What factors impact crowdfunding in event management?

Dissertation

What Factors Impact Crowdfunding in Event Management?

Abstract

Finding financial support for events is one of the key hurdles for any event manager. The hurdle of financing is now, however, eased with the alternative of crowdfunding.  This is the new social media era way of financing events and businesses by using public power. The research paper aims at investigating the factors which impact crowdfunding in terms of event management. The study used qualitative archival research methods to find the success factors for crowdfunding of events. The case study of Samphire Festival 2016 that used the platform of Crowdfunder.com is analysed to find the factors which contributed to its success. The results of analysis of the secondary data and the application of the EMBOK model shows that for the success of crowdfunding of an event the factors found most effective are; use of media, good and interactive communication among the funders and organizers, decision power for funders, combination of tangible and intangible rewards for funders, nice description of the event and organizers, use of social media network, timely updates, feedback and replies to the comments on the crowdfunding platform. Thus, the success of the crowdfunding of events is based on several important aspects; however, having a strong social network has the strongest influence on the crowdfunding event success.

Acknowledgement

I would like to extend my most heart-felt gratitude to everyone and anyone who helped me and provided me with this opportunity of carrying out the project; to all those who pushed me in the right direction with their kind words and also to those who showed me my true potential. I would also like to extend my deepest admiration towards the faculty of ______ for helping me in each step. Special gratitude is expressed for the Supervisor of my final year project; _____________.  Without ________’s guidance and encouragement, it was nearly impossible for me to have completed this project successfully in time. Her/his motivation enabled me to work on my shortcomings and trust my judgments. She/he not only made it super easy for me to ask for guidance but also equipped me with better writing and analytical skills. I thank my parent ____________ for their motivation and pool of suggestions that was extended towards me aiding me in completing this project in time.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Introduction

Finding funding is one of the key hurdles for any event manager. The hurdle of financing is now eased with the alternative of crowdfunding. Crowdfunding has emerged as an option in place of the traditional financing options. This is defined as the soliciting of the finances through greater investors by using the internet platform. The contributions are smaller, usually from a large number of groups.

The funders and the organisers both have several reasons for participating in the crowdfunding. The organisers take part in this to raise funds for their event while the funder’s motivation for their contribution often supports a cause or seeking financial or intangible returns. There are several kinds of crowdfunding models as well. Generally, these fall into four categories. Donation-based, equity-based, reward based and lending-based types of crowdfunding. This is all dependent on the type of compensation that the backers receive in return for their compensation.

There have been several studies which have looked into crowdfunding; however, crowdfunding for events has not been much investigated. For a successful event, it is necessary that crowdfunding is a success as well. For this reason, the right factors for the crowdfunding should be pursued to help make it a successful event. This calls for an investigation in finding out the right factors which would help in the success of the crowdfunding event. This study is based on investigating the success factors for crowdfunding events. The case study of one such event is going to be used for in-depth analysis of the facts (Wu, Wang and Li, 2015).

Why this project matters to event management

It is important to establish why and how this study will add to the existing knowledge of event management. This project aims at adding much-needed insights about campaigns for events that have been successful in raising funds. As there are no existing studies that have described or tested various models of crowdfunding for event managers, there is no guiding theory or model that can be used by them which can guide and support them as they initiate any crowdfunding projects.

As a student of event management, it is necessary for me to understand the intricacies of planning and organising events. This project will help me to learn to research events, viable sources of finance, and report writing. It will show me how a problem should be defined, an appropriate methodology to study it, be drafted, and archival research method is used to arrive at answers.

Research Questions & Objectives

The sub-questions for a study help to break down the main research question into measurable and specific units.

To answer the main research question, “What factors impact crowdfunding in event management? The following sub-questions have been selected:

RQ1: What factors affect crowdfunding for events?

RQ2: How can event managers increase funds raised through crowdfunding?

RQ3: What actions have helped the highest fund-raising for events?

Research objectives are useful to explain the research aims and questions in a SMART manner. SMART is an acronym used to denote S for Specific, M for Measurable, A for Achievable, R for Realistic, and T for Time-bound. The sub-questions will be answered with the help of the following research objectives:

• To study the factors that may impact the crowd sharing funds for event management.
• To explore the EMBOK model of the two highest fund-raising events in the UK on Crowdfunder.
• To recommend actions that can improve the probability of raising funds for an event through crowdfunding.

For this purpose, the two most successful musical events that have raised the highest funds through Crowdfunder, a UK website dedicated to raising funds for various campaigns will be analysed (Crowdfunder, 2016).

The event explored is Samphire Festival 2016 that raised £42,365 with 336 supporters in 56 days (Crowdfunder.com, 2016). The main factors associated with this event are adequate event marketing, proper planning, use of certain social media sites, etc., which have contributed to the raising of funds for them, will be considered.

Rationale

The rationale is defined as the justification for a study which explains why it is needed. This study will explore the factors that affect crowdfunding, and the money raised through it for event management. Crowdfunding allows the raising of a huge quantity of funds from several contributors who provide small amounts with each (Belleflamme, Lambert and Schwienbacher, 2014). In crowdfunding, the investors can be paid in two ways, either by pre-ordering the product or by offering a share in the future profits. For event management, crowdfunding can work by offering investors free tickets to the event or by offering them an opportunity to organise an event that may not have been possible through regular event financing measures. Crowdfunding is rising in fame as a method of raising finance with minimal risk to the funders and a great vehicle for arranging events that may not otherwise be commercially possible. This is especially true for events that have not been organised before, and their success cannot be estimated. In 2016 crowdfunding was expected to surpass venture capital, with a growth chart where $880 million was raised through crowdfunding in 2010 and $34 billion expected in 2015 (Barnett, 2015). However, in the event management industry, there are no statistics or studies available that show how successful crowdfunding has been for organising social events. Therefore, it is very important to explore the factors that may impact the raising of funds through crowdfunding.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

A literature review explores, and analyses relevant peer-reviewed journal articles reports from reputed organisations, newspaper articles, books, and other published sources of information about the main factors studied in research (Wu, Wang and Li, 2015).  Crowdfunding allows the raising of a huge quantity of funds from several contributors who each provide small amounts (Belleflamme, Lambert and Schwienbacher, 2014).

