Tuesday 18 February 2014

Student Investigators

Meet the festIM student investigators, each of the students are using festIM to conduct research on a variety of chosen topics for their dissertations. All of the students are in their final year of studying at Bournemouth University's School of Tourism.


Sarah Ardin



Sarah is using festIM to study Twitter usage surrounding small scale community festivals that are supported by local authorities. Her work aims to establish whether Twitter, or social media in general, could be a new method by which to evaluate the impacts of events and thus help justify government involvement or sponsorship of these events. Sarah came to chose this as her research topic after working for Wychavon District Council as the Assistant Community Development Officer as part of her Events Management course at Bournemouth University. Sarah's position at Wychavon District Council was a varying role, including community funding, arts, sports, opportunities for youth and the elderly and emergency planning.

Jasmine Waddell

 

Jazz is an undergraduate Events Management student and spent her placement year with Swindon-based event venue sourcing agency, Planet Pursuits as an Account Manager.

Jazz' research focuses on exactly how Glastonbury Festival use their own social media channels, focusing specifically on Twitter, to interact with their audience post-festival. I'm identifying key terms within the conversations between Glastonbury Festival and consumers whilst also investigating the demographic of the key consumer contributors to establish what topics twitter users are discussing, who these people are and how other festivals can follow suit. She will be using festIM as a research tool in her dissertation work.

Annie Mbagwu


Annie's work using festIM will assess the positive and negative social impacts of Notting Hill Carnival among the different cultural communities involved with the Carnival. The results of Annie's research will provide Carnival organisers with direct insight into exactly how Notting Hill Carnival Stakeholders are reacting to the August Bank Holiday event and, what they can do to attract the high level of visitors year on year. Annie's professional interests lie in marketing and online brand identity after working as marketing assistant for Adamine Resourcing Partners during her placement year from studying Event & Leisure Marketing at Bournemouth University. 

Emma Craig


Emma's love of live music and festivals has led her to chose to investigate the social impacts of different communities involved with Notting Hill Carnival using festIM. When she's not dancing in a muddy field Emma is studying Event & Leisure Marketing at Bournemouth University whilst working part-time as Project Support Co-ordinator for Bournemouth University's Aspire BU department. After completing her degree at Bournemouth University Emma hopes to begin a career in Event Management.To follow the progress of Emma's work follow her on Twitter @elcraig90

Currently in his a final year of studying Event & Leisure Marketing at Bournemouth University, Rogan is now working on his first major research project with Nigel Williams after completing a 12-month work placement in Madrid with Amadeus IT in the Travel Agency Marketing Team.
Rogan is using the festIM tool to establish to what extent hallmark events utilise social media to accelerate the globalisation of positive social sentiment and reform. The research aims to expose the gap between the current usage and potential usage of Twitter for this purpose and aims to do so by analysing data surrounding Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts 2013. Rogan presented his work at IFEA Europe's Annual Conference in February and received a fantastic response from industry professionals. To keep up to date with Rogan's progress join him on LinkedIn.



Monday 17 February 2014

IFEA Europe Conference - Nice 2014

Last week some of the festIM team attended IFEA Europe's Annual Conference in Nice, the festIM dissertation students had the opportunity to hear inspiring talks from practitioners, academics and network with industry peers and colleagues. Our students were also lucky enough to attended a two day Pre-Conference Masterclass at Ipag Buiness School, Nice where they were able to share and discuss their work with academics and Masters Students studying International Marketing with Tourism & Events.


The festIM team presented their work to an international audience of experienced and well-known industry professionals, including the Deputy Mayor of Nice Rudy Salles and General Manager of Nice Conventions and Events Bureau, Denis Zanon. All of the festIM student's research received an overwhelmingly positive response from the conference attendees and have already been invited to next year's event to present the final findings of their work by Colm Croffy, Executive Director of the Association of Irish Festivals an Events (AOIFE) and IFEA Europe Board Member. We would like to thank IFEA Europe and Ipag Business School for arranging such a great conference, the students took a lot away from their time there and are looking forward to attending again in the future.

The event coincided with the world famous Carnival de Nice, which is in its 130th year spans over two weeks and features a multitude of cultural and sporting events including a Flower Parade, Rock 'n' Roll 10 Mile Run, Parade of Lights and Carnival Swim. We were lucky enough to attend the Carnival Opening Ceremony, Flower Parade and Parade of Lights as part of our trip. Check out our full account of the Carnival and IFEA Europe's Conference at our Twitter