Critical Analysis of Vivid Sydney Event and Stakeholder Needs

This reflective critical essay analyzes the Vivid Sydney festival, focusing on stakeholder theory and event management. The paper identifies three key stakeholders: sponsors, employees/volunteers, and attendees. It examines their needs and expectations within the context of the event, evaluating how well the event met these needs based on the provided assignment brief and academic literature. The essay discusses the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder group, highlighting the importance of balancing their sometimes conflicting claims. The author reflects on their personal experience at the festival, drawing on real-world observations to illustrate the application of stakeholder theory. The analysis considers the ethical obligations of event management to ensure all stakeholders, including sponsors, volunteers, and attendees, receive fair value and a positive experience. The essay also touches upon the importance of considering the audience's preferences when planning artistic and musical content, as well as the need to avoid any actions that could offend any religion, race, or community. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of stakeholder satisfaction for the long-term success of events like Vivid Sydney.

Running Head: REFLECTIVE CRITICAL ESSAY
“Reflection Paper on Vivid Sydney”
Name
Affiliation

REFLECTIVE CRITICAL ESSAY 2
Introduction
Vivid Sydney is the largest festival of lights, music, and ideas in Australia. I visited
this festival last year between 25th May to 16th June. Vivid Sidney is the most significant
commemoration of elite businesses that transmute the city into the canvas of lights, music,
and ideas after every one year. This festival is considered the largest event of Asia Pacific
due to extensive ordination of lights and qualitative illustrations/projections like music
shows, free entertainment for families, discussions on creative ideas, and knowledgeable
debates (Haeusler, 2014; Beevers, 2013). According to my experience, vivid Sydney is the
traditional festival of inspiration, artistry, innovation, and technology represented through
lights and music. The purpose of organizing this festival is to concurrent different leaders and
thinkers of innovative industries across the world. I observed that a wide range of social
discussions, organizational conferences, and speeches are arranged to produce fresh
technological and entertainment culture.
Stakeholder Identification of Vivid Sydney
The preceding discussion is based on the needs of three stakeholders of the Vivid
Sydney Event, according to Stakeholders’ theory. Three primary stakeholders of vivid
Sydney has been identified that includes, sponsors, employees and volunteers and
participants attendees and spectators. The study aims to explore the needs of stakeholders in
the sense of how they are affected by the event. Furthermore, I have analysed whether the
needs of the stakeholders have been satisfied or not from the perspective of stakeholders
theory.
The individual or team that may have a positive or negative influence on the
organisational goals; or an impact of organisational success on a person or group of people is
considered as “Stakeholder” (Bop, 2015). In my opinion, it is the ethical responsibility of the
organisational management to take care of the needs of its stakeholders but not only for

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shareholders. This statement shows that an organisation is required to increase the ultimate
well-being of each and everything affected by it. The main purpose of stakeholder theory is to
demonstrate that it is the moral obligation of each company/firm to add value to its
stakeholders by equal distribution of profits (Jones, Wicks & Freeman, 2017).
Sponsors play a significant role in the arrangement of any event. I believe that
festivals like Vivid Sydney takes place with the collaboration of sponsors and event managers
to develop the relationship between different communities. Moreover, I analysed that
sponsors arrange these traditional festivals to distribute knowledge about various non-profit
organisations to collect aid and fund their businesses. During my visit, I observed that
organisational management of the event had ignored the effort and hard work that has been
put by the sponsors to organise the event. Sponsorship creates a huge range of opportunities
for different brands to spread awareness about their products and services (Todd, Leask,
Ensor, 2016). I saw in vivid Sydney festival 2019, Samsung Electronics Australia made a
partnership with Pixar Animation Studio. This partnership sponsoring helped Samsung
Electronics to introduce and promote their new technological Samsung Devices. Also, it
helped the company to grab the attention of millennial targeted customers. Approaching an
interested target audience is the best way to expand sales and revenues of the firm.
Collaboration through sponsorship enables the firm to distribute its product directly or to
develop a qualitative image in the eye of the customer through effective leads at an event
(Cornwell, 2014).
Employees and Volunteers are also a major part of any event (Holmes and Smith,
2009; Kemp, 2002). During the event, I recognised that stakeholders of the event might take a
large number of benefits through volunteering. If we analyse it through the perspective of a
festival attendee, then volunteers always offer the best and quality of exposure. Talking about
the event, I observed that volunteers developed an entertaining environment at the festival,

