FIVB World Tour Beach Volleyball in Stavanger
...ted in 2002 when women were playing for the world championships as well as the men. The first years of the event was more in the interest of volleyball players and supporters, while the event today attracts a broad mix of spectators. Today the audience is broad in age, gender and interests, and there are different needs for different people to be satisfied. So although the event was considered big back in 1999, it has only grown since then. The growth includes the amount of days which in the tournament is held, the number of spectators, the number of participants, number of volunteers, money involved and the growth of interest in the sport of volleyball. The volleyball clubs in the Stavanger area have experienced a huge increase in membership numbers. This has again lead to more tournaments being arranged within Norway, and several domestic beach volleyball competitions are held in Stavanger today. Summer in Stavanger has always been a popular and busy time, but during the week of the World Tour event the last four years, hotels in the area are fully booked. This gives an indication of the impact on tourism the tournament has. Because it is a world cup, the tournament attracts international travellers as well as domestic, although locals and domestic travellers make up the greatest part of the audience. Legacy it has created in its particular sphere of influence From notes: Social and cultural impacts, including entertainment, enjoyment and education benefits, social cohesiveness and pride, deficits such as substance abuse and bad crowd behaviour. Cohesiveness means when everything works well together. The anticipated political impacts include the profile and positioning benefits to the destination and political interference or lack of political support. The environmental requirements that must be met prior to staging an event, including detailed assessment of anticipated impacts on the environment. Also, particular attention should be given to noise levels, traffic and parking impacts, waste removal and disposal. The anticipated tourism impacts of the event, including the number of visitors that the event is expected to attract, visitor expenditure and any negative impacts such as overcrowding, inflation of prices or displacement of locals. Does the event have a unique selling proposition? How do the tickets reach the target market? Who is the target market? 4. Current objectives and Mission statement All events need to have established objectives. It is important that these objectives are known to all staff members throughout the organisation. This will ensure that everybody is aiming for the same goals. These goals are best achieved collectively as a team rather than individually. It should be noted that there is a difference between goals and objectives. Goals are broad statements that seek to provide direction, and at the end of an event one can evaluate the results and decide if the goals were met. Objectives on the other hand, are used to quantify progress towards goals and as such, set performance benchmarks that allow assessment of what aspects of planning has succeeded or failed. Objectives should be specific, measurable, agreeable, realistic and time specific. In order to evaluate the current objectives for the world tour beach volleyball in Stavanger, these five variables are required to most effectively reach the goals that have been set. Specific By having specific objectives means to focus on achieving an overall goal. The main goal of the world tour beach volleyball in Stavanger is to arrange a successful tournament. Success of the tournament can be achieved by working towards the following objectives: -Maximising revenue: The organisers have established the desired revenue to be generated from the event. Objectives that will assist them in achieving this revenue could be to produce an accurate budget and spend money on advertising in order to attract more people, which lead to increased revenue. -Increase enjoyment: It is important that the audience and the participants enjoy the event because they are the reason it is being held. -Obtaining publicity: Gaining positive publicity such as media impressions is generally helpful for the event and its organisers, as it reaches a wide audience at no extra cost. Because a lot of the sponsors of the tournament are media companies, the event receives free publicity, and by maintaining a positive relationship with the sponsors, the publicity will be increased. -Gaining further sponsorship: Sponsorship is a major source of revenue for the tournament. The event would not be possible to hold if it was not for the sponsors. There is a constant goal of gaining further sponsorship from both current sponsors and new sponsors. Increased sponsorship has been achieved so far over the six years. -Growth of the sport in the local area: These objectives are all ingredients to achieving success in this tournament. These objectives can be broken down further into individual goals and objectives at a more operational level. Measurable The objectives listed above must be measurable so that one can know if the goals are being achieved. Specific objectives make this task easier, yet having measurable objectives is necessary in the case of any successful event. -The world tour beach volleyball in Stavanger can measure their