RESEARCH ON RESEARCH PROJECT
MAKING RESEARCH ACCESSIBLE
reports , academic research and theses , expert articles and magazine features , white papers , books , and other materials .
Tony Rogers Managing Director Tony Rogers Conference & Event Services
What is the value of the UK events industry ? How many conferences and business events take place in the UK each year ? Which are the key growth sectors within events ? Which are the leading UK festivals ? How much do delegates typically spend ?
These are just a few of the many questions asked on a daily basis by those working in the events industry and by students preparing for a career in the sector . But where can the answers and information be found ? And what are the gaps in the existing provision of research data ? What do we know about the events industry at this point in time and what do we want or need to know about our industry in the future ?
In order to provide a centralised library or register of events sector research and intelligence , BVEP initiated a unique project in Autumn 2015 , to be undertaken jointly by Glenn Bowdin of Leeds Beckett University and Tony Rogers Conference & Event Services . The project seeks to catalogue all publicly accessible industry and academic research and related resources and make them available as a searchable database via the BVEP website . It covers industry research
By June 2016 over 250 discrete items had been added to the database , with each item including : title , author ( s ), year of publication , short description of content , keywords , web address or other access details , and cost to purchase or free of charge . Items cover all sectors of the events industry including business events , sporting events , cultural events , musical events and festivals . While much of the listed material has a specific UK remit , other items with a more international focus have been included where these are relevant to UK events businesses . Further items are still to be added and a mechanism needs to be established to ensure that new research items continue to be added to the database as these are published .
The next steps are for the research and resources register to be uploaded to the BVEP website and then made available and promoted as a searchable tool for events professionals , academics and students to use . BVEP ’ s Research Group , chaired by John Gallery , will also be using the register to identify gaps in existing research and thus the priorities for new research activity and potential funding sources for these .
The continuing challenge for all industry research is that we are always reliant on people taking part in interviews , surveys and other forms of research so that , collectively , we have a more robust set of data and deeper insights into the characteristics and trends of the events sector , enabling us to move forward from what is happening ( descriptive facts and stats ) to why things happen and what we can learn from this .
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