Free Custom «Foundations of Event Management» Essay Paper

Identify and group these stakeholders, and explain their relationships with the festival and importance to the success of the event.

A number of different types of stakeholders are involved in the Tamworth Country Music Festival and they include the following: the owners and the promoters, marketing professionals, Telstra Country Wide, Tamworth City Council, and the local business community. All these various stakeholders have worked together in conjunction and in solidarity for the success of the festival. For instance, they have provided their funds and resources for the positive progress of the festival. Besides the provision of resources, they have also come together and provided the festival with competent professionals who have attained success and showed achievement for the society. To start with, the owners and the promoters of Tamworth Country Music Festival were not only concerned with the success of the festival, but also with the establishment of a national promotion scheme, which could be developed and marketed widely with financial and social benefits to the station and the City of Tamworth in general (Tassiopoulos 2006). Therefore, they were committed and willing to ensure that the festival growth and expansion in terms of participants and the number of fans was on the increase.

The other groups of stakeholders who were significant in the success of the festival were the marketing professionals that were employed Country Music Capital. Their virtue of association with the firm made them legitimate shareholders, and therefore, their contribution was instrumental to the success of the festival. They made every effort to present a highly professional event for the fans and for the viewers from all over the globe. This was reflected in everything they did right, from the publicity material and their attitude to media to the organization of the event. The quality and expertise that they exhibited and the general approach they had to the entire promotion of the festival was top class and this is one of the major reasons why the festival was highly successful.

Telstra Country Wide represents another group of stakeholders to the festival. They have been the major corporate and naming rights sponsor of the Festival since 2003 and their financial contribution has been a shot in the arm for the festival. The links provided by Telstra to Tamworth and other country music festivals have played a key role in raising awareness of the Telstra Country Wide brand and promoting the overall success of the festival. The Toyota Company also has strong links with the festival through the Toyota Star Maker and other events, which have boosted the success of the festival enormously.

The management team is also part and parcel of the stakeholders and their continuity of supervision of the country music promotion with the assistance of Max Ellis through 2TM and BAL Marketing has been essential to the success of the project. This was evident during the period from its inception in the late ’60s until his departure in 1984 (Mallen & Adams 2012). Most of the significant staff members of Tamworth Music Festival were deeply involved in setting up and running the promotion over these years. It is also during this period that the 2TM group developed a close and personal working relationship with artists, fans, and the Australian music industry, which ultimately contributed to the general success of the festival.

Provide recommendations for better stakeholder management.

The following are key recommendations that can assist the shareholders and the promoters of Tamworth Music Festival to achieve a better stakeholder management and ensure that the success of the festival is constant.

The acceptance of performers from outside Australia is one of the most significant recommendations to the entire management team. This implies they should allow all the artists, irrespective their country of origin or their color, to perform at the festival. The emphasis on Australian content was a major problem that was negatively affecting the festival. The alienation of the other artists contributed to the decline of their morale and it is an issue that the management of Tamworth Music Festival should critically examine (Allen, et al. 2012). The incorporation of the other artists would appeal to the international audience and this would eventually translate into a large base of fans for their performances, hence more revenue for the festival in the long run.

Another recommendation is the assurance of the continuity of the management team. The management team of Tamworth Music Festival has been highly successful in that it has strived to achieve more for the festival ever since its inception in the 1960s. The management team ensured that the artists and the performers in the events were of top quality and I can therefore only recommend they maintain their high standards of work that they have shown. Getz (2012, p. 67) emphasizes that the success of the festival can be largely attributed to this team, and so they should be given more time and the necessary resources to take the festival to the next level.

Additionally, there should be an improvement in public relations.The management board should strive to improve the existing public relations and devise more effective forms of the same This factor is crucial for the running of the Festival as an organization, because it creates a superb public image both in the local and international market. Notably, the target audience should be extended so that more stakeholders are attracted to the Festival. This will in the end provide a stable source of finance and the quality of the performances will improve as a result. The management team should therefore be encouraged to extend their promotional programs to incorporate other regions and the international community.

Last, management should encourage the culture of innovativeness.All the stakeholders should encourage the growth and innovations at the festival. Innovativeness can be in the form of the methods of presentation and of how the performances are done. Improving the nature and the quality of performances by artists who attend the festival by means of innovation will encourage the general growth and success of Tamworth Music Festival. Smit (2012, p. 97) opines that stakeholders can also decide to provide the performers with better and newer tools for their performances towards the betterment of the Festival.