Portfolio Evaluation and Impact Assessment

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce and explore the main event port- folio evaluation and impact assessment methods. The principles of financial portfolio management are discussed, considering their applicability to event portfolio evaluation, which should be done with caution, as events are not merely financial assets. The chapter highlights that the evaluation of event portfolios is complex, requiring new theories, methods and measures. To develop a comprehensive evaluation system, it is emphasised that there is a need for a multi-stakeholder approach to valuing event portfolios, considering both intrinsic values and extrinsic measures of worth. The chapter discusses four types of impact assessment and their application to portfolio evaluation. Key terms and concepts are explained, including value, evaluation, impact assessment, asset, outputs, and outcomes. The relevance of organisational ecology theory to portfolio evaluation is stressed. The nature and use of logic and theory of change models are examined followed by a discussion of portfolio strategy models and their relevance to evaluation. Finally, it is illustrated how to assess values against costs and risks within portfolios.

Edinburgh, a Festival City

Edinburgh has long been recognized as a global model for “festival cities”, and is often cited as a leader in the planning and evaluation of events. In 2010 Edinburgh won the World Festival and Event City award from the International Festival and Event Association (IFEA) and was declared the most outstanding global entry. According to Visit Scotland’s 2015 visitor survey (cited in BOP Consulting 2018, p. 8), “Edinburgh’s Festivals each year deliver over 3,000 events, reaching audiences of more than 4.5 million and creating the equivalent of approximately 6,000 full time jobs. 32% of the 14 million+ annual visitors to Scotland are moti- vated by the nation’s cultural and heritage offer, in which the Festivals play a defining role.” The city is frequently cited in the events literature, and its generous posting of material online is a boon to scholars and practitioners alike. The companion book in this series, Event Impact Assessment (Getz, 2019), presents highlights from a succession of impact studies that Festivals Edinburgh has placed online, while in this book we examine portfolio management through a review of published documents (all available online) and input from Festivals Edinburgh. Permanent, formal stakeholder collaboration, and strategic planning sup- ported by research is in large part what distinguishes Edinburgh’s event port- folio. The Festivals Forum (established in 2007 following the first Thundering Hooves report) facilitates stakeholder collaboration, particularly by bringing major funders to the table with events and venues. Festivals Edinburgh is a formal, staffed association of the eleven major, permanent festivals that contrib- ute most to the city’s image and to event-tourism impacts. Leadership is shared, not concentrated in one organization. As well, the city and Scottish Government work closely together, facilitated by the explicit portfolio strategy followed by EventScotland. Innovation in programming the festivals is matched by leadership in envi- ronmental sustainability and social responsibility. Engagement with residents is considered to be a high priority, and this includes demonstrating benefits through regular and comprehensive impact studies that cover cultural, social, economic and environmental impacts. Investment in venues and infrastructure has also been a priority for the city.

Event Portfolio Leveraging

In order to exploit the strategic value of an event portfolio, a set of leveraging activities should be designed and implemented by event portfolio managers (Ziakas, 2014a). Such activities could be focused on the relationships among different events and their stakeholders. They can synergise events with one another and with the host destination’s overall product and service mix (Ziakas, 2010, 2014a; Ziakas & Costa, 2011). This chapter thoroughly considers the concepts of leveraging and cross-leveraging and their application.

Event Portfolios and Stakeholder Networks

Stakeholder theory and management are of great importance within the events sector (van Niekerk & Getz, 2019). The focus of this chapter is on stakeholder cooperation and management within an event portfolio. First, the nature of inter-organisational relationships in the event sector will be examined. Second, the effects of strategic collaboration between different actors in a portfolio network will be analysed. Last, the characteristics of institutional structures and specifics of portfolio governance will be introduced and discussed.

Governmental Approach to Major Events in New Zealand

For the past 20 years, New Zealand, a country relatively remote in geographi- cal terms, has been actively communicating with the international visitor market in order to construct a global brand for the country. As a tourist destination, New Zealand offers an impressive range of natural and cultural attractions, out- door activities, urban tourism and a diverse event calendar. In 2017, the country welcomed 3.7m visitors, with the market forecast to grow by 7.5% in 2018. The active role of the Government in the visitor economy makes New Zealand an attractive investment destination. Extensive marketing campaigns, significant expansion of transport connections, private investment in infrastructure and the hotel sector indicate that New Zealand will continue its sustainable tourism growth over the coming years. Major events have been recognised as a powerful and successful instrument that can brand the country directly to the target audience. The ever-increasing numbers of international event visitors to New Zealand, as well as recent success in securing bids for such large-scale international events as 2011 Rugby World Cup, 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup, 2015 FIFA U-20 World cup and 2017 World Master Games, demonstrate the relevance of the employed strategy. This chapter reviews a national event portfolio approach in New Zealand. The approach is characterised by a strong top-down orientation, where the Govern- ment plays the leading role in determining current economic and socio-cultural objectives for the major event industry, implementation of the national event strategy and evaluation of the investment in major events. The data for this chap- ter have been collected by document selection and analysis and by interviewing several industry experts.

