EVENT MANAGEMENT

Introduction

This report is commissioned by Miss Sandra Goh, Event Management tutor to look into the factors and different aspect of organizing a successful event. The selected event for the report will be Adidas Sundown Marathon. Adidas Sundown Marathon is the first night marathon in Singapore held in the eastern part of the island, Changi Village, on Saturday, May 31, 2008 where 6,000 participants took home a running experience that enables them to challenge themselves against their limit. The route will take on the spanking new East-North park connectors with 42km under the belt in one loop and 2 loops for the 84km ultra marathon.

The background of the organizer

Hivelocity Pte Ltd is the main organizer for this inaugural night marathon. They are a sporting company built on the pure passion and love for sports that provides knowledge and consultancy, market and distribute brands and organize sporting events. They are made of two units - ‘Brand Team’ and ‘Event Team’. The Brand Team markets and distributes top international sporting brands for performance sports while the Event Team specializes in sports marketing and sport event management. Lastly they have a team which is made up of very energetic and driven people who live in the Sports realm. For this Adidas Sundown Marathon, the organizer, Adrian Mok, Director of Hivelocity Pte Ltd, had a vision which is to organize a race for people to remember.

Discuss the role of events to the organizer (or attraction / venue)

The Adidas Sundown Marathon played the roles of Image Maker and Animator. The Marathon was the first night race and it attracted international runners to come over and participate. This first night race did help to build the image that truly reflects on Singapore as a Night life city. As it is the first time of such race, it had attracted many Sports enthusiasts from other country to try out the new experience here. If they enjoy the experience, they will definitely participate if there is a second time.

Identify the stakeholders in the event.

The main title sponsor of the event is Adidas and the rest of the sponsors are http://www.sundownmarathon.com/index.php?page=sponsors and other stakeholders are:
Ø Organizer
Ø Contractors
Ø Media
Ø Certis Cisco
Ø Participants
Ø Traffic Police
Ø Volunteers
Ø Government Ministers and members (http://www.sundownmarathon.com/newsletter/newsletter_170408.html)

Identify the target market

The target audiences of the Adidas Sundown Marathon are mainly concentrated on Sports enthusiasts. It attracts both individual and corporate Sports enthusiasts who are interested in running. They are also targeting people who are seeking for thrills and unique things as this is the first night run in Singapore. Another group of people targeted are endurance runners. There is a special ultra-marathon (84km) category which is specially organized for this group of runners.

Critically discuss the marketing strategies employed by the organizer

The marketing efforts of the Adidas Sundown Marathon can be seen everywhere and the marketing strategies that the organizer of Adidas Sundown Marathon used comprise of 8ps. The product is the race event itself. The place of the event is selected with consideration with the theme of the event. It’s stated at the website "It is just different running at night. It's quieter and you are able to clear your mind to focus on your run. I want to bring this experience to all runners. The experience of running at night. We train at night, why don't we race at night?" The organizer wants the runner to experience the quietness and feel the breeze while running therefore Changi Village is the ideal location to host this event. The people in the event are the volunteers, Volunteers are integral to the success staging of any macro event. Those volunteers comprise a lot of student which are very customer oriented. The promotion strategies use by Adidas Sundown Marathon is through the give of goodie bags that consist of products from different sponsors. They also have partnership with many different sponsors and government agencies like the National Park. The organizer of the event also packaged the event with Adidas, Participant who signed up are entitled to some discount voucher to be spent at Adidas boutique. Lastly for the Price is the registration free, there is a early bird registration which enable people to register at a cheaper price if they register early.

How would you rate the organization of the event? Why?

Overall the event was considered good and successful. First the target audience of the event was mainly on Sports enthusiasts and the result achieved was good. It attracted an overall of more then 6000 runners both locally and internationally. The duration of the event also fall within their planned timing and was ended on time. Although there was a huge crowd waiting at the finishing line when the runners are about to finish the race, there was barricade to ensure that the crowd stay in place and stay outside of the race track. They had also engaged services from Certis Cisco for guards to do traffic and crowd control. Manpower deployment was also very well done, ushers can be seen at every part of Changi Village who helps to direct people to the event venue. The marketing effort can also be seen everywhere, banners and advertisement board are placed all over Changi Village also.
At the event venue, there were also many different booths set up by the different sponsors for the runners to purchase sporting equipment at discounted price. Free ice cream and drinks are also catered to the audience who are there.Information booth and information Board are also there to guide the people.As for the participant, to ensure that when there are emergency or any accident and the medic are able to respond in time, Medic check point are set up through out the race route.

However there are a lot of areas for improvement. Firstly the atmosphere at the event venue was not happening, although there were 6000 over people at the venue, most of them are participating in the run. This means that when all of them left for the run, the venue was very quiet and empty. Not many audience or supporters can be seen. They should not only focus on attracting participants but also audience so that the venue will not be so empty and quite.

At the event, there was no programme organized and no entertainment. The people and supporters who are there to wait for the runners to be back have nothing to do. The organizer should plan some programmes for the period after the race have started so that while waiting for the runners to be back, they can stay at the venue and relax. Live band can be invited to play some music to live up the atmosphere.

Another issue is the facilities, infrastructure and welfare, there was no chairs or sitting area for the audience and runners, a lot of them ended up sitting on the grass and walk way. No signage of direction can be seen also, a lot of people had difficulties looking for the toilets and the starting point and ending point of the run. And also, there was no backup plan for unexpected situation like raining. In the morning there was a slight drizzling but there was no shelter for the people at the venue, a lot of them ended up being drenched in the rain.

An interview had been done with one of the volunteer and he said that the welfare for the volunteer was very bad. He said that the food being catered was awful and cold, the organizer had also promise them that they will be given token of allowance and shirt as appreciation but at the end of the event they did not receive it.

The safety of the participants shouldn’t be overlooked, at the start of the race, when the participants take off from the starting line along Changi Road, there was a lot of incoming vehicles. The Traffic Police had to be alerted and called over to escort each and every vehicle. They should set up barricade along the road to ensure that the vehicle keep a safe distance away from the runners. If necessary, more traffic police should be stationed along the barricade to ensure the safety of the runners.

Lastly, as Changi Village is not easily accessible from other part of the island, the organizer may want to consider offering free shuttle bus services which have pick up point located at different part of the island.

Discuss the potential of the event by the organizer to meet tourist demand?

The Adidas Sundown Marathon was the first night run in Singapore and this arouse much curiosity as it is a different experience to race in the night. It did manage to attract quite a number of international runners. However it not a tourist oriented event, this is because the planned race route only include places like East Coast Park, Siglap Park, Bedok Reservoir Park and Housing estates which does not have any tourism value.

It does have the potential to meet tourist demand, there are sufficient advertising which able to reach their target audience worldwide. Many of the event sponsors are from big companies and are very well known, therefore it is possible to transform the event into a hall mark event. It is recommended that Instead of racing along places like East Coast Park and housing estate, they can try to include historical places like fort canning hill, Little India and Chinatown, Night life places like town and boat quay. This will definitely enchance the experience of the Marathon, it will not only be a race but a night race that run through the history and lifestyle of Singapore.

Suggest how the value of the event could be raised to be align with the tourism mission of Singapore?

The mission statement of the Singapore Tourism Board is to develop & champion tourism, so as to build the sector into a key driver of economic growth for Singapore.
Singapore tourism board wanted Singapore to be define as “Uniquely Singapore” and this is how the value of the event can help in the mission and goals of STB. Being the first night run is unique therefore the organizer should partner with STB and try to make the event a hall mark event and attract more people to visit Singapore.

APPENDIX

Advertisement of the Sponsors at Changi Village