revenue by comparing the forecasted budget to the actual budget. -In order to measure enjoyment, the organisers survey participants and spectators. -Publicity can be measured by tracking the amount of media impressions achieved as a result of the tournament. Further more, growth of the sport in the local area is measured once the tournament has finished. This is done by checking the amount of new members in volleyball clubs in Stavanger. Lastly, growth in sponsorship is measured on an annual basis by calculating the amount of agreed sponsors for the event compared to the previous years. Agreeable There are many organisers for the world tour beach volleyball. Organisers consist of the local organisers that work on the event on a day to day basis, the FIVB, the NVBF, World Event AS and the main sponsors. The goals and objectives must therefore be known to and agreed on by all those responsible. One advantage in this case is that the event is being held on an annual basis. Therefore a large amount of historical data is available. A great deal of the goals and objectives will remain the same from year to year, however, one must ensure that they are always agreed upon as the size of the event and the people involved changes. Realistic The objectives of the world tour beach volleyball must be realistic in the sense that it must have the human, financial and physical resources. The human demand and revenue expectations must be achievable, especially in such a case where most of the staff are volunteers. The organisers must be aware of the fact that most of the revenue is generated from sponsors, and so the economic objectives must be realistic when making agreements with sponsors. Time specific The world tour in Stavanger operates under several different time limits. It can be divided into the phase leading into the event, the days of the event and the post evaluation stage. Each stage has specific time limits, and they must all be met in order for the event to run smoothly. The length of the actual event is one week, and these are obviously the most stressful days. By effectively organized planning and clear goals and objectives, the stress and pressure can be significantly decreased and lead to a more successful event. Most importantly, the goals and objectives must be strategic and vital for the evaluation after the event. Every event should have a purpose, a vision and mission. Why are we doing it and where we want to be when we get there? Individual statements provide effective guides to the development and conduct of events. The purpose should underpin each event and will be conditioned by the needs of stakeholders. The vision usually describes the long term goals, usually brief and motivational in nature. Each event has a unique mission which differentiates it from others, and an effective mission statement should answer the following questions: Who are our participants? Which participant needs are we satisfying? What are the organisers trying to achieve? Once defined, it can be used to focus upon the task ahead, which in turn leads to the formulation of clear event objectives and strategies. 5. Events marketing mix Product – The product offered at the world tour beach volley is entertainment in the form of a volleyball competition. Although volleyball is the major entertainment, there are several other services provided, such as concerts, parties, dinners, general entertainment and sales booths. Place – Stavanger is only one of several places where the World Beach Volleyball Tournament is arranged. When the World cup was first arranged in Stavanger, one could say it was due to a man by the name of Bjorn Maaseide. Bjorn Maaseide is one of the best, if not the best, Norwegian beach volleyball player. When Bjorn became involved with the world cup several years ago he persuaded the organisers into arrange it in Stavanger, his hometown. Maaseide is a member of the World Event AS, which promotes for the World Cup in beach volleyball. Although the event was much smaller at the time it was first arranged, it was a success and has been held there ever since. The benefits for the city to hold such an event are many, the largest benefit being increased tourism. Programming – The program for World Beach Volleyball Tournament is as follows: PROGRAM - WORLD TOUR STAVANGER 2003 OFFICIAL EVENTS: Tue 18.00-20.00 VG Listen TOPP 20, Concert at center court Tue 23.00- VG Listen TOPP 20, Party (place to be decided) Bjorn Maaseide Wed 09.00 Player and sponsor tournament: Golf Wed 21.00-23.30 VIP arrangement in Atlantic Hall (private arrangement) Thu 23.00-03.00 Party (place to be decided) Fri 23.00-03.00 Røde Sjøhus (P4) Sat 23.00-03.00 Conoco Phillips party: Røde Sjøhus The program is well spread out with different activities and forms of entertainment throughout the week, representing a high quality, consistent and well planned program. These are only the major happenings, and smaller forms of entertainment are provided during the days when the games are played. People – Almost the whole crew at the World Beach Volleyball Tournament in Stavanger are volunteers. The number of volunteers at the last event were approximately 350. After a survey amongst the crew was carried out this year, it was decided that more volunteers are needed next year to decrease the work load of the individuals. People from all over Norway can volu...