for the Party Planning/Events Planning Industry
for the Party Planning/Events Planning Industry
Rate of Failure
I work in the party planning/events planning industry. Although there is currently no survey data that pertains to the project failure rate in the events planning industry, a study conducted by KPMG in New Zealand showed that of the 100 businesses that were surveyed across various industries, seventy percent of the companies have suffered from at least one project failure within the previous year (ONE News, 2010).
Causes of Failure
Some of the causes of project failure in the events planning industry include the lack of management commitment (Gerson, 2012). This can lead to management not allocating enough resources for the project. In turn, insufficient resources can lead to project failure where these resources include both financial (i.e. budget) and human (i.e. the staff who will work at the event) resources. As well, the poor definition of the roles and responsibilities of the event management team will cause confusion as to who is in charge of certain tasks, which may result in some tasks not being successfully completed. Moreover, unrealistic timeframes and tasks can lead to project failure in that the time allotted for the tasks may not be enough; thereby causing delays in the schedule. As well, poor management can lead to poor planning, which can in turn lead to certain aspects of the events being missed (e.g. procuring the events registration software or monitoring the event marketing initiatives). As well, poor management and poor communication can lead to the lack of coordination.
Also, the lack of a solid event plan can lead to project problems. This includes the lack of a contingency plan for managing the risks. For example, the project can fail if the supplier for the flowers fails to make the delivery or if some of the staff gets sick. For such unforeseen occurrences, the project manager should have a backup plan that will enable him or her to deal with the problems without causing disruptions in the event. As well, scope creep can make it difficult to implement the project plan as the changes in scope will keep introducing changes to the plan, in turn affecting all of the other aspects of the plan. Finally, the overruns of schedules and cost can cause project failure. This signifies poor planning and poor management, which can lead to profit losses and client dissatisfaction.
How the Rates and Causes are Measured
With regards to the measurements used for measuring the rate and causes of project failure, one measurement is the profit gained. If the company fails to make a profit from the event then the project or event can be considered to have failed. Another measurement would be the project schedule. If the project deadlines and milestones were not met then this can mean that the project has failed.
Still, other measures for determining the project success or failure include feedback from the client; feedback from the visitors or participants; and feedback from the event management team (Beloviene, Kinderis, Williamson, Ivanov & Ortin, n.d.). If the client or the visitors and participants expressed dissatisfaction then this implies project failure. Similarly, even if all these measures were met, if the event management team feels that the event or project was not managed well (e.g. the staff was overworked or they didn’t get paid for working overtime) then this can also mean that the project has failed.
References
Beloviene, A., Kinderis, R., Williamson, P., Ivanov, T. & Ortin, C. A. (n.d.). Event management
handbook. Retrieved from http://eventi.vfu.bg/files/Event_management_handbook.pdf.
Gerson, G. (2012, June 3).Reasons why events fail. Retrieved from
http://www.eventplanningforum.net/forum/topics/reasons-why-events-fail.
ONE News. (2010, December 6). Most businesses experience project failure. Retrieved from
http://tvnz.co.nz/business-news/most-businesses-experience-project-failure-3948434.
