Lesson 1:

What Is an Event?
Introduction
Lesson 1 introduces the learner to events management. It provides a working definition
of an event and differentiates special events from ordinary occurrences. It presents the different
types of special events and seeks to teach the learners to identify and characterize each type,
and helps them appreciate how these relate to their life. It likewise aims to provide a framework
for recognizing the elements of an event, and use this framework to create an event concept
paper.

Learning Objectives
After this lesson, the learner is expected to:
1. define an event;
2. identify the elements of an event;
3. differentiate the types of events; and
4. create an event concept paper.

Definition and Characteristics of Events

Events refer to the things that happen around us. There are generally two kinds of events.
There are ordinary events that occur naturally in our environment and in our daily lives. On the
other hand, there are special events. During which, many people gather together for a purpose;
some people need to travel to participate, while some spend a lot of time and resources planning
for the event and making sure that everything unfolds as expected.
Special events can therefore be characterized as follows:
1. organized for specific purpose/ s;
2. attended by a number of participants;
3. held in a specific, pre-determined place;
4. time-bound (such that it has a beginning and an end); and
5. cost a lot of resources.

Elements of a Special Event

Based on the aforementioned characteristics, we can draw the basic questions we need to ask
when we are organizing an event. The questions can be summarized as the " SWs and 1H" for
easier recall. The 5Ws and 1H acronym stands for:
1. What event are we organizing?
2. Why are we organizing the event?
3. Who are expected to attend and to organize the event? How many attendees and
organizers?
4. Where is it going to be held?
5. When is it going to be held?
6. How much is it going to cost?
Therefore, the elements of an event are:
1. type and title of event;
2. purpose for holding the event; cane
3. participants of the event and the roles they play (.e., organizer, attendee, etc.);
4. place or venue where the event is going to take place;
5. date and time of the event; and
6. resources.
As mentioned earlier, events take a lot of time and resources to plan and stage. Some
people even need to travel to be able to attend an event. Nonetheless, these special events are
part of our lives. Thus, people have to make the most out of it.
Planning events properly can help achieve the event's purpose. Proper event planning
means paying attention to the details in the abovementioned elements. Examine the following
table.
Table 1.1 Framework for Developing an Event Concept Paper (5Ws and 1H)
Elements Example

(What) Ana's 18th Birthday Party

Title and type of event
(Why) This is a once-in-a-lifetime event and it has
Purpose Objective: The owner or organizer of been a family tradition to celebrate every
the event must have a good reason for member's transition to adulthood. The
wanting to hold an event. birthday party alms to give Ana a fun and
memorable celebration of this important day.
(Who) Ana's immediate family members (mother,
Participants. The organizers and attendees, father, and siblings) will organize the party
and the roles they play. with the help of an event planner. One
hundred (100) guests are expected to attend,
mostly family and friends. A guest list will be
prepared.
(Where) The venue must be in Z City and can
Place: The size and availability of the event accommodate 100 guests, with a stage and a
venue affect the schedule and number of dance floor.
attendees. The venue can be selected using a Options:
set of criteria. Room 1, X Restaurant, Y Avenue, Z City
Room A, B Restaurant, C Avenue, Z City
(When) July 4, 2014 (Friday) 7:00 p.m.
Date and Time of Event: Make sure that the (Note that it is important to indicate the
date and time are identified early on. Setting month, day, year, and starting time of the
the date affects the venue reservations and event. A program detailing the schedule of
printing of collaterals to be included in the speeches and performances will be prepared
invitations. at a later time.)
(How much) P100,000.00 with the following breakdown:
Cost/ Resources: One can indicate a cost P500.00 x 110 pax (with 10 % contingency) =
ceiling at the onset. The details of the budget P55,000.00 for food and venue
can be prepared once quotations from P45,000.00 for cake, sound system, Invitation,
suppliers are gathered. photography, and miscellaneous.

After answering the 5Ws and 1H questions, you have effectively made a concept paper
for an event. What needs to be done is thresh out the details. Contingency is one of the important
elements that must be included in the plan. Contingency refers to a " Plan B” to address
unforeseen or unexpected circumstances. Note that if one of the elements is missing, it would
be difficult to plan, stage, and evaluate the event later. There are still a lot of things to learn about
event management. It only gets more exciting from here.

