MNG00421 Case Study: Vivid Sydney Event Management and Impact Analysis

This case study report provides a detailed analysis of Vivid Sydney, an annual festival of light, music, and ideas held in Sydney, Australia. It evaluates the event's success in achieving its aims and objectives, including providing a global forum for creative industries, attracting international talent, and revitalizing Australian tradition. The report identifies and critically analyzes the positive and negative economic, environmental, and socio-cultural impacts of the event, utilizing a triple bottom line approach to assess sustainability. Recommendations are made to enhance the event's impact, improve safety measures, and ensure the festival continues to contribute positively to the economy and community. The assessment is based on secondary sources, including official Vivid Festival websites, news reports, and chronicles.

Running head: CASE STUDY REPORT
CASE STUDY REPORT ON VIVID SYDNEY
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

CASE STUDY REPORT 1
Table of Contents
Introduction: 2
Description of the event: 2
Evaluation of the success or failure in achieving the aims and objectives of the event 3
Recommendations about attaining the aims and objectives 5
Identification and the critical analysis of the positive and negative economic, environmental,
Socio-cultural impact of the event: 5
Recommendations on the impact of the event: 7
Description of the assessment process used: 7
Conclusion: 8
Reference list: 9
Appendix: 12

CASE STUDY REPORT 2
Introduction:
As commented by Jani (2017), events have been emerging throughout the world and the
events have showed significant impact on the economy and the socio-cultural aspects of a
country. It is not only the organisers or the participants of the events who are influenced as a part
of the festival, but a festival has some direct and indirect impact on the community and the local
people. It aims at influencing a wider community that include the visitors, tourists and the
business stakeholders as well. Vivid Sydney is the annual festival of Sydney that is held for 23
days is the festival of light, music and ideas. This year the festival is held from 25th May to 16th
June 2018 (Vividsydney.com 2018). This festival gives the prime opportunities to the world’s
most creative industry forum and creates a mesmerising free exhibition for the publics by
outdoor lighting sculptures along with vivid music programs.
The aim of this case study report is to carry out a detailed analysis of the aims and
objectives of the cultural festival, the Vivid Sydney and how this festival has been able to attract
huge crowd from around the world to be a part of this festival. The economic, developmental and
the socio-cultural factors affecting the advent of the festival will be analysed throughout the
report in order to understand how effective this festival has been in achieving the set aims and
objectives.
Description of the event:
 Name: Vivid Sydney
 Date: This year, the festival is being held on 25th May and will continue till 16th June
2018. Usually, the festival is held for a prolonged time of 15-20 days (Vividsydney.com
2018).

CASE STUDY REPORT 3
 Location: Sydney, Australia. The lighting and the various programs of the festival can be
seen in various locations that include the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. This
festival has successfully been able to create the same charm in the several sites of
interests including Central Park, Chatswood as well as the University of Sydney
(In.sydney.com 2018). The Darling Harbour and The rocks are some other places where
the lighting and the festivity have also been found to make vivid activities to attract the
visitors of the festival.
 Type of event: Vivid Sydney is a global event as a place for the creative industries to
create an ideal environment for the business to conduct. It includes around 100 industries
and the sector focused event that eventually helps in establishing and creating a new
relationship between the creative industry professionals.
 Attendance numbers: Last year the Festival was able to attract 1.7 million attendees,
where there were 26,000 international visitors. This year, the Festival aims at attracting
more numbers of people (Theguardian.com 2018). The event has also been able to
generate around $63 million with the numbers of attendees and the figure is expected to
be increased this year.
Evaluation of the success or failure in achieving the aims and objectives of the event
The festival aims at providing a global forum for many organisations to deliver a creative
stage where one can easily deliver their creative conversation. Vivid Sydney has always been
successful in attracting many talented people from around the world to perform in this event.
Every year the Event has managed to attract many international identities to perform in this
international forum and show their creativity (Noyes 2018). This year in 2018, the festival has
aimed at attracting 31 international and Australian music performances throughout the various

