HALLMARK EVENT STRATEGY AND POLICY

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Executive Summary

The report primary engages in evaluating the impact of London Olympic games on Socio-

cultural and economic life of UK. The report is important to understand the potential areas of

development and community benefits those are the results of infrastructure development and

more investments in trade and commerce. Any hallmark event like Olympic also increased

the potential of the site as a tourist destination and local communities can increase the cross-

cultural interaction to engage in enhance cultural values of the site. The report offers a

holistic view of the impact of the games and in the second part of the report; the learner

evaluates those impacts with drawing proper theories and models.

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Table of Contents

Introduction................................................................................................................................4

Coursework 1: Impact of London Olympic 2012 on economy and communities of host areas 4

Summary....................................................................................................................................8

Recommendation........................................................................................................................8

Coursework 2: Theory based evaluation of success or failure of London Olympic 2012.......10

Theories and models for drawing the evaluation.....................................................................10

Discuss the factors that contribute to the success of London Olympic 2012...........................13

Conclusion and recommendations...........................................................................................14

List of references......................................................................................................................15

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Introduction

As event management industry has grown rapidly over last few years, it has also been

emerged as the academic discipline with rational planning and management process. Prior to

the setting of any hallmark or large, proper planning is necessary. The impact of planning

process in the success of the event or failure is beyond any discussion in recent academics.

The prime reason behind selecting a hallmark event is its size and area of impact. The learner

selected London Olympic Games 2012 as a hallmark event because it provides the learner

with greater ability to discuss about plausible impacts on society and economy. This paper

examines the conceptualization of London Olympic games 2012 that is still remembered as a

success regarding its economic and socio-cultural benefits exerted upon UK citizens. This

paper documents the impact of London Olympic Games 2012 in social, physical, political

and economical hemisphere of the society. The study further draws some relevant theories to

assess the success or failure of the event against the planning process along with discussion

of the critical factors responsible for the result.

Coursework 1: Impact of London Olympic 2012 on economy and communities of host

areas

A hallmark event is the event that is having national importance and is held on a regular or

One-off basis. Over here, the learner selects London Olympic Games because of its

international status and size of operation. During the event, there are lot of promotional

activities and most importantly significant development in tourism facility of the host nation.

London Olympic 2012 has been a consideration because of its overarching impact on tourist

destination and sporting and public utility infrastructure.

Socio-Cultural impacts:

.A prime socio-cultural impact of any hallmark event is to continue the path of legacy and

phenomenal sensation of the historical perspective of the event. Think about Wimbledon or

CWG or even FIFA World Cup, they all are about the set the course of history back to the

legacy of these events. London Olympic games 2012 was not any exception of that.

According to the European Communities (2007), social impact entails the consequences of an

event on human life, behaviour and cultural interaction between two different ethic

individuals. Social impacts are also beneficial in terms of increasing destination’s health;

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enhance the local community’s life expectancy and new sporting facilities (Weed et al. 2012,

p. 75).

Providing a sense of identity with widening cultural horizons:

The social impact of London Olympic games 2012 has long-term influences over host

community including reinforcing the cultural values and traditions and increasing the sense of

patriotism among the citizens along with greater sense of community belonging. It is indeed a

fact that a sense of prise was always prevalent during the continuation of Olympic Games.

England is mostly charged up like this during Wimbledon and Ashes. Therefore, it can be

stated that sports has created a powerful connection with social life of Britain. Staging the

Olympic in London created growth opportunities as well employment and education training,

which can be used further for economic regeneration.

Infrastructure and facilities

Such a Hallmark event like Olympic aimed at discovering the potential of employability

skills present in the local communities. The Games bore a positive impact on enhancing

social reconciliation and collaboration via development of local entrepreneurship and

government facility. However, Mackintosh et al. 2014, (p.23) noticed that sometimes, the

inter-urban competition can produce social waste investments, which intensify the problems

like facility development or job growth rather than resolving.

People, skills and employment

One of the significant impacts of the London Olympic Games 2012 was on people of Lower

Lea valley and North East London. The employment in the 5 boroughs throughout NE

London and Lower Lea Valley was increased by 27% during the Olympic Games. There was

a vital economic reintegration in London’s poorest and disadvantaged areas in Lea valley

(Giulianotti et al. 2015, p.99). The Olympic Park provides the people with improved

opportunities for jobs, education and training. Evidence from the reports published after

Olympic 2012 reflected that the games supported wider regeneration policies including

empowering the disadvantaged groups via employment opportunities along with increasing

the employment prospect through experience gained from before and during Olympic period

employment.