Types of Special Events

There are many kinds of events that take place. Events can be classified as personal,
corporate, or community events.
1. Personal Events - organized by and for friends and family to celebrate life's important
milestones. These affairs include shower parties, birthday parties, baptism, weddings,
achievement blowouts, reunions, anniversaries, and funerals.
2. Corporate Events - organized to improve the productivity and profitability of companies
and contribute to the achievement of corporate goals. These include product launchings,
sales rallies, and trade shows.
3. Community Events – gatherings of the members of a community and their guests to
strengthen commemorate social historical bonds. Examples and/ or religious of such are
events festivals, promote, school arts or and church culture events, and, art exhibits, and
local sporting events. There are also big international events, which unite the world as
one big community. Examples of these are World Youth Day celebrations, the World Expo,
and the Olympics.

Discussion Questions 1.1

1. What are the characteristics of a special event?
2. What are the elements of an event?
3. Why do we need to have a purpose or objective for staging an event?
4. How do we select a venue for an event?
5. What are the elements/ things that are dependent on date identification?
6. for What each are type the types. of event? Cite an example of an event which you
have attended for each type.
Lesson 2:

What Is MICE?
Introduction
Lesson 2 introduces the learner to MICE, which stands for Meetings, Incentives,
Conventions, and Exhibitions. There are a number of other terms and acronyms used to describe
essentially the same thing. These are anagrammatic terms like CEMI (Conventions, Exhibitions,
Meetings, and Incentives) or general terms like " events" to name a few.
This lesson presents a working definition for each type of event represented by the
acronym MICE, as well as the need for and application of each type. The lesson also provides a
set of criteria for assessing and finding a suitable venue for each event type.

Learning Objectives
After this lesson, the learner is expected to:
1. define MICE;
2. differentiate the types of events (represented by each letter in MICE);
3. explain the need for and application of each type; and
4. assess a MICE venue.

Definition and Characteristics of Meetings, Incentives, Conventions,

and Exhibitions (MICE)
Let us define and differentiate each of these subsectors which the acronym MICE
represents. Definitions of each subsector of MICE often vary from one author to another. Among
all of them, the International Association of Professional Congress Organizers (LAPCO) provided
the most comprehensive definition. The working definitions for this textbook are taken from
APCO (1987), unless otherwise stated. Let us begin with meetings and the three confusing Cs:
Congress, Convention, and Conference.

Meeting
Meeting is a general term that refers to the gathering of people to discuss a set agenda
or do a particular activity. It can be called on an ad hoc basis (as needed) or following a set pattern
such as an annual stockholders ' meeting. Meetings do not include exhibits.

Congress
A congress is the regular gathering of people who belong to religious, cultural,
professional, or other associative groups. A congress is often staged to shed light on a particular
subject, question, or issue. Presentations, contributions, and discussions pertaining to the subject
matter come only from members of the association. This focus on question-resolving means
makes the term " congress" more popular for associations than corporations (Ladkin & Spiller
2000). The length of time between congresses is usually established in advance and can be
annual. A congress often lasts several days.

Convention
The term convention, which is used interchangeably with congress, refers to a large
national or international meeting. However, unlike a congress, a convention is usually held to
commemorate an event or milestone for the host organization; thus, it is usually held with regular
intervals and each staging is given a theme. Moreover, compared with congress and conferences,
conventions have more innovative programs planned to encourage participants to network and
interact (Aron 2011). Thus, conventions sometimes include an exhibition related to its theme.
Conference
A conference is a scholarly gathering to exchange views and consequently, to convey a
message, open a debate, or give publicity to some opinions on specific issues, such as climate
change. Most conferences are for " study" purposes. It involves research input and sharing of
findings, and requires active contributions from the attendees. Conferences are aimed at
establishing position papers as a result of the exchange of views. Compared with a congress, a
conference is on a smaller scale, which facilitates easier exchange of information, It requires no
tradition, continuity or periodicity, and is generally held for a short duration of time. An example
would be a university's faculty conference where members of the faculty present the findings of
their research.

Incentive
Incentive is a a tool to encourage employees to increase sales or provide solutions,
Incentive travel therefore means using travel as a reward for accomplishments such as reaching
a sales quota, winning a competition, and the like. One of the high-ranking executives of the
Travel Café Japan said that people usually wish and work for more money; when people have the
money, they wish they have more time; and when they have both time and money, they wish to
travel. The Executive concluded that many people dream to travel; hence, the birth of the Travel
Café® concept. This supports the claim to the effectiveness of travel as a powerful incentive.
Another support to this claim is the popularity of trips as raffle prizes. Incentive travel is discussed
further in the last part of this book.

