Birmingham - an Event Industry City - Case Study Example

Birmingham an Event Industry City Name Instructor’s Name Institution Name Course Name and Code Date Cities have been going through a series of changes and development in the last few decades. Birmingham among others is one of the cities that have experienced the change within the last two and half decades1. This is because the city was initially based on manufacturing as the key economic activity but now it has been transformed to a service based kind of city as a source of economic activity. The city’s development has greatly been contributed to the event provision services hence making it one of the best destination cities in the whole world. Many people have for that matter familiarized them to the city as one of the international city as far as events are concerned.2 The evidence of the city being one of the most visited cities in the whole world due to event organization is in the data published by the tourism industry. It is one of the destinations recommended for leisure, tourism and other events this is also according to the recorded data and information all form secondary and primary sources in the city. Birmingham is a metropolitan city that is located in the West midlands part of the Great Britain specifically England. Besides London, it is one of the most popular cities in the Great Britain. The population of the city is about 1,028,700 by last year. As mentioned earlier it was the heart of industrialization or rather the origin of industrial revolution for England. This has changed with time since the city is being referred to as the commercial centre. In the end of the year 2009, it was recorded third best business location as the entire United Kingdom is concerned. In terms of event hosting, it is being referred to as a conference international hub. It also deals much with retail businesses and other event centre. Some of the reasons as to why it has earned this opportunity are due to the high technologies that are in use in the town, development, as well as research centre whereby it has the support of a total number of three universities. According to the tourism data, the city is ranked as the fourth most cities that receive visitors from the foreign countries. There are so many developments, which have taking place in the city bearing in mind that it is an event hub destination.3 The country has very good infrastructure whereby the people there have been using railways, road, and road as the most common means of transport. It should be noted that the city has very developed means of infrastructure and its transportation system both public and private is very organized. It is one of the cities, which exhibit political stability, and the security is very tight.4 This explains why people from all over the world are willing and looking forward to visit the city. Another very important aspect about the city is the governance. The city council, which governs the city, is very organized and very much into ensuring, the city is up to the international tourist destination standards. The rate of crimes in the region is minimal because the department of the enforcement of law is very strict in ensuring that the safety of people and their properties is taken care of. The city is well known as an industry for event. There are a number and variety of those events, which are being promoted in the region. As mentioned earlier, it is largely a service-providing city now of which these services account for 97% growth of its economy.5 One of the events that are very predominant in the city is tourism. Tourism in the region is organized in the level of voluntary, private and public. In addition, it is very important to note that the tourism in the region is done for the purposes of leisure, personal reasons, organization level and cultural. The city has a number of convention centers, which are recognized internationally.6 It has national centre for exhibition. These two centers are very useful in as far as; the attractions of foreign tourist are concerned. This is whereby meetings, which are organized at both the level of national international public and private level, are held. The international NGO’s have been holding conferences in the convention centers. In addition, some of the school and college as well as university conventions have been held in the centers.7 The three universities in the region for instance have made the convention centre a point of their meeting during very important congress and convention meeting organized by the universities. Theses meetings are mainly with the agenda of research, technological innovations, and other activities.8 These three universities include university of Birmingham, city university of Birmingham, and Aston University. Another attraction of tourist is the city’s shopping centre, which is of world class. Many people travel from very far to shop in this historic place. One of the main reason as to why the shopping centre is very popular is because it has an exhibition of different cultural wears from all over the world. It is in this shopping centre that cultural wear like from Italy, France, Britain, Indian, Chinese, and even Africa wear are found. The clothes are presented by private sectors and individuals as well as different public textile industries. It is not only clothes that are found in the locality but also shoes and other accessories like the cosmetics, shoes, and handbags.9 The city is also known to hold a number of international local and national exhibitions for trade. Trade exhibitions are organized by both the public and private sectors. A number of companies have been in the front line in the use of the exhibition centers to display their products. Some of these products ranges form the car exhibits, clothes, and food products. The exhibition is at times organized locally for a few people, nationally and even internationally hence attracting people form all over the world that converges at the centers. The culture of the Birmingham’s city and the dwellers is another factor that has made the place an event industry.10 It has very distinct cultural practices like their music, performing arts and theatre, the literature of the people, design and art, galleries and the museums, festivals and nightlife, architecture, the transport and education. Culture entails the practices and beliefs of a group of people living in a particular place. In one way or another, most of the events that are organized in the city are as result of the cultural practices and beliefs of the Birmingham.11 Musically, over the last one century Birmingham has distinguished itself as one of the cities with good music. The Birmingham bands are a great source of influence for the city’s fame. Some of the known bands include the progressive bands