The UK association conference attendance decision-making process

This paper reports on research carried out into the consumer behaviour displayed by UK association conference delegates when deciding to attend a conference. Examination of the available literature suggested that there has been little investigation of the delegate's perspective on attending a conference, as most research into business events has traditionally been centred on the supply side particularly convention destination image, and association site selection. The paper found six underlying dimensions of the UK association conference delegate decision-making process - personal/professional development, networking opportunities, cost, location, time and convenience and health and wellbeing. Additionally, regression analysis showed that two of the dimensions (networking opportunities and cost) were significant predictors of intention to attend the conference again in the future

Incentive travel: a theoretical perspective

Despite the economic importance of the meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) industry, it remains relatively underresearched. The area of incentive travel is particularly lacking in academic research and remains without a strong theoretical foundation. Anecdotal evidence suggests that incentive travel is seen as an important and significant reward by organizations and their employees. However, while considerable research has examined how to motivate employees in the workplace, including the use of incentives, there has been little examination of why travel makes such as good incentive. In an effort to address this gap, this conceptual article integrates tourism motivation literature with the literature on employee motivation, with particular reference to expectancy theory. Expectancy theory suggests that the valence of a reward (its attractiveness) is a key component of motivating employees. Travel motivation theory helps to explain which particular aspects of travel make it an attractive reward. The article presents an introductory conceptual framework for understanding the relationship between incentive travel and employee motivations and acts as a foundation for future research in this area

Events as proenvironmental learning spaces

Climate change is an ongoing issue for governments internationally, driving them to seek more ways in which to encourage the general public to engage with the sustainability agenda. Despite substantial research into consumer behavior, behavior change, and social marketing, there are still opportunities to find innovative messaging tools that may help to persuade people to change their habits. This article reports on initial exploratory research into the use of events as a space for proenvironmental behavior messaging, and concludes that although significant research is needed, some events have potential to become environmental learning spaces for attendees

Engaging the senses to explore community events

Community events are often staged by local authorities as a way to boost the local economy, improve social cohesion, and foster a sense of belonging. However, although it is arguably comparatively straightforward to conceptualize how events may contribute in terms of economic impact, it is much more difficult to understand and assess how events can contribute to feelings of connectedness and belonging. To date the focus in the event management literature has been very strongly focused on what people think of events; this study instead draws our attention to what people do and how this may provide clues as to how they feel in terms of engagement. Recent studies in tourism, geography, and urban studies have started to explore the role the senses play in our engagement and participation in events. Turning to the senses as a means to explore our bodily engagement with an event provides an opportunity to examine inclusion and exclusion at an event from a new perspective. This article takes an interdisciplinary ethnographic approach to examine a case study of community and the Noosa Jazz Festival in Australia. Findings suggest that festivals, through their embodied participants, can facilitate feelings of inclusion in a community. Sound, vision, and the festival ambience emerged as being of key importance. The research demonstrates the benefits of interdisciplinary research, particularly drawing from sensual geographies, when exploring intangible constructs such as connectedness, inclusion, cohesion, and belonging

Knowledge sharing and power in the event workforce

The aim of this study is twofold. First, we draw on organizational behavior, strategic management, and events literature to conceptualize the event workforce. We show that events are a highly heterogeneous organization with a temporary and project-based structure, and are characterized by a high fluctuation of paid employees and volunteers. Second, we contextualize these unique characteristics to understand knowledge sharing behavior of the event workforce. We analyze interview data from volunteers and paid employees at tourism events to make two theoretical contributions: 1) We advance theory in events literature, showing that event organizations are unique in terms of their processes and team composition; 2) We contribute with novel insights of how knowledge is used in heterogeneous event teams, explaining how knowledge serves as a source of power for both volunteers and paid event managers alike

Exploring intentions to attend a convention: a gender perspective

The number of people attending conventions is growing worldwide, yet little is still known about convention attendees, particularly from a gender perspective. Scholars have recognized that gender is fundamental to travel decisions, yet there is still an absence of gender-specific research in the convention attendee travel context. The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of gender on the convention attendance travel decision. It involved interviewing attendees at an international medical convention about their intentions to attend the next convention. The exploratory findings reveal that some women consider certain factors to be more influential on their convention attendance decision than men, such as the networking opportunities. The results provide some preliminary insights into the potential role gender plays in the convention attendance decision. The implications of these findings for convention marketing are discussed