The influence of social and material agents on garden visiting in England.

Visiting a garden that is open to the public is a popular leisure activity of many people in England and yet there is a dearth of research literature on the practice of visiting gardens. Two studies have identified why people visit, but by concentrating on motivation and hence human agency, they have disregarded the actions of social and material agents on the decision-making process. This paper reports the findings of a study into visiting pay-to-visit gardens in the South of England. A self-completion questionnaire was delivered to a cluster sample of residents in Southern England in 2002 to ascertain their preferences for visiting attractions in general and visiting gardens specifically. Interviews were then carried out with volunteers from the survey and with visitors to horticultural attractions to obtain a greater understanding of this phenomenon. Few visitors to gardens are there on their own and so either both or all of the individuals in a group were interviewed together. The results demonstrate the influence of both material and social agents. This paper reports on just one material agent – the weather, and one type of social agent – charitable organisations involved in garden visiting. In particular the influence of two major charities, the National Trust and the National Gardens Scheme are revealed

A preliminary analysis of the market for small, medium and large horticultural shows in England

Understanding the consumer is important in estimating the market for an event. This study analysed the socio-demographic and other characteristics of actual and potential visitors to three styles of English horticultural shows. The shows selected varied in terms of their status - national, regional, local; the number of visitors they attract and the length of time they are open to the public. The analysis of the findings of a survey of residents in southern England suggests that whilst age is a key demographic variable, a more valuable means of segmenting the population is by their level of enthusiasm for gardening. Furthermore it is proposed that demand for the largest shows, held nationally can be established not only, through these factors but also, by the potential visitors’ history of attending smaller horticultural shows. The implications for the marketing of these and similar events are discussed

Working together in Dorset to create a lasting legacy among HE students and young people beyond 2012

RELAYS (Regional Educational Legacy in Arts and Youth Sport) is one of the programmes designed to create a positive and lasting legacy beyond 2012. Funded by Legacy Trust UK, an independent charity set up to build a lasting cultural and sporting legacy from the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), it is supported by a range of partners, including 13 of the region’s universities (Universities South West, 2010). Here the partnership formed by the RELAYS School Events Coordinator, and the Events and Sports Management tutors from the School of Services Management at Bournemouth University is described. Through this collaboration, opportunities are being created to enhance the student experience both within the curricula and external to it, throughout the period of study

The introduction of a learning innovation to enhance the employability of event management students: an action research study.

Curriculum innovation in higher education is often directed at efficiency; however, this paper reports a small change in the curriculum which was designed to enhance student employability. Central to the learning and assessment of an undergraduate Events Management unit is that the students, in groups, organise a real event. In the academic year 2008-09, ‘clients’ were sought for each group, for whom the students could act as consultants in the organisation of an event. Communication skills in relation to consultancy were a particular emphasis of the innovation, which was evaluated using an action research methodology. Data, collected during the year, suggested that just over half of the cohort believed the approach was helping them to obtain a 40 week industrial placement for the following year. Furthermore, about three-quarters of the students felt that it would be beneficial in employment, first, during their placement (30% indicated it would be very useful) and secondly, after graduation. Upon completion of the events, the student group leaders and the clients were each asked to rate the other party and this showed that the clients also had a very favourable opinion of the students. Recommendations for minor modifications to the format were then made for the next academic year

The contribution of an events programme to sustainable heritage conservation: a study of the National Trust in England.

Whilst for many nations progressing a sustainable development agenda is a priority, for others, conserving their existing socio-natural heritage in a sustainable way may be significant. In the United Kingdom, the National Trust, a charitable organisation, supports its extensive conservation role through a wide-ranging programme of events each year. This study explores the various ways in which these events have been developed to contribute to sustainable heritage conservation. The method for this case study consisted of the collection and analysis of both primary and secondary data. The former obtained through in-depth interviews with key personnel within the National Trust, with secondary data from National Trust and other sources used in support. The findings show the Trust’s events play a vital role in educating the public in sustainability, in respect of both natural and cultural heritage. The interview participants revealed that the events are conceived in two main ways – first, a top-down approach whereby events relate to a national organisational campaign and secondly, events which develop from the bottom-up and reflect the uniqueness of each of the Trust’s properties. This study therefore extends the prevailing approach to events and sustainable development by considering the very positive contribution of an events programme to heritage conservation, which has implications for other conservation bodies throughout the world

Brand molecule theory: An exploratory study of a telecommunication company’s events