According to Mitra (2012) “crowdfunding” was used for centuries; however, the trend of using “crowdfunding” has increased for the last decade. This term has now been formally recognised as a new industry for the consumers (Mitra, 2012). The meaning of “crowdfunding” is given as; the exercise of funding a venture by gathering many small sums of the capital several people usually using the web as a medium (Prive, 2012). In the literature review, Google scholar was used by using the keywords of “crowdfunding” and “crowd investing”. Other than these library catalogues were also used for the literature search. However, there are not many studies published on this research. The literature review is thus based on unpublished working papers and dissertations as well. Before the term of crowdfunding, social lending was more used in literature or the peer-to-peer loan. The concept of crowdfunding is based on the concept of crowdsourcing, which shows how the crowd can be used for obtaining new feedback, ideas, and solutions for the sake of promoting business ventures (Moritz and Block, 2016). However, unlike crowdsourcing, the aim is only to raise funds and financial resources for a specific venture. The crowdfunding involves the less sophisticated investors and smaller investments from many of the investors. Even though there has not been much research in this field, there has been much attention in this regard in recent years.

Alegre and Moleskis (2016) have mentioned that the method of crowdfunding is best when more people are gathered. The method gathers as many people as possible by using non-equity arrangements, social media platforms, or any other internet-based arrangement. The method allows the funders to communicate with the fundraisers and with each other. With the use of internet technology, social interaction has given rise to platforms for electronic media as well. The internet community is used by the crowdfunding activity itself (Alegre and Moleskis, 2016).

Types of Crowdfunding:

As per researchers conducted by Buana (2018) the business model of crowdfunding is divided into royalty-based, equity-based, donation based, lending based, and reward-based business models. There are other studies which have divided the business model of crowdfunding into microlending, investment and equity model, club model, holding the model and pledge threshold model. Furthermore, the actors of the crowdfunding are divided as based on their purpose as the crowd funders with the goals of crowdfunding effort and the ones with goals of the investment. As per the nature of the crowdfunding model, there is no obligation or promise of refunding of the funds. The only obligation is to complete the project for which the funding was raised. The people who are gathering the funds are usually termed as the fund-raiser, entrepreneurs, or the crowdfunders (Buana, 2018).

According to Ahlers (2015) the crowd founders and the crowdfunders are both responsible for the formulation of the business model and the multiple platforms for the success of the project. The intermediaries enable the functioning of communication between the two parties. Crowdfunding is recently being more used as a vehicle for investment and funding of entrepreneurial projects. All the business models except for the donation-based model allow the feedback to be given in the physical form to the founders exclusively. This, however, varies from a sophisticated model as an investment business model to simpler reward-based crowdfunding. In the equity-based crowdfunding, the funders also have ownership rights. With this funding, the entrepreneurs request funds for the financing of their projects. For royalty-based crowdfunding, a fraction of the revenues or the profits is generated. This means that if the profits are not achieved, then the funding will not be given. This allows entrepreneurs to set realistic goals and achieve their targets. This model is less common nowadays. However, it is used more often with the rise in innovative ideas (Belleflamme, Lambert and Schwienbacher, 2014).

The lending-based crowdfunding model allows entrepreneurs to borrow money from people. However, it is not like taking a loan from a bank. For social projects, there are platforms which provide the liberty of giving interest-free loans. Micro-financing is one such example. This is not a very exciting model. It is usually a kind of peer-to-peer lending model.

Buana (2018) has described that the reward-based type is the one which is often used by the owners of the project to collect donations in exchange for small rewards. The funders in this sort of project are looking for any final returns but for small rewards. In this kind of model, the rewards are mostly of figurative value and are given by the entrepreneur. The rewards are usually very less in worth than the donation made by the people. However, the perception of its value is much higher. Furthermore, it has to be less in worth, or the entrepreneur will not be left with enough money for the project completion. Furthermore, this type of business model is not usually expected to generate revenue. For this reason, the owner does not feel the obligation of giving the rewards as a legal obligation; neither does it as sales (Buana, 2018). The entrepreneurs for this model of crowdfunding can raise funds through intermediaries or platforms where products can be repurchased by it. In this kind of business model of reward-based crowdfunding, the backers are considered more of an ambassador for the campaigned event or product using the social media for the propagation and promotion. Donation-based crowdfunding is different from all of these business models. In this kind of crowdfunding the owner is very serious about the success of the project and about the completion of its goals. This type of crowdfunding is more like the traditional funding in which the prime motivation is the social motives of the project (Mitra, 2012).

Studies on Crowdfunding for Events:

In 2013, 600 crowdfunding platforms existed around the world, according to Massolution, a research agency that specialises in crowdfunding research reports. For event management, crowdfunding can work by offering investors free tickets to the event or by offering them an opportunity to organise an event that may not have been possible through regular event financing measures (Massolution, 2018). There are several sites like Lendingclub for instance, that allow its members to borrow and invest amongst themselves and facilitate these transactions by eliminating the financing institutions. The next step in crowdfunding is when startups will be able to raise funds by selling, ownership stakes or shares on such crowdfunding websites.  However, the legalities and regulatory framework for this is still under consideration. One major benefit of crowdfunding for any venture is that it creates an ownership stake for its investors who become potential customers without the need for any promotion (Meyskens and Bird, 2015). This benefit is easily transferable for event management where the customer relationship is limited to an event with not much need for prolonged loyalty. Therefore, the possibility of not only collecting sufficient funds but also, securing a guaranteed audience is very high for crowdfunded events.

A study conducted by Meyskens and Bird (2015) explored the various ways crowdfunding is being promoted across the world and suggested that the promotion of a quality label for crowdfunding platforms, educating the investors, and supporting the development of genuine crowdfunding platforms are very much the need of the hour (Meyskens and Bird, 2015). Such studies in event management will help to identify the recommendations that can improve crowdfunding for specific events.

Factors Affecting Crowdfunding for Events:

According to Mollick (2014) literature for crowdfunding events is very limited, crowdfunding, in general, will be discussed with any factors for any other industries that may be relevant to event management also critically analysed. A study, which investigated 48,500 projects reported that personal network, the location, and the perceived project quality all contribute to the planning and management of successful ventures (Mollick, 2014). Taken together, these 48,500 projects had succeeded in raising over $237 million. The study also found that 75% of crowdfunded projects were late in delivering their promise to the funders. Therefore, it can be inferred that crowdfunding is a valid medium for raising funds; however, ventures that have succeeded in crowdfunding have not been successful in managing them, which can have an inverse effect on their likelihood of raising funds in the future. As a result, it is necessary to identify the factors that motivate people to post projects for crowdfunding and also why people invest in them. According to (Hui, Greenberg and Gerber, 2014), raising funds, receiving validation, establishing relationships, replicating the successful experience of others, and expanding the awareness of work through social media promotion are the main factors that motivate creators of crowdfunding projects. The funders, on the other hand, are attracted by the rewards; they need to support the creator or his/her cause and engage and contribute to a trusting creative community. A similar study is needed in event management to identify the factors that motivate the creators and funders in this context (Kahai and Cooper, 2003).

