ANALYSIS RESULTS AND BENCHMARKING REPORTS WITH RECOMMENDATIONS FOR

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

ERASMUS +

Project: DiMenSion

Intellectual Output O4

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Contents

PURPOSE OF THE PAPER ....................................................................................................................................... 2

MARKET ANALYSIS OF THE NEEDS AND CHALLENGES OF MARKETERS AND MARKETING MANAGERS IN THE

MARKETING AND EVENT MANAGEMENT SECTOR ............................................................................................... 4

REVIEW OF STATE OF ART AND EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS ....................................................................................... 8

BENCHMARKING STANDARDS ............................................................................................................................ 10

SUMMARY OF THE RESULTS AND RECOMMENDATION FOR CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT ............................. 14

Contents of the programme ........................................................................................................................... 16

Teaching/Learning methods, methodological approaches ............................................................................ 17

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INTRODUCTION

For further development of the project - Developing marketing solutions for sustainable brands,

we need to make integration of previously fulfilled intellectual project outputs:

1. O1 – Market analysis of the needs and challenges of marketing and event managers in

the marketing and event management sector, to make the analysis of the needs and

challenges that marketing and event managers have, was developed a questionnaire,

distributed to big sample of marketing managers in Macedonia, using contact list;

2. O2 – Benchmarking of effective and most required worldwide programs, the purpose of

this intellectual output was to make comparative analysis of professional development

programs for marketing and event management in regard to quality standards and

curriculum programs (contents and structure);

3. O3 – Marketing and event management standards and principles, as part of the third

intellectual output was made a desk research in European standards in marketing and

event management industry and the level of adaptation and use in Macedonia, compared

to European countries.

PURPOSE OF THE PAPER

The wider objective of the project is to develop marketing solutions for sustainable brands and

to improve Macedonian event manager’s performance through developing learning

environment, online courses, training activities and webinars for improving their management

and leadership skills.

In developing countries, such as Macedonia, marketing professionals on managerial positions are

missing opportunities and offer for adult trainings. DiMenSion project will set up a new

international professional development program in the field of marketing and event

management focusing on developing new innovative skills.

The professional development courses for marketing and event management will improve and

extend the offer of high quality learning opportunities, and will be tailored to individual adult

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learners, using innovative ways of outreach and delivery (on-line courses, in classroom training

and peer learning opportunities). Also, considering that our target groups are adult learners,

more specifically, professional marketers working on managerial position or entrepreneurs who

are starting their own enterprise, we will put special focus on the project activities in designing

and implementing effective strategies for enhancing basic and transversal skills of adults.

For successful realization of this aim we should first discover the current level of education of

marketing and event managers, their current position, skills and techniques used at the working

process, see the needs and the gaps of education, the way of thinking and make a final decision

for some tasks based on the results gathered from distributed survey, for current position of our

target group - marketing event managers.

This paper attempts to gain a better understanding of the results of the survey, comparative

analyses and benchmarking, and to propose recommendation for curriculum development.

Then we made analysis of educational programmes and courses in the field of leadership and

management. The primary goal was to make research of existing programmes and courses, what

are their aims, educational themes, target groups and time period of their realization.

Also we made research and analyses the marketing event management standards and principles.

In the report there are statements of best practice which outline the performance criteria,

related skills, knowledge and understanding required to effectively carry out various

management and leadership functions, and represent the best possible outline for us to succeed

in our project.

In this report are summarized the results of the survey, comparative analysis and benchmarking

of effective and most required programs in Europe and the marketing and event management

standards and principles. Also at the end recommendation for curriculum development of

professional courses for marketing event management skills was proposed.

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MARKET ANALYSIS OF THE NEEDS AND CHALLENGES OF

MARKETERS AND MARKETING MANAGERS IN THE

MARKETING AND EVENT MANAGEMENT SECTOR

This part of the report will present the results from the survey made in our country, Republic of

Macedonia. Currently, we can conclude that there are no trainings in the area of adult education

offered in Macedonia which would allow event managers to acquire the needed competences in

the area of marketing event management. Therefore, development of such adult training

programs would be essential in Macedonia in order to improve the capacities of event managers

and to contribute to their better performance and consequently the companies they work for.