Over the past decade or so, events have become key elements in strategic marketing initiatives with event marketing or, as it is sometimes known, live or experiential marketing, dominating some promotional budgets. The aims of these initiatives are not only to drive sales, but also to increase brand awareness, loyalty and image. Brands provide the basis for differentiation between competitive offerings and are often conceived in terms of the consumer’s perspective or that of the brand owner; other definitions refer to purpose or characteristics. A traditional perspective therefore is of a brand created by the marketer but Grant (2006) suggests that brands are built up of a number of interconnected cultural ideas, which he conceives as a brand molecule. The brand therefore develops from the reception and enculturation of the associated aspects of the brand and is therefore a co-creation between marketer, audience and wider society. Grant gives the example of 501 s - Levi’s flagship brand which rather than the intended 15-19 year old target audience became associated with men in middle age through the ‘Jeremy Clarkson effect’. This exploratory study considers events as an integrated element of the business activity of O2, a leading UK mobile ’phone provider. Seven semi-structured interviews were undertaken with employees in the organisation’s Events and Sponsorship Team. These showed that the cultural ideas associated with their events and sponsorship related not only conventionally to the organisation’s brand values but also to the employees’ own cultural perspectives and experiences. Grant, J. (2006). The brand innovation manifesto. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Designing the past: the National Trust as a social-material agency

The National Trust was founded in 1895 for ‘the preservation of places of historic interest or natural beauty’. While the distinction between the cultural and the natural seemed obvious at that time and members and visitors were not even implicated actors, we argue that the National Trust may be better understood as a co-constructed network effect of the social and material, which in turn affords social-material agency. There are currently 3.5 million members of the National Trust and 50 million visitors every year to National Trust properties, which include the largest collection of gardens in the world and over 300 historic houses and open-air properties. While the notion of design itself may seem to be an exemplar of the humanist love of agency, we argue (following Latour) that traditional notions of agency, which were asymmetrically distributed to the human actors, take insufficient cognisance of evident occasions of ‘material agency’ (Pickering, 1995) and the site of conservation is one site whereby the agency produced by social-material assemblages seems interesting and revealing. Whereas the social-material practices of design may seem in some tension with those of conservation, we argue in this paper that a close analysis of a particular site of conservation shows a manifold of ‘designing’ actors. Whatever the National Trust conserves could be considered as an example of particular and situated designs condensed from the interactions of humankind and nature. Similarly the visitor experience is also designed. While conservation can imply a certain social-material agency, it is much less well understood how conservation co-produces agency, and how these network effects serve the purposes of conservation by the Trust, visitors and other actors through the agency of the social and material. This paper will reveal some of the social-material practices which afford a visit to a property and what such visits afford the social-material practices of the National Trust

Understanding garden visitors: the affordances of a leisure environment.

Visiting. a garden in England is a traditional leisure activity that continues to grow in popularity but curiously this sector of the visitor attraction market has received little attention from academics. The thesis seeks to understand participation in garden visiting from a number of perspectives but principally that of the visitor. It moves beyond the established approach of individual agency with its assumption of free choice to incorporate social and material agency. This movement requires a shift in theoretical perspective from the prevailing theories in the leisure literature (motivational theories) to the emerging theory of affordance. The study consisted of four phases of data collection. Two phases obtained quantitative data from surveys - first, of residents in Dorset and secondly, visitors in a garden. The aim was to identify garden visitors and to establish the importance of various factors in influencing a visit. The other two phases obtained qualitative data from a series of informal conversations with a small number of residents from the survey and a large number of visitors to several different types of horticultural attractions. These sought to establish the participants' explanations for visiting gardens. Analysing the participants' explanatory repertoires reveals the importance of the natural and the social in garden visitation. Their perception of the `natural' environment of the garden is a key element of the attraction for participants as gardens offer opportunities for both relaxation and hedonism. However, inseparable from the `natural' is the `social' environment. The proprietors and gardeners may afford some aspects whilst others are realised through the companionship of family or friends. Similarly, natural environmental features and social influences may prompt a visit or influence where it takes place. The participants also reveal the power of social norms in regard to their activities in a garden and what prompted them to visit. Furthermore they disclose the importance of temporal and spatial considerations. The connections between, on the one hand, having a domestic garden, or an interest in gardening and on the other, participation in garden visiting were perhaps predictable, but the influence of the media and particularly the television on recreational gardening and the indirect consequences this has for garden visiting was less foreseeable. The thesis concludes with a summary and discussion of the major findings and interprets them in the light of affordance theory. Building on this discussion, suggestions are made for future research to explore the issues raised in the thesis. The study therefore offers not only a significant contribution to the literature in leisure and tourism studies but also the analysis of social-material agency