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Structure Of Event Services
We already know that the Event Industry has broadened its levels of specialization, and the technical requirements have increased due to greater expectation on the part of organizers and participants. This has caused a rapid development in event related services and support organizations. Small personal events such as a Birthday Party or An Anniversary may be a comparatively simple affair, as these events require little organizational or technical support from EMCs. On the other hand larger activities such as Exhibitions, Trade Fairs, VIP Events, Sports Championships, Launches, Festivals and Corporate Hospitality Activities often require a great deal of support from conception onwards. This support may be via the public sector, for example, the Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Sports organize multiple events across the country, and these are managed by these bodies themselves. The India Trade Promotion Organization, is the nodal trade promoting agency of the Government of India. Each state has its own ministries which conduct state or national level cultural and sporting events. Some educational institutions, including colleges and universities teach event management.
There are many interlinked activities in the events business besides entertainment and services, like technical and logical support that are provided by private event service providers. With an increasing complexity of needs and demands, the larger and elaborate the event becomes. Hence the standard of organization required for large scale events is very high and private services are providing a whole series of specialist activities to service these needs. These organizations typically either package services and provide the whole thing or provide one element of the service needed by an event organizer, who may wish to do the rest for themselves. The type of organizations capable of providing complete packages for events are normally:
Event Management Company
EMCs play a significant role in providing opportunities for people who would like to enter this industry. EMCs are gaining popularity today and have basically grown out of related service or hospitality providers, which have specialized in providing the complete event. EMCs tend to be involved where the organizers have a requirement for major or VIP events, or corporate hospitality or where, for example, a product launch demands specialist design and innovation. The benefit of having an EMC is the range of expertise, ideas and experience they can draw on. For instance, in the case of a gala evening, where a dinner with a theme has to be planned, the EMC will be capable of providing the expertise for almost any theme the organizer may choose. This will include identifying a suitable menu to go with the theme, as well as full catering support in food and beverage service at the event. Development of the theme would include specialist sets, props and, if necessary, costumes for participants or guests, and all the range of support requirements from special effects and lighting, to music [live or recorded] and entertainment.
An event may be unique, but the effectiveness it brings out is more important. It has to fulfil the purpose it has been set up for. Here comes the role of EMCs. For example, in designing a large scale social event like a wedding, many challenges are faced. These include deciding the venue, preparing the guest list, incorporating client preferences, and delivering the entire wedding event within a short period of time. Right from organizing bouquets to be gifted to chief guests to dropping and picking up celebrities to and from the events, is part of the job of EMCs.
For corporate events, right from maintaining protocol to sending invites and more is taken care of by the EMCs. The scope of work for EMCs varies. They also need to make sure that they stay within the budget of the event. For example, if a fund raiser is being organized, then the efforts should be made in the direction of maximizing participation. Likewise, if a concert is being organized by an EMC, the gathering of all relevant resources must top the list of priorities. Venue, seating arrangement, accommodation, etc. has to be systematically and accurately arranged. Assigning responsibility and rightfully delegating tasks is the key feature of a good EMC.
The ascent of EMCs began with global events and shows getting organized in India. Their place was fortified after the success of a few events. The team should be equipped to handle any kind of crisis during the event to make the function memorable and successful.
Production Companies
While attempting to create a high profile event and an event of a professional standard, the ability to develop it may be beyond the knowledge of the average organizer, delegated to do the job within a committee or other organization. Nevertheless, high profile events, VIP ceremonies, road shows, major competitions or product launches, all require specialist technical facilities and knowledge. Increasingly events of this kind are usually handled by production companies. Here, the companies are able to package the event together with the kind of wide range of technical support required. This technical support might range from set design to the training of presenters.
A production company will probably be able to undertake activities like:
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- Project Management, in the case of large scale projects where the whole event is delegated by the organizer to the production company as a contractor [especially those events that might also involve building or construction sets, either of the permanent or temporary kind].
- Design, including set and backdrop design, staging, decoration, lighting and the range of audio-visual support needed for high quality presentations.
- Venue management, where an organization may, for example, wish to take over a unique venue, such as a huge villa, palace or stately home to use for its event, where outside expertise can be brought in [outsourcing].
- Handling of participants or audience, which ranges from the simplest issues of ticketing and security to the full provision of VIP seat booking or allocation of accommodation or pavilion space.
- Technical support, ranging from simple provision or hiring in of equipment to the full preparation of computer graphics, slide or video production and related facilities.
- Basic Training of speakers, presenters and also of script writing and video production by some companies.
Though packaging for the whole event is not cheap, the production companies have the expertise and training that most organizers don’t have.
Event Catering Companies
Catering is the most important input to the events business. It has been sometimes mentioned that EMCs were earlier catering operators. Catering today is provided in three main ways: It is undertaken either in house [i.e. by an organizer or venue] or by contractors permanently employed at the venue or, alternatively, on an ad hoc basis at the venue. A venue might not be able to provide specialist catering for an event. For example, a temple ‘pooja’ gathering might have a kitchen but no caterer to run it. A larger venue may be needed nearby, or a marquee may have to be erected. These situations require catering services much before the event is organized.