Exhibition
An exhibition showcases new products, services, information, or promotional materials
mounted for the purpose of public relations, sales, and marketing. According to Ladkin and Spiller
(2000), it is an activity designed for targeted supplies of products, goods and/ or services to
demonstrate and promote to a certain market. There are two types of exhibition:
1. Consumer Show - a showcase of products that are offered to the public, mostly
for the purpose of direct sales or promotion to end users.
2. Trade Show - for commerce at a bigger scale. It brings together industry players,
targeting similar markets. It is intended to provide a venue for sales leads, contacts
with influencers and suppliers, networking, gathering competitor intelligence, and
building an image to the customer.
The terms " exhibition, fair, and trade show" are sometimes used interchangeably, as well
as the terms " exhibition and exposition" Ladkin and Spiller (2000), however, differentiated
exposition as being larger in scale than exhibition and one that generally consists a monumental
public display of the goods and services of a particular industry. The abbreviation " expo" is often
used for this.
Here are other terminologies related to exhibitions:
1. Exhibition Manager - the head organizer or promoter of an exhibition. The exhibition
manager leads the exhibition organizers team and is responsible for managing the exhibit
finance, sales of exhibit space, and operations. (IAPCO uses the term exhibition contractor
to refer to the same entity but this textbook will use exhibition manager instead of
exhibition contractor to avoid confusion with similar terminologies, such as the booth
contractor.)
2. Exhibitor - the company or businessperson who rents the booth space from the exhibition
manager to showcase the exhibitor's products and for other purposes.
3. Booth Contractor - subdivides a huge empty exhibit space into smaller spaces which the
exhibitors are going to rent; the contractor also provides temporary facilities to
exhibitors, such as the shell or walling for the booth, carpet, table, chairs, signage,
lighting, and power source for a a fee. The exhibition manager appoints an official booth
 contractor for every event and grants the contractor exclusive rights to construct booths
at a particular event. The official booth contractor may ask for certain fees from unofficial
booth contractors, like a corkage fee, should the exhibitor prefer to hire another company
to build their booth for them. Exhibit spaces, whether raw or shell scheme, are rented on
a per square-meter or per-square-foot basis. The usual minimum size is 2x2 m for local
exhibitions and 3x3 m for international exhibitions. Standard height is 8 meters.
4. Raw Exhibition Space - a " raw space" or floor with rough markings just to indicate the
boundaries and size of your rented space in the exhibition hall. An exhibitor may design
the raw space in any way as long as no venue house rule is violated.
5. Shell Exhibition Space - an exhibition space with a white enclosure called " shell" The shell
gives booths a uniform look and somehow, makes the ambiance common in all trade
shows. The signboard on top of the most visible side/ s of the booth is called the fascia
board. The fascia board indicates the name of the exhibitor or the purpose of a service
desk.
6. Exhibitor Manual - a book of instructions and information for exhibitors regarding the
exhibit venue and services offered by the official booth contractor. Examples of
information found in the exhibitor manual are limits in electrical load, schedules of the
move in or " ingress" and move out or " egress", freight forwarding, venue house rules,
and the like. This is discussed in detail under " Operations" found in Unit III.

Criteria for Evaluating a MICE Venue

Three words that start with C can be used to encapsulate the general criteria for selecting
a venue for an event: Cost Convenience, and Charm.
1. Cost - a common factor in decision-making, not only for event venues. The venue to be
selected must be within the budget of the organizer. Its payment terms must also match
the schedule and cash flow of the event.
2. Convenience - encompasses the availability on the target date, accessibility, proximity to
other support services, suitability of space to the type of event, and its safety features. It
is an important factor to consider when selecting the event venue.
3. Charm - the appeal of a venue or is commonly known as the " x" factor. It is the thing that
the attendees will keep talking about after event is over. It can be manifested in the
cultural value of the venue, such as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, like the San Agustin
Church in Intramuros, Manila. It can also include the brand of the venue, such as
international resort or hotel chains. It can likewise be the charm that appeals aesthetically
to the attendees.

Discussion Questions 2.1

1. Define meetings.
2. Differentiate an exposition from an exhibition.
3. What is the difference between trade shows and consumer shows?
4. What are reasons for holding exhibitions?
5. Give reasons for considering Incentive travel as an event.
6. Give examples of venues in Manila where you can hold the following events:
a. Meeting
b. Convention
c. Exhibition
7. Give an answer example of an event venue where you cannot hold an exhibition. Explain
your answer.