Management of MICE Events - Assessment A Guidance
Your portfolio assessment covers Learning outcomes 1-3, and is worth 60% of your overall module mark. It should be a maximum length of 3000 words (excluding references).
Assessment
ief:
Select two MICE events in a destination of your choice and compile a portfolio relating to these events. In your portfolio should complete the following tasks:
· Summarise each event in terms of its contents and the main target markets it caters to;
· Assess the contribution made by various stakeholders to the success (or failure) of each event;
· Evaluate the degree to which the events address the needs of their respective target markets.
You should use plenty of illustrative material and make reference to academic theory throughout your portfolio.
You need to start the work on your portfolio by choosing a destination. You should select a destination which holds MICE events, and has enough information for you to be able to provide plenty of supporting material for your portfolio. Search the internet for the tourist board website for your chosen destination, then check to see if they have MICE section or separate page. You can also search directly for the convention bureau website for your destination, which will take you straight to this information.
Once you have found a suitable webpage, check it for lists of events which have taken place (focus on past events). Most destinations are good at organising specific types of MICE events; for example, Hong Kong is famous for its exhibitions and fairs, and so you be likely to find a lot of information about at least one event type. There may also be case studies about various events, which will be useful for you. Copy and paste the name of the event into your search engine, and you should get a webpage for the event itself, which will again be a useful source of information and evidence that you can put into your portfolio.
You need to choose two MICE events in your destination and present evidence by completing the tasks below. You do not need to present these tasks as separate sections in your portfolio in this particular order but it is important that you address all three:
· Summarising your events in terms of their contents and main target market
When you have chosen your events, explore each of them in some detail and provide a summary. Where do they take place? When? Who are the main buyer markets and who are the end users of the events? What is the programming content of the events? You can use evidence and artefacts such as venue photos, copies of programmes and venue layout plans. But each piece of evidence needs to be accompanied by a commentary or explanation of what the image represents and why it is important. For example, you can include a map of the destination and indicate where the venue is and call the map Figure 1: Map of xx destination. You then need to include a note in the text where you explain that the location is conveniently near an airport and will say something like “Figure 1 shows the venue is located in relation to the airport hub.”
· Assessing the contribution made by stakeholders to the success (or failure) of the events
Once you have a clear idea of what the event was about, then you can start to explore how the various stakeholders contributed towards the success (or failure) of the event. To do this, you should use academic theories to explain why the information you provide is relevant to the task: this is what turns your writing from description into analysis. This tasks is likely to take up the majority of the work count.
Before assessing the contribution of the stakeholders to the success of the events, you need to understand who the various stakeholders are. Refer to academic literature here on the various stakeholders in MICE sector. On the supply side, you should be looking at what the destination has to offer with regard to venues, transport, accommodation and ancillary services. But the events’ stakeholders may also include the government, local community, the media, and also the intermediaries who potentially work on behalf of the buyer or suppliers. The ‘Suppliers’ and ‘Intermediaries’ lectures will be useful here. You should explain why the information is relevant by making reference to academic theories. So, for example, if you are talking about the importance of the suppliers working together, you can refer to Ogden and McCo
iston (2007)’s research into the benefits of building relationships with secondary suppliers.
Once you understand which stakeholders may play a role in the success of the event, look for evidence of how specifically they contributed. For example, you might find that various accommodation suppliers work together as part of an association to cater to large scale conferences that take place in the destination. Bear in mind that the information you find about events is highly likely to be positive rather than negative, as most of it will be from marketing material. If you wanted a more balanced viewpoint, it might be worth searching social media messages to see if participants made any comments about this event. You do not need to have a Twitter or Facebook account to do this: just type the name of the event and the word ‘twitter’ into your search engine, and see what you find. For example, a quick search for Educational Developers conference mentions on twitter result in this very intriguing message:
SEDA @Seda_UK_ Strangest experience at #edcwlu conf : man stormed out of his own workshop! ^JH
This comment could mean that the PCO organising the conference event did not consider the cultural differences between the speaker (supplier) and the audience, which caused some frustration. So, you can see that twitter messages can give you an insight into the delegate experience that you would not get from the official press releases. The next step would be to click on the hashtag (#edcwlu) and see what other associated messages had been posted. You can, of course, also check Facebook or other social media networks to see what has been posted there, and add a screengrab or these as an image to your portfolio.
