Going East II – Australia

The second leg the journey took place in the Gold Coast, Australia, where I attended the International Event Management Summit, which incorporated the ACEM 5th International Event Management Research Conference (6-7 July) and the 3rd Event Education and Research Network (8 July). I presented two papers, one on event stakeholders and another on festival satisfaction. Below you can find the titles and the abstracts of both papers:


THE FUTURE OF A MARATHON AS PERCEIVED BY ITS STAKEHOLDERS

Caroline Jackson, Miguel Moital and Jenna Le Couillard

This paper is a result of Jenna’s undergraduate dissertation that I supervised. Jenna did very well (she got a first!) and me and Caroline picked up on her work and improved it in order to submit it to the conference. I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity to teach some bright students who are able to do research that is good enough for publication. In addition to Jenna’s dissertation, I’ve got two other dissertations that could lead to papers (one definitely will). Not only Jenna’s chosen research topic is very relevant, but she did a very good job developing a creative methodology and collecting good quality primary data.

The aim of her research was to identify if the continuation of the event was supported by its stakeholders and what their objectives were for its future. The research attempted to understand if the stakeholders desired event growth, and if so, in which areas and to what level. Jenna adapted Shoemaker’s (1995) scenario planning process to suit the research. She developed three scenarios that were presented to the stakeholders: a small scale event, medium scale event and large scale event and within these scenarios a range of event features were covered. The overall finding was that the stakeholders wanted to maintain the event and to support its growth. They viewed the Marathon as currently being a small scale event with elements of a medium scale event and saw it growing to become a medium scale with elements of a large scale event. A key finding was that the stakeholders had conflicting views throughout and this was due to their varying backgrounds and objectives for the event. These potential differences will need to be carefully managed by the event organisers if the future development of the event is to be successful.

EXAMINING THE CONTRIBUTION OF EMOTIONS TO FESTIVAL SATISFACTION USING LOGISTIC REGRESSION

Miguel Moital, Caroline Jackson, Mary-Beth Gouthro

This paper is based on a study focusing on festival satisfaction that I am doing together with the two co-authors (and colleagues at BU) of the paper. The reason to write this paper came from the conclusion that past studies on consumer satisfaction have tended to focus on ‘cognitive’ determinants of satisfaction. In other words, they seek explanation to festival satisfaction on a range of specific (more or less tangible) attributes of the festival. Yet, in experience-based products, such as festivals, this may not be sufficient to fully understand the determinants of satisfaction. Emotions are at the centre of experiences and therefore we argue that these should also be incorporated in satisfaction models.

Therefore, in this paper we sought to examine the determinants of festival satisfaction and to understand the extent to which emotion is a determinant of festival satisfaction. Using the Beach Break Live Festival (UK) as a case study and logistic regression as the analytical technique, the results show that emotions do contribute to explaining festival satisfaction in addition to cognition. Moreover, positive emotions were the single most important determinant of overall satisfaction. Satisfaction with Food & Drink, Staff, Facilities and Information & Organisation were also found to influence participants’ satisfaction. We conclude by discussion implications for theory and practice.

If you wish to receive a copy of any of these papers, send me an email to mmoital@bournemouth.ac.uk

My colleagues Dorothy Fox, Debbie Sadd and Richard Shipway also presented papers at this conference (Yes, BU was the foreign university with the largest representation at the conference).

Dorothy presented a paper on The contribution of an events programme to sustainable heritage conservation: a study of the National Trust in England. The paper, co-authored with Nicola Johnson, explores the various ways in which the National Trust’s programme of events has been developed to contribute to sustainable heritage conservation. The method they used for this case study consisted of the collection and analysis of both primary and secondary data. The former obtained through in-depth interviews with key personnel within the National Trust, with secondary data from the National Trust and other sources used in support. The findings show the Trust’s events play a vital role in educating the public in sustainability, in respect of both natural and cultural heritage. The interview participants revealed that the events are conceived in two main ways – first, a topdown approach whereby events relate to a national organisational campaign and secondly, events which develop from the bottom-up and reflect the uniqueness of each of the Trust’s properties. This study therefore extends the prevailing approach to events and sustainable development by considering the very positive contribution of an events programme to heritage conservation, which has implications for other conservation bodies throughout the world.