Greater participation sports and culture

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The Olympic Games increased the investment in sports and gym facility not only in London

but also in the poor and disadvantaged areas in NE London sites. Reports published after the

Games reflected that investments are also accelerated in the training facilities along with

sports facilities in different parts of UK. The Games contributed to the increased participation

in sports and this would create positive consequences on physical and mental wellbeing of the

UK citizens. London Olympic 2012 provided local people with significant cultural

improvements and social regeneration. Social inclusion was increased during that time and in

a diversified city like London there was enough amalgamation between two different cultures

to make the others aware of cultural heritages of UK.

Following the negative impact on Olympic Games, it is assessed that crime and alcohol

consumption are two prime areas, which are generally increased during the event. However,

London Olympic did not see any significant growth in crime rate during the time but alcohol

consumption was increased by 15% comparing to a traditional time. However, that did not

affect the behaviours of tourists, as state organized a strong security measures.

Physical impact

Physical impacts of any hallmark events are significant and visible to the entire audience of

the world. Therefore, the government or concerned committees always try to provide best

infrastructure development to the players, coaches, managers and tourists. It is indeed a fact

that sometimes hallmark events can transmit the sporting infrastructure of the nation to a new

level. However, Prayag et al. (2013, p.629) further added that public utility services are also

benefitted through infrastructure development during large events. Roads, transports, waste

management systems are renewed and physical environment surrounding the communities

become more commendable. The physical impacts of London Olympic Games 2012 are both

tangible and intangible in terms of using those physical benefits in future. The infrastructure

created at that time is still facilitating sporting and training along with public facility, which is

tangible and increased participation in national sports is intangible benefit. One of the key

characteristics of physical impacts of hallmark events is that the infrastructure are developed

long-term achievement for the communities and can be used in future for organizing similar

kind of event. Specific planning for infrastructure development included the increase of

capability of the sports stadiums. Seat numbers of the stadium was increased to 25,000,

which helped to create a multipurpose venue for athletes and different disciplines in sports. It

was also arranged with training facilities and offices for sports sciences. Medication facilities

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across the building were also increased and there were different sections for gym facilities,

physiotherapies and meditation training (Firstpost, 2012).

The committee also developed aquatics centres with two 50 m pools and a 25 m diving pool.

It also arranged a fitness centre to accommodate with elite and local clubs for community

users. The capacity for spectators was increased to 3500 and now local athletes and clubs use

those for own purpose. However, regarding waste management facilities, the infrastructure

can be referred to strategic failure. Due to overcrowded visitors’ number, waste management

activities could not be placed properly. However, the committee introduced a multi-discipline

cycling centre that included a 3000 seat Velodrome, a road track and recreational BMX

tracks. Along with all those developments, the committee also developed a mountain biking

course used by different athletes. There was also a hockey centre developed for training and

competition facilities at all levels.

Political impact

In 2012, politicians addressed the appreciation for games even more than before because they

started to see the implication for organizing gaming activities to turn their vote bank on . Any

significant event success has prior political indication that the government sets up a positive

image to the nation regarding success of the game. However, we have also noticed fallacies

and corruptions during the games. Commonwealth Games in India is still a popular example

of political corruption regarding the infrastructure building for the event. Boris Johnson, the

mayor of London was the biggest winner because of his successful contribution to the

continuation of the event. The impact was so fruitful for the mayor that he might as well be a

good contender for next presidential election. However, David Cameron also won hearts of

millions because of projection ‘Big Society’ during the Olympic event (Watt, 2013, p.99). It

was assessed at that time that Cameron’s campaign would attract the volunteers to become

enthusiastic in serving the nation. The assessment was not found popularity, until London

saw 70,000 enthusiastic volunteers gathering to support the crowd and London tourism.

Cameron now eyes for next Olympic and Paralympics games in Rio for which he pledged a

125 million GBP per year. Significantly, previous two Olympic Games in London were

associated with war conflicts but for this event, there was no significant terrorist upsurge

around London. However, the government and committee both organized strong security

measures for any possible terrorist attack.