and the blues especially moody blues. The musical events were initially held at a local level but later expanded, with the rate at which the world is becoming modernized and the current generation innovation, the music industry is also not left out. There are many places where musical events have been held, there has been a culture of musical festivals in schools and colleges whereby they are brought together for the purposes of musical presentation. Different colleges converge together while the high schools and the primary schools also do the same. These events are usually locally or nationally organized through the ministry of education in conjunction with the ministry of culture and heritage. These events are usually held as competition festivals. Another level in which the musical events are held is in different clubs and pubs.12 Most of the pubs, which are privately owned, organize for the night events whereby there are guest singers and dancers in the clubs all night long. The management of these pubs and club organize the vents for their customers as way of entertaining them. Such days are very special whereby an advertisement is posted for the people to get informed and as a result, many turn up for the event. These events are organized for the locals as well as for the international or foreign tourists. These tickets for the events are sold online as well as in some strategic point.13 The music is done in the form of live whereby the bands and the entire crew is in the bar or the club the whole night. Such events because they have these famous musicians singing live attract a large crowd to the vicinity. Some of the most famous bands include the following - the twang, ocean color, the street, and the Davis Spencer group. The famous musicians are as follows; tony lommi, Jeff Lynne, John Lodge, Ozzy Osborne, Fyfe Dangerfield, Denny Laine, Toyah Willcox and Sukshinder Shinda among others. The equipments needed for the performances by the singers, dancers and the bands are provided by the management of the bars and clubs. In some special occasion, the invited artists prefer to carry their own instruments depending on the specialties for the night or occasion. Apart from the clubs and Bars the town is know to hold some international festivals for jazz. The festival is actually the largest in the whole of the United Kingdom. The first time the event was held was in the year 1984 whereby it attracted a huge crowd of people. It has thereafter been held in the Solihull of Birmingham. This is an event that is organized by the state and gives room for people all over the world to attend; in actual sense, the event is an international one. The instruments and equipment that are needed for such occasions are provided by the state through the ministry of culture and heritage. In most cases, some these instruments are freely given by some companies who by doing that take advantage of advertising their products. The event is also sponsored by not only the government but also by different companies and organizations in different parts of the world. Performing art and theatre art is another cultural event, which has made Birmingham an event organizer. The city has so many theatres with one of them being very famous internationally.14 The largest and most popular of the theatres is the Alexandra followed by the Old Rep, the Rep, old joint theatre, crescent theatre and then the Hippodrome. There are a number of international and local companies who are very much involved in the organization of the annual performances. In such occasions different artists and performances mostly who are born in the city converge to entertain the guests. Some of these people include the actors like Shaw Martin, Trevor Eve, Julie Walters and Adrian Lester.15 The comedians include people like Jasper Carrot, Tony Hancock and Sid Field. The vents organization is not only done by the companies but they do it with the Rep theatre. Literature is another cultural practice that makes Birmingham an event industry. The city is inhabited by a number of great poets who are very relevant in the field of literature in the whole world. These authors are both local and international and the events that are organized are dependent on whether the involved poets are local or international. The city is referred to as one of the contemporary scenes for literature.16 Annual events called Novacon are organized by the local fiction group of science, which is attended by people from all over the world. The event is for both leisure as well as cultural purposes. The products that are needed or the equipments are provided by the organizers. The participants like the authors and poets are involved in supplying some of the materials they need but they collaborate with the organizers.17 Design and art is another cultural practice, which has made Birmingham an event industry. The city is well known for beautiful and unique art and craft production. The products are displayed during the occasions of exhibition. Some of the major organizers of such events include the following; BLK group of art, which majorly deals with the painting, multimedia, and collage. Birmingham is also a center for great galleries and museums. It has two points of art collections. It is at these points that people form all over the world comes as tourist to view and admire the collections. The collections ranges form the metalwork to the ceramics. The galleries and the museums are owned and managed by the council. Some of the companies like the chocolate manufacturing companies have a chance to display their products in the area. These museums are of different type like the science museums, art museums and educational museums among others. Generally, some of the events that make Birmingham an event industry are the nightlife and the festivals. This is because of the existence of very good stylish clubs as well as bars which hold and organize these nightclubs. Reference McWilliams, A., Siegel, D., & Van Fleet, D. Scholarly Journals as Producers of Knowledge: Theory and Empirical Evidence Based on Data Envelopment Analysis. Organizational Research Methods, 2005, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 185-201.  Narayanan, V. & Fahey, L. The Relevance of the Institutional Underpinnings of Porter's Five Forces Framework to Emerging Economies: An Epistemological Analysis. Journal of Management Studies, 2005, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 207-223. Olson, E., Slater, S. & Hult, G. The Performance Implications of Fit among Business Strategy, Marketing Organization Structure, and Strategic Behavior. Journal of Marketing, 2005, vol. 69, no. 3, pp. 49-65 Thompson, J. & Martin, F., Strategic management: awareness and change, 5th Ed. California: Cengage Learning EMEA, 2005, pp. 50-89. Read More