Dorothy

Debbie’s presentation, entitled London 2012 – Will it be regeneration or renaissance in times of financial crisis? (co-authored with Ian Jones), focussed on the ‘regeneration’ that is proposed for the residents in the area of the Olympic Park developments in the Lower Lea Valley in London. The study (undertaken as part of her PhD) is based upon the detailed examination of two past Games and their impacts upon the local residents of the Olympic venues, in Sydney, 2000 and Barcelona 1992. The study evaluates the impacts of the planning for London 2012 to date on the local residents through in-depth, semi-structured interviews. This study also examines the impact of the global credit crisis upon the legacy planning and highlights some of the impacts already being seen with regard to the changes being made by the Olympic Delivery Authority to the original bid documentation.

Debbie

Richard presented a paper entitled Sporting events, distance running and the ‘third place’. His paper, based on his doctoral studies, adds to the limited body of knowledge on sports events by exploring the social world of active sports event participants. In his paper, the experiences of active sports event participants are explored at a selection of international distance running events. Preliminary results suggest that a key aspect of the sports event experience is that the event provides access to a social environment of like-minded people, especially within the event setting. Within these research results, the key emerging theme and direction of this study is to explore the role of sporting events as a ‘third place’ outside of the home and work environment.

Richard :-)

On the last day of the conference, the BU team met a number of academics from Victoria University. Professor Leo Jago is a visiting professor at BU, and we took this opportunity to discuss possible projects between academics of the two institutions.

Academic staff from Victoria University and Bournemouth University

After the conference, I stayed in the area for a two week holiday. My first stop was New Zealand. I will post about it over the next few days.

Going East I – Singapore

Apologies to all readers for not posting recently, but I was away most of July and the first two weeks in August and then I was catching up with some work. Undergraduate students are not around, but the work does not stop...

On the 2nd of July, a day after the Events Management exam board, I took off to ‘the other side of the world’ to attend the Event Research Conference in Australia. I went with three colleagues (Caroline Jackson, Dorothy Fox and Debbie Sadd). Travelling to Australia involves a very long flight. Two years ago, when I went to the same conference (in Melbourne), I flew to Australia directly and closer to the conference. This was a mistake... I struggled to be fully awake at the conference due to the jet leg! I can barely remember my presentation of two years ago as I was so sleepy. This time I did not do the same mistake. We flew a couple of days earlier, to have enough time to acclimatise and get used to the different time.

Instead of travelling directly to Australia, we decided to stop in Singapore (there are only 2 hours difference between Singapore and Queensland). For the first time I flew with Singapore Airlines and the flight from London to Singapore was on the… A380! Beautiful plane, very comfortable seat, outstanding entertainment system, excellent service and delicious food! I guess by now you have realised that I loved flying with SingaporeAir. From now on, I will fly with them if I can – having a good airline when flying long haul makes a difference.

The A380

We took this opportunity to visit Singapore and to make some contacts with local educational institutions. We visited Temasek Poytechnic and a private further education institute. We were very well received by Sandra, our host at Temasek Poly. The Poly offers culinary arts courses and the students work on some of the cafes and restaurants with their premises. We had a ‘comfort stop’ at one of these and the food was simply delicious. Look at the picture below! Mouth watering indeed.

Delicious food. OK, a third of the table contains my food! Greedy Miguel! Just could not resist trying the food. I had the soup on the left, the japanese style food next to it and the yellow cake at the bottom of the picture.

Starting on my right: Caroline, Sandra, Dorothy and Debbie

Needless to say that we also used our free time to visit some of the hotspots in Singapore. The Youth Asian Games were on and on Saturday we went to Sentosa Island to attend the Beach Voleyball tournament.

