Event Evaluation Plan - Coursework Example

Running Head: EVENT EVALUATION PLAN School: Topic: Event Evaluation Plan Lecturer: Presentation: Event Evaluation PlanEvents come in many forms such as concerts, trade shows and exhibitions, fairs, sports, art events and festivals among others. The success of any events depends on how it is organized and coordination among various stakeholders involved but most of all the staff handling the attendees. The event in this case was titled ‘family fun day’ and was held at community centre. The event was a form of fund raiser organized by Brisbane riverside lions club. The club is a branch of lions club international which operates in every country. The club membership is voluntary and members volunteer to help solve the needs of the surrounding community such as; community groups, schools, health agencies and individuals. This club covers south eastern suburbs of Brisbane. The community had therefore with the help of Brisbane riverside lions club organized a family fun day to gather funds to help cancer patients through the Australian cancer research foundation. The target for this event was the families and friends in that community who were willing to help the cancer research foundation in its research work to help cure cancer patients. Cancer is a disease that has claimed many lives in Brisbane due to lack of treatment and a cure for the disease. Most people undergo chemotherapy to cure the disease. Some are healed while others succumb to the disease. The Australian cancer research foundation is doing much to support cancer patients and carry out research to develop cancer-fighting drugs. However, funds are needed to carry out its activities and it depends on donors for support. The community therefore deemed it fit to organize a fund raiser to help the foundation in its work. The lions club is a major donor to charitable works and offers great help to the community hence its involvement in organizing the event. The families in that community were to invite friends and relatives to the event together with their families and a few local leaders to help in raising funds. The program for the day started at 1pm and was designed to end at 6pm in the evening to give attendees time to return to their destinations. The attendees were to buy tickets at the entrance where security had been beefed up to avoid any disturbances or conflicts. Waiting public was offered chairs while queuing especially the disadvantaged. Drinking water was also available. Children were entering free of charge, only parents were charged. The opening ceremony included prayers and thanks giving. The master of ceremony who is the clubs executive thanked all in attendance for devoting their time to attend the event and the event organizers for making it possible to happen and for their dedication. After prayers, lunch was served. The lunch had been prepared by community members according to the set standards by Brisbane local council by-laws. Plenty of drinking water was available at vintage points. After lunch, there were entertainment by several groups of musicians, acrobatic troops, drama performances and many more events. All those who performed were volunteers for the charity work and friends of cancer patients. The children had various activities organized for them such as, face painting, bouncing castles and sporting activities under direction of adults. After entertainments, the master of ceremony invited several speakers to the podium to give short speeches. Most speakers praised the event organizers and the lions club for the commendable job they have been doing to support the community and the research foundation for helping fight the killer disease. Speakers were placed at vantage points for everyone to hear the proceedings as there were more than 500 guests. During the event, raffle tickets were being sold thus after the speeches the winners were announced. After the raffles, some items were produced for auction which kept the crowd busy. All the while music was being played in the background to keep people entertained and avoid boredom. Refreshments were also available. Before the raffles people gave their donations. The closing ceremony ended with thanks giving to attendees, organizers, charitable club and the research foundation. Final prayers were conducted and the event ended at 7pm. Service Quality The success of an event depends on the organizers and the frontline staff at the event. Tassiopoulos (2005) acknowledges the role of organization design in ensuring service quality. The structure and the personnel are important in ensuring success of events. The organizers may be trusts, project team, government, welfare groups and charitable clubs as well as interim committees. The committee selects the venue, performers, food, security and other facilities. The human resources ensures the mission, vision and objectives of the event are achieved. They also resolve conflicts and offer training to staff on ushering, ticket selling, catering, and first-aid among others (Bowdin et al. 2006). According to Pfister & Tierney (2009), a successful event depends on program content, speakers, food, registration process and actual service provision. The manner of interaction between staff and the attendants is important as it determines whether they will attend such an event in future. A well-balanced event program with attractive elements and an outstanding main attraction is essential in ensuring service quality. Reliability, assurance, tangible, empathy and responsiveness are essential in ensuring service quality (Martin, 2001). The event organizers should provide what they promise while advertising for the event. People attend an event expecting to see or experience whatever had been promised and nothing less. If the event falls short of their expectations, then service quality has not been achieved. They should thus only promise what they can deliver through a rich and entertaining program. Service quality determines customer satisfaction and the possibility of future attendance to such an event (Kelly & Turley, 2001). The event organizers or planners should therefore be reliable and able to deliver quality service to the attendees. The venue of the event and physical facilities also matter in service quality. These include water, sanitation, speakers or audio devices, parking space and such other facilities (Pfister & Tierney, 2009). The waiting public in queues should be provided with facilities such as water and seats and some entertainment to prevent boredom. The physically challenged should also be provided with special facilities such as wheelchairs for the elderly, audio facilities, ramps, and specially designed toilets (Tassiopoulos, 2005). Ample parking space for the attendants should be provided. Sanitary facilities are essential and properly marked for males and females. Refuse should also be managed effectively for a clean environment. Telephones are also essential at designed places for public use and proper maintenance of equipment to avoid inconveniences. The needs of presenters should also be taken care of such as; sound system, adequate lighting and audio visual needs so that they can give a good performance as service quality is measured in terms of actual performance (Cronin & Taylor, 1992). Adequate security is also needed for event to run smoothly as well as emergency response and first-aid services. The behavior of staff mostly the frontline staff should be appealing to attendants. They should be well groomed, neat, orderly and able to convey trust and confidence. They should also be knowledgeable about the products and services offered by organization