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Hosting business events is no longer the preserve of hotels and purpose-built conference and exhibition centres. Today, visitor attractions, theatres, museums, universities and sporting complexes also compete for their share of the lucrative business events sector. However, few of these venues were originally designed and built to accommodate events but are now multipurpose in function and marketed to the events industry to secure a secondary source of income. This paper aims to evaluate the supply and design of venues for business events from both a historical and contemporary viewpoint.

As business events have specific venue requirements, ranging from extensive, accessible space for exhibitions to numerous rooms for plenary and syndicate conference sessions, choosing an appropriate venue from those available has become a considerable task. A review of key moments in history demonstrates how different types of venues have emerged and developed.

This study reveals how venues that have a similar background typically share features such as architectural design and layout. The paper discusses the characteristics of unusual, academic and sporting venues as well as hotels and purpose-built space to include factors such as availability, cost and location.

This paper provides an insight into the benefits and drawbacks of using different types of venues for business events and the advantages and challenges that these present to organisers. Case studies are embedded within this paper, illustrating the range of venues that are used to successfully host business events today. As there is limited literature that explores venue development for events, or commonalities of venue characteristics by type, the synthesis of these two important elements of event management makes this study an original and valuable contribution to the developing literature.

The paper aims to provide an overview of how UK conference centres have incorporated Web 2.0 applications, such as Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter, into their marketing communications strategies.

Following an analysis of the impacts of Web 2.0 applications on purchase decision‐making processes in general, the market environment within which conference centres promote themselves was examined. The results of a questionnaire‐based survey of UK conference centres' marketing communications strategies were then analysed.

The paper's findings suggest that while some UK conference centres have comprehensively adopted Web 2.0 applications into their marketing communications programmes, others have yet to harness the potential of these new promotional tools. A few serious barriers to wider adoption remain.

The extent to which the results may be generalised beyond the geographical parameters of this study may be limited, therefore further research is required, to test the findings across a broader range of locations. In addition, the insights provided by this study need to be complemented by research into the use of Web 2.0 applications by those who are responsible for selecting venues.

The paper considers the consequences of venues using Web 2.0 applications in their marketing communications strategies. These include potential loss of control of the venues' marketing messages, resource issues and the need to evaluate the effectiveness of these tools.

This study therefore takes a first step towards achieving an understanding of how venues are using the opportunities and dealing with the challenges created by the availability of Web 2.0 applications as potential and actual elements in their marketing communications programmes.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the proposed measure of sports service quality (SSQ) and examine the relationships between emotional experience (EE) and user satisfaction (US) for sports competitions/training venues (i.e. for the sport of badminton).

Focus group discussions and related literature review were used to generate items for the SSQ. Structured questionnaires captured the perceptions of 240 users of sports venues in Malaysia. The relationships between SSQ, EE and US were assessed via structural equation modelling (SEM).

Results show that the SSQ has five dimensions (peripheral, reliability, responsiveness, core and value). Core, peripheral and value have positive effects on users’ EE whereas peripheral, reliability, responsiveness and core have positive effects on US. The SEM analysis suggests that EE mediates the relationship between SSQ and US.

The SSQ scale is developed using data from the badminton sport industry and is yet to be validated in other types of sports venues. In addition, measures of customer loyalty also need to be considered.

Findings suggest that provision of quality service directly influences satisfaction with sports venues and enhances the EE of customers. Sports venue managers should monitor the service management, particularly in terms of the physical environment and personnel.

This paper proposes a specific measure of service quality tailored for use in sports venues. It also provides further support for the mediating role EE plays in the service quality-satisfaction relationship.

This paper aims to focus on the design of the organization, processes, and systems of Olympic logistics.

A systematic methodology has been developed to design the strategy and tactics of logistics operations for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. This methodology considers Olympic‐specific characteristics, host country characteristics, as well as lessons learned from previous games. It comprises the generation, analysis and evaluation of strategic alternatives, the development of core business processes and the prediction of resource requirements. Furthermore, the proposed method provides guidelines to complement the experiential knowledge that has been used exclusively in the past to plan the logistics operations of the games and similar large‐scale events.

Successful design principles, such as model venue planning, standardization of materials, the establishment of the Logistics Command Center (LCC), as well as establishment of an independent administration function, can be applied regardless of the specific characteristics of the host country. However, there are principles such as outsourcing, warehousing, or just‐in‐time (JIT) deliveries, that are based on certain specific characteristics (constraints/advantages) of the host country, such as a mature 3PL market, the existence and availability of large warehouses, and the completion of the venues in sufficient time prior to the beginning of the games.

The proposed design process provides generic rules that may be applied to guide the set up of operations for future games. Furthermore, the paper offers some useful insights applicable to the logistics of large events.

It is the first time that a systematic view of Olympic logistics is dealt with, as opposed to experiential knowledge with local applicability that has been used in the past to plan similar operations.

This article intends to shine a light on venue-related tax increment financing (TIF) through the first comprehensive inventory of its use at the major league level.

For each 2018 venue in the five North American major leagues, data was collected on TIF contributions to direct venue capital costs as well as to projects using TIF to enable real estate development ancillary to a venue. Neighborhoods surrounding a venue were also assessed for the presence of a TIF district. With both the direct and ancillary elements, data was collected from government, industry, academic, mapping and media sources. A review of this data set and findings are followed by a discussion of implications and directions for future work.

Over one-third of the TIF eligible permanent stadiums and arenas studied in the five major leagues have a direct or strong TIF connection. Direct TIF contributions to sports venues, as well as TIF use intended to generate real estate development around these venues, are most frequent and financially significant in arenas and soccer-specific stadiums. Additionally, arena and stadium projects using TIF often accompany ancillary real estate development.

