James Musgrave

Moving towards responsible events management

Purpose – This article attempts to provide a concise overview of the approaches towards managing events in a changing market environment and summarises issues of responsibility, sustainability and quality management within events organisations.Design/methodology/approach – In doing so, the paper will reconcile elements of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development within organisations. Whilst within a context of the events industry, the article will synthesise total responsible management and concepts of sustainable events management and provide an introduction towards a premise of responsible events management.Findings – A mapping of management models found parallels that can be drawn upon to create a responsible event management approach, embedded by an amalgamation of quality management and sustainable principles.Practical implications – In essence, the combination of approaches enables a business value and ethical led development towards responsible management and one which represents...

Changing audience behaviour: festival goers and throwaway tents

Purpose – To translate theory into a practical tool, the purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework for the development of social marketing strategies to modify event attendee behaviour in a sustainable direction. Design/methodology/approach – Consumer value is synthesised with social marketing and consumer behaviour theory to develop the framework. A major problem for festivals (throwaway tents) and current pro-environmental practices are used to determine the frameworks applicability. Findings – The conceptual framework suggests that achieving desired behaviour(s) within an audience requires consideration of the added value at the downstream level, strategies that recognise offsite/onsite behaviour settings, engagement of upstream advocacy and more attention to the evaluation of success. Research limitations/implications – A single low-involvement behaviour example is used to validate the conceptual framework suggesting further work is needed to widen tests of its applicability. Originality/value – This paper synthesises theory into a framework that has significant potential as a tool to develop behavioural change strategies at events.

The economics of sustainable events.

This chapter examines the relationship between economic impacts and potential benefits that events may bring to host communities. In addition, there is an exploration of measures of economic impacts and of ways in which host communities formulate their decisions. Finally, the chapter looks at contextualizing the catalytic effect that ensues when there is an increase in investment due to events taking place. The case study approach is used to support the arguments in the literature.

Ecological systems theory approach to corporate social responsibility: contextual perspectives from meeting planners

Business reputation, competitive advantage, differentiation, and regulatory adherence are all factors that are pushing corporate social responsibility ( CSR) center within the international meetings industry. However, attempts to simplify what is essentially a complex and contextual driven movement through certification and guides has created an incomplete understanding of the salient issues; contemporaneously ignoring contextual variables rather than acknowledging these and the impact these variables have on CSR practice and acceptance. The purpose of this article is to explore the contextual debat of CSR adaptation and practice within the meetings sector within a framework of an ecological systems theory. The authors applied a constant comparison process across 90 interview transcripts in order to establish a rigorous audit trail of analysis. Eight practices were identified:Green Technology, Legislation, Transparency and Reliability, Nonfinancial Donations, Workforce, Community Engagement, Supply Chain Management, and Volunteer Labor. These eight practices were then applied to the constructs of an ecological systems model and an exploration of contextual factors was considered. In recognizing a systems approach to CSR there is an acceptance that there is not one best method and that different values, implementation approaches, and evaluation mechanisms of CSR can lead to similar results.