or sponsors or any other information needed. Most of all, they should be able to listen to customers and show caring for them. The mode of communication portrays organizational culture and may affect service delivery. Staff should respond to questions compassionately without being rude (Martin, 2001). The cleanliness of the facility also portrays a lot to attendees and determines their perceptions. The opening and closing ceremonies are also valuable attributes of the success of event. The service elements to be evaluated to determine service quality include; the facilities, the staff or those offering catering services, the program, the performance itself, the venue itself. The facilities available at an event play great role in determining service quality. The charity event by the community had several facilities to enable delivery of service. First, the speakers were placed at vantage points for all to follow the proceedings and at the recommended noise by Brisbane council. Drinking water facilities were also available at vintage points and some bottled water was also available. Waiting chairs were placed at the entrance for those who felt tired or would not like to stand. Audio services for visually impaired were made available and so is ample parking space. Sanitary facilities were provided and properly marked for gents and ladies and water toilet paper and soap made available in the toilets. Refuse collection was enhanced by placement of various collection bins around the place to avoid littering. The maintenance personnel were also checking devices frequently to avoid any inconveniences. Children facilities were provided and children taken care of to avoid any danger while playing. Overall, the facilities were adequate and appealing. Improvements are needed in provision for facilities for the physically disadvantaged such as wheel chairs and special sanitary facilities. The venue of the event was well placed and accessible to all. It was clean and spacious with décor suitable for the occasion or appealing to the attendants. Bus services were available from all parts to the venue hence transport to and fro was not inconveniencing. It had adequate lighting and air conditioned creating a good environment for the event. The podium was visible to all to watch the entertainments without any hindrances as the actual performance determines satisfaction of attendants and quality of the service. The motive of many attendants is to watch such entertainments hence good planning and marketing of the event (Crompton & McKay, 1992). Hence the venue was the right place for the family to have fun and contribute towards enabling the research foundation to develop more drugs for cancer patients. However, adequate lighting is needed in the premises especially as the event ended late. The program was appealing to attendees. It started with opening ceremony and finished with closing ceremony where thanks were given to all in attendance, organizers and special recognition to lions club for sponsoring the event. The program was rich in that it provided different levels of entertainment such as musicians, acrobats and drama. It also included raffle tickets and auction which was the main attraction in the event. The program could have been better if cancer patients were invited to participate in the event and give real life experiences in dealing with cancer and success factors of the research foundation. The catering services are essential in any function. The community took care of preparing lunch for the attendants. However, they could have engaged the services of hotel caterers so as to provide a variety of food to satisfy needs of all attendants. Different people do not take certain foods hence a hotel could have provided variety. Refreshments were also available and adequate for all. Those offering catering services were not wearing uniform hence not easy to recognize them in case of any questions or if one needed something. In case of dissatisfaction, the attendees could not find the person to complain to easily. The community could have selected a few people and made them to wear uniforms so as to be recognizable. The performance itself was pleasing to watch and was entertaining to the ears. Several entertainment groups performed a variety of live music shows. The acrobatic team was magnificent and very entertaining. The drama group presented a play regarding the killer disease cancer which made viewers to empathize with them and donate more funds. It showed the organizers were well aware of customer needs and bent on delivering quality service. Improvements can be made by ensuring the performers arrive early and that their needs are taken care of such as changing rooms and audio devices and right costumes for the event. Conclusion Every events success, be it a one time event or frequent occurrence depends on proper planning and marketing as well as well organized and knowledgeable frontline staff. The organizers should ensure the event runs smoothly without any hitches and most of all ensure satisfaction of the attendants so that they can attend a repeat of such an event. There are several improvements which have been noted that would have made this event more successful. Most event organizers plan events bearing in mind only able bodied persons. They forget that even the disabled are willing and attend events just like normal people. They thus forget the requirements for the physically disadvantaged such as wheelchairs, special sanitary facilities and ramps instead of stairs which are essential in ensuring service quality. Adequate lighting is also a necessary element for any venue for health and safety of the attendees. The program can also be enriched by including real life experiences to show people the need for such an event and have a giving spirit and also understand certain aspects of the disease or facts and fallacies. Catering services are better provided by hiring catering services so as to ensure hygiene and offer variety of food to the audience. The performers should have a place to change costumes and arrive early at the event to avoid delays and anxiety. This may make the event to end late. Overall the event was successful and it shows the organizers had planned well. Adequate facilities were provided and the venue was accessible by public and private means. The program was well planned and entertaining to all. The speakers recognized the efforts of riverside lions club as a sponsor of the event together with the community members who had put their effort in ensuring the day was successful. The performers were also very entertaining and the children had a lot of fun by engaging in various activities such as face painting and sports without the parents. The event also did not end so late although it was late by one hour but it was worth it. References Bowdin, G., Allen, J., O’Toole, W., Harris, R. (2006) Events Management. Oxford: Elsevier. Crompton, J., McKay, S. (1992) “Motives of Visitors Attending Festival Events”. Annals of Tourism Research. Vol 24 (2): 425-439. Cronin, J., Taylor, S. (1992) “Measuring Service Quality: A Reexamination and Extension”. Journal of Marketing. Vol 3(56): 55-68. Kelly, S., Turley, L.(2001) “Consumer Perceptions of Service Quality Attributes at Sporting Events”. Journal of Business Research. Vol 54(2): 161-166. Martin, W. (2001) Quality Customer Service: How to Win the Customer (4 ed). Crisp Publication. Pfister, R., Tierney, P. (2009) Recreation, Event and Tourism Businesses Start-up and Sustainable Operations. Human Kinetics. Tassiopoulos, D. (2005) Event Management: A Professional and Developmental Approach 2 ed. Lansdowne: Juta Academic. Read More