· Evaluating the degree to which the events address the needs of their target markets
You should also evaluate critically the degree to which the events meet the needs of their target markets; i.e. the buyers and end users of the events. To do this, you need to understand who are buyers and end-users that the event caters to and what their needs are. Remember that the different MICE buyers look for different things (see the ‘Buyer’ lecture). You will find the Rompf, Breiter and Severt XXXXXXXXXXarticle particularly useful, as it
eaks down the requirements of the buyers into the specific MICE categories. As for end-users, remember that their needs often differ from those of the buyer. You can conclude the portfolio by comparing the events in terms of successfully addressing the issues discussed as you completed the above tasks.
Presenting your portfolio
A portfolio is traditionally presented as a physical or digital folder that ‘holds’ all of the material and information you have collected. But that does not mean you can simply insert pieces of text, images, scans of programmes or tickets, maps and other artefacts. You need to connect the information through commentary, organise everything in a logical way and present the materials clearly. To help the reader navigate through the materials, use numbered headings and subheadings and add page numbers at the bottom of each page. An index or table of contents with co
esponding page numbers should be included to show the structure. Use appropriate academic language - ensure that the portfolio is written in the third person (“This portfolio analyses…/ As the research shows,…/ The information in the portfolio indicates…” NOT “I will analyse…/ We will now look at…/ As you can see…”).
Here is an example of a possible portfolio structure and indicative word count (although you can create your own logical structure):
Cover page (Please use the template on Moodle)
Index (Table of contents with Headings/Subheadings and co
esponding page numbers)
1. Introduction (This is where you introduce the portfolio, explain your choice of destination and its features and provide a
ief overview of what the portfolio will cover) – approx. 300 words
2. Event 1 (This is where you analyse and evaluate the first event in terms of the contribution made by its stakeholders and the way in which the event addresses the needs of its buyers/end users) – approx. 1200 words in total
2.1. Brief summary of the event, its target market and contents/programming
2.2. Assessment of the stakeholders who play a role in the success or failure of the event
2.3. Critical evaluation of the event in terms of how it meets the needs of the target market
3. Event 2 (This is where you analyse and evaluate the second event in terms of the contribution made by its stakeholders and the way in which the event addresses the needs of its buyers/end users) – approx. 1200 words in total
3.1. Brief summary…
3.2. …
3.3. …
4. Conclusion (In this section you summarise the evidence presented in the portfolio,
iefly compare the events in terms of how well they address the issues you have just discussed and if relevant, you can suggest relevant recommendations for the destination or event organisers) – approx. 300 words
References (A complete list of the references that appear throughout your portfolio) – not included in the word count
Academic referencing
You are expected to use academic references to support the points that you make in your portfolio. When describing the destination, buyer markets and the events, you may refer to information available on websites, such as the destination’s marketing page. It is very important that you do not simply copy and paste the information (THIS IS PLAGIARISM and will be highlighted on Turnitin). Instead, you should write in your own words wherever possible, and keep quotations to a minimum. Small quotes are fine, but you should always make it clear that they are someone else’s words, through the co
ect use of quotation marks (inverted commas). Remember to cite all of your sources, including government reports and the sources of the images and other evidence you include.
When analysing the stakeholders, or explaining how the event meets the needs of the end users, you will need to refer to theory. This means that you will cite sources that have been noted in the lecture and tutorial materials: please note that these should be cited according to the original source, and not as ‘(Rihova, 2013)’ or ‘module lecture slides’. Full references are given on the lecture slides. You will get more marks again if you use relevant sources which you have found for yourself, in addition to the ones that you have been told about.
You should always use the co
ect referencing style (i.e. Harvard). There are