Meaningful-Experience Creation and Event Management A Post-Event Analysis of Copenhagen Carnival 2009

A carnival is a cultural event within the experience economy, and can be considered an activity of added value to a city when creating place-awareness for tourists and residents. ‘Culture’ is used as a way to regenerate post-industrial and run down places, when studying EU – as well as Nordic – cult...

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Main Author: Sarah Holst Kjær
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Linköping University Electronic Press 2011-06-01
Series:Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.113243
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author Sarah Holst Kjær
author_facet Sarah Holst Kjær
author_sort Sarah Holst Kjær
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description A carnival is a cultural event within the experience economy, and can be considered an activity of added value to a city when creating place-awareness for tourists and residents. ‘Culture’ is used as a way to regenerate post-industrial and run down places, when studying EU – as well as Nordic – cultural policy reports. This might be too much to expect from the cultural sector though. Amongst other external factors, cultural policy ideals co-create and affect the experiential content of an event in various ways. Thus studying a carnival one has to include external and internal factors in order to evaluate their meaningfulness in the total experience of the event. One way to investigate what a meaningful experience is can be to apply a cultural consumer perspective. How different consumer segments directly and indirectly inform the event organisation and how the consumer’s cultural preconceptions judge the event is vital when an event organisation designs and improves its experience concepts and experience setting. Thus, the way the carnival’s venue and activities are culturally received is closely linked to the management of the organisation’s external and internal resources. The goal of an event organisation is to produce meaningful and appealing experience concepts and perform them in real time. But how is this organised in practice? This article evaluates the production of the Copenhagen Carnival 2009 and is based on ethnographic material. Through a model of Value Framework for Experience Production by the Dutch experience economists Albert Boswijk, Thomas Thijssen & Ed Peelen (2007) I analyse how the practical organisation, technical solutions and cultural assumptions of a carnival are part of an event organisation’s work-process when creating a spectacle. Furthermore, the organisation of voluntary professional culture workers and the navigation in a metropolitan, political and institutional context is examined through the management concepts of routine, creativity and co-creation.
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spelling doaj.art-81ffa0ac49014c69b8082c501ab287e22022-12-22T00:52:23ZengLinköping University Electronic PressCulture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research2000-15252011-06-013243267Meaningful-Experience Creation and Event Management A Post-Event Analysis of Copenhagen Carnival 2009Sarah Holst KjærA carnival is a cultural event within the experience economy, and can be considered an activity of added value to a city when creating place-awareness for tourists and residents. ‘Culture’ is used as a way to regenerate post-industrial and run down places, when studying EU – as well as Nordic – cultural policy reports. This might be too much to expect from the cultural sector though. Amongst other external factors, cultural policy ideals co-create and affect the experiential content of an event in various ways. Thus studying a carnival one has to include external and internal factors in order to evaluate their meaningfulness in the total experience of the event. One way to investigate what a meaningful experience is can be to apply a cultural consumer perspective. How different consumer segments directly and indirectly inform the event organisation and how the consumer’s cultural preconceptions judge the event is vital when an event organisation designs and improves its experience concepts and experience setting. Thus, the way the carnival’s venue and activities are culturally received is closely linked to the management of the organisation’s external and internal resources. The goal of an event organisation is to produce meaningful and appealing experience concepts and perform them in real time. But how is this organised in practice? This article evaluates the production of the Copenhagen Carnival 2009 and is based on ethnographic material. Through a model of Value Framework for Experience Production by the Dutch experience economists Albert Boswijk, Thomas Thijssen & Ed Peelen (2007) I analyse how the practical organisation, technical solutions and cultural assumptions of a carnival are part of an event organisation’s work-process when creating a spectacle. Furthermore, the organisation of voluntary professional culture workers and the navigation in a metropolitan, political and institutional context is examined through the management concepts of routine, creativity and co-creation.http://dx.doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.113243Consumer PerspectiveExotic Experience ConceptTheme ParkOrdinary CityUrban Experience IndustryCultural PolicyPassionate OrganisationCulture Workers
spellingShingle Sarah Holst Kjær
Meaningful-Experience Creation and Event Management A Post-Event Analysis of Copenhagen Carnival 2009
Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research
Consumer Perspective
Exotic Experience Concept
Theme Park
Ordinary City
Urban Experience Industry
Cultural Policy
Passionate Organisation
Culture Workers
title Meaningful-Experience Creation and Event Management A Post-Event Analysis of Copenhagen Carnival 2009
title_full Meaningful-Experience Creation and Event Management A Post-Event Analysis of Copenhagen Carnival 2009
title_fullStr Meaningful-Experience Creation and Event Management A Post-Event Analysis of Copenhagen Carnival 2009
title_full_unstemmed Meaningful-Experience Creation and Event Management A Post-Event Analysis of Copenhagen Carnival 2009
title_short Meaningful-Experience Creation and Event Management A Post-Event Analysis of Copenhagen Carnival 2009
title_sort meaningful experience creation and event management a post event analysis of copenhagen carnival 2009
topic Consumer Perspective
Exotic Experience Concept
Theme Park
Ordinary City
Urban Experience Industry
Cultural Policy
Passionate Organisation
Culture Workers
url http://dx.doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.113243
work_keys_str_mv AT sarahholstkjær meaningfulexperiencecreationandeventmanagementaposteventanalysisofcopenhagencarnival2009