parties in the event ecosystem. This could be a business opportunity for an entrepreneur and/or enthusiast: to build up own structures and networks. The community producer would work for events as crucial activities for the local community and also take care of issues regarding information flow, promotion, strategy and content.

More communication, contact, openness and dialogue are sought for – and also to break the relative isolation of the media sector to become more a doer than a spectator.

Media has to separate the neutral and positive information from the traditional news reporting and clarify the role in the local ecosystem. Media has to consider how deep inside it can go in the local event reporting. Is it possible also to tell about things in process (e.g. an amateur theatre) where cooperation does not work and the result maybe is not so good? Can media report about difficulties and failures in the process without risking later contacts and cooperation with people involved?

Cooperation with people has to be implemented as a dialogue, not only by taking but also by opening up and giving out professionalism and skills generously. In a changing media world social skills are crucial.

Grass root enthusiasts, like enthusiasts on all levels (in media or in municipalities) need support and back up from their employers or managers. Enthusiasm and creativity has to be nourished and not worked against, or the flow of ideas and the will to work for a common goal will disappear.

5.3.2 Event provider

Events are a possibility for media to get in contact with people and to activate stakeholders and grass root enthusiasts. People visit events on their leisure time, for the informal atmosphere and without duties and obligations. Also here, media would benefit from shifting its role from spectator to become a proactive doer. Media could easily use their own established channels for efficient advertising and marketing – their ad space, web banners and subscription databases – for their own needs to invite people to events organized by the media house itself.

Media needs to get out of the box and have the courage to think innovatively. The media world is changing towards more interaction and new channels for publication and therefore the role of traditional media has to change to be more active, both given the event audience

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and the third sector. The signals from the third sector, and from the public sector as well, are that the media have a role in events, but just have to seize it.

An example from the context of the interviews made for this study, would be the active development of the event for renovating historical houses into functional homes in Loviisa in southern Finland. The goal could be a “Strömsö concept”3 for this region, where the image of the town and private persons’ lifestyle, devotion, and interest in renovating old houses could be combined. In terms of economy, local ad sales shows that this field, “home & house” is creating the most business and revenue of all.

In addition to the annual summer event with the “open doors days”, seminars with informational and educative substance could be organized and be supported and promoted by local and other media. This would simultaneously create high quality and versatile content for the media in the form of articles, stories and photo galleries.

This would grant visibility for the media and make it a creator and driving force of a positive atmosphere. It would also become the facilitating force behind local “driving forces”. Carried out by professional community producers and coordinators, unhealthy competition and short term economic benefits would also be ruled of the event ecosystem.

Successful events could also create scalable procedures, methods and platforms for local solutions. Best practices extracted out of successful events could also help players to find new ways of cooperation

5.3.3 Ticket seller

As demonstrated by Cheung 2011, the traditionally humble role of the ticket seller, has become considerably important in the event ecosystem. Today, the ticketing agencies form international conglomerates, that extend the business interest into promotion, event media, support, infrastructure and service business behind major events.

In the local event ecosystem, organizing efficient ticket sales, including advance booking, payments and other logistics are a challenge to many event providers. This is an obvious business opportunity for the media houses with their existing vast customer databases, including the capacity for day-to-day updating and smooth forms of both traditional payment as well as new-generation micropayments.

This would also be a step further in the already existing non-monetary exchange of favours between event providers and media. This system could also involve loyal customer bonuses and schemes already in place, by providing attractive ticket price reductions explicitly to the media’s long-time paying customers.

3 A well-known lifestyle TV show in the Finnish FST5 channel, produced on-site in a seaside villa milieu.

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Ambitious ticket sales operated by local media could also create the incitement for media to market, promote and inform about events. The media could, once more, use their own unlimited access to the advertising and marketing channels they already are in themselves.

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References

Artes, Kai et alia 2010: Kulttuuritapahtumien ekosysteemit muutoksessa. Article in Halonen 2010, see below.

Cheung, Zeerim & Giesecke, Raphael 2011: Event Management Ecosystem: Part 1 – before Benchmark.

Cheung, Zeerim 2011: Evaluating the Fit of Business Models in the Event Management Ecosystem. Master thesis submitted to Aalto University 2011.

Halonen, Katri 2004: Huomisen rientoja tuottamassa. Tapahtumatuottajien ammatin kehitystrendejä tuottajia kouluttavien ammattikoreakoulujen näkökulmasta. Kulttuuripoliittisen tutkimuksen edistämissäätiön julkaisuja 5/2004.

