Events Industry in Birmingham Area

Birmingham has changed over time from an industrial city to a commercial one and today it attracts more and more tourists. In this process of transformation an important part was played by the events industry. So the aim of this essay is to discover the types of events that take place in Birmingham between 5th of October and 2nd of November, and who is behind the scenes of the events.

Events have been a part of human's life from the early times. According to Tassiopoulos (2010, p.4) one of the oldest documented event is the Olympic Games, held in Ancient Greece. However there were other types of events that were a part of the people's life like birth of a child, death, weddings, sacrifices made for gods, and other religious celebrations. Today the reasons for which an event is held are different from the past. Shone and Parry (2004, p.2) notes that in the modern days the religious reasons are not as important as they used to be, but we still have festivals and fairs all time of the year. In our days events are held for commercial reasons because it attracts tourists but also because it brings community together.

So events are a part of our life but what implies this concept? According to Goldblatt and Nelson (2001, p.181-cited in Getz, 2005, p.16) special events are "a unique moment in time celebrated with ceremony and ritual to satisfy specific needs." But this is a definition for events like weddings, baptism and inaugurations because these types of events imply religious rituals and also they are unique in a person's life. So a more comprehensive definition could be the one stated by Getz (2005, p.16) which explains that for the event organizer "a special event is a one-time, or infrequently occurring event outside the normal program or activities" and for the participants it's a special occasion to have a cultural and social experience that doesn't happen every day. These two statements describe better the concept of special events because it relates to all the participants of an event, meaning the organizing body, the stakeholders and the spectators.

But events are more than a one-time special occasion for the persons who take part to them. In the world there are a wide range of special events and according to Bowdin(2006, p.18) they could be grouped according to their size, form or content.

If talking about the size of events Bowdin (2006, p.19) notes that there are four categories: local, major, hallmark and mega-event. The first type which is the local event is also called community event because is hosted for a local audience by almost every town and city. A local event brings together all the citizens and it makes them feel like they are a part of the community. Its purpose is to entertain the local audience, to convince people to take a part in activities related to sports and art and to make people socialize. Also community events are made in general by the local government and volunteers tend to get involved. These events can be found in Birmingham and as example we have "The Fireworks Spectacular" 2010 that takes place on the 5th of November in Pype Hayes Park is such an event because it targets families and is made for them to have fun and enjoy some fireworks. Another example is "Africa 50" which is an exhibition, at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, of pictures from West Africa in 2010.

The second event type called major event are according to Bowdin(2006, p.20) "...events that by their scale and media interest, are capable of attracting significant visitor numbers, media coverage and economic benefits". In Birmingham a major event can be considered the Conservative Party Conference that took place between 3rd and 6th of October. It was an event where according to Griffin (2010, para.2) 14,000 delegates brought to the West Midlands £47 million in the economy. Another example is BPM 2010 which is the biggest European event dedicated to DJs that took place between 2nd and 4th of October in The NEC. According to VisitBPM(2010, para.1) it had 6048 visitors and it was an event made for DJs, producers and any other stakeholders interested in this domain.

The third category of events is represented by the hallmark events. Tassiopoulos(2010, p.12) states that these events "are considered to be iconic and embody the spirit and ethos of a destination; are synonymous with the name of a destination". These events are defined by their uniqueness. So this means that hallmark events are the type of events that will attract a large number of tourists and eventually international recognition for the city. In Birmingham, between 5th of October and 2nd of November, there is one hallmark event, called Birmingham Book Festival. This is an event that was founded in 1999 and it takes place every year between 5th and 21st of October. It is a hallmark event because it is unique from other book festivals in the country, offering also creative programs and the possibility to have an art experience (Birmingham Book Festival, 2010, para.3).

The last category, called mega-events, is represented by "those events that are so large that they affect whole economies and reverberate in the global media" (Bowdin, 2006, p.21). Also Getz (2005, p.18) notes that these events have to have at least 1 million visitors and it should have a capital of $500 million. So this event is a profitable one for the city because a great amount of money will be invested in the city to attract more tourists and also with the help of the media it will gain international recognition. In Birmingham between 5th of October and 2nd of November there are no mega-events but a good example could be The Olympic Games in 2012 in London, because is an event with a budget of £7.2 billion and according to Harmer (2010, para.4) 380,000 foreign visitors are expected. We also need to consider that besides this number of visitors there will be present spectators from Great Britain, and sponsors interested in the sports player and also the spectators from all over the world who watch the event on TV.

Events can be also categorized according to their form and content. These classifications can be summarized in cultural, leisure, organizational and personal events. The first type which is the cultural events is represented by festivals and fairs that have themes like art, folklore, heritage, religion. These events help the audience to develop itself on a cultural and social plan. In Birmingham a cultural event could be "Face to Face" photography collection by Bryan Griffin. This event takes place between 30th September and 21st of November in different places in Colmore Business District. This is a cultural event because it involves a form of art which is photography. Another example is Diwali Celebrations which takes place on 31st of October and