Success Factors for Crowdfunding:

Starting from the preparation time of the crowdfunding project, it has been discussed by Belleflamme (2010) the success rate of the project is dependent on the type of project of a crowdfunding project. It was even found that non-profit projects have more chances of getting success than business ventures. As per Glaeser and Shleifer (2001), the non-profits with their lack of focus on profits tend to attract more outside capital. Another study conducted in 2014 showed that the dynamics of the failure and achievement of the crowdfunding projects depend on the social network size in addition to the project quality (Mollick, 2014). This study also showed that geo characteristics also have a part in the success rate of the funding of the project as the proximity of the founder of the project supporting funders help in making it more successful. Another study discovered the association of the success rate of crowdfunding and the early contributions made after its initiation (Colombo, Franzoni and Rossi-Lamastra, 2015). Another such study was conducted by Clarysse and Cholakva (2015), however, they did not investigate the success factors for the funding, and rather they investigated the motivations for funding. Mollick (2014) has argued that the potential funders would invest in projects or events which have realistic funding goals, as projects with too low or too high targets lead to unsuccessful project completion.

Other than these, there are also some success factors which are observed during the crowdfunding project. This can be the amount of the backers, the rewards or benefits provided to the funders, the web presence, and the updates on the project, the blog entries, and the number of comments. The web presence refers to the videos, and pictures of the project, the existence of the Facebook page for the event, the separate picture of the project owners or organisers. Study (Wheat et al., 2013) has depicted that videography is a significant and crucial appealing point for potential funders. The video and graphical content touch the hearts of backers as it often tells a real story on the project. Mollick (2014) has shown that the lack of video in a funding project has serious negative effects on the funding of the project. He mentioned that the video represents the minimum preparation of the owner for the project. Wheat (2013) has also made another important point in his study. He mentioned that the video gives the project owner the chance to introduce himself or his team to the funders. However, on the contrary, it does not imply that the project owner needs to show his emotional attachment to the project. The study by Clarysse (2015) showed that the emotional attachment of the owner with the project does not impact the crowdfunding investment.

Another such study Zheng et al. (2014) suggested the use of several media options for improving the communication of the project and the owners to the funders (Zheng et al., 2014). As per a study (Boeuf, Darveau and Legoux,) Conducted in 2014, the personal pictures shown in the media related to the project are likely to have a positive influence on the project success as it shows higher support and trust from the backers. Colombo (2015) showed that the use of the image of the project owner underpins the social part of the social platform and helps boost the possibility of higher funding through increased trust.

Mollick (2014) also showed how social networks have an increasingly important role in the funding of crowdfunding projects. Authors like Belleflamme (2014) have also highlighted the importance of social networks, and Web 2.0 for facilitation of the founders reach to the crowd. The use of social networking sites link on the crowdfunding page helps in the creation of the awareness of the project by continuous liking and sharing within the network (Kraus et al., 2016). Furthermore, the importance of Web 2.0 for crowdfunding is more evident by the use of the dedicated website as the source of information for the project. These are considered to have an impact on the success of the project. Moreover, another author argued that the information on the organisation of the funded event or project also adds legitimacy to it attracting more funds towards it (Denis, 2014). Another research showed that social networking could help the projects in its early stages raising its probability of success (Lu et al., 2014). Another study showed the significance of using social networking sites for the success of crowdfunding projects (Byrnes et al., 2014).

According to Kraus et al. (2016) communication is vital to the project and its crowdfunding; the classic theory of communication has been relevant to it. As per this theory, every part of the information that is transmitted between the dispatcher and the recipient has four facets. These are self-revealing, relationship, facts, and appeal. The application of this theory on the crowdfunding shows that poor communication can lead to challenges in funding (Wu, Wang and Li, 2015). This is the reasons the combination of the customer relationship, facts, call to action and personal information are the main responsibility of the project organisers and owners and help in determining the success of the project (Hui, Greenberg and Gerber, 2014).

Figure 1: Theory of Communication (Original)

Figure 2: Adaptation to Crowdfunding (Kraus et al., 2016)

The strong support by backers is also considered as an important factor for success in the early stage (Colombo, Franzoni and Rossi-Lamastra, 2015). This is more relevant when the worth of the project is uncertain. The potential funders on seeing that the financial support, have already started to feel encouraged to donate. The number of funders and the collected funds is an obvious pointer of the interest of the investors in the event and this is highlighted by the platforms as well. As per another research, backers usually join the projects in their early stage and their end (Kuppuswamy and Bayus, 2014).

Xu (2014) along with his peers has the significance of the updates and entries of blogs for the achievement rate of the project. The recurrent updates can increase the likelihood of financial support success to almost double in some of the cases (Xu et al., 2014). The updates, if compared with the early appearance of the project, show that interactive contact within the community is considered more projecting of the victory than the presentation of the project description. The updates on the final stage of the event have a more lasting effect as it awakens the excitement and emotions of the backers related to the project (Kuppuswamy and Bayus, 2014).

The backers also receive rewards in different dimensions of the crowdfunding projects (Kazai, 2011; Vukovic, Mariana and Laredo, 2009). These can be either social acknowledgement or tangible incentives. Steinberg (Steinberg, 2012) showed that the incentives are the most important factor which influences the decision of the funders for participation. This is, therefore, an important factor for the crowdfunding project. The incentives should have a personal connection linked to it (Wheat et al., 2013). The use of public acknowledgement is also much appreciated among the funders. This is one important factor which is often detrimental in realising findings in the early period of the project (Colombo, Franzoni and Rossi-Lamastra, 2015).

Other than this, another factor which is also important for the victory of the crowdfunding events and projects is the quantity of comments on the page. The quantity of comments matters. It has been pointed out that the interactive communication plays a significant part in the engagement of the funders and reflecting a positive image of the project given that the comments are positive and is timely responded (Antonenko, Lee and Kleinheksel, 2014).

Chapter 3: Methodology

The research methodology is a stepwise description of how the research is going to be conducted. This section will help understand the research position, philosophy and strategy. The research design and the techniques used for the sampling, data collection and its analysis are shown in this section.