Economic impact

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This is the most significant impact any hallmark event because the economy of the local

community is largely related with tourist’ numbers and their spending pattern. During the

Olympic Games UK economy has seen a boost of £9.9 billion from trade and investments. A

report from UK government department suggests that UK put with new contracts, sales and

offshore investments down the next period from games. UK Trade and Investment

Department reported that during the games, there were £2.5 billion inward investments and

majority of the amount was invested outside of London. The report also suggested that there

was a total £5.9 billion sale following the promotional events of Olympic. There were £1.5

billion high-valued overseas contracts for designing other facilities in different venues in

different host nations. Therefore, it can be stated that there were real jobs and adequate

amounts of money spent on the project to gain nationwide economic viability. On the other

hand, they have a significant impact over GDP of UK as it was increased by 9% at that time.

The significant areas of economic development come from construction and tourism. Reports

suggested that there were at least new 1000 buildings those were developed just as apart of

supporting the accommodation of huge tourist’s number. Reports suggested that 75% of total

revenue from Games came through tourism and construction activities.

Summary

Prior to the London Olympic 2012, London and Britain feared about the success of the event

because of two correlated facts; the phenomenon of displacement and fear of disruption and

overcrowding. It seems that neither of them is actually very integrative in making the

spectators resisting from vesting the stadium. The success of any hallmark event is assessed

through the discussion of its positive impact on the socio cultural context of the nation. The

study of impacts found out that mostly NE London and Lower Lea valley was benefitted

during the time of Olympic. The economic upsurge was inevitable but it did not affect

positively upon every area and class in the society.

The number of inbound visitors and revenue from tourism is the prime impact of the London

Olympic Games 2102. However, the implication of the inconsistencies in managing the

success afterwards of the event must be considered for better results. It is not that once when

the event is finished, everything goes back to previous position. Follow up reporting after the

Games is a necessary thing to do to ascertain the level of national participation in

development of UK.

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Coursework 2: Theory based evaluation of success or failure of London Olympic 2012

Over here, the report focuses on measuring the critical success of the games and evaluates the

extent to which the games hold a positive impact on the host community. Though, the prime

positive impact is economical but there is not any use of economical integrity, if that cannot

be incorporated into social lives of citizens.

Theories and models for drawing the evaluation

Social audit:

Social audit is the purpose to check whether official records of any enterprises are correct and

state reported money is actually spent on the ground. Social audit evaluates the level of

clarity and honesty in official works. The London Olympic 2012 was also a subject of a

social audit regarding the money and resources spent on the promotion and infrastructure.

The impact on community sector is mostly the discussable issue in the social audit of

Olympic Games. The necessity of social audit is to measure the social benefit from a

particular event or enterprise (Harcourt et al. 2012, p.2152). As mentioned in the previous

coursework, socio-cultural impacts are executed in two ways mainly; people, skills and

employment and legacy in sports and culture. It is assessed that the passion for sports in UK

is greatly harnessed after London Olympic Games. The host community is benefitted because

Olympic brought back the culture of competition in UK schools. When it comes in talking

about participation in grassroots level, it has been accelerated definitely after Olympics.

Therefore, it can be stated that socially London Olympic creates a buzz among the sports

lovers. The evaluation suggested that improved infrastructural framework and overarching

sports legacy objectives of Britain.

Social return on Investment (SROI)

SROI is a principle based method that is devised in order to track the extra financial value

related to the resource invested in any event. SROI method is further standardized by

incorporating a quantitative approach to understand the impact of an event or project. SROI

framework is prepared to compare the investment to return by measuring the social,

environmental and economic changes across the community involved in project (Davies,

2012, p.309). One of the prime benefit that can be addressed as the social is development of

Britain’s sporting legacy one again. Last time London held Olympics went back to 1948.

After that, 2012 London Olympic Games created much flatter among the citizens. The skills

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of the employees during the time have been increased greatly. In fact, most of the employers

were engaged in high profile construction activities, which also accounted for future

employment prospectus. More than 4,000 workers were trained across the nation to build up

construction facility.

Therefore, it can be stated that government and committee interventions in the employee

training and education developed a positive legacy in UK labour market due to the benefits of

engaging with more professional and experienced work-force. The investment over

construction facility allows the unemployed people to earn additional £121 million in wages.

However, household consumption indicator cannot be very satisfactory for own national

citizens. It was noticed that overall domestic consumptions were not raised during that period

because products were set at a high price. However, as the prospect of tourism is the key

matter of discussion regarding the benefit in investment, it can be surely told that cross-

cultural blending during the time was enormous and tourists spent quite an amount to visit

cultural heritage of Britain.