Sentosa Island, with the event taking place in the background

On the only night we spent in Singapore we did the famous ‘night safari’. It was an interesting experience. Basically it is a zoo, with the animals spread over a large area (unlike city zoos), but you have the chance to see the animals at night.

At the night safari

Just before resuming our journey to Australia, we had time to taste one of the symbols of Singapore – the Singapore Sling Cocktail. Of course, we did it where it should be: at the Raffles Hotel. The cocktail was invented by bartender Ngiam Tong Boon between 1910 and 1915. It is very tasty but you should not drink too many… the recipe includes Gin, Cherry Brandy, Cointreau and Dom Benedictine. We had only one as we were a few hours away from flying to Brisbane...

Cheers! Enjoying the Singapore Sling Cocktail at the Raffles Hotel

Australia, NZ and more

I am currently on the other side of the world. Earlier this week I attended the 5th Event Research Conference in the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. On my way to Australia, I stopped in Singapore for 36h. This was quite an interesting experience. Singapore is worth visiting. I am now in New Zealand. I will spend the night in Wellington, before travelling to Palmerston North (visit a friend) and then to Rotorua. It is quite cold in NZ. The sky was clear and on my way from Auckland to Wellington the plane went through an old volcano covered in snow. The view was amazing and I regret not having my camera at hand to take pictures. This was a taster of what NZ has to offer... so I am looking forward to see more beautiful spots. As I am writting this post from an Internet cafe in Wellington, the background music just started playing a Portuguese song!!! Marisa is the singer's name and she sings fado. A little weird...

Next week I will be travelling to one of the (paradisiac) south pacific islands for a holiday - I will tell you later which one! I will then come back to Auckland, where I will be talking at the New Zealand Travel Research Institute, as well as visiting Auckland University of Technology. Then it is time to fly back to the UK...

I already have lots of pictures and stories to tell, but I don't think I will be able to post them before arriving in the UK at the end of the month (but I will try...). Stay tuned!

M

Presentation at AEME's Forum

On the 18-19 June I travelled to Huddersfield (Northern England) to attend the 7th AEME Events Management Educators Forum. AEME (Association of Event Management Educators) is an association of educational institutions set up to advance the education of the public in the subject of events and events management. More specifically, it aims to support and raise the profile of the events discipline through the sharing of education and best practice.

This year’s theme was “Continuing Professional Development or Continuing to Develop the Professionals?”. The aim of the forum was to explore the roles, in partnership, that industry and educators have in continuing to develop current and future events professionals, including through continuing professional development. One of the teaching innovations I introduced this academic year was a closer link between the student work and the ‘real’ world and therefore this experience could provide a valuable contribution to the forum’s theme.

The unit is called Leisure Product (Event Innovation from October) and a piece of coursework was designed to meet the objectives of the unit, which revolve around exploring innovation and new product development theory and apply this knowledge to a real organisation. At the same time, the coursework had to give students the opportunity to reflect on their current knowledge of innovation and new product development, with a view to reflect on the key areas of the unit that they think are important with regard to their academic development and future employment.

The coursework involves developing a new event, for which students have to follow a step by-step process, divided in two stages:

• Consultancy report (first term) - The aim of the consultancy report is to identify the company’s current market situation and to identify the gap in the market place.
• Group presentation - The group presentation resembles an executive briefing to the management of the company. This presentation is for students to make a ‘business case’ for the new event they have developed for the company. The presentation follows a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style, where students present the business case in front of ‘dragons’, with a view to obtain their support for its development and launch.