Research Position:

The research position adopted by a researcher explains the approach, philosophy, and methods used for conducting the study. Research positions can be interpretive or positivist depending on how the researcher views reality. As no prior studies exist which have explored and investigated the factors that lead to a good collection from crowdfunding and what reasons may have contributed to it, this study will use an exploratory research design. This study is using exploratory research design. As no prior study has been used in this field, it would be the largely suitable research design. The position of the research is interpretive as the study is not going to be using any theoretical framework. There is going to be the utilisation of the EMBOK model for the interpretation of the data. However, the use of this model will not aid in providing structure to the actual findings of the research. The research study method is basically to explore the variables as these exist in reality and provide an explanation for it (Saunders, 2011). A positive approach cannot be used as the researcher does not have access to the results of several projects and it is not within his control to analyse large amounts of data. In this way, no previous theory or literature will guide the study, data collection, and findings, but the findings will be used to interpret reality as it exists and, thus, contribute to the literature (Bell, 2010).

Research Approach:

This study is going to use the inductive approach of research for the answering of research questions. The lack of prior knowledge or research in this field will allow the researcher to have his observations and base the study on it. The research study will be qualitative research as it will aid in the identification of variables. However, this study is not going to show the relationship between these variables (Kothari, 2004).

Research Strategy:

The research strategy used for this study is archival research in which the published data on the websites and the literature review will be utilised for responding to the research questions. This is the type of study which is used when the secondary data is used for the research (Tracy, 2010). For this purpose, a systematic literature review is adopted for understanding the patterns in the data that is published online over time. There are several kinds of research types of study, including mono-method or multi-method. This project is going to use the mono-method for research. The method utilised would be a qualitative research method. There are usually longitudinal or cross-sectional; however, for this, the cross-sectional research method is going to be utilised (Tracy, 2010). In a cross-sectional time, a horizon, a snapshot of a particular phenomenon as it occurs at that point of time is studied. In a longitudinal time, framework, the same respondents or research method is employed to see how it changes over time. This may involve studying the phenomenon in two different time frames randomly selected or even before and after studies. This study will be based on a single cross-section of events that have been crowdfunded.

Data Sources:

The research study is going to be based entirely on the data available online or publicly. The primary data sources are usually gathered from interviews, surveys, questionnaires, and focus group discussions. However, in this study, no such method has been employed. Therefore, most of the data used is secondary data (Saunders, 2011). The data is mostly collected from online sources like the website Crowdfunder.com. This is the website which is used for the hosting of individuals and organisations that are trying to raise funds for their events, or activities.

Quantitative or Qualitative Methodology

A quantitative study uses surveys and interviews with large numbers of respondents, analyses them with sophisticated statistical numerical analyses, and presents findings that can be generalised to a large section of the population (Bryman and Bell, 2007). A quantitative study is suited to a positivist research position which will apply a deductive manner of viewing data, comparing it with existing theory, and then making conclusions. On the other hand, a qualitative study investigates a smaller sample of respondents but collects a lot of open-ended, qualitative data that may not be generalisable to a large segment of the population yet throws far lighter and suggests more insights about a phenomenon. As this study is based on explorative research design, it is far more relevant to conduct a qualitative study in this context. It is also supported by the interpretive research position of the researcher (Kothari, 2004).

The specific research method adopted for this study is archival research. Archival documents analysis will be used to analyse one most successful event: Samphire Festival 2016 that raised £42,365 with 336 supporters in 56 days (Crowdfunder.com, 2016). The main factors associated with this event are adequate event marketing, proper planning, use of certain social media sites, etc., which have contributed to the raising of funds for them will be considered. Based on the collected information, content analysis will be conducted to present the findings.

Chapter 4: Data Analysis

For this research study, the archival research method is used for the analysis of the data. This research method allows a broad range of activities for the facilitation in the investigation of the text material and documents as produced on the topic. In its literal sense, this method of data analysis refers to the study of historical documents. Historical documents are usually referred to the ones which were created at some point of time providing the researcher with access to information that is otherwise not available to them. However, the archival method of research can also be employed in the non-historical investigation of the documents and textual information as produced by or about the specific event, topic or organisation. This method is also employed for the analysis of digital texts like emails, websites, journal articles, databases and business articles (Mohr and Ventresca, 2002).

The data that have been collected from the online sources have been analysed using the archival research method. The research questions that are to be researched in the paper are used in the structuring of the analysis as well. The three research questions used are.

Factors affecting the crowdfunding of the events

The factors identified for the success of the event like “Samphire Festival 2016” are the ones which are useful to be explored. The identified factors are going to be individually explored to conduct in-depth archival analysis.

Media:

Media is one of the crucial factors which are used for the promotion, initiation and the ultimate completion of the events. The right medium of communication is necessary for making the event successful (Kahai and Cooper, 2003). Reaching out to the right audience and giving the right message that impacts on the event funding and its successful completion is vital for any event using crowdfunding. The identified media platforms include social media, a website dedicated to this purpose and email. The medium selected for the event depends on the possible vagueness of the message to be transmitted and the nature of the event and its attendees. The richness of the media used for communication affects the decision quality of the funders. For instance, face-to-face communication is better in terms of media richness as compared to textual media (Midambi and Schiff, 2010). It has been evident that for the more sophisticated events, the communication medium other than text is better. Use of images, videos and other such mediums can work better for the event promotion other than just textual outlines (Cheung, Lee and Rabjohn, 2008). Furthermore, in this respect, there are more than a few sub-factors which affect the success of the funding of the event. Research showed it from this diagram showing these factors.

The research study showed how the various factors like the depth of the project description, the graphical presentation accompanying it (Danaher, Mullarkey and Essegaier, 2006), videos (Jiang and Benbasat, 2007), updates on the event, its goals for pledging, founders past experience in such events, duration for the financial support, and number of social media platforms connection affect the success of the funding and consequently its event completion. There are numerous studies which have found these factors to be detrimental to the event funding and its success. Jiang and Benbasat (2007) found that video orientation gets more attention as the video targets the sensory organs of humans by changing scenes and sounds. Similarly, direct reciprocity is also considered as a vital motivating factor in online communities (Johnson, Faraj and Kudaravalli, 2014). Funding reciprocity is the mutual exchange of the intangibles and tangibles which can be solid objects, money, services or help. Furthermore, the project experience of the crowd funder helps in the success of the event as well. All these parts are detrimental to the accomplishment of the crowdfunding event (Koch and Siering, 2015). 

