Examining stakeholder roles in organising and planning rural events: the Inglewood olive festival and Goondiwindi spring festival

Abstract

Event management research has attracted increased recognition within academic literature over the last decade. Much of this research however, has been descriptive in nature and lacks a strong theoretical underpinning. This paper examines the role of stakeholders in contributing to the organizing and planning of rural events. This paper proposes that by adopting stakeholder theory and implementing a framework to identify and assess the level of satisfaction and involvement amongst stakeholder groups, the event organization is able to monitor, and if necessary, improve the relationships with all stakeholders. As a consequence of this, events held in rural areas will have a stronger likelihood that the community will be satisfied with the event. The results suggest that rural events are often reliant on community stakeholder involvement in the organizing and planning of events. Additionally, stakeholder involvement in rural events is dependent on seeking resources and skills from within the region or community. This enables the community to utilize the skills available, but also provides opportunities for developing new skills.