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The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between self-congruence and attendee engagement in explaining emotional attachment in the context of cultural events.

Structural equation modelling with partial least squares analysis has been applied. Data were collected from 421 respondents through an onsite survey during the Yi Peng and Loy Krathong festive week in Thailand.

The findings revealed that self-congruence (i.e. actual self-congruence and ideal self-congruence) has a positive influence on attendee engagement. When attendees' actual self and ideal self-match with the event image, they are more likely to actively engage in the event activities.

The findings offer insights into one type of events, the cultural event, which is a common event in Thailand. This study is also one among a handful works that investigates the moderating role of perceived crowding on the relationship between attendees' actual and ideal self-congruence and engagement with the event. Although the findings do not suggest a significant moderating effect, this study provides preliminary insight into how perceived crowding shapes the perception of tourists in a cultural event context.

By integrating stimulus-organism-response theory and uses and gratifications theory, this study explored the salient gamification factors that satisfy the gratifications of conference attendees in the context of an event gamification mobile app and their relationships with conference engagement, continuance intention and word-of-mouth.

The questionnaire was developed in Qualtrics and administered on a gamification application called Goosechase during an annual hospitality conference. The proposed hypotheses were tested using the partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The gratifications of social presence, education and entertainment through a gamification mobile app influences attendees’ engagement during the conference while achievement gratification does not. Positive effects of conference engagement on their continuous intention and WOM have been also validated.

By adopting a unique integrated approach that utilizes UGT and S-O-R framework, while considering conference engagement as work-related engagement, this study offers a fresh perspective on gamification apps and discusses its theoretical and practical implications in depth.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the event experience literature by examining the effects of Craft Beer Festival attendee’s event experience on their satisfaction and behavioural intentions. The study also investigates whether these relationships are moderated by the attendee’s past history with the festival and the distance they have travelled to attend the event.

The theoretically derived model was tested on a sample of 354 attendees of the Capital Craft Beer Festival in Pretoria, South Africa. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data.

The results indicated that only affective engagement positively influences attendee’s satisfaction, which, in turn, positively influences attendee’s intentions to revisit and recommend the beer festival. The authors found no evidence of the effects of cognitive and physical engagement and experiencing novelty on event satisfaction and no moderating effect of previous attendance and distance travelled to the event.

The findings advance the knowledge base in the field of a gastronomic event experience regarding critical factors that affect event satisfaction which, to date, have only been tested on sports events.

The value of the events industry is increasing worldwide. An essential component for successful events is creating a unique experience by offering gamification. A conceptual model is proposed, exploring pre-event game communication and its effect on attendees' value perceptions, willingness to participate, word of mouth intentions and emotional commitment during gameplay at conference events.

Analysis of variance and structural equation modeling were employed to test the model using data collected from 177 attendees recruited from hospitality and tourism association network listservs and online research company.

Results reveal that perceptions of event gamification increase word of mouth intentions, willingness to participate and emotional commitment.

The study contributes to the knowledge of conference events with recommendations for incorporation of game elements for meeting planners to enhance attendee behaviors at the event.

This study is among the first to examine positive behavioral outcomes of using games at conference events.

As mobile device use in the events industry increases worldwide, an essential component for successful events is creating a unique experience. One way to enhance entertainer and attendee experience is by offering a phone-free space to enjoy an event. This study aims to examine mobile device habits and attendee willingness to adopt a mobile locking mechanism product at events and festivals.

Analysis of variance and regression analyses were used to test the research questions using data collected from 299 attendees recruited through an online research company.

Results reveal that mobile device habits are significantly related to the adoption of the phone locking product at events.

This study provides contributions to event planners to offer distraction-free settings that provide an overall escapist experience for attendees.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to empirically examine the role of mobile device habits and willingness to adopt a phone-locking device with event attendees.

The purpose of this research is to explore and define the digital maturity of events using the Industry 4.0 model (I4.0) to create a definition for Events 4.0 (E4.0) and to place various relevant technologies on a scale of digital maturity.

In a mixed methods approach, we carried out a qualitative social media analysis and a quantitative survey of tourism and events academics. These surveys and the thorough literature review that preceded them allowed us to map the digital technologies used in events to levels of a digital maturity model.

We found that engagement with technology at events and delegate knowledge satisfactorily coexists for and across a number of different experiential levels. However, relative to I4.0, event research and the events industry appear to be digitally immature. At the top of the digital maturity scale, E4.0 might be defined as an event that is digitally managed; frequently upgrades its digital technology; fully integrates its communication systems; and optimizes digital operations and communication for event delivery, marketing, and customer experience. We expect E4.0 to drive further engagement with digital technologies and develop further research.

This study has responded to calls from the academic literature to provide a greater understanding of the digital maturity of events and how events engage with digital technology. Furthermore, the research is the first to introduce the concept of E4.0 into the academic literature. This work also provides insights for events practitioners which include the better understanding of the digital maturity of events and the widespread use of digital technology in event delivery.

This study aims to explore a potential conference experience design strategy, namely, festivalization. It investigates the potential festivalization effects on conference attendees in two formats of business conferences: virtual and in-person.

A series of two scenario-based experimental studies were conducted. A series of one-way analysis of covariance and PROCESS procedures (Model 6) were performed for data analysis.

The inclusion of festivalization elements significantly enhances positive responses of attendees, especially for in-person conferences. This effect is further explained by a serial mediation effect, where enhanced perceived values and conference engagement play key roles in improving attendees’ conference experience.