Diagram: Factors Detrimental for the Funding Success

Timing:

The early funding and backing are detrimental to the success of crowdfunding events. The more the backers and the receiving funding in the initial days of the operation, then probably it is for the event to be victorious. This shows that a campaign that is designed to reward the early backers would turn out to attract more backers opting for investing in it at the first phase consequently making it successful. The figures for the successful funding of the crowdfunding projects show that around 39% of the funding goals were raised by these campaigns in the first sixth period of the campaign. While there are also many who secured their total funding before this period as well. Comparing this figure with the unsuccessful projects shows that around 4% of their total funding was raised in their first sixth of the period only (The Conversation, 2016). This is also evident from the figure shown below.

Figure 3: Funds rose in 1/6th of duration (The Conversation, 2016)

Furthermore, it has been found through research that the time duration for which the funding is allowed in the campaign has a higher likelihood of Success. This implies that the longer the duration of the funding, the higher is the probability that the project or event is going to have funding equal to its originally requested amount. Thus, the number of crowdfunding days increases the success rate for the crowdfunding event.

The number of Funders and Social Network:

This is an important part of the crowdfunding campaign as having a large online social network helps in the achievement of success in terms of completion of the project and its full funding. The addition of the online social media link on the page of the project often shows that the project is using it intentionally for boosting their crowdfunding campaigns. The analysis of the successful crowdfunding events shows that each campaign had an average of 1024 friends on Facebook (The Conversation, 2016).  There have been numerous studies which also provide credible weight to the authenticity of this factor contributes to the success of the crowdfunding projects. A study conducted in 2017 showed that promotion and publicising of the project are important to make it successful. The study used a model based on tweets and other social media platform’s connectivity and showed that the model works with 76.7% accuracy. This study confirmed the social interaction and higher connectivity having a positive effect on campaign success (Kaura and Gera, 2017). Another such study showed a strong association between social media and crowdfunding activities. The “likes” are considered as hard money in crowdfunding as it has a strong influence of social media seal on the delivery of the funding ratio, the fundraising results; the number of backers, and the total fundraising amount (Moisseyev, 2013).

Explanation of What to Expect:

The project founders are allowed to show the information related to their project that falls under their project description. It has been known already in terms of the exact text that is helpful in the decision making or not, or the amount of the information that is published has an affirmative impact on the expected support of the texts including the product reviews. Furthermore, the increased length of the text is also linked with the increased utility of the text for its readers (Cheung, Lee and Rabjohn, 2008).

In terms of the background of the crowdfunding, the founders have the opportunity of adding additional details about the project on the particular steps leading off the understanding of the project in its explanation. The possible funders are in this respect more able to measure the project or event which helps them in their financial support decision. A study has shown that the increased information on the event or project helps in having a positive influence on the funding achievement of the project. The study showed that the project description and its depth of information have a positive influence on the accomplishment of the funding (Koch and Siering, 2015).

Exclusive Rewards for the Funders:

The Crowdfunding model and the rewards can have a significant impact on the accomplishment of financial support (Paul, Nessrine and Martin, 2015; Belleflamme, Lambert and Schwienbacher, 2013). The crowdfunding initiative of rewarding the funders as compared to providing the service as a reward has a greater potential of attracting larger funding amounts. This is because the funders are more attracted to the tangible outcomes and provide more funds in that case. The creative categories initiatives or rewards in terms of a mixture of tangible and intangible benefits have a better ability to use it as a strategy (Denis, 2014). A study conducted on identifying the accomplishment factors for crowdfunding showed that the single unvarying success factor for the success of the crowdfunding event is the number of backers and supports who may obtain either material benefits or are acknowledged on the social platforms (Vukovic, Mariana and Laredo, 2009; Kazai, 2011; Colombo, Franzoni and Rossi-Lamastra, 2015).

Description of Organizers:

The quality or description of the entrepreneurs affects the potential of attracting more funding. This implies that the background of the entrepreneurs and the organiser team is important for funding success. Furthermore, the background and the description of the actual event also influence the likelihood of success for the initiative of crowdfunding. The projects or events which have team or pairs as their entrepreneurs have higher success rates than those run by individuals (Denis, 2014). The females also tend to experience higher success rates as compared to the male organisers (Denis, 2014). The work experience and education level also has an instrumental effect on the investment attraction potential (Ahlers, 2015). Furthermore, it has been noted that external reinforcements like government grants, certifications and patents also do not have an effect on the success rate of the project (Ahlers, 2015).

Comments of Crowdfunder.com:

Research conducted on finding the success factors for the cofounding events investigated the number of comments written by the investors on the project. The study showed that victorious projects be likely to demonstrate a high number of the overall mean number of comments. The study showed that successful projects have a higher number of interactions as well (Alessandro Cordova, 2015). The positive comments from backers take part in a significant role in the accomplishment of the campaign. The positive backer comments would aid as a certification of the credibility of the project description for the organisers who have not yet organised in any event. The study evaluated 170,000 projects of crowdfunding from the crowdfunding website of Kick-starter from its inception in 2015. The examination of the comments relationship with the success rate of crowdfunding was found to be positive by using a computer-based algorithm (Manne, 2016). Other than this, the number of comments on the project matters as well. The intensive communication positively impacts the success of the project as the prompt replies to the comments on the websites, posting questions and frequent updates help in the attraction of the funding (Antonenko, Lee and Kleinheksel, 2014).

Actions used for the highest fund-raising events

(Simmons, 2016)

The EMBOK model is also going to be analysed for the Crowdfunding of an event.

EMBOK Model

Figure 4: EMBOK model (Silvers, 2006)

The EMBOK model will guide the study. It is a three-dimensional depiction of the information and skills required to plan and organise an event successfully.  The key dimensions in an EMBOK model are phases, domains, and processes. The main domains are administration, operations, marketing, design and risk. The key processes are communication, assessment, selection, monitoring, documentation, and tools and techniques. The phases that are followed are initiation, planning, implementation, and closure. A set of centre values of creativity, continuous improvement, integration, ethics and strategic thinking is the foundation for all domains, processes, and phases.

Looking at the EMBOK model, event management through crowdfunding is the next step in future.

Domains:

Event management is comprised of five management functions. This includes the administration, operations, marketing, design and risk. These are known as the EMBOK Domains. These domains can be further subcategorised into seven classes.

Table 1: EMBOK Domains

As per the EMBOK model, the table shows the domains and its classes for event management of a festival or community event through crowdfunding.

