Current external environment impacting ExCeL London and recommendations for sales and marketing strategies

This report discusses the current external environment factors that impact ExCeL London, such as political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors. It also provides recommendations on how the venue can develop its sales and marketing strategies to overcome these challenges. The report focuses on the importance of online marketing and customer relationship management techniques for better engagement with customers.

Hospitality and Venue
Management
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Current external environment which impacts ExCeL London and one recommendation of how
venue can develop its sales and marketing strategies.............................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
Identify a solution to one specific barrier or challenge ExCeL London currently face.........6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
Hospitality management is defined as application of structured leadership as well as
management concepts in areas of dining, general guest services, accommodation (Ahipasaoglu,
Erkip and Karasan, 2019). On other hand, venue management is defined as duties, activities
which are related to operation of building like concept halls, conference, hotel, performance
theatre and other. Both should be managed and decided in advance so that goal and objectives
can be attained in effective and efficient manner. The given report is based upon ExCeL London
which is international as well as exhibitions convention centre in Custom House area of East
London. It is located on 100 acre with an 100,000sq m of multi-purpose space. The main aim of
report is to highlight about current external environment impact faced by organisation along with
recommendation. It also determine about solution to particular barrier that is faced by
organisation at marketplace.
TASK 1
Current external environment which impacts ExCeL London and one recommendation of how
venue can develop its sales and marketing strategies
It is very important for ExCeL London to identify external environment which can
impact their business activities and operations in appropriate manner. Here, external environment
is defined as collection of outside factors which impact business operations. ExCeL London has
to consider all factors in proper manner so that they can manage and operate their business for
attainment of positive outcomes. They are described below:
Political Factors- This includes those factors which are governed by government of
country such as Brexit, GDPR and others. In context of event destination, UK is regarded as top
destination for business. The event industry has contributed to £42.3billion to UK economy.
There are two segments such as business conferences and meetings which contribute approx
£19.9million of total value (How will Brexit affect the events industry?, 2019). It is difficult to
predict future of ExCeL London due to Brexit. The respective business has lose their allure for
European Companies who looks for large events. Brexit has put potential risk to current
relationship underpinning such sector. It is important for ExCeL London to be innovative and
remain competitive at marketplace to resolve issues of Brexit which they have faced. European
Union assist business to do innovation and exploring new opportunities for positive outcomes.
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Economic Factors- This includes different elements such as unemployment, interest
rates, exchange rates. According to report, there is decline in unemployment rate which means
economy is getting better as rise in demand for people or labour (ECONOMIC: 3 WAYS THE
ECONOMY CAN IMPACT THE EVENTS INDUSTRY, 2018). The fall in unemployment provide
benefits on event industry. For instance, ExCeL London hire new employees and provide them
with training and development programs in order to conduct business activities and operations.
This is beneficial for respective organisation as large number of training events are required
which means more money will be going into industry. UK is regarded as 16th largest employer
that has more than 530,000 number of people employed which is more that other sector (Events
industry helps power UK economy, 2019). There is great opportunity for UK as well as
organisation to enhance their profit margin by conducting events at different places.
Social Factors- It is the factor that impact business through social aspects such as
population demographics, change in consumer trends and others (Gursoy, 2018). It is very
important for ExCeL London to know about change in trends of consumers at marketplace so
that they can provides service according to them in best manner. Millennial generations are part
of majority of event attendees which is important for respective organisation to know their
thinking and attraction points. It is also seen that large number of consumers are more health
conscious at events. There are different aspects which has made people to change themselves and
become conscious about each and every factors to live healthy and happy life. At time of
conducting events, respective organisation has to consider about food which they are going to
serve to their people. When ExCeL London conduct event and focus on health conscious then
there is rise in prices for those events and conference conducted by them. It is important factors
which should be considered by event industry for positive outcomes.
Technological Factors- This includes innovation, new idea, research and development,
media technology and others. Due to technological advancement, event industry is facing long
way impact for running their business at marketplace. The rise in new trends in terms of
technology and innovation, industry is changed. This leads to rise in need and expectation of
their consumers regarding services and products. Most emerging trends is use of mobile ticketing
and media technology (How Technology Is Changing the Events Industry, 2018). ExCeL London
has to sell out their tickets of events through online mode which leads them to follow mobile
technology. They can make payment with help of applications such as Google pay, Apple Pay
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and others. This assist consumer to buy ticket from any sources and can show their copy at event
and enter premises. This has made easy for consumers to buy tickets and save their time.
