Event Planning and Management:

Principles, Planning and Practice

3rd Edition
By Ruth Dowson, Bernadette Albert & Dan Lomax
Chapter 03: Research,
Concept Development and
Feasibility Screening
Learning Outcomes:
• Develop event aims and objectives in line with the client’s and your organization’s
mission and values.

• Undertake initial information gathering.

• Use a structured approach to develop your event concept.

• Apply criteria for screening event ideas to assess their feasibility.

• Consult stakeholders about the event concept.

• Obtain sign-off for your event concept.

Dowson, Albert & Lomax Event Planning Model
Dowson, Albert & Lomax Event Planning Model

Figure 3.1: Phases of the Dowson, Albert, and Lomax Event Planning Model
Figure 3.2: The Dowson, Albert and Lomax Event Planning Process – Phase 1
 Mission

• Research evidence on the client, their organization and map against other
stakeholders including event attendees – try their website.

• Find corporate mission statements to identify their purpose, values and goals.

• Use this information to guide your event concept development.

 Aims and objectives
• Work with the client and other key stakeholders to clarify the event’s aims and
objectives.

• Use tools such as the 5 Es.

• Assess the hierarchy of objectives – which are most important and why.

• Make your objectives SMART.

• Think about legacy objectives – what are the most important long-term outcomes.
 Initial information gathering
• A key part of research is identifying new trends that might have an impact (good or bad) on
the events that you are putting on.

• Trend-spotting (also referred to as environmental scanning, horizon scanning or simply

scanning) can be thought of as a form of early-warning system that lets event planners see
potential threats and so avoid any nasty surprises.

• It is very easy to think about trend-spotting in terms of preparing for the worst, but the
likelihood is that many of the emerging trends will impact favourably on an event and you
must be prepared to capitalize on the opportunities presented.
 Initial information gathering cont..
• Two suggestions of what to look for to give you a good idea of the most
important trends:

• Macro or mega trends

• Micro trends
 Macro or mega trends
• These are the global phenomena that make headline news every day.

• Mega-trends are easy to spot because they are happening already and, because these
trends have built up such a momentum, we can be fairly sure that they are likely to
continue well into the future.

• While mega-trends are probably already very familiar to you, the challenge is to put
these into some sort of context by considering how these could impact (both positively
and negatively) on the events and stakeholders that you are working on or with in the
future.
 Micro trends
• It is important for event planners to keep a close eye on new trends and developments
specifically within the events industry.

• A sound grasp of the events industry as a whole is vital to avoid competitors overtaking
you or stealing your event ideas and attendees.
 PESTEL analysis
• Carrying out a PESTEL analysis will help you to determine how various types (or categories) of
factors are likely to influence the future well-being of your event.
• The importance of each category of factors will vary and the same external factors will influence
different events in different ways.
• Important questions to ask yourself are:
• What are the key political factors affecting the industry?
• What are the important economic factors?
• What social trends are most important?
• What technological innovations are occurring now?
• What are the environmental considerations?
• What current and impending legislation may affect the industry?
 Sources of information
• If you don’t keep a close eye on new trends and developments in your industry, then you
leave the door open for competitors to overtake you.
• Every event professional needs to develop their own list of go-to information sources to
stay informed and to get updates on what is happening within the industry.
• Appropriate sources of information include:
• Industry magazines
• Industry shows and conferences
• Face-to-face networking
• Online networking
• Membership organisations
• Market intelligence reports
 Concept development

• WHY are you putting on the event?

• WHO is coming to the event?
• WHAT is happening at the event?
• WHEN is the event taking place?
• WHERE is the event taking place?

Developing the event concept using the Five W’s

 SCAMPER model

• The SCAMPER model is an effective way to build on initial ideas and combine them
for more innovative approaches.
• SCAMPER is an acronym for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify/Magnify, Purpose,
Eliminate/Minify, Rearrange/Reverse.
• For each initial idea, SCAMPER provides a list of questions to ask, to help you
develop new options.

[Link]
 Screening and feasibility

• The Divergent/ Convergent model shows a process that helps you to undertake research
into a range of alternative events and concepts, combined with research on the client
and audience.

[Link]
 Screening your event ideas
• Financing your event – discuss and • Marketing – do you have the marketing
agree exactly what is and is not expertise and resources to promote your
included in the budget. event?
• Time – do you have the time needed • Health and Safety – Are you up to date
to organize the event? (See the Fyre
Festival documentary on Netflix). with H&S measures to protect all
participants?
• Event Operations – do you have all the
resources you need to deliver your • Does the event concept fit with Client’s
event? aims and objectives?
 Stakeholders

• Map event stakeholders.

• Work out the hierarchy of event

stakeholders (using Mendelow’s
Power/Interest matrix).

[Link]
 Sign-off
• Event details
• Event concept
• Event implementation
• Promotion and publicity
• Sponsorship
• H&S, Security, Contingency planning
 Summary
• To plan an event well, follow a tried and tested process that enables you to develop a
creative event to match your client’s needs.

• Initial research for the event begins by finding out information about what is important
to your client and checking that it matches what is important to your own organization
and to the potential event participants.

• Events professionals should regularly consult industry publications, shows and

conferences, networking events and other sources of information to help keep them
informed and updated on what is happening within the industry that can influence and
inspire the events they develop.
 Summary
• Developing successful events concepts requires you to generate lots of different
ideas. These then need to be reviewed against any constraints, such as time
and budget.

• Map the different stakeholder groups and work to what needs to be done to keep
them happy with the work you are doing.

• Make sure you get your event budget and concept signed off – before you go
ahead!
 Questions for Reflection

1. How would you begin research for your next event?

2. Identify the key stakeholders for a specific event.

3. How could you use the event planning model to improve the
way you plan your next event?