MASTER IN TOURISM MANAGEMENT

(CONVENTION AND EXPOSITION MANAGEMENT)

TOPIC:

THE BUSINESS STRUCTURE OF CONVENTION AND EXPOSITIONS

(JOURNAL ANALYSIS)

PREPARED FOR:

PUAN HASSNAH WEE

PREPARED BY:

NORHASIMAH HAMIM (2013838972)

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Contents

1.0 Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………………………………3

2.0 Issues Highlighted…………………………………………………………………………………………..4

3.0 Analysis and Critiques……………………………………………………………………………………..7

4.0 Reference/s……………………………………………………………………………………………………8

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1.0 Executive Summary

The purpose of this report is to analyze on to the business structures of convention and

expositions. In this case, business structure means a convention and expositions

framework legally recognized for conducting convention and expositions related

activities such as partnership, funding and hosting.

Research for this report included a review of primary journal, “Congress and Meetings

Tourism and Destination Brand”, by Ford, R. C., Gresock, A. R. and Peeper, W. C. In

addition, the research also reviews literature on additional journals and articles with

related topics.

The analysis indicates the main drivers/stakeholders for convention and expositions,

and how they are differs according to their level of participation in the events itself.

Furthermore, the analysis also reports on the different types of convention held

concurrently and each of their characteristics.

The report summarized the dissemination of roles and responsibilities of each of the

industry stakeholders, as well as the level of their participation in different types of

conventions. In the same line with the above notion, this report recommends the

industry stakeholders to be more proactive in staking their roles and more forthcoming

working together in the industry to ensure the convention industry will able to stand on

its own as an industry in the near future.

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2.0 Issues Highlighted

2.1 Drivers/Stakeholders

Freeman (1984) defined stakeholders as any group or individual who can affect

or is affected by the achievement of the organization’s objectives. In addition,

Mitchell, Agle, and Wood (1997) stated that stakeholder theory stresses the

interactions of power, legitimacy, and urgency in creating overall salience in any

industry involved.

In an overview on stakeholders of convention and expositions industry, there are

four hypothetical stakeholders’ relationship/dependency patterns which are

government first, venue first, customer first and sponsor first (Getz and

Andersson, 2010). These relationship/dependency patterns are disseminating

the perceived importance of stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities towards

convention and expositions’ organization.

Major stakeholders in this industry are government, which often initiated the

majority of large-scale venues for exhibitions and events (Liu and Wilkinson,

2012); convention centers (CVB), organization that held accountable for

marketing a particular destination and venue (Ford, Gresock and Peeper, 2011);

non-government organization/association, corporate sector and any industry

practitioners such as automotive, pharmaceutical or fashion, which will make up

as the events’ hosts, attendees, delegates, ticket buyers, exhibitors, suppliers

and etc.; as well as professional congress/events organizations, organization that

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will plan and organize the convention and expositions for the host (Liu and

Wilkinson, 2012).

Besides that, the other stakeholders are local authority of the convention and

expositions’ venue (Ford, Gresock and Peeper, 2011); private sector entity such

as restaurants, attractions and hoteliers of the hosting venue, organizations that

will affect and be affected by the convention organization (Ford, Gresock and

Peeper, 2011); general public, where by their level of acceptance towards the

events is important (Liu and Wilkinson, 2012); as well as the public services such

as the media, police force, and medical team, services that will ensure the flow

of events goes even more smoothly (Getz and Andersson, 2010).

2.2 Types of Conventions

According to Chiappa (2012), there are six types of meetings which are

conferences, conventions, incentive travel meetings, kick-off meetings, seminars,

and symposiums. Definitions for the stated meetings are retrieved from a

website on event planning guide (www.evenues.com/event-planning-guide).

A conference is generally understood as meetings of several people to discuss a

particular topic where by innovative ideas are thrown about and new information

is exchanged among experts. Conference can be for academic, business, and

trade purpose. There can also be unconference which is differing from

conventional conference in a way that the discussion will be in open-mode

scenario; without a single-speaker addressing the gathering.

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Meanwhile, convention is now thought to be an annual event that brings

together like-minded people to learn, go over new gear or techniques and make

networking connections. A standard convention includes a check-in, meet and

greet, booths and vendor display area, presentations, key-note speaker, social

activities and guest panels with question and answer sessions.

Next, a seminar can be defined as a gathering of people for the purpose of

discussing a stated topic where by the sessions are usually headed or led by one

or two presenters who serve to steer the discussion along the desired path.

A symposium on other hand is an educational conference where people get

together to discuss thoughts and exchange ideas, rather than to be lectured at;

panel discussion by experts on a specific topic with audience participation that is

less than in a forum.

Kick-off meeting is about a meeting to get all the hands-on people involved

where by it would be the first in a series of meetings or a meeting introducing an

event that is going to take place over time. The main purpose of this meeting is

to explain the project, set expectations among the members of the team, and

give them copies of the scope document so they can review and understand fully

what is expected.

Last, vacation travel is an event arranged by or through an employer and

awarded as a motivational bonus to qualifying employees.

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3.0 Analysis and Critiques

All convention and expositions need their stakeholders to operate effectively if they in

turn wish to be effective. In order to be effective, each stakeholder has to understand

their roles and responsibilities, as well as the perceived importance of their level of

participation towards the events.

Appropriate information dissemination among the stakeholders is encouraged to ensure

their understanding on the above notions. The report recommends a value-chain

thinking to be implemented due to the number of stakeholders and the varied goals of

these stakeholders involved in any convention and expositions held. Value-chain

thinking means as a chain of activities that a firm operating in a specific industry

performs in order to deliver a valuable product or service for the market (Wikipedia),

and in this case a series of activities by major stakeholders with common goals in line

will ensure that the convention and expositions will be able to succeed in their

organization’s objectives.

In addition, this report also recommends the industry stakeholders to be more proactive

in staking their roles and more forthcoming of working together in the industry to

ensure the convention industry will able to stand on its own. Developing experimental

business model that made up of all the major and minor industry players also might be

able to ensure that the industry evolve as a distinctive identity of its own, without being

part of tourism industry as commonly practiced throughout the world.

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4.0 Reference/s

Chiappa, G. D. (2012) “How Do Meeting Organizers Choose Convention Sites Based on

Different Types of Meetings? An Empirical Analysis of the Italian Industry”, Event

Management Journal, Vol. 16, No. 2 2012, pp. 157-170.

Ficarelli, S., Sendra, S., Parra, L. and Lloret, J. (2013) “Congress and Meetings Tourism

and Destination Brand”, The Fifth International Conference on Creative Content

Technologies.

Ford, R. C., Gresock, A. R. and Peeper, W. C. (2011) “Board Composition and CVB

Effectiveness: Engaging Stakeholders that can Matter”, Tourism Review, Vol. 66,

No. 4 2011, pp. 4-17.

Getz, D. and Andersson, T. (2010) “Festival Stakeholders: Exploring Relationships and

Dependency through a Four-Country Comparison”, Journal of Hospitality and

Tourism Research, Vol. 34, No. 4 2010, pp. 531-556.

Wilkinson, S. and Liu, T. (2012) “Large-scale Public Venue Development and the

Application of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs)”, International Journal of Project

Management.