EVN301 Events Policy and Strategy For Meadows Country Fair

Answer:

Introduction 

Before holding an event, it is essential to analyze it strategically and take the support of local council. Both are equally important for successful organization and completion of any event. This report is focused on conducting the strategic analysis of the event that is chosen in the first assessment. The event was named as “Meadows Country Fair” for which organizer is seeking support from a local council i.e. Adelaide Hill Council. Adelaide Hill Council is regional governing body in Adelaide in South Australia. This council was set up in the year 1997 (Adelaide Hills Council, 2016). As mentioned in the previous assessment, this local council will be organizing this cultural event “Meadows Country Fair” in Australia. This assessment includes the objectives of both local council and community and explains how they align with each other. It states about the positive impacts of event on Australian community and there are some techniques to mitigate the negative impacts, if any. At the end, it describes the type of event support that is required for this particular event.

Identification of Applicable Policies to Their Event

Meadows County Fair is a cultural event that will be conducted on Mawson Road that is situated at Adelaide Hill in the Southern Australia. It would be organized with the purpose of increasing the interests of visitors and tourists towards Australian culture so that they can preserve it. The policies of event will be prepared considering the interests and benefits of both community and local council. It will get the involvement of indigenous population living in the area including older people also. It will show the local products like food and wine and tourism of the region and other specialties like wildlife preservation and education (Webster, 2017). It would be a community event and all the fund collection will be distributed to community groups, emergency services and sporting authorities. The major stakeholders of this event are such as traders, organizers, government council, audiences, participants, charity organizations, fund providers, volunteers, tourists etc. These stakeholders are playing an important role in strategic positioning of this event in the chosen area. However, the organizers will make the best efforts to hold the event but there are some limitations which can affect it like insufficient sponsorship, lack of promotion, lack of cultural awareness among young generation and ineffective support from council (Allen, O'toole, Harris & McDonnell, 2012). 

Alignment of Objectives  

For getting approval of the local council i.e., Adelaide Hill Council, it is important to find alignment between objectives of council and event. The strategic objectives of event and local council are discussed below:

Objectives of Event 

The Meadows County Fair will be one of the best events in the Adelaide Hills. The organizers of the event commit to become better and bigger event than ever. There are some specific objectives for which Meadows County Fair will be conducted in Australia (Meadows County Fair, 2018). These objectives are such as:

• The foremost objective of this event will be to promote the local culture among tourists and visitors to Australia.
• Secondly, the event will propose to enhance the interests of international visitors towards Australian traditions and cultures.
• Thirdly, it will seek to promote and progress the junior spots in the district.
• To make the youth aware about the local food and culture by providing them premium sports facilities.
• To develop and promote the Adelaide Hills as a tourist place.

Local Council’s Objectives 

Adelaide Hills Council is a regional government body that works in The Adelaide Hills area of South Australia. This local council acts to attain various strategic objectives like:

• One of the major objectives of this council is to develop Adelaide Hills a place for everyone.
• This entity works to meet the changing needs and expectations of community (Webster, 2017).
• To engage with the society and involve them in the strategic decision making process.
• To promote community arts and culture and create equal opportunities for all the communities.
• The council aims to respect the relationship of community people with the land and they are working together to ensure that their traditions and culture are safeguarded (Zeppel & James-Overheu, 2012).

By looking at the above objectives, it will be easy to say that there will be an effective alignment among their objectives. As it can be seen that both are working for the objective to enhance and protect the local culture of community and area (Van der Wagen & White, 2018). The council and event will be able to attract more tourism in Adelaide Hills. In addition to this, the aims of council and event are aligned as they are both working towards develop this area as a famous tourist destination in Australia. In this way, the chosen event and council are working for attaining mutual objectives.

Positive Impact of Event on Local Community

There will be various impacts of Meadows Country Fair on the local community and its people. It will be a community organization that will focus on the benefits of community’s people. One of the major positive impacts on community will be that all the collected proceeds will be distributed to all groups of local community. Every year, it will choose a charity to support the people by giving 10% donation of ticket prices. It has different types of effects on local people like social, cultural and economic (Etiosa, 2012). These impacts will be simple experiences in the form of shared entertainment like concerts and sports activities. In the county, this event will have the ability to strengthen the community pride, launch new ideas and assist to revive the traditions of local people. It will intensify the culture, values and traditions of local community.

