ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the implications of stakeholder management from the perspective of international events and the consequential effects these can have on an event. All international events have a whole host of stakeholders that will have their own objectives that on occasion may be at odds with another. For clarification purposes, the chapter will begin by setting out the concept of stakeholder management within international events. It will then cover the responsibilities of stakeholders including ethical considerations and the ever-present possibilities of corruption in international events.
International events are dynamic, precarious in nature, and will challenge even the most experienced of organisers. They cannot be accomplished without the cooperation of a number of participants who undertake key stakeholder roles in the delivery process. Every international event will encounter some kind of stakeholder complications along the way. Individual priorities from stakeholders can dramatically increase the possibility of conflict and add to the complexity of the delivery process. This means that identifying the event’s key stakeholders is imperative for two reasons:
It is not possible to satisfy the needs of every stakeholder at every stage of the event
Without executive decisions, conflict management would take over the planning process
Deciding where the stakeholder level ends for each stage of the event, and how much influence is afforded to each stakeholder is what makes delivering an international event an achievable task. If not, the consultation stage would still be in full swing on the date the event was meant to start.
This chapter considers the key stakeholder implications at international events. It explains how stakeholders can place influence on the event from a number of sources. Not all stakeholders are human beings. They can be organisations and other living things. We learn that organisations also have a great deal of responsibility economically, legally, socially, and ethically towards events and their stakeholders and these responsibilities are often abused by the most powerful of international event organisations.