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venues where Vivid Sydney has set to organise the event. The aim of this festival is to create a
shared experience with the people coming together and sharing their part of knowledge. The idea
is to revitalise the tradition of Australia and bring a pride to the community by improving the
cultural and the environmental perspective of the community (Abc.net.au 2018). This is also a
challenging platform for many people who are directly involved in the various projects related to
decoration and lighting and that Vivid Sydney has given them a platform to showcase their
individual capabilities.
If the success of Vivid Festival is taken into account, it can be said that the Festival has
been successful in many ways in delivering the right community alienation that has helped the
local and the other community to make decisions on the part of activity that they do. The 18
days’ festival of light and colour accompanied by music and business ideas has been able to
attract huge crowds. In the view point of Holmes and Mair (2018), any social or cultural impacts
are hard to measure and needs certain parameters to examine the effectiveness of the festival.
However, the success of Vivid Sydney can be measured by the means of which the festival had
been able to engage a wide community of people and helped them deliver the level of
satisfaction in terms of presenting the talent of the people involved in the Festival. For example,
this festival is held for a prolonged time of 16 days, which is a direct indicator of the demand of
the festival among the people of the community (Woosnam and Aleshinloye 2015). This is
definitely a platform that created a level of cultural polarisation and competitiveness for the
resources. The host country, Australia, has benefitted much with the advent of this festival and
this can be known by the economic benefits that this festival had brought to the country.

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Recommendations about attaining the aims and objectives
The aim of the event was to attain the economic benefits as well as sustainability of the
environment. The theme of the event has definitely helped in attracting huge crowd and has
rightly contributed to the economy of the country (Scott and Chhabra 2017). In order to achieve
the aims and the objectives of the festival, the festival has to offer the right platform to those who
shall be taking advantage of the festival and at the same time, the marketing activities has to be
carried out in a way to make sure that it attracts the maximum target group of people.
Identification and the critical analysis of the positive and negative economic,
environmental, Socio-cultural impact of the event:
The triple bottom line approach of an event deals with the sustainability of an event in
terms of the imperative development of the event along with the sustainability that the event will
promise to the stakeholders related to the event. In the view point of Rozier et al. (2016), triple
bottom line approach helps in creating a sustainable and accountable footprint for the event
organisers in accordance to the evaluation technique used for carrying out the event. The desired
economic and the socio-cultural outcome of the event should be clear enough in the areas of
operation. The event should provide the enough employment opportunities to the people of the
country and at the same time shall be sustainable enough in terms of saving water and energy
(Teffer 2018). Thus, the ultimate context of the triple bottom approach of an event is to make an
effort towards the society that would help in achieving the desired objectives of the event made
towards creating a sustainable and economically benefitted towards the event.
As stated by Apte and Sheth (2016), an event holds the economic impact of a country
because an event aims at attracting huge money from the base region and also from the
international locations. For example, the international events like Olympics or World cup attract

CASE STUDY REPORT 6
audiences from around the world and the event or the festival directly contribute to the economy
of the country because there is an increase in the number of bookings in the hotels and other
accommodation. Commercially, this festival has been able to attract 500,000 visitors from the
outdoor locations in 2012 that has been able to generate around $10 million as the income for the
state (Elphick 2018).
If the socio-cultural impact of a festival is taken into account, it has been pointed out by
Andersson et al. (2013), that the contribution of an event towards the socio-cultural aspects of an
event contribute to the cultural activities along with the accessibility and the inclusion of the
effect of the cultural event. The outcome of an event perhaps results in the enhancement in the
sense of a place and helps in creating a unique identity of the place. A festival has both short-
term and long-term impact on the country where the festival is held. The long-terms impact shall
results in the changes in the social relationship along with the norms and standard of the host
country. These changes include, changes in the behaviours, attitude, perception, the knowledge
and well-being along with the perception and the beliefs of the people attending the festival
(Getz 2017). Although, Sydney has always been considered as a lively city of Australia but the
Vivid Sydney has given an opportunity for this city to show how vivid this city could be and
offered the right platform to the people to show their talent. The participants of the festival
include the community members, the local residents along with the external community like
visitors, tourists and the major business stakeholders as well (Wise 2016). If the success of the
festival is taken into account, it can be said that Vivid Sydney has helped to bring many people
together and encouraged them to share their experiences and tradition with each other.
If the sustainability or the environmental factors related to the festival is taken into
account, it has to be said that the festival has also contributed to the sustainability. This festival