Respective organisation is using media technology such as social media, Facebook in order to
create awareness about upcoming events and programs for users which leads to rise in
opportunities for them to grow and sustain at marketplace.
Environmental Factors- It consists of environmental aspect such as sustainability,
climatic change, weather changes and others. In 2018 event trends, sustainable events are
regarded as one of top choices. This is growing on continuous basis which helps business to
enhance their brand value and goodwill at marketplace in an effective and efficient manner for
attainment of positive results. ExCeL London is largest event organiser at London which should
focus on adopting sustainability for environment for better results. Sustainable business avoid
depletion of natural resources and go for green events. Some of the benefits which can be
achieved by respective organisation through sustainability are cashless, paperless, production,
purchasing, event production and so on (Go Green: How To Start Creating Sustainable Events,
2020). The business can invite attendee through email, event organising and staying for attendee
at same time leads to cut cost for transportation and location. In this way, respective business can
adopt sustainability for better results. One of the issues faced by event industry is climatic
change if they conduct events in uncomfortable or hot season then none of the people will attend
events.
Legal Factors- This includes legal laws such as equality, health and safety act, equality
and so on. These factors provide help to business to follow each and every laws in business in
order to attain goal and objectives (Jung and Yoon, 2018). The change in laws can impact event
industry in three ways which includes GDPR, Brexit and Gender Equality. When GDPR was
introduced, it provide headache to respective industry. This has changed event organisers,
process, collect and protect personal information of users. New regulation has changed data
collection from attendees such as apps, registration forms to share with third parties like sponsors
and venues. Similarly, change in legal law impact to business in terms of Brexit. Change in law
create drastic impact on running of events. Health and safety regulations is the law which should
be followed by respective organisation that has been changed over past 30 years from date of
origin. These factors should be considered by event business to conduct their activities and
operations in an ethical and effective manner for attainment of positive outcomes.
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There are the current environmental factors which should be ensure by respective
business so that they can run activities in more better way. Change in one factors lead to impact
overall industry so better planning should be performed.
In order to develop sales as well as marketing strategy in relation to external
environment, ExCeL London has provided with some recommendation to improve. They can
adopt online marketing with help of social media as large number of people are connected to
network which assist respective business to provide information related with upcoming events.
Social media includes Facebook, YouTube, Instagram where event organiser create awareness in
mind of consumers regarding their events in most easiest way for attainment of positive results.
In order to this, they have to use customer relationship management techniques such as Sugar
CRM, Hub spot CRM so that organisation can maintain effective relationship with their users
and provide them with better services. This also help organisation to expand their business in
other places along with rise in brand value and goodwill.
TASK 2
Identify a solution to one specific barrier or challenge ExCeL London currently face
While running event industry, some barrier or challenges can be faced by business. In
context of ExCeL London, it has faced barriers in terms of implementation of GDPR (General
Data Protection Regulation). It is data privacy regulations which is used by organisation to get
personal data that is in complex form (Kasemsap, 2018). If business non compliance such law
then they are liable to fine up to 4% of annual turnover or 20,000,000 Euro whichever is larger
among both. In context of ExCeL London, GDPR compliance solution assist business for
following:
One Holistic View- BWise is regarded as solution in which all information on personal
data are collected in one place at system. It assist in consolidated reporting and ensuring about
following up in single system (Lugosi, 2019).
Streamlined Compliance- In this, there is combining of company's data privacy as well
as status of personal data along with evidence of access and consent request provide ability to get
insight about GDPR compliancy.
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Maximum Control- This regulation provide maximum control of personal data in terms
of risk and providing of freedom (Lugosi and et. al., 20165). The monitoring of information, data
collection are minimum in respect of GDPR regulations.
Apart from these, there are some benefits of GDPR compliance solution which includes:
 ExCeL London can easily access, collect, transfer, share data and safeguard protection as
well as privacy.