Halonen, Katri 2005: Visioita ja valintoja. Tapahtumatuotannone tulevaisuus helsinkiläisten tuottajien arvioimana. Cuporen julkaisuja 10. http://bit.ly/halonen_2005.

Halonen, Katri (ed.) 2010: Kulttuuri kokoaa. Kulttuuritapahtumien muuttuvat verkostot. http://bit.ly/halonen_2010.

Hautamäki, Antti 2008: Kestävä innovointi. Innovaatiopolitiikka uusien haasteiden edessä. Sitran raportteja 76. Helsinki. http://bit.ly/hautamaki2008.

Johansson, Marjana 2008: Engaging Resources for Cultural Events – A Performative View.

Johansson, Marjana 2010: Det finlandssvenska festivalfältet.

Järvi, Antti & Laitio, Tommi 2010: Saa koskea – 10 konstia väkevämpään kulttuuriin.

Kainulainen, Kimmo 2005: Kulttuuriala kaupunkien menestystekijänä. Visioita ja näköaloja Jyväskylästä, Oulusta, Porista, Tampereelta ja Turusta.

Kainulainen, Kimmo 2005: Kunta ja kulttuurin talous. Tulkintoja kulttuuripääoman ja festivaalien aluetaloudellisista merkityksistä.

Osterwalder, A & Pigneur, Y. 2002: An e-Business Model Ontology for Modelling e-Business. 15th Bled Electronic Commerce Conference e-Reality: Constructing the e-Economy. Bled, Slovenia, June 17–19, 2002.

Talas, Saara 2004: On cultural practices of entrepreneurship. Paper to Kulttuuripolitiikan tutkimuksen päivät. Jyväskylä, November 8–9, 2004.

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Links

Localfinland.fi Finlex.fi Uitmetvlieg.be

Interviews

City of Kotka Arja Kokkonen, sales manager, city tourist office, 16.12.2010 Seija Günther, marketing assistant, city cultural office, 16.12.2010 Eeva-Liisa Kuokka, marketing manager, Kotka city theater, 16.12.2010 Heidi Mustikkaniemi, webmaster, Kymi Sinfonietta, 16.12.2010 Reijo Saksa, executive director, Kotkan Kauppatie ry, 10.12.2010

City of Vantaa Anders Lindholm-Ahlefelt, senior producer, city cultural services, 23.5 and 11.11.2011

City of Raseborg – Raasepori Jennika Friman, secretary of culture, city cultural office, 30.5. 2011 Citha Dahl, information officer, 26.10.2011

Municipality of Kimitoön – Kemiönsaari Solveig Friberg, secretary of culture and adult education, municipality office, 24.5.2011 Cathina Wretdal-Lindström, marketing officer, municipality office, 20.10.2011

Suomen kuntaliitto – Finnish Association of Municipalities Ditte Winqvist, special advisor, Dept. of Education and Culture, 29.8.2011

Baltic Jazz (festival, Kimitoön) Alexandra Walk, festival director, 10.11.2011

Cultuurnet (event calendar service in Belgium) Bart Temmerman, CEO, 13.7.2011

Loviisan Wanhat Talot – Lovisa Historiska Hus Maria Schulgin, driving force, information officer, 30.11.2011

Sanomalehtien liitto – Finnish Press Association Arto Henriksson, chairman, 29.11.2011 Jukka Holmberg, CEO (former chief editor of Salon Seudun Sanomat), 12.12.2011

Paikallislehtien liitto – Finnish Association of Local Newspapers Arto Henriksson, chairman, 29.11.2011

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Mediatalo ESA (media house in Lahti region) Kari Kaikkonen, media development director, 28.11.2011

Suomen Lehtiyhtymä (media house in southern Finland) Mikko Ruosteenoja, director of customer relations (former director of ad sales at Salon Seudun Sanomat), 12.12.2011

Vartti Pääkaupunkiseutu (free sheet paper for Helsinki region) Janne Kaijärvi, chief editor, 2.12.2011

Salon Seudun Sanomat (newspaper in Salo neighbouring Kimitoön) Veli-Matti Henttonen, culture editor, 11.12.2011

Västra Nyland (Swedish-language newspaper in Raseborg region) Tommy Westerlund, chief editor, 8.12.2011

Vartti Itä-Uusimaa Mika Mykkänen, chief news editor, 7.12.2011

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Appendix: Business canvas, adapted by Cheung & Giesecke (2011)

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