Additionally, it will have some economic impacts on people through different means for example foreign exchange earnings, tourist spending, employment and income generation. Some other positive effects of Meadows County Fair will provide business opportunities to the community people (Andersson & Armbrecht, 2017). This event can be an effective way for the local communities to show their expertise, accommodating investors and encouraging more business opportunities. This impact can be measured by looking at the participation and interest of community people. In order to measure these positive impacts, employment rate of community, income growth and overall development of community can be considered.

Ways to Mitigate the Negative Impacts 

Apart from above positive effects, there may be some negative impacts of the chosen event like influence on their social life, infrastructure facilities, environment and other amenities. For example, the community people may face the traffic issues, access to their homes, cost inflation of products and services, loss of amenities that can elevate local markets thereby affecting the low income people (Postma & Schmuecker, 2017). The potential negative impact can be overcome by using different strategies. The organizers should ensure that all the basic facilities and required amenities are in the place where the event will be organized. First, the organizers will focus on developing the infrastructure of the city so it can overcome the issues related to traffic. At the time of promotion, the organizers will encourage the people to keep the environment safe. It will take effective actions to protect the environment and its resources. Other adverse impacts can be mitigated by encouraging the larger companies, private investors and city council to invest in development of area and tourism (Hallmann & Zehrer, 2017). If there will be availability of more funds for hosting this event, more visitors both domestic and internationally will be enticed to Adelaide Hills and positive effects will be great.

Type of Event Support 

The organizers are seeking different types of event support from the local council i.e. Adelaide Hills Council. Seeking the most strategic corporate alliance and partnership is the most significant tasks when conducting an event. First, the organizers will seek the support for partners who will assist them. One foremost support is the financial support which it seeks from the local council. However, this event will be sponsored by different firms, but it will make efforts to take financial assistance from government bodies. Moreover, local council can support them to getting the land or venue for conducting this fair (Jones, 2017). They can assist to promote the public transport options for the people because they may face the issues of traffic. For this event, the council can support though subsidies, grants and in-kind services including equipment and resources. Additionally, the event organizers are seeking the support regarding the marketing and promotion of the event among its targeted audiences. It will assist them to increase their audience base and raise the funds. Furthermore other types of event support are such as:

• Arrangements for the services like water, toilet, electricity and waste services.
• Promotional options from council’s website.
• Support from Council personnel (Liu, Sparks & Coghlan, 2017).
• Event management specialist from council staff.

Conclusion 

Thus, it is hereby concluded that Meadows County Fair event can have both positive and negative impact on the community. The objectives of this event are very much aligned with the overall objective of Adelaide Hill local council. Both are aimed to develop the community and its culture among local and international tourists. It can be concluded that it is very important for an event to take the support from government bodies and councils. This support assists the event organizers to conduct event successfully and raise the funds for charity. The above-mentioned council can support this event to attract more people towards it.   

References 

Adelaide Hills Council. (2016). Your Adelaide Hills. Retrieved from https://www.ahc.sa.gov.au/ahc-council/Documents/AHC-strategic-plan-2016-FINAL-7b-web.pdf

Allen, J., O'toole, W., Harris, R., & McDonnell, I. (2012). Festival and Special Event Management, Google eBook. US: John Wiley & Sons.

Andersson, T. D., & Armbrecht, J. (2017). Subjects and objects of event impact analysis. In Event Impact (pp. 13-16). UK:Routledge.

Etiosa, O. (2012). The Impacts Of Event Tourism On Host Communities. Retrieved from https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/43714/omoregie_etiosa.pdf?sequence=1

Hallmann, K., & Zehrer, A. (2017). Event and community involvement of sport event volunteers. International Journal of Event and Festival Management, 8(3), 308-323.

Jones, M. L. (2017). Sustainable event management: A practical guide. UK: Routledge.

Liu, W., Sparks, B., & Coghlan, A. (2017). Event Experiences Through the Lens of Attendees. Event Management, 21(4), 463-479.

Meadows County Fair. (2018). Meadows Country Fair: Showcasing the country spirit of the Adelaide Hills. Retrieved from https://meadowscountryfair.com.au/

Postma, A. & Schmuecker, D. (2017). Understanding and overcoming negative impacts of tourism in city destinations: conceptual model and strategic framework. Journal of Tourism Futures, 3 (2), 144-156.

Van der Wagen, L., & White, L. (2018). Event management: For tourism, cultural, business and sporting events. Cengage AU.

Webster, C. (2017). Events as a Strategic Marketing Tool (D. Gerritsen and R. van Olderen). Event Management, 21(1), 131-133.

Zeppel, H., & James-Overheu, C. (2012). Climate change mitigation by Greater Adelaide councils. International Journal of Organisational Behaviour, 17(2), 29-34.