Social capital theory

According to the social capital theory when different individuals or groups start cooperation,

there are always collective or simply economic benefits. The basic of social capital theory

relies on very nature of individual interaction about culture and heritage for increasing

productivity. However, social capitals may be physical, cultural and even human subjects

those are closely attached to overall social development process. However, Houlihan and

Giulianotti (2012, p.701) argued that social capital is an abstract format in recognizing the

existence of actual resources. Since, London Olympic Games is a proper example of civic

engagement with government and corporation, the productivity introduced from the event are

blissfully eventful. All three pillars of the games worked well together to ensure most

revenue from tourist and construction facility.

Customer service of UK hospitality industry is well-known and in the time of Olympic

Games, the customer service facility was increased further to support tourism. If we do

aftermath assessment of Olympic Games, it is noticed that with the modern infrastructure by

their side, sports coaching and volunteering to support and sustain increased participation has

been increased. However, it still remains unclear to which extent the London Olympic Games

2012 served in reinforcing the sports legacy in Britain because there is no particular

measurement indicator the assess the point. Still, it is a fact that Games has much

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contribution to the enhancement of participation and interest in sports as well other areas in

maintaining relationship with customers.

Social Exchange theory

Discussion of Social exchange theory is apt here because it stated that human relationships

are formed through active cost-benefit analysis regarding any phenomenon and participation

in that event. Regarding the cost-benefit approach, the theory has developed a root in

economical benefits because most of the tangible benefits to which human relationships are

concerned developed from economical regeneration. The theory further assessed that social

exchange is commendable only when it is mutually contingent and guaranteed a reward

process to one end of the string (Kavetsos, 2012, p.1453). In case of London Olympic Games

2012, the exchange was done as economic, social and physical benefit primarily.

Infrastructure was made from committee and other associates to support the game and

humans’ involvement was to gear up the economy by showing enough amounts of skill and

technical calibration.

Economy was further addressed because unless, proper skills were executed and customer

service facility was managed positively, there was no chance that the event would become a

huge success. The community was particularly benefitted as a whole because hotels’ numbers

has fallen short due to overcrowded tourist and local residents started to offer accommodation

to the tourists.

Contingent valuation

Contingent valuation is a survey based economic method that is intended to valuate non-

marketing resources like environmental preservation or effect of contamination during a

project or event. Severi et al. (2012, p.989) commented that these valuation indicators are

having no direct market price but they are responsible to shape the way of living of local

communities. It is often noticed that after any big event, mostly environmental parameters are

degraded because of loose environmental regulation. For event like Olympic, the statement is

more believable because within that certain period of time there was particularly very poor

waste management planning to control the wastages. The planning committee included green

building measures such as water recycling, engaging carbon footprint system in every project.

They also planned to source out 25% of the raw materials from recycled resources. Energy

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Company EDF announced at the time of Olympic to provide 24MW of energy produced

solely from renewable resources like Wind power.

Before the construction project began, committee planned to use 90% recycled material in

construction point. Ironically, more than half of the carbon emissions related with Games

generated from construction point. Carbon offsetting program lost the balance once when the

committee decided to consider ‘Pay to pollute’ strategy. This means committee would fund to

different environmental projects to counteract carbon emission from own construction

activities. The solution was entirely a false one and environmentalists severely criticized the

strategy. Transportation chaos has become a natural issue across the Olympic sites. The main

problem was that everyone wanted to reach to the site and streets were almost congested. In

the year 2012, global flight emissions were also increased as more air transport during that

period.

Discuss the factors that contribute to the success of London Olympic 2012

The success or failure entirely depended on the planning process and their exact execution by

planning committee as well as government. Now, if we discuss about the success of the

Games, proper functional operation from London Organizing Committee of the Olympic

(LOCOG) must be introduced. One of the prime challenges behind starting of the constricting

operation was logistics factor. Moving of the technology and construction materials was a

challenge for the committee and the committee employed 70,000 volunteers in transportation

to remove the challenge. The government also spent £9.3 billion amount of money across the

department of culture, media and arts to manage the proper promotional and public relation

activities.

Moreover, government spent £377 million in making the public sector reliable and usable for

tourists and athletes. In constructing the Athletes’ village, the government also made solid

assumptions and contracting with suppliers and contractors made a beneficial factor for the

games because the expenses was not gone out of hand and unallocated money was used for

developing further accommodation activities. As the operational cost was not exceeding,

proper measures were taken to strengthen security and medication system in the stadiums. It

spent £500 million amount of money to tighten the security measures around Olympic venues.

