Topic: ‘Technology’ issues in the events industry. (how technology effecting event industry)

Academic Journals: around 20 + other sources

Individual Essay

Students will undertake research towards the evaluation of the social, environmental and economic impacts of an event venue typology on its surrounding communities and wider regions. Many discussions can be found surrounding the benefits and drawbacks of developing new sports stadia, cultural centres and convention centres, as well as industry and government reports which quantify benefits of existing venues. You will gather, from a number of sources, the data and information required to evaluate the impacts of the development of their chosen venue typology. 

You will use the gathered data to write an essay of 2,500 words, analyzing the stated and potential impacts discussed for their venue typology. You should use academic journal articles and theoretical models to support your work wherever possible. 

The essay will follow this structure:

Introduction

§ Describe the structure, content and purpose of your essay.

§ Briefly describe the venue typology under consideration, using the academic literature to highlight key characteristics which are likely to be connected with impact creation.

§ Provide the types of impacts (both positive and negative) to be discussed

Indicate that the key outcome of your synthesis of the available literature will be to form conclusions and make recommendations about how negative impacts be minimized and positive impacts maximized, how might existing venues improve their impacts and how new venues be developed to be more positively impactful.

Evaluation of Impacts

§ Discuss the economic feasibility, social desirability, and ecological soundness of the venue typology (chose illustrative examples from the literature to explain positive and negative industry examples). Wherever possible, connect the characteristics of the venue typology to the impacts created (both positive and negative). 

§ Consider that impacts are not usually intrinsically negative or positive, depending on stakeholder perspective. For example, the creation of a new convention center could create additional congestion on urban transportation networks, but is also likely to result in the increasing frequency of services for local residents. New cultural centers could lead to the gentrification of an area and the displacement of an existing community, but could also reduce crime and other social issues.

Conclusions

§ Demonstrate the extent to which you consider the beneficial social, economic and environmental impacts of this event venue typology to outweigh the negatives (or vice versa), providing reasons for your conclusions.

Recommendations

§ Make recommendations based on your conclusions. How can negative impacts be minimized and positive impacts maximized based an industry examples? How might existing venues improve their impacts? How might new venues be developed to be more positively impactful?

Please ensure that your essay has a strong academic foundation including theory, empirical evidence and references. If you use material from case studies or company websites remember that these need to be properly quoted and referenced just like all other materials.