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offers a right combination of art, craft and dance and thus, reinforced the pride of the community
and helped in improving the environmental as well as community of the region. In fact, the
festival has also been able to create a platform of learning and experience for the visitors that
they have never seen before (Natarajan 2016). For example, the different types of lighting that
the festival is being able to showcase to the visitors has been able to give a platform to the
talented one to showcase their talent in front of huge crowd from around the globe.
Recommendations on the impact of the event:
It has been found that the festival had been able to attract the right crowd and has
contributed to the economy of the country. In fact, it had significant impact on the socio-cultural
factors of the country as well. However, the need of improving the safety and precautionary
activities has been found because the festival has attracted millions of people and as a result if
which, there might safety mishap as well (Natarajan 2016). For instance, the festival that is held
by the Sydney Harbour has the potential risk for the visitors that might lead to some accidents
like drowning or might result in severe injuries or illnesses.
Description of the assessment process used:
The entire assessment has been based on the information gained from the various
secondary sources. These sources were available online in the official sites of the Vivid Festival,
Sydney. The results of the success and the failure of the festival have been known by the various
reports and news that were published by major newspapers and chronicles. In order to get the
information on the actual data and statistics of the income and the profitability of the event,
several newspapers and articles have been referred that were available both online and in the
printed form as well (Apte and Sheth 2016). There has been no kind of primary data involved
and no person had been interviewed or asked to share the experience. However, it has be kept in

CASE STUDY REPORT 8
mind that I have personally a part of the event and that I was being able to understand how lively
the festival was and the enthusiasm among the participants as well as the visitors.
Conclusion:
A detailed analysis on the triple bottom line approach undertaken for the purpose of
carrying out a festival has been done in the report. It has been found that Vivid Sydney has been
able to attract huge crowd and has also been able to reach the expectations of meeting the
economic and the sustainability goals of an event. It has offered a right platform to the industries
in the creative and innovative field to showcase their activity and talent among the visitors from
the various regions around the world. This festival has been attracting visitors since a long time
and it is expected that the festival will be a success in the future as well.

CASE STUDY REPORT 9
Reference list:
Abc.net.au 2018 Vivid Sydney gets Living Lights with neon algae Available at:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-25/vivid-sydney-gets-living-lights-with-neon-algae/
9799136 [Accessed on: 29-5-2018]
Andersson, T.D., Armbrecht, J. and Lundberg, E., 2016. Triple impact assessments of the 2013
European athletics indoor championship in Gothenburg. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and
Tourism, 16(2), pp.158-179.
Apte, S. and Sheth, J.N., 2016. The Sustainability Edge: How to Drive Top-line Growth with
Triple-bottom-line Thinking. University of Toronto Press.
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2018/may/29/vivid-2018-shows-
sydney-in-new-light-in-pictures [Accessed on: 29-5-2018]
Elphick, N. 2018 Vivid Sydney: What to see at this year's festival of art, technology and ideas
Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/vivid-sydney-what-to-see-at-this-years-
festival-of-art-technology-and-ideas-20180507-h0zqoy.html [Accessed on: 29-5-2018]
Getz, D., 2017. Developing a Framework for Sustainable Event Cities. Event
Management, 21(5), pp.575-591.
Holmes, K. and Mair, J., 2018. Events, Festivals, and Sustainability: The Woodford Folk
Festival, Australia. In The Palgrave Handbook of Sustainability (pp. 583-597). Palgrave
Macmillan, Cham.
In.sydney.com 2018 VIVID SYDNEY Available at:
https://in.sydney.com/destinations/sydney/sydney-city/vivid-sydney [Accessed on: 29-5-2018]

