The Mayor’s Thames Festival, September 2010

The Mayor’s Thames Festival in London is a free annual event which takes place on a weekend in September across a 3.5km site between Westminster Bridge and Tower Bridge. Its aim is to bring

Londoners together to celebrate the city and its river.

The Festival is primarily funded by private sector partnerships (60%) including corporate sponsors such as Barclaycard, 22% by public

bodies such as the Mayor of London and the Arts Council England and 18% by income generated on-site during the festival weekend. In 2008, 825,000 people were estimated to have attended the

event.
The Thames Festival begins at noon and finishes at 10pm. Its wide range of attractions includes dance, art, music and food. In the daytime, hundreds of dancers and artists take part in

demonstrating the capital’s culture. There are many activities during the day specifically intended for children and a race on the River Thames in which over 300 oared boats – such as the Viking

Dragon Boats – compete to win. The highlight of the Mayor’s Thames Festival is a night carnival, which includes over 2,000 costumed performers of various arts, floats and a final huge fireworks

display.
Most activities take place by the River Walkway on the south bank of the Thames and it gets very congested, especially the area under Blackfriars Bridge. In addition, a number of roads and

bridges are closed to make way for the major attractions such as the night carnival. People are encouraged to use public transport to get to and from the event.

The nearest underground

station is Waterloo which is six minutes walk away.
The Festival has a comprehensive education and outreach programme through which schools become involved in related projects before and after the main event. In 2009, 300 schools

participated in the Festival and by 2014 the organisers aim is for all primary and secondary schools in London to become involved.
(adapted from www.thamesfestivalwebsite.org and www.lth-hotels.com)

Prepare an event plan for The Mayor’s Thames Festival 2010 which includes:
1. A Mission Statement for the Festival

2. A Human Resource plan with an objective to recruit 500 volunteers for this event from young, unemployed people aged 18-25 living in London. Include in your plan how you intend to recruit,

select, induct and train your team as well as how you intend to evaluate your volunteers’ performance.

3. A Marketing Communications plan aimed at getting more schools in London to participate in the Festival. Your plan should include a SMART Objective, choice of communications tools and

messages and how you intend to evaluate the success of your plan.

4. A Risk Assessment containing four risks and your proposed controls for reducing the impact of these.

5. Solutions to the following concerns:

• At 10pm when the Festival finishes, people head for the nearest Tube station which is Waterloo and this creates a large bottleneck. How can this level of congestion be reduced?

• Due to the recession, one of your key corporate sponsors has dropped out, causing a 10% reduction in your private sector funding. How do you intend to obtain the funding to make up this

shortfall?

• The event team is finding it difficult to produce a detailed schedule of the Festival programme since there are so many activities going on simultaneously. What tool could be helpful to them

and why?

Question Two
‘The budget is a vital tool for controlling the event plan and ensuring an event’s success.’
Discuss the importance of the budget in event planning and how it controls other parts of the event plan

(such as Human Resources, Marketing or Venue Selection). Explain the impact of good

budgeting practices on the success of an event.
Refer to relevant academic literature and event examples to support your answer

CASE STUDY: The Comic-Con Exhibition, California USA

Sponsors: 9 main sponsors, including Sony, Warner Brothers, Walt Disney, Universal Pictures and Penguin Books
The first Comic-Con event in 1970 was focused on comics and science fiction novels and had a small, specialist audience. It has now grown to become the most visited exhibition-style event in

the United States with participation from Hollywood film studios, computer game producers and publishers as comic book characters have moved into the mainstream with films like the Batman

and Superman franchises and the recent X-Men trilogy. The event combines a major exhibition with a range of conference sessions involving movie stars, writers, film producers and artists. In

addition to this, there are a number of interactive sessions where attendees can have autographs signed, play games involving their favourite characters, attend workshops and buy products.
Summary of event characteristics: Large exhibition hall featuring 5,445 exhibitors from comic book and mainstream publishing, film studios, computer game companies and music companies.
The exhibition also includes multiple film screenings, autograph sessions, workshops & master classes, keynote speakers, panel discussions and celebrity appearances. These all take place in the

main exhibition hall or in one of the 6 break-out rooms. These rooms are located around the convention centre, and are not always easy to locate for visitors. The event is a sell-out every year,

with the convention centre reaching visitor capacity and all the exhibition stands being sold out. Capacity attendance at Comic-Con has caused crowding issues. The event now sells four-day

memberships in advance – in 2008 they abandoned on-site registration after huge over-crowding problems experienced in previous years.
The comic-con staff number 350 (with 250 volunteers and 100 permanent staff). Many of the staff are volunteers – often students with a keen interest in the industries represented at the event.

The event attracts a large number of industry professionals but also aims to attract consumer visitors – in recent years the organisers have made particular marketing attempts to attract more

families and female visitors.
Core information taken from: http://www.comic-con.org
Prepare an event plan for Comic-Con which includes:
1. A Mission Statement for the Event.

2. An HR plan with an objective to recruit 250 volunteers for this event from a local university or college aged 18-25 who have an interest in the subject matter. Include in your plan how you

intend to recruit, select, induct and train your team as well as how you intend to evaluate your volunteers’ performance.

3. A Marketing Communications plan aimed at getting more consumer visitors to attend the event. Your plan should include a SMART Objective, choice of communications tools and messages

and how you intend to evaluate the success of your plan.

4. A Risk Assessment containing four risks and your proposed controls for reducing the impact of these.

5. Solutions to the following concerns:

• Your keynote speech is to be given by a very high profile celebrity in a hall that seats 2500. What processes and procedures will you put in place to ensure there is no over-crowding in the hall

and that there is no congestion around the area before, during and after the talk?

Due to the recession, one of your key corporate sponsors has dropped out, causing a 10% reduction in your private sector funding. How do you intend to obtain the funding to make up this

shortfall?

• The event team is finding it difficult to produce a detailed schedule of the Comic-Con event programme since there are so many activities going on simultaneously. Which tools or techniques

could be helpful to them and why?

Question Two
‘Event planning can be aided by a variety of theories and tools which assist the event manager’
Choose ONE of the following areas of event planning: Marketing, Human Resources, or Finance.
In your chosen area discuss two different theories or tools and explain their contribution to event planning. Refer to event examples to illustrate your answer