By incorporating festivalization elements, conference organizers can create a more engaging and satisfying event experience for attendees. This can lead to greater satisfaction, positive word-of-mouth and increased registrations.

This study represents a pioneering effort in revealing the underlining mechanisms that explain how festivalization affects attendee engagement and subsequent behaviors in business event management in both face-to-face and virtual settings.

Local events play a significant role in rebuilding relationships and increasing engagement with local communities in the postpandemic. This study aims to investigate how potential attendees’ usage of local event hashtags facilitates social media engagement, further enhancing their intentions to attend local events.

This study adopted an exploratory sequential mixed approach. The qualitative phase used 12 semistructured in-depth interviews to explore motivations for hashtag usage and developed instruments to measure hashtag usage and social media engagement. The quantitative phase examined the relationship among motivations and behaviors of hashtag usage, social media engagement and behavioral intention through 522 online surveys.

Qualitatively, four themes manifest in hashtag users’ motivations in the context of local events: self-promoting, searching, summarizing and conforming. The quantitative findings show that these motivations influence active and passive hashtag usage differently, leading to different types of social media engagement (i.e. persistent, customized and triggered engagement). All social media engagements can significantly enhance the intention to attend local events.

This study divides active and passive hashtag users, conceptualizes social media engagement through hashtag usage under the affordance approach and develops instruments for these concepts. It emphasizes the importance of hashtag usage that drives social media engagement and provides insights for local event planners.

在后疫情时期, 本地活动在重建关系和增加与当地社区的参与方面发挥着重要作用。本研究调查了潜在参与者对当地活动话题标签的使用如何促进社交媒体的参与, 进一步增强了他们参加当地活动的意愿。

本研究采用了一种探索性的顺序混合方法。定性阶段采用了12次半结构化的深度访谈, 以探讨话题标签使用的动机, 并开发了用于测量话题标签使用和社交媒体参与的量表。定量阶段通过522份在线调查研究了动机与话题标签使用、社交媒体参与和行为意向之间的关系。

在定性研究中, 话题标签用户的动机在当地活动背景下表现为四个主题：自我推广、搜索、总结和顺应。定量研究结果显示, 这些动机以不同方式影响主动和被动话题标签使用, 从而导致不同类型的社交媒体参与（即持续型、定制型和触发型参与）。所有社交媒体参与都能显著增强参加当地活动的意愿。

本研究区分了主动和被动话题标签用户, 通过能力方法构想了话题标签使用下的社交媒体参与, 并为这些概念开发了测量工具。本研究强调了推动社交媒体参与的话题标签使用的重要性, 并为当地活动策划者提供了见解。

This study explores the multi-phasic experience of festivals to understand the nature, purpose and degree of social media (SM) use before, during and after festival occurrence and how this may inform better engagement of attendees.

A census of tweets and posts from four festivals’ Twitter handles and Facebook accounts were coded and analyzed across three time points: one week prior, during and one week after the festival. They were coded on nature (e.g. conversational, promotional, informational), purpose (e.g. information-seeking, friendship/relationship) and presence of links, photos, etc. Tests for platform influences on usage were conducted.

In total, 1,169 tweets and 483 posts were captured. Two-thirds of SM activity occurred during the festivals, one-third pre-festival and minimal activity post festival. Temporal analyses found that while the purpose and nature of the message content varied across festival time points, this was often dependent on SM platform.

Festivals are not taking advantage of the multi-phase experience model and the utility of SM to maintain contact and encourage visitors to continue processing their experience after the festival. This lost opportunity has implications for re-patronizing behaviour and sponsor relationships.

Leung et al. (2013a) call for sector specific research to elucidate SM use in tourism. Festivals provide a unique environment of co-created experience. Findings suggest differential usage of SM across festival time frames and platforms that can be used to guide festival organizations’ SM communication to better engage its patrons.

This research conceptualises the hallmark event, Melbourne Cup in Australia, as a major sporting brand experience. While numerous studies have explored consumer engagement and experiences in major sporting events, few research studies highlight the negative issues, such as alcoholism, gambling and violence, that may affect consumer engagement and experience. This article addresses the challenges and opportunities of providing immersive and transformative experiences through transformative service research (TSR) approaches when such negative issues are swirling around.

The paper is conceptual. It uses the example of Melbourne Cup to illuminate aspects of the conceptual framework.

The article unpacks a myriad of positive and negative immersive brand experiences and contributes a conceptual framework to understand the sporting brand experience phenomenon and shows how authentically responsible marketing approaches can improve the sport spectator experience.

Insights from the extended TSR framework presents implications for various organisations that are involved with strategic destination marketing approaches. It guides key stakeholders to engage in dialogue and collaborate in order to improve the attendee transformative experience. Inviting collaborators will facilitate the exchange of ideas that will improve event organisation. Consistent approaches among hospitality service providers would improve alcohol service and create a safe environment for attendees. The TSR framework guides players of the experience to engage in meaningful dialogue with a common goal to improve consumer wellbeing. Education and training therefore are key elements in the consumer sporting brand experience.

The adapted TSR framework offers insights to destination marketers such as sporting agencies, tour operators and sporting organisations/clubs. Marketers may promote bigger sporting events and organise tours via travel agencies and ignore key elements that may influence attendee decision. Destination marketing organisations (DMOs) can use the framework to promote effective planning and the key initiatives that the iconic event is involved with. The framework can be used as a guide to manage similar international events. Events of major or mega size and international reputation need specific frameworks that address crowd behaviours of similar sizes.

An extended transformative service approach is being conceptualised for major sporting brand experiences. Practical implications are also highlighted for DMOs when raising the profile of city brands.