Finally, collective efforts from local community and training program to the workers are most

two critical factors in determining the success of event. Local community showed a positive

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behaviour towards the tourists and supported the accommodation facilities. Employment

skills were greatly enhanced at that time and those employability skills could be used further

to integrate economic success among Britain employees.

Conclusion and recommendations

The report concludes with the findings that success of any major hallmark event depends on

integrate planning and execution process. As LOCOG made proper planning regarding

construction and operational planning, it brought back the legacy of Britain in sports and

culture. Impact of the event was also positive in most cases but it failed in meeting with

environmental sustainability program. The consequences of those construction activities were

considered as negative. However, if we follow holistic approach to judge the findings, it

becomes clear that the game has positive impact over making the site as tourist destination

and increase the economic growth of the nation. As the committee failed to be engaged in

proper environmental protection, it is recommended that from next time, collaboration with

some pollution control agency would be greater. Institution like Carbon trust could be

beneficial to minimize the environmental impact of construction activities and provide a

justified framework to reduce carbon emission.

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List of references

Books

Fussey, P., Coaffee, J., Armstrong, G., and Hobbs, D. (2011). Securing and sustaining the

Olympic City: reconfiguring London for 2012 and beyond. Farnham: Ashgate.

Journals

Davies, L. E. (2012). Beyond the Games: regeneration legacies and London 2012. Leisure

Studies, 31(3), 309-337.

Fussey, P., Coaffee, J., Armstrong, G., and Hobbs, D. (2011). Securing and sustaining the

Olympic City: reconfiguring London for 2012 and beyond. Farnham: Ashgate.

Giulianotti, R., Armstrong, G., Hales, G., and Hobbs, D. (2015). Sport Mega-Events and

Public Opposition A Sociological Study of the London 2012 Olympics. Journal of Sport &

Social Issues, 39(2), 99-119.

Harcourt, S. E., Fletcher, J., Loveridge, P., Bains, A., Morbey, R., Yeates, A., ... and Elliot,

A. J. (2012). Developing a new syndromic surveillance system for the London 2012 Olympic

and Paralympic Games. Epidemiology and infection,140(12), 2152-2156.

Houlihan, B., and Giulianotti, R. (2012). Politics and the London 2012 Olympics: the (in)

security Games. International Affairs, 88(4), 701-717.

Kavetsos, G. (2012). The impact of the London Olympics announcement on property

prices. Urban Studies, 49(7), 1453-1470.

Mackintosh, C., Darko, N., Rutherford, Z., and Wilkins, H. M. (2014). A qualitative study of

the impact of the London 2012 Olympics on families in the East Midlands of England:

lessons for sports development policy and practice.Sport, Education and Society, (ahead-of-

print), 1-23.

Prayag, G., Hosany, S., Nunkoo, R., & Alders, T. (2013). London residents' support for the

2012 Olympic Games: the mediating effect of overall attitude.Tourism Management, 36, 629-

640.

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Severi, E., Heinsbroek, E., Watson, C., and Catchpole, M. (2012). Infectious disease

surveillance for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.Euro Surveill, 17(31),

pp.989-1011

Watt, P. (2013). ‘It's not for us’ Regeneration, the 2012 Olympics and the gentrification of

East London. City, 17(1), 99-118.

Weed, M., Coren, E., Fiore, J., Wellard, I., Mansfield, L., Chatziefstathiou, D., & Dowse, S.

(2012). Developing a physical activity legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and

Paralympic Games: a policy-led systematic review.Perspectives in public health, 132(2), 75-

80.

Williams, K., Sinclair, C., McEwan, R., Fleet, K., Balasegaram, S., and Manuel, R. (2014).

Impact of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games on demand for microbiology

gastrointestinal diagnostic services at the Public Health Laboratory London. Journal of

medical microbiology, 63(Pt 7), 968-974.

Websites

Firstpost, (2012). London Olympics: Britain's success and its domino effect - Firstpost.

Available from: http://www.firstpost.com/sports/london-olympics-britains-success-and-its-

domino-effect-418292.html [Accessed on 1 Nov. 2015].

Inhabitat.com, (2015). 6 Ways in Which London 2012 has Failed to be 'The Green Olympics'.

Available from: http://inhabitat.com/6-ways-in-which-london-2012-has-failed-to-be-the-

green-olympics/ [Accessed on 2 Nov. 2015].

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