Introduction
Tomorrow World is a musical festival that arranges several-day events with multiple performers and visitors’ opportunities to attend as campers, one-day attendees, or several-day attendees. In 2015, the event’s location was set in a wooded area far from main roads or hotels, as well as no precautions were made to provide food, water, shelter, and transportation for people in case of a crisis (Billboard.com 2022). Shuttles were closed, and a crowd of visitors had to walk at night in the rain to leave the event. There were no directions as to where to go from the event managers, which is why visitors were dissatisfied with the experience.
Analysis of Failure Using a Project Management Tool
The Tomorrow World 2015 event underwent failure due to the drawbacks in the organization, communication, and risk management. To analyze the arrangement of the event from the perspective of project management tools, one might consider the Initiation, Planning, Implementation, Monitoring, and Shutdown structural tool to identify the areas of insufficient performance. Firstly, the initiation stage of a project lifecycle involves the identification of the goals of the event and its theme (Allen et al. 2022). The initiation phase was completed by the project management team of Tomorrow World since the goal of arranging the best weekend of the year and engaging popular performers to attract a wide audience was completed.
Secondly, the planning stage of the project lifecycle should be reviewed for possible drawbacks. Indeed, according to Allen et al. (2022), this stage entails an accurate step-by-step outlining of the processes and the order in which they should be completed to achieve the project’s goals. Although some aspects of the festival were planned accurately and sufficient for the appropriate show presentation, the accommodation and departure of guests in the case of bad weather were not addressed. The failure of the organizers of the Tomorrow World 2015 event to foresee the risks and implement a contingency plan resulted in a disaster. In particular, parking lots were situated far from the festival location, the rain turned wood roads into mud, shuttles could not transfer the visitors, and people walked several miles searching for their transportation means (Billboard.com 2022). The lack of food and water, exhaustion, and cold weather were the reasons for people’s frustration since many had to sleep outdoors without other options.
Thirdly, the implementation stage was completed relatively successfully due to the delivery of the main tasks on time until the rain started. Fourthly, the monitoring stage, which involves the racking of the completion of all the steps and making necessary adjustments, and correcting stakeholder engagement in a due manner, was not completed properly (Allen et al. 2022). The alterations to the implementation were made to stop the shuttles and limit the access of attendees to transportation. However, an alternative was not proposed to the visitors to ensure their safe stay or departure in case of unfavorable weather conditions. Finally, the shutdown phase was not completed properly due to the cancelation of the festival’s last day and thousands of visitors being stranded in the woods.
Recommendation for Running a Successful Event
Given the results of the analysis, one might propose several recommendations for Tomorrow World. Firstly, the project team should research and forecast visitors’ experiences under various scenarios beforehand. According to Draper et al. (2018, p. 22), “increasing event attendance is the key to both business and successful consumer events,” which is why event planners need to ensure visitors’ satisfaction at all stages of their experience. For example, when considering the consequences of heavy rain, the arrangers should select a location that will provide necessary shelter and transportation for visitors. Thus, based on this information, one might recommend that the project managers at Tomorrow World prioritize consumer experience throughout all stages of their presence at the event, including the post-event conditions.
The second recommendation is based on incorporating digital technologies into the planning and shutdown stages of the project management process. Indeed, according to experts at Whova (2022), using social media is valuable when monitoring the public’s awareness of the event’s particularities and services and their satisfaction. The feedback obtained via online communication and consumer-shared data will inform the decision-making in the future. Thus, research and recognition of visitor needs during their event attendance should be obtained directly from the target audience at the planning and shutdown stages to ensure the continuity of the project’s long-term goals.
The third recommendation relates to integrating risk-management approaches when planning, implementing, and monitoring the event. According to Louw and Esterhuyzen (2022, p. 4), “disaster risk reduction can only occur through identifying hazards in communities, utilizing risk management resources as efficiently as possible, and actively managing risk perceptions.” Therefore, it is important to apply agile risk management to ensure flexibility of stakeholder interaction for better coordination of facilitators and improved communication in case of a disaster (Marle 2020). Thus, these recommendations will help Tomorrow World run their events more successfully in the future.
References
Allen, J. et al. (2022) Festival and special event management. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ.
Billboard.com (2022) TomorrowWorld investigations underway after weather, and transport issues strand thousands. Billboard, Web.
Draper J. et al. (2018) ‘Event management research over the past 12 years: what are the current trends in research methods, data collection, data analysis procedures, and event types’, Journal of Convention & Event Tourism, 19(1): 3-24.
Louw L.B. and Esterhuyzen E. (2022) ‘Disaster risk reduction: integrating sustainable development goals and occupational safety and health in festival and event management’, Journal of Disaster Risk Studies, 14(1): 1-10.
Marle, F. (2020) An assistance to project risk management based on complex systems theory and agile project management. Complexity.
Whova (2022) 6 ways to measure the success of your event. Whova, Web.