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which allowed the attendees to enjoy the festival because a lack of financial and human
resources does not make it possible to satisfy attendees. I also believe that the wide range of
knowledge, skills, and attributes provided by the volunteers increases the standards and value
of the festival.
Additionally, Volunteers of the event help in developing an association between
collective and common society (Kappelides, Cuskelly & Hoye, 2019). In the event “Vivid
Sydney” has created an opportunity for volunteers to support vivid suggestions/ideas at chats
wood Chase discussions in the day as well as in the evening time. During my visit, I saw that
the volunteers involved in this assistance program supported the art installations and added
value to the customer experience. Besides this, I also observed that volunteers keep
answering the public visitors’ queries and providing them adequate guidance. It will be the
duty of volunteers to ensure that attendees are enjoying the vivid Sydney chats wood
program. As volunteers are the primary stakeholders, it would be an ethical obligation of the
event management organisation to take care of the needs of these volunteers. The event
management team is responsible for sharing the adequate amount generated from the festival
among the volunteers. No matter volunteers are not the employees of the organisation, but
they take part in increasing the sales of a corporation. So, it is their moral right to get the
reward of their provided services (Baron, Rihova, 2011).
Moreover, I believe that spectators or attendees are also the primary elements of any
event or festival. The main objective of any event is to provide a satisfactory experience to its
attendees because spectators or attendees are our customers indirectly. To arrange any
successful event, it is essential to add value to the needs of our audience. In festivals like
Vivid Sydney, I observed that the audience expects to have a safe and enjoyable environment.
Festivals are usually based on arts, music, and knowledgeable debates. So, at the time of
deciding music and art composition, an event management company must consider the needs

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and preferences of the audience. For example, if the management is planning to invite a
musical band, then preferences must be given to those musical bands that are usually liked by
the audience of that particular community. If the needs of the visitors will not be fulfilled,
then it might have a possibility that next time maybe they will not take an interest in joining
the festival again.
Another example is that if a management team has planned to present artistry
performances than it must be some attractive arts that enforce the attendee to attend the
festival until the end. If we take an example of vivid Sydney, where most of the visitors came
from Australia and the most popular musician in Australia are Kylie Minogue or Nike Cave.
So, to attract a large audience, these two musicians should have been invited to bring a large
number of audiences at a festival, but that was not the case during my visit. Furthermore, as it
has been discussed above that this festival aims to bring together a large number of different
communities, so it is very crucial to take care of the ethical considerations. Such as violence
of any religion, race, or community must be avoided (Galvez et al., 2017).
Conclusion
After having the intensive and detailed analysis of stakeholders’ theory in terms of
Event management, I can conclude that both primary and secondary stakeholders play a
primary role in the goal accomplishment of the organisation. However, it is the moral
obligation of each organization to add value to its stakeholders by meeting their needs and
wants. I have also analysed that stakeholders are equally involved in the target achievement,
so it is their right to obtain a deserving reward according to their efforts. Events like vivid
Sydney are the most popular celebrations across the world, and in order to continue this
initiative, it is necessary to fulfill the requirements of stakeholders as well as shareholders.

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References
Barron, P. and Rihova, I., 2011, "Motivation to volunteer: a case study of the Edinburgh
International Magic Festival", International Journal of Event and Festival Management, 2(3),
202-217. https://doi.org/10.1108/17582951111170281
Beevers, C., 2013. Symposium: Local Government Roles in Creative Industries and Cultural
Tourism. Sydney: Vivid Sydney [Print]
BOP Consulting & Festivals and Events International., 2015 Thundering Hooves 2.0.
Retrieved 29th May 2015,
from:http://www.edinburghfestivalcity.com/assets/000/000/823/TH_2_0_full_report_original
.pdf?1432048731
Cornwell, T. B., 2014. Sponsorship in marketing: Effective communication through sports,
arts and events. London: Routledge.
Haeusler, M.H., 2014. The Sydney vivid festival: from place branding to smart cities. Cities
of light: Two centuries of urban illumination, pp.144-147. London: Routledge
Holmes, K., & Smith, K., 2012. Managing volunteers in tourism. London: Routledge.
Jones, T. M., Wicks, A. C., & Freeman, R. E., 2017. Stakeholder theory: The state of the
art. The Blackwell guide to business ethics, 17-37 doi:
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405164771.ch1
Kappelides, P., Cuskelly, G., & Hoye, R., 2019. The influence of volunteer recruitment
practices and expectations on the development of volunteers’ psychological
contracts. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit
Organizations, 30(1), 259-271. Retrieved from
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11266-018-9986-x [14 Apr. 2020]
Pérez-Gálvez, J., Lopez-Guzman, T., Gomez-Casero, G. and Fruet Cardozo, J., 2017,
"Segmentation of the spectators attending a festival based on musical

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preferences", International Journal of Event and Festival Management, 8(3), 346-
360. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEFM-03-2017-0021
Todd, L., Leask, A., & Ensor, J., 2017. Understanding primary stakeholders' multiple roles in
hallmark event tourism management. Tourism Management, 59, 494-509 doi:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2016.09.010