Catering operators range in size and in the types of service they provide. The larger contract catering companies also run the in house services of a number of venues and ad hoc provision for conferences, exhibition and other events including corporate hospitality. Independent caterers also have a share of the ad hoc conference business. In addition, in the price restricted part of the market such as for charitable events, there are small independent caterers who provide basic, but sound catering in the form of buffets. This type of catering for small events may be subserviced, that is the food/drink is delivered with disposable plates, etc., and the organizer simply lays it out for participants or guests to eat. Bakeries often provide this kind of subserviced buffet, simply delivered and paid for on the spot and perfectly adequate for the job. A similar service is sometimes provided by supermarket companies.
Many major hospitality or catering companies have divisions dealing with events catering, sometimes perhaps wrongly known as Outside Catering. Event catering companies range in size from small family businesses, which look after events such as local weddings or village fetes, up to major international caterers who hold contracts for significant large scale events such as International Air Shows and Sports Tournaments, Major Society Weddings, VIP Dinners, Corporate Hospitality and so on. Consider the complexity and size of the catering provision for the Commonwealth Games, Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Tournament, the Paris Air Show or the Olympics, and it can be seen that this is a very large business indeed.
An organizer may choose any one of the above packaging organizations depending on the requirements of a particular event:
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- What are the event’s objectives?
- Who are the participants?
- How large will the event be?
- How complicated will the catering provision need to be?
In some cases, it might even be conceivable that all three types of company are needed together, but this is not very common.
Party Planners And Professional Event Organizers
Besides major companies that are increasing in popularity, events and event-related services are also provided by smaller organizations and individuals. These mostly fall under the group of party planners and professional event organizers. The first provide a range of services particularly for the personal events market, the second, for the corporate market. These would include the organization of parties, celebrations, weddings, anniversaries and many of similar events. Nowadays, though many people like to organize small events themselves, many like to hire and pay professionals to do the planning, organizing, operating and managing an event so that everything goes smoothly. Professional party planners or event organizers are obviously more used to doing this, than is the average person, who might only have to put on a batfish event occasionally, and might otherwise have to rely on friends and family to help.
Exhibition And Theatrical Contractors
Exhibition and some theatrical contractors have existed for many years. Their function is to provide exhibition [or backdrop] services of one kind or another ranging from design and management for large exhibition-type events to simple events. Some venues provide in house services but may rely on exhibition contractors to create and supply complete shell schemes for exhibitions. A number of exhibition contractors also have expertise in events production. However some specialize and act as suppliers of systems, either for hire or for purchase.
Technical Services And Multimedia Support
Like catering services, technical services can also be bought in. Some venues do not have the technical support or equipment to cope with the full range of services sometimes demanded by organizers. Community halls, tents or small hotels may have no facilities apart from space and furniture. Equipment and technical support can be taken on hire from a range of companies, some of whom simply provide equipment while others provide equipment, training and technical support. Basic presentation equipment can be hired, ranging from overhead projectors to slide projectors and video players. High levels of technology, ranging from multimedia to video-walks, are now available on hire. The higher levels of technology can also be hired to provide complete presentations. Print shops are capable of coping both black and white and color material for guest packs, ticket handouts and support material such as badges or place cards and video production facilities. The range of technical facilities provided by the companies in this field is extremely wide and reflects the importance that organizers, particularly for high profile and VIP events, attach to the need for technical facilities, such as LCD projection, prompting systems [auto cues], or any other of a wide range of systems to support a stage presentation, ceremony or commentary.
Voluntary Bodies, Committees And Individuals
Event management is one of those activities in which there is a large and active voluntary input. Many events, ranging from charity functions to village sports days, from birthday parties to local traditions, are undertaken by volunteers. This might be family or friends for a birthday or wedding, a volunteer group for a sports day or a fete. It might be a small committee set up for the purpose of running the event, anything from an annual rose growing competition to the recreation of a historic battle in full costume.
A typical voluntary committee might be made up of six or so people interested in putting on a particular event. The effectiveness of voluntary bodies is often very high due to commitment towards work and effort that the volunteers are willing to put into the activity, and also because of the lengths to which they might go to obtain resources, help, facilities and services for their event.
It is also the case that for larger or more important events, an event might be volunteer managed, through an executive committee, but the committee may employ a professional events’ organizer to plan and run the event. On the other hand a professionally managed event might not only employ volunteers as staff, but might co-ordinate the activities of a range of voluntary bodies to produce the event [such as at a carnival, where the organizers might be the city council tourism department, co-coordinating the efforts of everyone from the city band to the local majorettes].
A wide range of companies provide other services which can be hired in, contracted or purchased [depending on the service], in part or in full. These cover directly related services such as the provision of hospitality, or indirect services that exist not only to provide something for the events business, but also perform a function for the local community, for example, transport and guiding services, whose role is to get participants and audiences from the point of arrival to and sometimes around a venue. Then there are various other services such as retailing, medical support, administration, secretarial and travel. It can be seen from this approach that a matrix of distribution activities already exists in the events business. There is a range of distribution channels, like those of most industries. For example, when buying a holiday, the purchaser may go to a travel agent who might provide a whole package holiday [in the same way that an event management company can provide a whole event package]. Alternatively, the purchaser might put together a holiday from various component parts, such as a flight and a hotel, having chosen the destinations using information from tourist office [equally, a client wanting an event could do it themselves by assembling the various parts, a venue, a caterer, an entertainer, and so on]. The distribution channels are therefore the mechanism by which venues, markets and events activities are put together. The choice of the channel depends on the experiences and expectations of the buyer, and by the influences, that the various companies or other sellers can exert.
In India, the first mover advantage however has been with private Event Managers, as they have taken the lead.
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