Having in mind that this professional and training courses will be developed according to the

needs of the marketing event managers in Macedonia, we sent our survey to marketing event

managers from our country.

In our analyses we will start with some demographical data that is important information about

Macedonian marketing event managers. Most of our respondents are female, and 51% of them

are from 31 to 40 years. Also, we need to know what the level of formal education is because

from this information we can make some thought about their performance.

Macedonian marketing event managers mostly work in companies which give services (75% of

the marketing event managers) to people. The size of this organizations where they work is less

than 50 workers which means that they work in small organization. Most of them work on this

43%

51%

6%

Baccalaureate Master Ph.D

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position less than 5 or between 5 to 10 years. But there were also some managers who work on

this position for more years. Most of the Macedonian marketing event managers have Master

degree 51%. 43% have Bachelor degree and 6% of them are PhD in their field.

It’s clear that in our country most of the managers work as a supervisor, department managers

or Team leader and they are responsible to the middle level of managers because they are leading

non manager employees.

On the question about the investment in marketing and event management as one of the key

factors for development of a business 64% of respondents answered that investing in marketing

and event management has a significant influence in the development of the business / industry,

30% said that the investment depends on the type of business, that is, in certain businesses is a

key factor, but in certain it is not. More than half of the marketers and marketing managers

answered positively, and from that we can highlight that investment in this field is important in

our country. Also most of the respondents said that marketing event management I seen as an

expense rather than an investment and that marketing event management is specific and the

way of proving the return on investment is difficult.

According to Macedonian marketing event managers the three, most chosen, demands of the

marketing services are the following: digital and social media marketing, advertising and event

First level management (supervisor, department

manager, team leader, etc.)

56%

Second level of management

(managers and deputy head)

21%

Top management (executive director, owner, member of

the board, etc.)23%

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marketing and management. 64% of the marketing event managers answered that investing in

marketing and event management has significant influence in the development of the business

and most of them responded that they would position MEM as a separate sector with an

experienced team of employees, according to the size of the organization.

The challenges that marketing event managers face on daily level is that marketing and event

management is seen as an expense and that there is lack of quality and trained staff in this field.

56% of the marketing event managers answered that they thing the companies should have their

own sector for MEM or to co-operate with foreign experts and MEM agencies. Also marketing

event managers in our country pointed that events are tool for bringing together the employees,

collaborators, business partners and they contribute to more effective and efficient work.

Regarding the measurement of the results of an investment in MEM, out marketing event

managers responded that MEM has qualitative benefits and advantages that are difficult to

measure and prove and the method of measurement is specific and requires a long period for

reliable results.

Knowing the fact that it’s always important to learn, to improve the knowledge cross learning

about new trends and characteristics in the field of the modern society you need education.

Professional development courses for marketing event managers will help for increasing the

quality of the work, leading people and manage projects in the organization. Marketing event

managers answered that they attended or still attend courses and specialized educational

programs and they gained experience through practical work, because of the lack education

offered in the field of marketing event management. About the relevance of the training courses

they would like to participate large amount of the managers choose the following: Innovative

marketing tools and techniques, event marketing and management – concept and design,

sustainable development of events, business intelligence and leadership of events and creative

thinking and innovation.

Marketing event managers on the last question in our survey pointed that event management

affect the improvement and strengthening of the corporate climate, internally towards its

employees but also external to its associates and customers.

From the answers of the respondents we can conclude that currently, there are lack of specialized

trainings in the area of adult education offered in Macedonia which would allow marketing

managers to acquire the needed competences in marketing and event management and also

support them in developing marketing solutions for sustainable brands. Macedonian marketers

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said that they gained experience trough practical work because of the lack of education in this

field. Because of that most of them said that they want to be part of educational program for

specialization for marketing and event management and pointed the importance of marketing

event management in the business sector.

Being professional marketer requires specific techniques, innovative solutions, creative ideas,

new skills, open mind, and because marketing is one of the crucial keys for companies success

and creating sustainable brands.