A primary purpose of this article is to provide a previously missing general reference resource to governments and citizens of jurisdictions considering facility TIF use on the scope, nature, extent and identity of TIF projects related to major league sports venues. More generally, the inventory and assessment of TIF use in professional sports venues offered by this article sets the stage for future research on associative relationships between TIF contributions and facility finance outcomes as well as the normative value of venue-related TIF.

Events venues are incredibly diverse and yet a coherent typology fails to be apparent in the mainstream literature. Indeed, the focus of research has predominately been on the demand as opposed to the supply side of events venues. The article attempts to ameliorate this gap in knowledge and reviews the literature on current methods of classifying events venues.

To provide a context for the analysis and evaluation of events venues, it is necessary to explore the evolution of events venues classifications. Then, the paper offers a series of different criteria that can be used to explore the concept and scope of events venues.

The main aim of developing a new typology of events venues must be to produce a more effective and efficient classification of this sector. At the same time, the new typology needs to address various criteria that might further differentiate venues in terms of those factors which are outlined in the paper. Indeed, it should be noted that the discussed criteria could act as a foundation for how they can be classified into different types.

The proposed criteria provide a context that will guide academics and practitioners current and/or future classifications of events venues. A number of conclusions and recommendations for developing a new typology of events venues are then discussed.

To improve the operational management benefits of large-scale sports venues, the literature data method, questionnaire survey method, and comparative analysis method were used to study the planning and management of large-scale sports stadiums in China. From the macro external environment, the micro external environment and the internal management of the venue, the opportunities and challenges of China's large stadiums were analyzed. Corresponding countermeasures to improve the efficiency of venue operation management were proposed. The results show that the proportion of business structure of large-scale sports stadiums in China was unreasonable, and the ontology management was in a polarized development trend. The venue utilization rate was generally low. In addition, the operational management benefits of large-scale sports stadiums in China were affected by the micro-external environment and the internal conditions of the venues. Therefore, this research has important reference significance for the operation and management of stadiums.

Young people drinking to extreme drunkenness is a source of concern for policy makers and health promoters. There are a variety of community groups who appear to respond to the alcohol-related problems. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the working practices and relationships among local community groups as part of the pre-intervention context-assessment process.

Drawing on the narratives of nine community workers and ten venue managers the authors examine the community level approach to inform the choice of interventions to reduce risky drinking practices and community wide alcohol-related harm.

There was considerable agreement across the community workers and venue managers about the nature of risk for young people in the night time economy (NTE). Two central themes of “perceived risk” and “management of risk” emerged from the data. Further, the community workers and venue managers identified different high-risk locations and strategies to improve their ability meet the needs of young people experiencing risk in the NTE. The local authorities, community organisations and night time operators adopted a broad proactive and connected approach to develop a coherent strategy to achieve new measures of safety in the NTE.

Applying the social ecological model to provide a framework for the understanding of the social, environmental and political factors that influence alcohol use in young people.

Although sports fans have increased their use of digital media to consume sport, especially at professional sport venues, it is unknown the extent to which patrons of said venues are utilizing venue services for these activities. As such, this study asks: (1) How much data do patrons at a sports venue consume via the provided Wi–Fi? and (2) What types of online activity behaviors do Wi–Fi users at sports venues exhibit?

This empirical study reports stadia Wi–Fi data usage and consumer behavior from three National Basketball Association venues in the United States: Amway Center in Orlando, FL, Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY and Target Center in Minneapolis, MN, over a course of 7 games per venue.

The findings suggest that Wi–Fi usage is more limited than anticipated. Users who do utilize the venue Wi–Fi do so for very short periods, with the vast majority of user duration lasting between 1 and 10 min. Additionally, the halftime period of games experiences the peak of Wi–Fi usage.

By increasing our understanding of Wi–Fi usage in venues, this study informs relationship marketing theory research and contributes to the sport management literature. Practically, a better knowledge of Wi–Fi usage is critical, as it constitutes a critical antecedent to develop online marketing strategies.

LGBTQ+ spaces are often considered as safe havens for the LGBTQ+ community, as they can gather free from prejudice and fear. This research explores the effect that heterosexual people attending LGBTQ+ venues have on this community. This paper considers the impacts on the community, the importance of their safe spaces and identifies practical implications to be considered in protecting these spaces.

The study implemented a multi-method qualitative data collection approach with LGBTQ+ community venue attendees in the UK. Stage 1 utilised an online qualitative survey and collected data from 558 respondents. Stage 2 saw critical incident techniques (CITs) used with 12 participants. The data collected were analysed using a thematic system.

The LGBTQ+ community has experienced an increase in frustration and fear as a result of more heterosexual attendees infiltrating their safe spaces. Both participants and respondents discussed the importance that security personnel play in ensuring safe spaces. Finally, the findings demystified that not all attendees in LGBTQ+ venues are allies, and that there is a need for those outside the community to better understand the importance of these spaces for the LGBTQ+ community, as many heterosexuals do not consider how they should act.

Limitations associated with the implementation of the CIT were identified. Further training is advised for researchers employing this method to prepare them for dealing with the emotional impact of participants’ experiences.

This study highlighted the need for security and staff working at LGBTQ+ venues to undergo extensive inclusivity training, and for stricter door policies. Participants also argued for LGBTQ+ venues to educate heterosexual attendees about the community and their historical and present-day struggles and culture.

This paper is of practical value to those who organise and manage LGBTQ+ events, bars and nightclubs. An enhancement to the four types of space framework originated by Castilhos and Dolbec (2018) has been identified.