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Contemporary Issues in Event Venue Management
Edited by Anna Leask and Ahmed Hassanien
Introduction
There has been a rapid growth of events venues entering the marketplace. The reason for this increase has been twofold. First, from a demand perspective, the market has become increasingly diverse ranging from mega to specialist events. Second, from a supply perspective, the growth has been fuelled by not-for-profit organisations and small to medium enterprises that have access to an existing resource base. In contrast, the level of resources required to start up, often precludes large-scale event-venue operators from gaining a foothold in the sector ([13] Dwyer, 2002; [23] Lee, 2009; [35] Severt et al. , 2007; [20] Kim et al. , 2003). Towns and cities have also used event venues as a basis for economic regeneration and development, thus leveraging the growth of the sector. It should be noted that the development of flagship event venues has been common in the industry. These have been used to generate national and international business as well as generating place identity ([25] McCabe et al. , 2000, p. 68; [28] Nelson and Rhys, 2000). Indeed, the continued development of event venues has been in spite of volatile regional and national economies ([16] Fletcher, 2009; [39] Weber and Ladkin, 2005).
The economic wealth that event venues generate is significant. In the conference sector, in 2008, the market generated £8 billion ([2] BACD, 2007; [31] Rogers, 2009). Examples include the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) and Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) which have generated over £500 million in income to their local areas ([14] EICC, 2010; [32] SECC, 2010). This income is further mirrored in the employment opportunities that these event venues have generated ([25] McCabe et al. , 2000).
It is acknowledged that the diversity of the event venues sector can make it difficult to understand. This is due to a number of factors. First, event venues often emerge from their different sport, hospitality, tourism, leisure and recreation contexts and this can make the composition of the sector confusing. Second, no clear guidance prevails on the discreet types of event venues, and issues of ownership and management can complicate this issue. Third, the focus of event venues can be imprecise, as strategies...