The coursework has now run for 4 years, and over this period many changes have been made following an analysis of student performance. Until last year, groups were free to select the company they wished to employ as their case study. This caused a number of problems. For example, most groups selected companies for which incomplete information was available, hindering their ability to undertake a thorough internal and external analysis of the organisation. From an assessor’s point of view, it also made it difficult to compare student performance given the diversity of organisations and products that resulted from such flexible approach. In one seminar, I could go from wakes at the Golden Hinde (an old boat located in London), to a event at Swizzels Matlow (a candy factory) for former employees, to environmentally friendly weddings at the Eden Project! It is not surprising that at times it was difficult to keep track of all students’ proposals (there were around 25 groups)…

While what we were doing was already interesting and relevant for the students, for 08-09 a number of changes were implemented. One of the most relevant was the allocation of a specific organisation to each seminar group (there were 5 seminar groups of around 30 students each). This change in particular had a tremendous impact on student performance and engagement. Overall, we (me and my colleague Pearl Morrison, who is a co-tutor of the unit) feel that the right ‘formula’ was found. The allocation of an organisation to each seminar group allowed students to visit the organisation’s premises (we selected local companies) at the beginning of the academic year, while accessing detailed information via information packs provided by each organisation (e.g. strategic plans, marketing plans, financial data). In addition, managers of the organisations attended the presentations at the end of the year (they were one of the ‘dragons’). These changes led to students working in a much more ‘real’ context: working with a real organisation, real information and to real dragons.

In order to establish whether the coursework was perceived as an appropriate method for the unit, notably after the implementation of the changes, an evaluation of the experience was made that involved:

• discussions with each of the seminar groups at the end of stage 1.
• An online questionnaire at the end of stage 2
• A brief email interview with the managers of the organisation allocated to each of the five groups

My session at the AEME Forum shared the experience of this unit with participants. The results of the evaluation process were presented at the forum. The main points emerging from the focus group were:

• A sense of satisfaction of completing a consultancy report
• A feeling of relief/satisfaction/pride
• The opportunity to learning some of the theories/models (applicable in the real world)
• More motivated by a real organisation than an ‘imaginary one’
• ‘A chance to be creative’

In summary, the consultancy report was deemed ‘Challenging, interesting & worthwhile’ as well as ‘Useful, stressful & educational’

As far as the questionnaire is concerned (answered by 52% of the students who did the unit):

• 95% said that having a real organisation was very or extremely useful
• Around 80% of students indicated that the coursework has improved their communication & presentation skills, as well as their ability to work in groups.
• The same proportion (80%) said they learnt a lot from the dragons’ feedback (tutors and managers)

Overall students were very pleased with the nature of the work – around 4 out of 5 were satisfied or very satisfied, with the remaining 10% neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. Only 7% were dissatisfied with the coursework.

All managers expressed that they were impressed with students’ effort and found it worth the investment in time. Several managers volunteered to do it again in the future. Some of the business cases were very good. Managers showed excitement about some of the business proposals and some expressed an intention to take some of the ideas forward with the help of students (on a voluntary basis).

Taken together, these results are quite positive. Yet, I am still not happy that 7% of students were unhappy (and a further 10% were not happy). Our own experience and the feedback allowed us to identify areas that need to be addressed and we are hopeful that once implemented they will improve the level of student (and our!) satisfaction with the coursework and the unit.

The experience was deemed relevant enough by the university, which organised a press release covering the dragon’s den presentations. We believe this experience could be relevant to others teaching events (or other business related courses), and therefore we are planning to write a paper about it. I will keep you updated about any developments in this front. Thank you for reading this post till the end!

'Learning & Teaching'

I have been posting mostly about my research and my life, now it is time to close the 'triangle' and talk about my teaching.

I am fairly new to the world of learning and teaching/pedagogy in higher education, despite my 14 year (!) career in higher education. I started my career in higher education in Portugal (where I worked for 10 years) and higher education pedagogy was simply not in the agenda. I did not have to have any teaching qualification to teach in higher education (?!). While I was doing the best I knew and I could, in all honesty I was ‘doing’. The skills or knowledge to reflect on the nature of learning and my own practice were not there. For example, I had never thought about the definition of learning, let alone hearing about concepts such as ‘deep and surface learning’, ‘constructive alignment’ and ‘formative and summative feedback’.