Portfolio of Major Events in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin

The overall purpose of this chapter is to analyse the inter-relations between institutional arrangements, event policy frameworks and applied portfolio approaches. The chapter aims to explore the influence of the public sector institutional and policy environments on the realisation of portfolio approaches in three cities in New Zealand, Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin. The cities have a core national status (Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, 2012) in terms of economic, political and socio-cultural share, and represent a variety of different contexts. Auckland is located in the North Island of New Zealand. It is the largest urban area in the country with a population of 1,415,500. It contains around 190 ethnic groups. Auckland is New Zealand’s principle business centre and accounts for 35.3% of New Zealand’s GDP as major national gateway for imports and exports (Statistics New Zealand, 2014). It is the most visited tourist destination in New Zealand, attracting around 70% of all visitors to the country (aucklandnz.com, n.d.). Auckland has been recognised in different international comparative studies such as Mercer Quality of Living Survey is 2015 and 2018, where it was ranked the third most liveable city in the world (Mercer, 2015, 2018).

Event Portfolios and Cultural Exhibitions in Canberra and Melbourne

The sustainable development of an event portfolio requires a synergy between the different types of events included in it. The pool of events that are commonly used by city event planners and destination marketers usually revolve around major sport events, cultural festivals and celebrations, and world trade expositions. Some cities, however, also attract and stage international touring exhibitions that bring together a collection of rare art works, significant cultural objects, or memorabilia to tour a limited number of destinations. In this chapter, major events such as international touring exhibitions will be explored as key components of portfolios of events in Canberra and Melbourne. The chapter discusses the different ways event and tourism planners in Canberra and Melbourne have been approaching major touring exhibitions, and the specific roles these events can play in delivering a balanced and successful portfolio. It will be demonstrated that the decision making around events and event portfolio composition needs to be considered within a wider context, in the light of the city’s geography and demographics, as well as political, social and cultural factors. An exploratory qualitative research was conducted in Canberra and Melbourne, Australia. The primary data was collected from 12 semi-structured interviews with managers and executives in tourism and major events planning in both cities, as well as managers and curators of the cultural institutions that had hosted major touring exhibitions. The secondary data included a range of documents pertinent to the cities’ tourism and major events policy and strategy, existing research about touring exhibitions, and websites and articles in the mass media. In the chapter, examples of past major exhibitions are given.

International Comparison of Festival and Event Cities and their Portfolios

In this chapter a systematic comparison of 23 eventful cities has been con- ducted to gain insights on event portfolio development and management. All the selected cities are the recipients of the IEFA (International Festivals and Events Association) World Festival and Event City Award (https://www.ifea.com/p/industryawards/worldfestivalandeventcityaward). The application documents were downloaded from the IFEA website, covering awards from 2014-2018. These submissions by cities are available to members only. Some cities have received the award multiple times; only their most recent submission has been reviewed. This data collection method has limitations, as the geographic representation is weak (See Figure 12.1) which limits opportunities for generalisation. Another limitation is that the application documents follow a pro-forma set by the IFEA that does not specifically pertain to portfolios and their design and management.

Cities and Events Introducing Event Portfolios

In this chapter the paradigm of the event portfolio will be introduced and its theoretical underpinnings explained. The emphasis will be placed on the strategic utilisation of planned events in host cities. The concepts of place-making, competitive identity, eventfulness and destination capitals will be presented and discussed. The chapter will outline the different definitions of an event portfolio and analyse the relationship between a portfolio of planned events and an overall population of events in a host destination. This chapter paves the way to an in-depth presentation and analysis of the tenets of event portfolio theory in this book.

Critical Aspects of Portfolio Design

In this chapter, critical aspects of event portfolio planning and design will be examined. First, the principles of portfolio design will be introduced. The disparity between organic and formalised portfolios will be explained. The chapter then will analyse a diversity of portfolio development approaches with recent examples from different destinations. The concepts of meta-event and multiple portfolios will be introduced. After that the chapter will examine four event portfolio strategies, including symmetrisation, specialisation, multi-constellation, and macro-expansion. Several event portfolio design frameworks will be introduced and discussed. Finally, a holistic model of event portfolio design will be presented and the conditions of critical mass will be explained.