 This integrate with CMDBs that allows for one point of access along with lowering total
cost of ownership as well as reduction of efforts in respect to maintenance of data (GDPR
COMPLIANCE SOLUTION, 2020).
 This determine level of privacy at organisation which is based on collection of questions
involving use of answers, purpose, disclosure and evaluation of data by allocation of low,
medium and high risk.
 Establishment of type of risk which can be breach through personal data and determining
risk treatment or risk acceptance.
Moreover, apart from other, there are four other rules which should be used by respective
organisation in order to overcome problem of GDPR. They are as follows:
GDPR compliance rule 1: No involvement of third parties- Data and information
should be provided to those user who has paid money for it. There should not be data hoovering
and compliance in cloud (Park and Park, 2016).
GDPR compliance rule 2: Data portability- In this software should allow data to be
transmitted to another business at request of individual. This includes compliance in cloud
making data to be portable.
GDPR compliance rule 3: Malware and Ransomware protection- Compliance of
GDPR is outcome of influx in data breaches EU citizens privacy of data as well as information.
They should be aware of phish and following of compliance in cloud in most effective and
efficient manner. There should be 24*7 hours security and monitoring in proper manner.
GDPR compliance rule 4: Reactive Software- When there is dealing of data breaches
then speedy reaction time in important for new laws. They should design privacy for each and
every information and data in an effective and efficient manner.
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Therefore, GDPR is the major problem which has been faced by respective organisation.
Above are the ways, benefits and rules which should be adopted in proper manner so that they
can overcome such current barriers of external environment.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has summarised that hospitality and venue management should
make proper plans and strategy in order to survive and sustain at marketplace in most effective
and efficient manner. They have to considered all current external environmental factors such as
political, economic, social, technological, legal and environment in order to make decision at
business. The organisation has provided with recommendation in order to improve their sales and
marketing strategies in better manner. Solution has provided for barrier or challenges which has
faced by organisation in better way.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ahipasaoglu, O., Erkip, N. and Karasan, O. E., 2019. The venue management problem: setting
staffing levels, shifts and shift schedules at concession stands. Journal of Scheduling.
22(1). pp.69-83.
Gursoy, D., 2018. Future of hospitality marketing and management research. Tourism
management perspectives. 25. pp.185-188.
Jung, H. S. and Yoon, H. H., 2018. Improving frontline service employees' innovative behavior
using conflict management in the hospitality industry: The mediating role of
engagement. Tourism Management. 69. pp.498-507.
Kasemsap, K., 2018. Hospitality and tourism management: Advanced issues and
implications. International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management in the
Digital Age (IJTHMDA). 2(2). pp.37-52.
Lugosi, P., 2019. Deviance, deviant behaviour and hospitality management: Sources, forms and
drivers. Tourism Management. 74. pp.81-98.
Lugosi, P. and et. al., 2016. The hospitality consumption experiences of parents and carers with
children: A qualitative study of foodservice settings. International Journal of
Hospitality Management. 54. pp.84-94.
Park, K. and Park, S., 2016. Topic trend of event management research. Event management.
20(1). pp.109-115.
Van der Wagen, L. and Goonetilleke, A., 2015. Hospitality management, strategy and
operations. Pearson Higher Education AU.
Online
Events industry helps power UK economy. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.raconteur.net/business-innovation/events-industry-helps-power-uk-
economy>.
GDPR COMPLIANCE SOLUTION. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.bwise.com/solutions/regulatory-compliance-management/global-data-
protection-regulation-gdpr>.
Go Green: How To Start Creating Sustainable Events. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://helloendless.com/sustainable-event-trend/>.
How Technology Is Changing the Events Industry. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.business2community.com/tech-gadgets/how-technology-is-changing-the-
events-industry-02095651>.
How will Brexit affect the events industry?. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://sctimes.io/news/article/7/5673>.
ECONOMIC: 3 WAYS THE ECONOMY CAN IMPACT THE EVENTS INDUSTRY. 2018.
[Online]. Available through:
<https://grapevineeventmanagement.co.uk/news/2018/10/23/economic-3-ways-the-
economy-can-impact-the-events-industry>.
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