The empirical data for this thesis is collected with 14 interviews with organisations that are actors in different roles in the event management ecosystem (Table 3, p. 32). Some organisations are actors in only one role in the ecosystem and others act in multiple roles. A list of organisations that are interesting for this study was generated during several workshops where also the initial event management ecosystem was further developed. In these workshops the three partner organisations, Profium, KSF Media, and Citypress, listed candidates for the interviews together with researchers. The key criteria for the candidates were diversity in roles in which they act and there should also be candidates from other countries besides Finland. The partner
organisations were also included in the list and they were interviewed for this study. All organisations in this list were contacted and asked to participate in this study. Additionally, new interview candidates were added as interviewed organisations suggested them or listed them as key partners. All organisations in this list that agreed to participate were interviewed or they filled the Business Model Canvas independently.
Table 3. List of interviewed organisations, their roles in the ecosystem and short
descriptions
Actor Roles in Ecosystem Description
1 Event calendar provider; Event feed
provider Regional information web portal (Events, restaurants, travel etc.), with a clearly defined geographical scope
2 Event calendar provider; Media
content provider; Event provider Magazine and web service targeted at young urban adults 3 Event calendar provider; Event feed
provider Publicly funded event calendar in a Central European region 4 Event calendar provider; Event feed
provider Event calendar covering bilingual regions in Finland 5 Event feed provider, event calendar
provider Swiss event feed provider that offer easy access to multiple event calendars 6 Event provider Large urban music and arts festival 7 Event related service provider Gig booking service for artists and venues 8 ICT provider Provider of content management systems
based on semantic web technologies 9 Media sales organiser, Event related
service provider Low cost car rental service, which uses on car advertisements as a source of revenue 10 Ticket seller, Event feed provider,
Technical supporter A small ticketing solution provider focusing on small and medium size events 11 Ticket seller, Media sales organiser,
Event marketer A medium size ticket solution provider 12 Event provider, Funding provider,
Event related service provider, Ticket seller
A small municipality in the Finnish archipelago. Formed in 2009 by merger of three municipalities
13 Event provider, Funding provider, Event related service provider; Event calendar provider
A mid-size municipality in the southern coast of Finland. Formed in 2009 by merger of three municipalities
14 Event provider, Funding provider, Event related service provider; Event calendar provider
A large municipality neighbouring Helsinki
The set of interviewed organisations contains eleven companies and three municipalities. There were five different interviewers. Eight companies were
interviewed by the author of this thesis, the three municipalities were interviewed by a representative of a partner organisation, one organisation was interviewed by two representatives of a partner organisation, one company is interviewed in another study by a researcher, and one company filled the canvas independently.
interviews as a co-interviewer. Five of the eleven companies are actors in the event calendar provider role. Four of these event calendar providers acts also as event feed providers and the fifth acts also as a media content provider. For one of these
companies that acts both in the event calendar provider and the event feed provider roles, providing event feed is the main service.
One of the event calendar providers has an online information service targeted at local residents and tourists. It has a clearly defined geographical scope and the name of the area is also in the name of the service. This area has about 28 000 residents. Besides the event calendar, the company’s website also contains two other central information services – a locally very popular and complete lunch guide and telephone directory. In addition to this website, the company also acts as an event feed provider by building integrated event calendars to local organisations. The second company that acts in the event calendar provider role is a web service and print magazine targeted at urban adults in the biggest cities in Finland. The original product of the company is a free magazine that has nine different editions for different regions in Finland and it is distributed in over 500 different locations. The importance of the web service, that uses the same brand, has grown steadily beside the magazine. Both products contain an event guide which can be considered as one of the several central sections. Other important sections are, for example, urban culture articles, the restaurant guide and different services that use user generated content. Additionally the company acts as an event provider with small events that are related to the main products such as clubs.
The third event calendar provider is a government funded project in a Central European country. The project includes several calendars, which use the same IT infrastructure. There is a top level calendar for the whole region, several different domains for different territories in the region, and a calendar with only events for children. The calendar provider’s event data is also used in multiple municipality magazines and tools have been created to enable third party organisations to use the data.
The fourth event calendar provider covers events in several bilingual regions in Finland and offers event information in both Finnish and Swedish. The focus is on
local area information focusing on small and medium size events. Besides the online event calendar, the event data is also used in several newspapers of the same
company.
The fifth event calendar provider is a Swiss company that has a simple online calendar. However, their main service is providing event feeds to multiple partners’ event calendars in both print and online media including some of the biggest media in Switzerland. They offer a simple platform, where event providers can add information about their event using one simple web interface and get visibility through multiple channels.
One of the interviewed organisations is a provider of a large event that organises a weekend long urban music and arts festival annually. The event had about 50 000 visitors during 2011 and it is held in an urban area close to the city centre. The event hosts performances that range from local acts to well-known international stars in multiple stages.
One of the interviewed companies acts in the event related service provider role. This company developed a web service to help music artists and venue bookers to
coordinate their communication and simplify the gig booking process. The service also makes it possible for artist to find other similar artists and send a collaborative gig offer for venues. The service also offers data about artists’ gig history to help venue bookers to evaluate the attractiveness and suitability of an artist’s fit for a venue.
The only pure ICT provider in the set of interviewed companies is a developer of content management system based on semantic web technologies. This company has extensive experience in developing ICT systems for the media industry, among others, and possess capabilities to provide efficient and open content management systems for event management needs.
One of the companies acts as both a media sales organiser and an event related service provider. The company offers moving media for advertisers and an inexpensive car rental service for consumers. The idea is that they sell on car advertisements, which allow them to rent their cars with more affordable prices. An
inexpensive car rental service is, of course, a viable option for consumers that are visiting events from out-of-town or the event venue is difficult to reach with other means.
Two of the companies act as ticket sellers. The first one is a small Finnish ticket seller focusing on small and medium size events, such as local theatres. They also provide event feeds for third party usage and technical user support for their system’s users. The second company is a medium size ticket seller that is especially successful in rock and popular music events, but it also covers other types of events. In addition to providing ticket solutions, the second ticket seller is also very active in providing event marketing services including organising media sales and providing marketing support.
Then there are three Finnish municipalities that vary significantly in size and perform multiple different roles in the event management ecosystem. All of them are actors in the event provider and funding provider roles. Municipalities also act as event related service providers by offering venues, marketing services, and advisory. Two of the municipalities maintain their own online event calendar and one of them publish a free printed event calendar. One is even a ticket seller by organising ticketing for some event providers. However they don’t offer a multichannel ticketing solution as ticket seller companies.
4 Results of the Study
In this chapter the findings of this study are presented. First business models are constructed for each of the roles identified in the interviews. In the second part the event management ecosystem is revised and two illustrations of the ecosystem are presented and analysed. Finally, findings regarding the sources of value creation and competitive dynamics of the event management ecosystem are presented.