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REVIEW OF STATE OF ART AND EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS

The primary goal of the review of art and effective programs was the analysis of 24 excellent

courses and most prominent higher educational programs for marketing and event management

from different institutions such as universities, schools and academies. The institutions are from

different countries. We make research of existing programmes and courses, what are their

different aims, learning themes and specific knowledge that is going to be achieved by the

participantss and time period of their realization. For the analysis were used different

international institutions that are offering leadership and management educational courses and

programmes.

Regarding the educational themes most of the courses have the following educational themes.

We analysed 24 educational courses and programs in the field of marketing event management.

There are 12 most common educational themes - knowledge shown in the list below. From the

analysis we can note that most of the themes are connected with marketing and management.

list of most common educational themes

Event marketing

Event management

Luxury brand strategy

Economic perspectives

Selling and sales management

Consumer analysis

Digital and social media marketing

Risk management

International marketing, protocol for events

Business tourism

Sustainability

Managerial accounting

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Regarding course time frame: 35 % of the course training were with duration of 1 year, Same

percentage (15%) have programs that last less than 1 year and 3 years. Only 4% have programs

that last more than 4 years. From the aspect of the duration of the programs for marketing and

event management we can conclude that most common are the programs that a shorter, such

as those that last 1 year.

From the desk research on excellent programs and courses of marketing and event management

we can conclude that most common topics are in the field of Event marketing, Event

management, Luxury brand strategy, Economic perspectives, Selling and sales management,

Consumer analysis, Digital and social media marketing, Risk management, International

marketing, protocol for events, Business tourism, Sustainability that the duration is

approximately 1 year. This information we are going to use in our project.

Less than 1 year15%

1 year35%

2 years12%

3 years15%

4 years19%

More than 4 years4%

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BENCHMARKING STANDARDS

In this part of the report we share the aims and conclusions of the report from the research that

we made on European standards in marketing and event management industry and the level of

adaptation and use in our country. That report is aiming to give an overview of this dynamic

movements, by detailing the event management market in Europe and pointing out central

principles and standards of the Event Marketing industry as well as current overarching industry

trends. The report then concludes with central managerial recommendations and an outlook for

the Event Marketing industry’s future.

This report’s insights and results are derived from comprehensive desk research, industry reports

and qualitative surveys that were conducted by the professorship of Marketing at Chemnitz

university of Technology. During the field phases various data collection methods, such as focus

groups and semi-structured expert interviews, were used to gather important data. Most of the

data was collected during regular meetings of different work groups of the FAMAB, the leading

association for the Event industry and Live-Communication sector in Germany.

Regarding the central objects and goals of live communication activities, participants within the

sample of 477 companies point out three different areas:

1. Customer Relationship Management

2. Building brand awareness and brand image

3. Promoting products and market offerings

These priorities underline the main potentials of live events. They provide unique opportunities

for building strong relationships to customers and have a special potential for transporting brand

messages and product benefits, thereby creating exceptional images of a company in the minds

of the customers.

Also according the ethical issues, Growing importance of an industry brings increasing public

awareness that give rise to regulatory issues and social responsibilities. That is also true for the

field of Event Marketing. As a reaction to the industry’s rapid growth multiple national live

communication associations came together to develop a shared code of ethics for the event

industry, comprising ten basic tenets:

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1. Purpose – Live Communication is a professional, sustainable and fair playing field

2. Client focused – clients are the number one priority

3. Collaboration – working with customers, suppliers and partners based on mutual trust

4. Integrity – conducting business in a fair and honest way

5. Respect – hold affiliates in the highest regard, irrespective on race, religion, gender and

age

6. Passion – energy to work reinforces commitment to clients

7. Excellence – exceptional standards for distinguished concept creation an level of

execution

8. Impact – delivering strategic and measurable solutions, ensuring maximum impact and

ROI

9. Taxation – pledge to obey industry tax regulations

10. Lawfulness – pledge to obey law/compliance with statutory, legal and regulatory

requirements

These principles have been established by Live Communication Associations from Portugal, Great

Britain, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The ten

ethical standards should serve as a foundation of good practice of event marketing in Europe. It

is therefore a top priority to consider every single aspect when designing a curriculum for a

training on event marketing for the Macedonian market. Each of the course modules need to be

created by considering how the goals, contents and learning achievements can meet the Values

provided by the European Event Marketing Code of Ethics.

