Managing Hard Rock’s Rock-fest

Introduction:
Hard Rock since its inception in 1971 is one of the most well recognized chain of Cafes, Hotels and Casinos around the
globe, predominantly in the United States of America. Their mission is: We create authentic experiences that rock with
the following values being at the core of the organization:

 Practice honesty, integrity and professionalism

 Encourage everyone to maximize their potential
 Take personal accountability for getting results
 Create brand excitement through innovation
 Deliver Amplified Experience

One of Hard Rock’s core offerings is: The Hard Rock Rock-fest, it is a mega event with a host of world-renowned
celebrities being roped in to perform with people coming from all corners of the globe to attend this music
extravaganza. Over the years the development of the brand into Hotel chains, casinos apart from their traditional cafes
have added more complexity to programming such a large-scale event and thus, the successful planning and execution
of such an event requires project management techniques to be utilized.

The event is an annual 13-hour long music lover’s haven, held in July and attended by well over 100000 music lovers
from across the globe. The project is directed by Mr. Chris Tomasso starts 9 months before the concert, they have been
extensively using Microsoft Project for their project planning. At 9 months out the senior members of the team do their
individual work and meet once every month for progress review. When it’s 6 months out they meet on a weekly basis to
make sure everything is going smoothly.

Tasks Involved:
The major tasks identified during the initial phases of developing the project blueprint are as follows:

 Talent Booking: This represents the number of bands, artists, DJs and musicians that will be required to cater to
the massive crowd. Over the years, bands like Metallica and personalities like Jennifer Lopez have stepped onto
the Hard Rock stage for performing
 Marketing: This is a huge task, the number of hotels, casinos, cafes that are owned by the brand is massive and
proper budget allocation as well as proper materials needs to be supplied across continents due to the scale of
the brand
 Ticketing: Ticket bookings are started
A Finalize site and building contracts - 7
B Select local promoter A 3
C Hire production manager A 3
D Design promotional Web site B 4
E Set TV deal D 5
F Hire director E 4
G Plan for TV camera placement F 2
H Target headline entertainers B 4
I Target support entertainers H 4
J Travel accommodations for talent I 10
K Set venue capacity C 2
L Ticketmaster contract D,K 3
M On-site ticketing L 8
N Sound and staging C 6
O Passes and stage credentials G,R 7
P Travel accommodations for staff B 20
Q Hire sponsor coordinator B 4
R Finalize sponsors Q 4
S Define/place signage for sponsors R,X 3
T Hire operations manager A 4
U Develop site plan T 6
V Hire security director T 7
W Set police/fi re security plan V 4
X Power, plumbing, AC, toilet services U 8
Y Secure merchandise deals B 6
Z Online merchandise sales Y 6
PROGRAM EVALUATION AND REVIEW TECHNIQUE:

CRITICAL PATH METHOD:

A B D E F G O