SMART goals and why is goal setting important to the overall success of an event
What are SMART goals?
According to Aicher, Paule -Koba, & Newland (2016), in the book “sport facility and event management, sporting events involves many important components that requires strategic planning that should adhere to, to manage and execute a successful event. A successful feasible event must be guided by the SMART goals rule which includes,
(1) Specific-goals, which refers to the goals of the event being well defined and should be clear to all parties involve for the plan to be executed smoothly.
(2) Measurable-goals, which follows is very critical, as it offers adequate explicit information through an evaluation to assist the event manager to determine if the goal was achieved or not.
3) Attainable-goals, is actually achieving the goal that was set, for example, if the event is charitable to raise money for children sport, it should be set at a reasonable and doable target.
(4) Relevant-goals, should be aligned or related to the specific event
(5) Time-based goals, which is just as important as the other components, is driven by a time limit which is placed on an event that decides the length of time needed to achieve the goal.
Why is goal setting important to the overall success of an event?
Calculated planning in a sport event is very important because of the objective of the event, whether for profit or charity. This process will help to prevent hiccup, minimize errors and facilitate time management associated with events in the sport industry. As it is stated by the authors, events are not permanent and are created for different reasons with challenges, and event managers must be able to attract different categories of people such as (1) sponsors, (2) event participants, (3) spectators, and (4) the media, to successfully host an event.
Goals are very important when creating events whether sport related or non-sport. Sport event managers are faced with humongous responsibilities on how to position an event in the target market to attract the right people. To successfully plan, manage and execute an event, the event manager must take the SMART goals approach into consideration to decide if the event is practical or not. To be specific with the goals of the event, outlining and detailing responsibilities to all parties involve for execution, will minimize any unforeseen problem that may occur during the planning phase to the post event phase.
This approach is vital because this will ensure that everyone is aware of the expectations of the event without any confusion, and these components will also help to determine location, quality of sponsorship and if the event will be a success or not. Though it is imperative to apply the SMART goals strategy as the blue print to planning an event, in addition, there are other vital elements to be included for the success of the event.
For example, if the event is to serve as an influential agent to attract local participants to try out for the Olympic team and raised funds in support of the team, it should trigger questions such as,
(1) Will this event attract the groups intended to target?
(2) Is this event suited for the location?
(3) Will the event get the support to attain its goals?
These questions should immediately come to the mind of the event manager who will attempt to determine if the event is feasible. Goal setting is important to the overall success of the event for many reasons, with the most important question, will the event accomplish its goals? For example, a traveling event is being planned, for the reason that a mega-event is too complexed, it is important to…
(1) Have an idea for the event, this way the planning for this event zooms in on a specific idea and is easier to brainstorm and make a decisive decisions.
(2) Feasibility study to probe the likelihood of the event idea by planning and conducting a SWOT analysis of the event to determine if it can be executed successfully with the available resources. This again is important to event managers and can also be helpful to not waste resources to plan an event that will not meet its goals. Also, if
(3) Bidding is “a competitive process to win the right to organize a specific sporting event” (Aicher, Paule -Koba, & Newland, 2016). If bidding is involve, the event manager will need to understand and apply the process adhering to the uniqueness of the appropriate sanctioning body rules whether national or international, for example, the US Olympic Committee or the Internal Olympic Committee (IOC).
(4) Planning the event, all parties involved need to now comprehend that this phase could be seen as the core of the project once the feasibility study report indicates that the event is doable. The event manager is now charged with the responsibility to combine available resources including people and delegate task ensuring sub committees are clear on the objective and are able to meet deadlines.
(5) Managing the event, is extremely important as this is crucial to the success of the event, and to reverberate key information with the different subcommittee. This best practice will determine how smooth and error free the event will be, because it is the responsibility of the event managers to ensure that all areas are in synced and are on target with their task list and ready to execute on event day.
(6) Execution, of all the components in the planning phase seem most important. Being able to combine facility preparation, concessionary, security, ticketing and staff is not always easy to ensure high quality and success of the production. The goal setting is extremely important because the process script the entire flow of operations that ultimately determine the success level of the event.
(7) Post event, activities wrap up the event where an evaluation of each aspect that contributed to the project is done. The ability to evaluate an event is of utmost importance for stakeholders, especially an event that is hosted with profit being the goal, especially with sponsorship and investors expecting high return on investment (ROI). This component is important because
(a) A detail evaluation is important to provide event manager a report itemizing each aspect with adequate information reflecting ticket sales, merchandise sales, unforeseen incidents, facility and other information to determine if the goal was attainable.
(b) An event post mortem report can assist with future events planning to, (1) review work done by all sub committees and (2) have an outline of what to fix or adjust going forward.
References
Aicher, T. J., Paule -Koba, A. L., & Newland, B. (2016). Sport facility and event management. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett.
HP Sports Corner 