Already covered as a sub-topic within the code of ethics, sustainability is a matter of growing

importance for market actors. Events are still a source of emission and pollution, and therefore are

associated with negative effects for the environments.

Especially the FAMAB is a visionary and pioneer of bringing sustainability standards to the industry.

Together with agency and other partners, the FAMAB hosts the so called “Sustainability Summit”.

This business meeting provides a platform for event planners for discussing on topics in the realm of

sustainability, thereby emphasizing challenges of the event sector in the context of sustainability and

promoting solutions improving the environmental friendliness of the industry.12An associated topic

is Coporate Social Responsibility. The industry press point’s out CSR issues as an important field and

proposes three possible strategies that help to improve CSR compatibility of events: Regionalisation

of events, Metropolisation of Events and Reduced event duration.

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According the trends of the event management, For some years now, digitization as a general trend

in all areas of the daily life is also deeply influencing the event sector. It is one of the top trends in

marketing, especially in the event management area. Digitization is relevant on different levels of

analysis:

On the one hand we see a form of digitization that relates to the event itself, which means that the

event or at least parts of it incorporate virtual elements and participants can join the event online

and remotely.

On the other hand - this manifestation of digitization is further developed than the former one –

digitization covers all forms of communication that take place via electronic channels, for example,

Social Media or Cross Media. Over all the social media- and sharing economy is constantly growing

and is already responsible for a lot of data generating. For instance Facebook generates 4 petabyte

of data per day and every second people produce 6.000 Tweets, which means 500 million per day.

Furthermore, the industry recognizes a digital movement ‘behind the scenes’, which means a fast

digitization of all the marketing management steps and processes associated with an event project,

i.e. strategic and operative planning, implementation and follow-up. In this context platform

solutions are gaining a growing awareness of the industry’s actors, because they provide

opportunities for innovative business models and new ways of communicating with customers and a

broader set of stakeholders. This technology driven trend is already resulting in an increasing number

of planning tools, e.g. for event locations and catering. In this realm the “sharing economy” will also

gain in importance.

About the skills, competencies and professional training, the main challenge of the event

management is to handle all of the trends and the resulting challenges like competence gaps or the

lack of specialists. Trends like digitalization or security management requires new competencies that

employees of the event and live communication management need in future. The Department of

Prof. Dr. Zanger at Chemnitz University of Technology noticed this problem and conducted a study

about it28. The study aimed at developing a catalogue of competences for event managers. The

results of their research show that the event management competency consist of four dimensions:

Professional and methodological competence

Social and communicational competence

Organizational competence

Technical competence

Form the research we can conclude that in recent years, the event management industry, just as

many other every-day-worlds and areas of life, is subject to deep and dynamic changes. Types

and forms of events are constantly moving forward and innovations as well as digital technologies

shape the event sector. These days, actors within the industry show a growing interest in staging

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companies as well as brands in a professional manner. The short life cycle of trend topics requires

dynamic capabilities of companies and agencies to react on changes timely and accurately. In

short, today the event industry faces more (in a quantitatively and qualitatively way) complex

projects than ever before. To meet the challenges that arise from these developments requires

companies to combine knowledge and skills from different disciplines and areas of work.

Academic knowledge and conceptual work are just as important as a vast professional experience

of the individual event manager. In sum, event management must be understood as a

conceptually and strategically demanding and diverse set of complex tasks and processes that

need to be combined to a unified brand communication to effectively and efficiently reach target

audiences.

Compared to other European countries the Macedonian event market is in its infancy and just

starts to grow from a small base. To create a solid foundation for a fruitful development of the

industry, it is reasonable to invest in the education and training of event management experts at

an early stage. Thus, the implementation of a training program is the first necessary step to

develop the needed core competencies and entrepreneurial style of thinking to react on trends

and developments in a successful way.