Processes:

Figure 5: EMBOK Processes

The process of assessing, selecting, and monitoring of each of the tasks is directed towards the completion of the tasks for the event. The registration process, the site choice, the request for proposals, costing, speaker’s engagement, and contracting are some of the tasks which need processing.

Phases:

As with any event, the crowdfunding event is also handled through its five phases. These phases include the initiation through designing and development of the crowd funder page. The next phase is planning of the whole event, its promotion, and actual fund collection, and administration. Then, next comes the implementation of the event which includes the verification, coordination and contracting decisions. Then comes the actual “event” after which the closure occurs which includes feedback and reviews and evaluation of the event.

Figure 6: EMBOK Phases

The analysis of the EMBOK model as per the event of the crowdfunding shows that the model can be used to assign duties better

Strategies for increasing funds through Crowdfunding:

It is evident now that there are certain strategies that can be used for increasing funds on a Crowdfunding platform. Giving a detailed project description is one of the key motivators which can help the funders in making their decision. Studies have shown that giving more information about the event would help increase the utility of information for readers. Thus, a detailed and clear project description is necessary for the successful crowdfunding event. Secondly, the organisers must use the social network connections of themselves and their friends to broaden their reach. It has been witnessed that the higher number of social connections helps in raising higher funds for the crowdfunding projects. Herding behaviour of the social platform can help raise more funds. Thirdly, the use of media in an effective manner is vital for the project to become successful. Videos, pictures and other media alternatives should be effectively designed, developed and utilised for the presentation of the event. Communication is the key to crowdfunding events. A good event, if badly presented, would not generate any funds from the funders.

Furthermore, for the reward type of crowdfunding, it has been established that it is preferred to provide a blend of tangible and intangible benefits to the funders to attract better and satisfy them. Another important strategy is to provide attractive rewards to the early funders of the event. This is because the events which gather more funds in their first phase of the funding period tend to be more successful. It has built a positive image on the other potential funders as more backers add in the initiative. Moreover, the organiser should provide timely updates of the event on the page of the crowdfunding. This also helps in the engagement of the entrepreneurs of the event. Other than this, it is also preferred to give some decision power to the funders as it helps in increasing their participation. Additionally, the comments should be replied to in a timely manner on the crowdfunding page as it builds the reputation of the event. Lastly, feedback of the event should be collected after the event to improve the process for the next event.

Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations

Conclusion:

This project was based on three research questions. The conclusion will show the results based on this research question.

RQ1: What factors affect crowdfunding for events?

As per the literature review and the archival research, these factors have been found to have an effect on the crowdfunding for events

1. Media / Video / Pictures / Project Updates
2. Social Network and Number of Funders
3. Timing and duration of the funding period
4. Explanation of what to expect in the event / Project Description
5. Organisers Experience/ Description
6. Exclusive rewards for the funders
7. Comments on Crowdfunder.com / Crowdfunding Platform

RQ2: How can event managers increase funds raised through crowdfunding?

Strategies for increasing funds through crowdfunding could be defined as the ones which have been considered in the above section. After the in-depth analysis of the Crowdfunding event of Samphire Festival 2016, EMBOK model, and literature review, certain strategies can be used for increasing funds on a Crowdfunding platform.

• Giving a detailed project description
• Using the social network connections of themselves and their friends to broaden their reach
• Using media (Videos, pictures, graphical content) effectively is vital for the project to become successful
• Providing a combination of tangible and intangible rewards to the funders
• Provide attractive rewards to the early funders of the event
• Provide timely updates of the event on the page of the crowdfunding
• Give decision power in some areas to the funders as it helps in increasing their participation
• The comments should be replied timely on the crowdfunding page
• Gather feedback of the event after the event is conducted to improve the process

RQ3: What actions have helped the highest fund-raising for events?

As per the analysis of the Samphire Festival 2016, the following actions have helped it in becoming the fastest and highest UK fund-raising event.

• Interesting Activities included in the event
• Use of pictures and a trailer for an explanation of the event and the location:
• Good Promotional Content used
• Consideration of Environmental-friendly approach
• Exclusive rewards for Funders
• Tickets Offered for a discount to funders
• The option of Refund available to the funders
• Sponsors used for advertising
• Description of the organisers is given
• Use of Dedicated website and email
• Use of social media
• All positive Comments on Crowdfunder.com
• Follow up updates provided through a video

Concluding, it can be said that the factors which were found to be detrimental to the success of crowdfunding of an event are effective use of media, good and interactive communication among the funders and organizers, decision power for funders, combination of tangible and intangible rewards for funders, nice description of the event and organizers, use of social media network to its full potential, and timely updates, feedback and replies to the comments on the crowdfunding platform. All in all, the success of the crowdfunding of events is based on several important aspects; however, having a strong social network has the strongest influence on success.

Recommendations:

Thus, it is recommended that for any event management through crowdfunding, the organisers should take account of these factors. As per the findings of the paper, it is suggested to consider these factors to make the event successful. For the successful crowdfunding of the event as well as its completion, certain actions have more likelihood of making it happen. The organiser should work for media utilisation for promotion of the event. They should allow interaction between funders and organiser and give liberty to the funders to decide about their location, or timing of the event. Furthermore, the organisers can also offer funders with tangible and intangible rewards. It is also found essential to give the project description of the event and organisers. Using social media promotions, and posting timely updates, feedback as well as responding to comments on the crowdfunding platform are also some important steps for consideration in this regard. The organisers should also promote their rewards as benefits that can be gained on early funding of the project. It will allow the project to gather more early backers. This helps in early completion of the project funding. And the projects that have funders seem to provide the potential funders with a positive image for the project.

References:

Ahlers, G.K. (2015) ‘Signaling in equity crowdfunding’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice.

Alegre, I. and Moleskis, M. (2016) Crowdfunding: A Review and Research Agenda, [Online], Available: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3a2e/f7c64

aafd0a0fed358375ddbc5b039a735a3.pdf.

Alessandro Cordova, J.D.G.G. (2015) ‘The determinants of crowdfunding success: evidence from technology projects’, Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 181, pp. 115-124.

Antonenko, D., Lee, B.D. and Kleinheksel, A.J. (2014) ‘Trends in the crowdfunding of educational technology startups’, Techtrends, vol. 58, no. 6, pp. 36-41.

Barnett, C. (2015) Trends Show Crowdfunding To Surpass VC In 2016, 9 June, [Online] [18 April 2019].

Bell, J. (2010) ‘Doing your Research Project: A guide for first time researchers in education, health and social science’, British Journal of Educational Technology.

