Planning an evening party for Tracon ry – The event plan
Nygård, Roope (2020)
Nygård, Roope
2020
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020052614151
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020052614151
Tiivistelmä
Once a year in September a pop culture event called Tracon takes place in Tampere, Finland. Tracon is organized by Tracon ry, which is a registered non-profit organization based in Tampere. Tracon ry’s purpose is to promote, develop and popularise role-playing-, card game-, board game-, miniature game-, animation-, film-, and cartoon hobbies, as well as related subcultures. The thesis project is to create an event plan for Tracon ry, which will be implemented to arrange the evening party in September 2020.
The purpose of the event plan is to leave behind a guide, that can be followed to replicate the event in the future. It is important to note, that if the event was replicated using the event plan, new goals and objectives should be adjusted each year accordingly. This year the objectives for the evening party were to increase customer satisfaction and increasing the number of participants.
The theoretical framework is built upon literature research. The framework starts with a broad definition of event management as a phenomenon and as a professional practice. After the introduction to event management the author breaks down the event planning process by using existing event planning models. At the end of the literature research the author develops their own event planning model.
Based on the literature review, feedback questionnaire and information gathered through numerous free from discussions with other volunteers and stakeholders over the year, the event plan was created. The event plan faces risks brought upon by COVID-19 outbreak, which could cause the whole event to be cancelled.
While the event hopefully takes place in autumn, the author will not see the event plan work in practice and cannot evaluate success based on the actual event. Nevertheless, the author was able to write a fully-fledged event plan for the commissioning party. The main organizers in the commissioning party said that the event plan would still be useful, even if the event was cancelled. They suggested mentioning the published thesis on a forum for all volunteering event managers working with conventions in Finland. In addition, they suggested that the author presents their thesis in the next seminar for volunteering event managers in 2021.
From the topic formulating to the finished thesis the whole process took a total of eight months. During the thesis process the author struggled the most with pacing the thesis writing. Without strict milestones along the way, the thesis kept being delayed. Thus, the biggest learning outcome for the author was project-, and time management skills. The author also studied practical tools. The author learned how to utilize event planning models and how to use the Event Canvas to design events.
The purpose of the event plan is to leave behind a guide, that can be followed to replicate the event in the future. It is important to note, that if the event was replicated using the event plan, new goals and objectives should be adjusted each year accordingly. This year the objectives for the evening party were to increase customer satisfaction and increasing the number of participants.
The theoretical framework is built upon literature research. The framework starts with a broad definition of event management as a phenomenon and as a professional practice. After the introduction to event management the author breaks down the event planning process by using existing event planning models. At the end of the literature research the author develops their own event planning model.
Based on the literature review, feedback questionnaire and information gathered through numerous free from discussions with other volunteers and stakeholders over the year, the event plan was created. The event plan faces risks brought upon by COVID-19 outbreak, which could cause the whole event to be cancelled.
While the event hopefully takes place in autumn, the author will not see the event plan work in practice and cannot evaluate success based on the actual event. Nevertheless, the author was able to write a fully-fledged event plan for the commissioning party. The main organizers in the commissioning party said that the event plan would still be useful, even if the event was cancelled. They suggested mentioning the published thesis on a forum for all volunteering event managers working with conventions in Finland. In addition, they suggested that the author presents their thesis in the next seminar for volunteering event managers in 2021.
From the topic formulating to the finished thesis the whole process took a total of eight months. During the thesis process the author struggled the most with pacing the thesis writing. Without strict milestones along the way, the thesis kept being delayed. Thus, the biggest learning outcome for the author was project-, and time management skills. The author also studied practical tools. The author learned how to utilize event planning models and how to use the Event Canvas to design events.