Moreover, the training of experts is a promising starting point, because other European

countries, including Germany, are noticing a growing skills shortage within the sector. For this

reason the implementation of a qualification program for experts deserves an important role for

the European market in general. In this light we increasingly see new concepts of skill training

and innovative teaching methods and practice driven courses.

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SUMMARY OF THE RESULTS AND RECOMMENDATION FOR CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

According to all analyses and benchmarking reports, in this report recommendation for curriculum development of professional development courses for marketing and event management is proposed.

The professional development courses curriculum is a tailor-made program, developed based on the following analysis:

It is expected that the courses will improve the competencies in marketing event management among managers in Macedonia and positively influence the competitive advantage of their firms and institutions.

Market analysis of the needs and challenges of marketing and event managers in marketing and event management sector

Benchmarking of effective and most required programs worldwide

Marketing and event management standards and principles

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The target group consists of:

For the pilot group that will start with the courses, it is planned to recruit and select participant who have at least 2 years of managerial experience and work and live in Macedonia and to be high educated in the field of marketing, management, PR or economy.

The courses for marketing and event management will improve their professional competences, provide opportunities for professional and personal growth, and will increase the motivation and satisfaction in their daily work.

The following criteria will be applied when selecting participants for the Program - the eligible candidates for the program should have the following: motivation to learn and interest to participate in the Program, fluent English speaker, work experience in managerial position (at least 2 years).

We will assess the prospective candidates through their CV, motivation letter and interview. During the interview we will assess the proficiency level in English and have clear idea of the needs and interests of the prospective participant.

In case of many applications, we may need to have assessment (test) regarding participants personality traits and knowledge in the field of marketing and event management.

event managers

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After successful completion of the professional courses for developing marketing solutions for sustainable brands, the participants will be able to:

Brand management – systematic measurement and evaluation of short – mid – and long term effects

Branding an event

Developing conceptual models of event controlling; methodology and instruments

Creating Incentives and regulatory drivers for sustainable brands

Develop abilities to see the same situation from different perspectives so you can make better decisions

Implement/apply techniques for event management

Manage finance and plan budget;

Plan, implement, control, monitor, evaluate events;

Manage risks etc.

Contents of the programme

The Programme for the courses for Developing marketing solutions for sustainable brands has 6 program courses:

Each course will be blended learning type, combination of e-learning and classroom learning, with centered-learning approach. Uniqueness of this program is that it is tailor-made, developed on the principles of adult training, using methods and tecniques that help developing new knowledge and skills.

Strategic Event Management

Event Concept and Design

Event Controlling & Performance

Sustainable brands

Intelligent Event

Leadership

Event Industry Challenges &

Trends

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The dynamic of each course consists of three parts:

Pre-course – participants will prepare for the topic by e-learning (videos, presentations and readings);

Core-part – in classrom, during one weekend, where participants will engage with the trainer and their peers in a workshop with variety of interactive training methods;

Post-course – participants will apply their new knowledge and skills by e-learning (individual assignements and forums).

Teaching/Learning methods, methodological approaches

In order to enhance modern types of educational and research activities, a very useful sustainability approach is to focus on a higher portion of learners’ independent course activities, in order to secure that the obtained knowledge, skills and abilities are properly acquired and ready for implementation. The leadership pre-condition for increasing the independent student performance is creating a self-learning environment, accompanied by experimental and practical training, trough which the specific modalities of training activities can include flexible and tailored programs, up to completely pre-defined training issues, that include performing of series of inter-connected tasks, activities or even training games playing.

PRE-COURSE:

Assessment and Overview

COURSE: Risk

management and Event

Trends

POST-COURSE:

Evaluation

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The curriculum is tailor-made, developed and taught having in mind the needs, experiences and interests of the adult learners: The need to know; The role of the learners ‘own experiences from the workplace; Motivation and readiness to learn.

According to this recommendation curriculum will be developed, that will consist of two modules with 6 courses in total.