Belleflamme, P., Lambert, T. and Schwienbacher, A. (2010) ‘Crowdfunding: An Industrial Organization Perspective’, Digital Business Models: Understanding Strategies, Paris, 25-26.

Belleflamme, P., Lambert, T. and Schwienbacher, A. (2013) ‘Individual crowdfunding practices’, Venture Capital, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 313-333.

Belleflamme, P., Lambert, T. and Schwienbacher, A. (2014) ‘Crowdfunding: Tapping the right crowd’, Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 585-609.

Boeuf, B., Darveau, J. and Legoux, R. (2014) ‘Financing creativity: Crowdfunding as a new approach for theatre projects’, International Journal of Arts Management, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 33-48.

Bryman, A. and Bell, E. (2007) Business Research Methods, Oxford.

Buana, Y. (2018) ‘Exploratory Mapping Research on Crowdfunding’, Binus Business Review, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 55-61.

Byrnes, J.E., Ranganathan, J., Walker, B.L. and Faulkes, Z. (2014) ‘To crowdfund research, scientists must build an audience for their work’, PLOS ONE, vol. 9, no. 12, p. p.e110329.

Cheung, C.M., Lee, M.K. and Rabjohn, N. (2008) ‘The impact of electronic wordofmouth’, Internet Research, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 229-247.

Cholakova, M. and Clarysse, B. (2015) ‘Does the possibility to make equity investments in crowdfunding projects crowd out reward-based investments?’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 145-172.

Colombo, M.G., Franzoni, C. and Rossi-Lamastra, C. (2015) ‘Internal social capital and the attraction of early contributions in crowdfunding’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 75-100.

Crowdfunder (2016) The most successful Crowdfunded Music Projects, [Online] [17 April 2019].

Crowdfunder.com (2016) Samphire Festival 2016, [Online] [17 April 2019].

Danaher, P.J., Mullarkey, G.W. and Essegaier, S. (2006) ‘Factors Affecting Web Site Visit Duration: A Cross-Domain Analysis’, Journal of Marketing Research, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 182-194.

Denis, F. (2014) ‘Exploring entrepreneurial legitimacy in reward-based crowdfunding’, Venture Capital, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 247-269.

Efestivals (2016) Samphire Festival 2016 Review, [Online] [17 April 2019].

Gerber, E. and Hui, J. (2013) ‘Crowdfunding: Motivations and Deterrents for Participation’, Transactions on Computing-Human Interaction.

Glaeser, E. and Shleifer, A. (2001) ‘Not-for-profit entrepreneurs’, Journal of public economics, vol. 81, no. 1, pp. 99-115.

Hui, J.S., Greenberg, M.D. and Gerber, E.M. (2014) ‘Understanding the role of community in crowdfunding work’, 17th ACM conference on computer supported cooperative work and social computing, 62-74.

Jiang, Z. and Benbasat, I. (2007) ‘The Effects of Presentation Formats and Task Complexity on Online Consumers’ Product Understanding’, MIS Quarterly, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 475-500.

Johnson, S.L., Faraj, S. and Kudaravalli, S. (2014) ‘Emergence of Power Laws in Online Communi-ties – The Role of Social Mechanisms and Preferential Attachment’, MIS Quarterly, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 795-808.

Kahai, S.S. and Cooper, R.B. (2003) ‘Exploring the Core Concepts of Media Richness Theory: The Impact of Cue Multiplicity and Feedback Immediacy on Decision Quality’, Journal of Manage-ment Information Systems, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 263-299.

Kaura, H. and Gera, J. (2017) ‘Effect of Social Media Connectivity on Success of Crowdfunding’, Procedia Computer Science, vol. 122, pp. 767-774.

Kazai, G. (2011) ‘In search of quality in crowdsourcing for search engine evaluation’, Computer Science, vol. 6611, no. 2011, pp. 165-176.

Koch, J.-A. and Siering, M. (2015) ‘Crowdfunding Success Factors: The Characteristics of Successfully Funded Projects on Crowdfunding Platforms’, European Conference on Information Systems.

Kothari, C. (2004) Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques.

Kraus, S., Richter, C., Brem, A., Cheng, C.-F. and Chang, M.-L. (2016) ‘Strategies for reward-based crowdfunding campaigns’, Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 13-23.

Kuppuswamy, V. and Bayus, B.L. (2014) Crowdfunding creative ideas: The dynamics of project backers in kickstarter, [Online], Available: https://funginstitute.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/

Crowdfunding_Creative_Ideas.pdf [17 April 2019].

L.Morris (2016) Forget Glastonbury! Try Restival and the relaxation events where everyone gathers together to unplug (and even local tribes are invited), [Online], Available: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3650894/Forget-Glastonbury-Restival-bizarre-event-gathers-disconnect.html?fbclid=IwAR2v4YHF0ED8izkzKFTLGERhDcW2hzGU

xZZxDWRwRMWXuBxyXjCqfiVyrmk [17 April 2019].

Lu, C.T., Xie, S., Kong, X. and Yu, P.S. (2014) ‘Inferring the impacts of social media on crowdfunding’, 7th ACM international conference on Web search and data mining, 573-582.

Manne, K. (2016) Study finds three key factors to crowdfunding success, 4 March, [Online], Available: https://phys.org/news/2016-03-key-factors-crowdfunding-success.html [18 April 2019].

Massolution (2018) Crowdfunding, [Online] [17 April 2019].

Meyskens, M. and Bird, L. (2015) ‘Crowdfunding and value creation’, Entrepreneurship Research Journal.

Midambi, S.M. and Schiff, S. (2010) ‘What makes a helpful Online Review? A Study of Customer Review on Amazon.com’, MIS Quarterly, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 185-200.

Mitra, D. (2012) ‘The role of crowdfunding in entrepreneurial’, Delhi Business Review, vol. 13, no. 2, p. 67.

Mohr, J.W. and Ventresca, M. (2002) ‘Archival research methods’, in Blackwell companion to organizations, Blackwell.

Moisseyev, A. (2013) ‘Effect Of Social Media On Crowdfunding Project Results’, Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research from the College of Business, no. Spring, p. 39.

Mollick, E. (2014) ‘The dynamics of crowdfunding: An exploratory study’, Journal of Business Venturing, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 1-16.

Moritz, A. and Block, J.H. (2016) ‘Crowdfunding: A Literature Review and Research Directions’, in Crowdfunding in Europe – State of the Art in Theory and Practice.

Paul, B., Nessrine, O. and Martin, P. (2015) ‘The Economics of Crowdfunding Platforms’, Information Economics and Policy, vol. 33, no. 2015, pp. 11-28.

