ABSTRACT
The principal starting point for understanding event design is to consider this question: to what extent can planned event experiences be designed? Events form part of all our lives and they have been used to signify important aspects of our culture throughout the ages (Shone and Parry 2004; Tassiopoulos 2010) with records showing that celebratory and ceremonial events were taking place over 60,000 years ago (Matthews 2008a). The range of different event types is considerable, with at least eleven event ‘genres’ being identified, ranging from business to festivals to social and sports events (Bowdin et al. 2006). Getz (2008) prefers to identify events firstly through their function, i.e. why they are held, and lists eleven ‘functions’, such as premier, causerelated, spectator and participant events, and secondly through to their form, of which he suggests there are twenty-three, including festivals, parades, religious, visual exhibitions and sports. In the last decade, the significant growth in undergraduate courses in event management and subsequent study of events has tended to focus upon the praxis of events, that is the management, design and production process involved in creating planned events. As Getz (2008) argues, though, there is also need to develop theory and explore the meanings of events. He suggests that with the maturation of the study of events so there will be an increased awareness of what events are and what significance they have for society as the field of events is studied by researchers in other disciplines. A common prefix often used before the word events is ‘special’, indicating that an event has
some kind of uniqueness that makes it special, and by definition it is therefore not something that is normal or everyday. A popular expression used to describe the special factor contained within these events is that they have a ‘wow’ factor (Malouf 1999). This ‘wow’ often takes the form of a theme for the event, and as such there is no doubt that for certain occasions it requires knowledge of the resources needed to create such thematic settings (Matthews 2008b). Green (2010), for example, has stated that we will be debating and interpreting the meaning of the 2008 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in Beijing for years to come, such was the complexity and depth of meaning conveyed by the elaborate design. It is within such occasions, then, that there is, as Getz (2005) notes, the opportunity for an event to provide a range of cultural, social and leisure-based experiences that go beyond those of the everyday routine
experience, and it is these occasions that we call special events. Nevertheless, some events, for example business events or meetings, may not contain such special or unique moments that are memorable and could be said to be more pragmatic or prosaic in purpose. They may contain less artistic design and creative content, since any theme is likely to be less visually stimulating than in an entertainment event; nevertheless, design and creativity themselves are not intrinsically absent either, since such events are still purposefully planned occasions that have been designed and created to provide certain experiences (Vanneste 2008)
Modern event management is largely about delivery of experiences; this applies irrespective of the size and type of event (Silvers 2004), and today’s attendees are sophisticated consumers. Important to the understanding of the concept of events is the appreciation that such moments and occasions are a part of either a planned or unplanned process (the planning and management of an event) that is undertaken in order to produce this experience. Thus Getz (2008: 9) argues that the ‘core phenomenon of event study is the planned event experience and its meanings’. The connecting factor of all the different types of planned events is that there is intent to create some kind of experience for either audiences and/or participants. This idea of creating experiences (irrespective of whether it is unique and memorable) is not only central to the practice of event management but it is also central to our way of consumption. It is argued that consumption has evolved beyond the simple purchase of products and services into the differentiated pursuit of experiences (Tofler 1972; Holbrook and Hirschmann 1982; Schmitt 1999; Jensen 1999). Experiences result from engaging people in a personal way, and because of this their value
(of the event) persists long after the work of the event stager is done (Pine and Gilmore 1999: 12-13). Ergo, it is of great interest to deepen our understanding of how such event experiences are designed and created. This chapter argues that the very creation of such planned event experiences should be part of a deliberate and integrated design-based process whereby each element of the event is carefully mapped out in order to produce an environment (or setting) where there is the opportunity for experiences specific to that event to be consumed, and that this includes the pre-, actual and post-event stages. Design activity, in this context, therefore ranges from initial concept of the event through to all the successive elements that are required to ultimately deliver the experience (Allen 2002; Silvers, 2004; Berridge 2007, 2009; Goldblatt 2008; Van der Wagen 2008).