Since I joined Bournemouth University, this has changed dramatically. Learning & Teaching are a central activity for any UK academic institution, and BU is no exception. At the earliest opportunity I enrolled on the Post-Graduate Certificate (PGCert) in Academic Practice, which BU offers for free to all the academic staff (lecturers or support staff). Two years ago (when I did it) it was still optional, now it has become compulsory (if you do not hold a teaching qualification yet).

The PGCert was a fantastic experience and it really opened my eyes to a complete new world. Yet, this new world should not have been new for someone with 10 years experience in higher education. I realised that I had been doing a job (i.e. facilitating student learning) for which I had no training whatsoever! For an academic, who among other things attempts to convince businesses that they should be recruiting individuals with an events management degree because they have been well trained to do the job, it does not look good! In Portuguese we would use the expression “em casa de ferreiro, espeto de pau” (means something like this: "only wooden kebab sticks are used at a blacksmith’s home”).

After successfully completing my PGCert, I become a fellow of the Higher Education Academy. HEA’s mission is to support the sector in providing the best possible learning experience for all students. The HEA commissions a number of reports that they then make available in their website (see resources page). Generally, these are of a very high quality, usually involving reporting on actual pedagogic experiences at UK universities. And the access is free to all (even if you are not a fellow!). From time to time I pay a visit to their site to see what’s new. For those who are looking for inspiration with a view to improve their teaching practice, this site is a good source of information.

Back to the PGCert experience. Since taking this course, I have developed an ongoing interest in learning & teaching issues. The tools learnt during the course helped me to develop an awareness regarding my own pedagogic practice. I am now much more aware of my strengths and weaknesses. And this has been valuable information as it enables me to build on my strengths and work towards improving whatever skills I am lacking. At an attitudinal level, it has also entrenched in my mind the importance of continuously attempting to improve what I do to foster student learning. Actually, I have set myself the goal of introducing a new pegagogic element in my practice every year. My confidence levels improved to the extent that I have now introduced several teaching innovations (for me) in my teaching practice. Examples include:

1. ‘Dragon’s Den’ Experience - involves using ‘real’ tasks and real organisations to improve student learning and motivation
2. Use of banks of comments to improve the quantity and quality of feedback.
3. Use of blogs to enhance students ability to self-assess

I will come back to some of these experiences soon in separate posts.

During the PGCert I had to do a portfolio of teaching and learning, which included a supporting report. In order to illustrate the dramatic impact the course had on me, I employed an analogy to a story I had heard from an ‘old wise man’ who is a very good friend of mine. The morals of the story address three important questions: where I come from, where I am and where I might be in the future as far as my academic practice is concerned.

The story goes like this. A group of humans had been living all their lives in a cavern, which had a little hole at the top. Because it was too high and narrow, they could not see what was going on outside other than shadows. One day, after much effort, one of them manages to get to the top, leave the cavern and see the world outside. The world outside was immense, full of different people, objects and practices. A world he had never imagined. Much different from the ‘single world’ he knew from living in the cavern. Before he left, he was an ‘ignorant’ – he though he had seen everything, he though he new everything. Now, he was in awe and fascinated with what he was seeing. He was ready to explore it, ready to learn what that new world would reveal.

My journey over the past three years at BU is a voyage of enlightening in much the same way as the cavern man’s one. I have climbed the rock and left my previous world, governed by shadows. Like the cavern man’s new world, I know that the learning and teaching world is much wider and richer than the one I knew before embarking on this journey. And it is much richer than the one I know today. You start seeing endless possibilities. Like the cavern man’s new world, after you have seen it, you will no go back to the shadow. You have no other desire than wanting to explore it, seeing what other new worlds are out there. And more importantly, the discovery of a new world leads you to the conclusion that as much as you may be learning exciting new things every day, you know that it is just another 'cavern'. Thus, you just need to climb the wall again and again to discover new worlds. You then realise you still know nothing when compared to what is out there to be learned. At this stage, you’ve become a scientist. You realise you still know nothing (much gthe same as the ignorant), but you are aware of it. Hence you keep climbing walls. You keep learning. As to the ignorant, he remains in the cavern, contemplating the shadows.