Prive, T. (2012) What Is Crowdfunding And How Does It Benefit The Economy, 27 November, [Online], Available: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyaprive/2012/11/

27/what-is-crowdfunding-and-how-does-it-benefit-the-economy/#686cf0b9be63 [16 April 2019].

Ruthven, H. (2017) Samphire Festival: Starting a music festival meant two trips to court, [Online] [17 April 2019].

Saunders, M.N.K. (2011) Research Methods For Business Students, Pearson Education India.

Silvers, J.R. (2006) ‘Towards an international event management body of Knowledge’, Event Management, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 185-198.

Simmons, A. (2016) Samphire Festival co-founders thrilled as they win Best Small Festival at National Outdoor Event Association awards, [Online] [17 April 2019].

Steinberg, D. (2012) The kickstarter handbook, Quirk Books.

The Conversation (2016) Six things that successful crowdfunding projects have in common, 15 November, [Online], Available: https://theconversation.com/six-things-that-successful-crowdfunding-projects-have-in-common-65850 [18 April 2019].

Tracy, S.J. (2010) ‘Qualitative Quality: Eight a “big-tent” criteria for excellent qualitative research’, Qualitative Inquiry, vol. 16, no. 10, pp. 837-851.

Vukovic, M., Mariana, L. and Laredo, J. (2009) ‘eoplecloud for the globally integrated enterprise’, in Service-oriented computing, Springer.

Wheat, R., Wang, Y., J. Byrnes and Ranganathan, J. (2013) ‘Raising money for scientific research through crowdfunding’, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 71-72.

Wu, S., Wang, B. and Li, Y. (2015) ‘How to attract the crowd in crowdfunding?’, International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 322-334.

Xu, A., Yang, X., Rao, H., Fu, W.T., Huang, S.W. and Bailey, B.P. (2014) ‘Show me the money! An analysis of project updates during crowdfunding campaigns’, 32nd annual ACM conference on human factors in computing systems, 591-600.

Zheng, H., Li, D., Wu, J. and Xu, Y. (2014) ‘The role of multidimensional social capital in crowdfunding: A comparative study in China and US’, Information and Management, vol. 51, no. 4, pp. 488-496.

Appendix

Reflective Log:

While reflecting on the experience of undergoing the process of writing the thesis, I have realised that even though at times it looked difficult, I enjoyed most of it. I am a very passionate person in terms of my career and any learning process that comes my way is accepted as a challenge. This is the reason I entered in this writing process as optimistic. Though during the last semester, I did not have much idea on the topic of my thesis, I think I had it in my mind from a time far back when I read an article on crowdfunding of events. That article helped me in finding the inspiration to make this my research topic. It wasn’t easy to work on this topic as I couldn’t find much research on crowdfunding from an event management perspective. However, this was also the very reason I chose it.

I started my work by looking at the literature available online in various databases. I used Proquest and other sources to search for studies, books, articles and journals on crowdfunding. There were many. However, when I used the keywords Crowdfunding and event management in combination; I couldn’t find any. It took me around a month to dig into the literature that was more appropriate for my research. I classified it in folders using various topics of factors. This made things quite easier for me while writing the literature review. Furthermore, I had also highlighted the parts that I knew I could use in the literature review while going through each of the articles which helped me a lot afterwards. During this process, I was sure how I was going to structure my thesis and what my research questions were going to be.

After writing the literature review, I wrote the Introduction Chapter. Usually, it is the other way around; however, as I had written my literature first, it helped me in writing the Introduction in less time than expected. It is not like I have not encountered any problems during my writing. The Data Analysis chapter was the most difficult one to write. I had to skim through the literature one by one in terms of all the factors and then apply the EMBOK model. After doing this, I assembled it in order of the research questions.

Overall, the experience was very fulfilling. I consider myself more experienced as a student and as a young professional. The writing and research skills are going to be helpful in an event management career as well. I came to learn a lot about the field of event management and crowdfunding and the numerous possibilities in future. Furthermore, presentation skills are also crucial to my professional grooming. With this project, I now feel more confident in my writing, research and presentation skills. Furthermore, I feel capable of contributing to any academic conversation between peers on the topic of my career choice, event management and crowdfunding. I feel this has been a very valuable and learning experience for me which enabled me to believe in my capabilities.

Personal Statement

With my interest in management, I pursued my _____________ (degree) from ______ (university). This discipline of event management is specifically my passion. I aspire to be a successful Event Manager one day. Most specifically, I like the application of technology to this discipline and the numerous possibilities it provides. The use of technology provides so many wonderful opportunities which could not have been imagined earlier. The possibilities of future application of technology in event Management are tremendous. I already have experience in management, Business Analytics and Managerial Skills. These skills enable me to become a successful Event Manager. Having a knack of learning new things and more specifically about technology products helps me in my academic learning as well as industry alignment. Furthermore, my interpersonal skills are also considered effective by my peers and instructors. I am proficient in communicating my ideas with enough knowledge in a manner that it is easily understandable. This has helped me a lot in my academic journey. I have great teamwork skills which help me to be aligned with the industrial setting. This is one skill which is very crucial in event management. My sensitivity towards diversity and cultural differences allows me to be better equipped for settings which require inter-cultural interactions. Empathy and ethical orientation have helped me in the past with my colleagues as well.

My extensive knowledge and proven track record of my experience in designing, developing, managing, implementing and control of events have been witnessed by others on several accounts. My command on this field gives me the direction and guidance for conducting research effectively and enables me to tackle the issue of crowdfunding in even Management in detail. Furthermore, I have been taking this dissertation quite seriously. I have taken several courses on writing reports to develop my academic writing skills. I am confident that by working on my skills, I can be better utilised in future research ventures and academic writing projects. In Event Management, I learned the importance of teamwork and the aligning of the team member skills to their jobs. Moreover, I am aware of the crucial importance of delegating work as it helps with time management and makes the team feel more empowered and in control. For the future, I am going to work on my leadership skills, by studying several other leaders and managers and their style of management. I am also convinced that by keeping myself updated on the latest developments in the field of Event Management and technology related to it, I can more effectively use my skills to lead and manage events effectively. On the other hand, this experience has also shown me my interest in research as well and the benefits that one gathers in the form of in-depth learning, knowledge of the latest and oldest works in the field. It made the researcher more equipped in participating in any knowledge-based conversations, and in using it for career growth. I will, therefore, keep myself abreast of all the latest studies in this field.