From the over-promising of global music festivals and concerts to motor racing safety failures – a new book co-edited by a University of Chester academic is looking at what can be learned from the mistakes made in managing events.
Using case studies including the notorious 2017 Fyre Festival, a 1984 concert by Frank Sinatra that did not go to plan and the 2018 Macau Grand Prix, Events Mismanagement examines events from the viewpoint of how and why they fail and what can be taken from this.
Bringing together a range of expert insights, contributors discuss how core planning theory and concepts fail to emerge in practice and the reasons for this, how to improve practice through learning about event failure, how to avoid risks, and reduce the chance of events failing so they can be safer and successful.
Each chapter looks at different aspects of events mismanagement, exploring a wealth of international examples from music and sporting events to product launches and community and corporate events, with the case study approach offering a consistent thread and links throughout the text.
Lead Editor, Dr Tim Brown is Programme Leader and Senior Lecturer for Events Management, and Senior University Teaching Fellow, at the University of Chester’s Business School.
Joining him in the editing role is Phil Higson, Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and former Head of Tourism and Events Management at the University of Chester Business School, and Dr Lindsey Gaston, Senior Lecturer in Events Management at Liverpool John Moores University.
The book also highlights the rising stakes and expectations, with the events industry in the UK alone estimated to contribute more than £70 billion in direct spend, accounting for over 50% of the UK visitor economy (BVEP, 2020).
Dr Brown, who also co-authors a chapter on free-to-attend events, said: “It could be argued that learning from mistakes is the most fundamental type of learning we have all used, as we grow and develop. Therefore, this book embraces this core ideology of ‘learning from failure’, and is concerned with events mismanagement, as opposed to events management – of which there is an abundance of excellent books, articles, and papers. It aims to bring a new perspective to understand how to overcome the issues and reduce the likelihood of failure in the future.”
For further information on Events Mismanagement, please visit: Events Mismanagement: Learning from failure – Goodfellow Publishers.