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Jani, D., 2017, October. Local attendees' perceptions of festival impacts: A factor-cluster
analysis approach to the Zanzibar International Film Festival. In Journal of Convention & Event
Tourism (Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 301-317). Routledge
Natarajan, G., 2016. Putting Vision Into Action Through a Triple Bottom Line Approach at
Zensar Technologies. Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 35(6), pp.36-42.
Noyes, J. 2018 Sydney lights up for Vivid but big crowds deter some visitors Available at:
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-lights-up-for-vivid-but-big-crowds-deter-some-
visitors-20180526-p4zho8.html [Accessed on: 29-5-2018]
Rozier, S., Stacy, R., Andrea, S. and Wayne, W., 2016. Measuring the Economic, Social, and
Environmental Impacts of Special Events A Mixed Methods Approach.
Scott, K. and Chhabra, D., 2017. Economic viability of heritage festivals in Wickenburg,
Arizona (USA). Anatolia, 28(3), pp.432-443.
Teffer, M. 2018 Vivid Sydney 2018: here are the highlights of this year's festival of light
Available at: http://www.afr.com/brand/sophisticated-traveller/vivid-sydney-2018-here-are-the-
highlights-of-this-years-festival-of-light-20180507-h0zqn6 [Accessed on: 29-5-2018]
Theguardian.com 2018 Vivid 2018 casts new light on Sydney – in pictures
Vividsydney.com 2018 Vivid Sydney Available at: https://www.vividsydney.com/ [Accessed on:
29-5-2018]
Wise, N., 2016. Outlining triple bottom line contexts in urban tourism regeneration. Cities, 53,
pp.30-34.

CASE STUDY REPORT 11
Woosnam, K.M. and Aleshinloye, K.D., 2015. Residents’ emotional solidarity with tourists:
Explaining perceived impacts of a cultural heritage festival. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism
Research, p.1096348015584440.

CASE STUDY REPORT 12
Appendix:
Q1. How effective is Vivid Sydney in creating socio-cultural impact on the visitors?
With the installation of more than 90 lights in various locations including the Sydney
Harbour Bridge, Sydney Opera House and throughout the city, the event has been the largest
festival of the world. The spectacular animation showcased the work of various artists including
Karla Dickens, Donny Woolagoodja and others. This has definitely created a cultural impact on
the people attending the festival.
Q2. How effectively Vivid Sydney has been able to attract the visitors?
The festival has always been known of attracting millions of visitors and this year as
well, the number of visitors would rather increase. The visitors are not only the local and the
regional people but they are the international tourists as well.
Q3. How effectively Vivid Sydney inspired the innovative and creative industry?
One of the main aims of the event was to attract the companies in the innovative and
creative field as well and the festival has rightly been successful in doing so. There are many
companies that have come across and presented their creativity by the means of the light and
music and at the same time provided the entertainment that this event had promised.
Q4. To what extent Vivid Sydney can be considered as an economically successful event?
With every year, Vivid Sydney has been able to attract more visitors each year. This year
as well, it has been expected to attract more 35% of the visitor than last year that would result in
2.3 million visitors. This automatically creates a scope of accommodation and lodging and thus,
contributes to the economy in the hospitality sector. In addition to this, this festival also gives the
right opportunity to enough people for the job and thus, increases employment.

CASE STUDY REPORT 13
Q5. How the marketing activity of the festival contributed to the success of the festival?
In order to promote the festival, Vivid Sydney has rightly used the platform of digital
technology and the social media network to carry out their marketing activity. Posting blogs,
images and other posts in the several platforms have given the opportunity to the festival to
attract more and more visitors to the festival.