Events Provision in Birmingham

This essay is set out to look at the events industry; it will look at the nature of events and identify the range of events being promoted in the city of Birmingham. Examples will be given of the current events taking place in Birmingham between the period of 4 October 2011 and 1 November 2011. The essay will also demonstrate the movement of the service industry from manufacturing outlining the rise of the service industry in particularly in Birmingham. Events can be defined according to size and classification. The sizes include mega, hallmark, major, local or community and the classification of events are leisure, personal, cultural and organisational. Each example will have an explanation to emphasis their purpose. There are three different sectors which generate events namely public, private and voluntary. Stakeholders are involved in supplying the event product; the essay identifies how each stakeholder is involved. A conclusion will be drawn to sum up the main thrust of the events in Birmingham.

The events industry is diverse and complex; this has caused the industry to be unaffected in this recession. No matter what the economy is like events will always be there. The city of Birmingham has seen the decline in the manufacturing-based economy and a rise to a service based economy and the events have a played a major part in that development as the events provision contributes to the image of a destination. According to Matthews, (2008) special events are the gathering of people, in order to recognise, celebrate, and commemorate an occasion at a certain time scale. The gathering can be knowledgeable, entertaining or trade. According to Shone, Parry (2004, P 3) it is “that phenomenon arising from those non routine occasion which have leisure, cultural, personal or organisational objectives set apart from the normal activity of daily life, whose purpose is to enlighten, celebrate, entertain or challenge the experience of a group of people”. The Shone and Parry definition encompasses all the meaning of the special event. Looking at both definitions they define the events from a different perceptive but they both agree that there has to be a gathering of people at a specific time place to mark certain occasion.

Events are categorised by size, form or content. Size has four main categories which are mega-event, major, hallmark and local or community events.
Largest gathering which is on a global scale, capturing as much audience as possible is mega-event. The event affects the economy, increase tourism and demand global media attention. According to Getz (2005) mega events draws an audience of at least a million people. Classical example would be The Beijing Olympics which attracted 4.7 billion television viewers and cost an estimated £40 billion which break record of any Olympics in history. Getz (2005, P.18) defines mega events by “the way of their size or significance, are those that yield extraordinary high levels of tourism, media coverage prestige or economic impact for the host destination” Mega events are generally developed following competitive bidding. There are no mega-events that are taking place in Birmingham during this period but the main example of a mega event would be the, Paralympics, world fairs and FIFA world cup.

Hallmark events are the following in size. This event is tied to a specific place, they are large scale and they involve traditions and symbolism. According to J. Allen (2005.4 p.13) “hall mark event becomes so indentured with the spirit of ethos of a town, city or region that become synonymous with the name of the place and gain a widespread recognition”. There are currently no hallmark events taking place in Birmingham during this period but typical examples are Wimbledon, Notting Hill carnival, Tour de France. When you here the names of the places you identify the event that takes place there which make it difficult to separate the