Cherries for Charity

I have recently returned from a one week holiday in Portugal. Among other things, I spent a few days at my uncle Necas' farm. He is a part time Cherry producer and his farm which contains hundreds of cherry trees. Since it is now cherry season, I spend the days picking (and eating!) cherries. Cherries are a great fruit, and believe me if you eat ripe ones straight from the tree, it is as sweet as honey! It is hard labour though and I am not surprised that they are so expensive to buy. Basically, it takes around 45 minutes to pick 5 kilos. And this is just picking, let alone the work (and luck!) that is required to ensure that the trees produce good quality cherries. The weather was great, sunny and a warm temperature, so besides an active day in the countryside you also get a nice sun tan...

With my uncle Necas

Boxes ready to go to the market

The buckets brought from the orchard

Cherries in the tree

My first bucket!

I brought with me a suitcase full of cherries, which I have sold to colleagues and friends: £4 per ½ kilo bag! I did this as a means to raise funds for charity. In the UK it is common for people to raise funds for the charity(ies) they support and I have taken this opportunity to do it myself. The money raised - £82 - has been donated to 3 charities:

1. Pebble Beach Charitable Trust – UK (£20): Trust associated to the Pebble Beach Restaurant in Barton on Sea (Hampshire). 50% of the monies raised by this charity are given to a local Hampshire and Dorset charity (currently 'help the aged'), while the other half provides computers and educational equipment to schools and youth projects in Brazil that would otherwise be unable to have access to essential technology
2. Portuguese Association of Cerebral Palsy - Leiria Branch - Portugal (£20/€22): My friend Nuno Brilhante Pedrosa just fulfilled his dream of uniting the 2 Poles of the Globe, travelling as far as possible, by bicycle and in autonomy, from the Canadian Artic to the 'Tierra del Fuego' in Argentina, cycling over 42.000 kilometres. During his journey, he raised the flag (and money!) for this charity. To celebrate his achievement and the important work of the charity, I have decided to share the money with them.
3. Leukaemia Research UK (£42) - the only charity in the UK dedicated exclusively to researching blood cancers and disorders including leukaemia, Hodgkin’s and other lymphomas, and myeloma. One of my best friends has recently been diagnosed with early stages of leukaemia, and the 3 year son of a colleague's best friend is also undergoing chemotherapy, hence the ‘double’ amount to this charity.

On behalf of the charities, a big thank you to all who have bought the cherries, as well my uncle Manuel Antunes Rodrigues (aka Necas) who kindly donated them.

III Conference “Advances in Tourism Economics”, Lisbon

On the 23rd and 24th of April I travelled to Lisbon, Portugal to attend the conference “Advances in Tourism Economics”. This conference was the third under a biennial conference series on Advances in Tourism Economics (ATE). The 2009 conference was jointly organised by the Portuguese Association for Tourism Research and Development (APIDT) and the Research Centre in Tourism, Innovation and Services (CITIS) of Lusiada University in Lisbon.

The conference attracted around 120 delegates from more than 20 countries, featuring 80 paper presentations, supported by two keynote speeches. I chaired two of the parallel sessions, one on “Motivation and consumer satisfaction in tourism markets” and another on “Tourism development and emerging products”. The first session featured papers from five and the second from four countries. Both sessions run very well and included a diversified, yet high quality range of papers. Besides chairing these two sessions, I also acted as a member of the scientific committee.

The conference program included a gala dinner at the Atrio Casino Restaurant (Lisbon Casino), after which we had the chance to try our luck at the slot machines using the €5 voucher given to all delegates. Needless to say that all delegates are still academics since no one has won the jackpot!

With Dr. Álvaro Matias and Professor Manuela Sarmento, co-chairs of the conference