Page 131 - DMGT304_EVENT_MANAGEMENT

Event Management

Notes 12. Sponsorship of an event or activity can comprise of in-kind support, financial support, or
a combination of both.
13. With sponsorship comes a lot of extra responsibility for the event organizer in all stages
of the event process; including the planning, organization, execution and post-event
activities.

14. Sponsorship agreements must exclude deliverable benefits to the sponsor.
15. Number of external individuals and companies that are not suitable to sponsor an event
or activity include: Political Parties,, Tobacco Companies and Gambling Services.

Case Study Event break-even: the Annual dinner of the

Ecclesbourne Valley Railway

he Ecclesbourne Valley Railway is typical of the many heritage railways and railway
museums in the UK and in other parts of Europe. It is a 14-km privately owned
Trailway line in the English Midlands, providing a tourist experience for people
interested in railway history, steam locomotives, and historic railway equipment and
artifacts. As a tourist attraction run largely by volunteers, it not only raises its revenue
through ticket sales, retail activities, catering and other commercial means, but also though
events of various kinds, charitable grants and donations and local authority contributions.
This range of fund-raising is necessary to keep the railway operational and to help restore
and maintain its historic artifacts.
In the 2004 event season the following annual dinner was costed. This type of dinner, often
called a fund-raising dinner or 'Sportsman's dinner, is very typical of this sort of event.
Such dinner are common amongst all kinds of charitable, voluntary and sporting
organizations, and in the case of some of the smaller organizations, a dinner of this kind
may be the major social event in their calendar. In most cases the objectives are as follows.
Primary objective fund-raising (either in general, or for a specific reason, e.g. new kit for
a rugby club, refurbishment of the club's premises; new fencing, etc.) secondary objectives,
social meeting of an organization's members and supporters; raising of the organizaiton's
profile amongst potential supporters and sponsors' opportunity to invite honoured guests,
contributors or sponsors by way of thanks for their interest in or help given to the
organization.
In the case of the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, the primary purpose is to raise funds for
the maintenance and repair of historic rolling stock (engines, carriages, wagons, etc.). The
secondary purpose is to provide a social opportunity for the railway's shareholders and
members, the budget for the event being based on a maximum number of 150 guests and
a break-even point of 38 guests.

There are some interesting issues in considering this data.
First, unlike our text examples, the fixed costs for this dinner can be reduced somewhat to
lower the break-even point. For example, this could be done for the guest speaker. Thus,
if demand for tickets were very low indeed, but those attending still wished it to go ahead
without having a speaker, some fixed costs could be saved here. Some further fixed costs
could be saved by not having the menus and place cards printed professionally, but
simply printing one menu per table on a home computer. Also, the cost of mailing out
final tickets fall if there are fewer of them. So if the organization wanted the event to go
Contd....

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