Management of MICE events

Your portfolio covers Learning outcomes 1-3, and is worth 60% of your overall module mark. It should be a maximum length of 3000 words.
In the guidance below, the information in each box is taken directly from the written instructions that you already have, which is then

followed by more detailed explanation of what you need to do.

Assessment instructions:
Choose an appropriate MICE destination, and conduct an analysis of:
• The supply of MICE related facilities and services
• The demand for these facilities and services from the different MICE market groups.

Select three different MICE events held in the destination. The three events chosen must be from at least two different MICE sectors.
• Provide a brief summary of each event
• Assess the contribution made by the destination and other suppliers to the success of the events.

Choosing the destination
You should select a destination which holds MICE events, and has enough information for you to be able to answer the question.
Search the internet for the tourist board website for your chosen destination, then check to see if they have MICE section or separate

page. You can also search directly for the convention bureau website for your destination, which will take you straight to this

information.
Once you have found a suitable webpage, check it for lists of events which have taken place. There may also be case studies about the

events, which will be useful for you. Copy & paste the name of the event into your search engine, and you should get a webpage for the

event itself, which will again be a useful source of information. Also try looking at the venue webpages, as they also often contain case

studies. www.cit.magazine.com is also a good source of case studies – just use your destinations as a search term.

Analysing the destination
On the supply side, you should be looking at what the destination has to offer with regard to venues, transport, accommodation and

ancillary services. The ‘supplier’ and ‘destination’ lectures will be useful here. You should explain why the information is relevant by

making reference to academic theories. So, for example, if you are talking about the importance of the suppliers working together, you can

refer to Ogden and McCorriston (2007)’s research into the benefits of building relationships with secondary suppliers.
So, I would expect to see some discussion of the number and quality of hotel rooms, the range of venues, and the standard of public

transport in the destination. You can then compare this to what is required by the MICE buyers. Remember that the different MICE buyers

look for different things. The ‘buyer’ and ‘destination’ lectures will help you to identify what they are looking for. You will find the

Rompf, Breiter and Severt (2008) article particularly useful, as it breaks down the requirements of the buyers into the specific MICE

categories.
You may prefer to write about what the buyers want first of all, and then about what the destination has. That’s fine – you can do it in

whatever order you like, as long as you cover both sides. Whichever way you do it, make sure that you end this section by clearly

explaining how your chosen destination matches up to what MICE buyers want.

Discussing the events
In this section, you should use your three chosen events to demonstrate how the supply side meets the needs of the buyers.
Remember that you have to pick business events, not social or cultural events, and that you have to pick from at least two different MICE

sectors. So, for example, you can pick: two conferences and one exhibition; one incentive and two exhibitions; one conference, one meeting

and one incentive; etc. It’s up to you, so long as there are at least two different types of event represented.
Bear in mind that the information you find about events is highly likely to be positive rather than negative, as most of it will be from

marketing material. If you wanted a more balanced viewpoint, it might be worth searching twitter to see if participants made any comments

about this event. You don’t need to have a twitter account to do this: just type the name of the event and the word ‘twitter’ into your

search engine, and see what comes up. For example, I found this very intriguing message when I did a quick search:
SEDA ‏@Seda_UK_
Strangest experience at #edcwlu conf : man stormed out of his own workshop! ^JH
So, you can see that twitter messages can give you an insight into the delegate experience that you wouldn’t get from the official press

releases! The next step would be to click on the hashtag (#edcwlu) and see what other associated messages had been posted. You can, of

course, also check Facebook to see what has been posted there.
Once you have a clear idea of what the event was about, then you can start to explore how the destination and its suppliers contributed

towards the success (or otherwise) of the event. Again, you should use academic theories to explain why the information you provide is

relevant to the question: this is what turns your writing from description into analysis.

Portfolio content
Your portfolio can include any type of information which is relevant to the question, such as pictures, web pages, brochures, statistical

information, newspaper articles, etc.
You must also make reference to academic theory to support your analysis and discussion. Please remember that this is a level 9 module, and

you are expected to research from a range of academic sources, including journal articles. Some sources will be recommended to you in

class, but it is expected that there will be evidence of significant personal academic research in your report.

Additional material
This is an opportunity for you to include any of the information that you have researched, such as extracts from the website for the event,

brochures, fliers etc. The items that you include here will show where you got your information from, and save you from doing too much

explanation in your report. For example, instead of explaining the full details of your chosen events, you can give a brief summary, and

then provide an extract from the appropriate web page in your appendix.

Academic referencing
You are expected to use academic references to support the points that you make in your wiki. You will get some marks for referring to

sources that I have given you: please note that they should be cited according to its original source, and not as ‘McLatchie, 2014’ or

‘module lecture slides’. You should always track down the original books or journal articles: full references are given on the lecture

slides, so there is no reason why you can’t get hold of them. You will get more marks if you show that you have read these sources, ie by

referring to parts of them that I didn’t refer to in the lectures. You will get more marks again if you use relevant sources which you

have found for yourself, in addition to the ones that I have told you about.
You should use the correct referencing style (ie Harvard). There are materials on Moodle which will help you with your referencing, and

the following link also takes you directly to the Edinburgh Napier referencing guidelines.
http://staff.napier.ac.uk/services/vice-principal-academic/academic/LTA/Lists/Resources/Attachments/49/SMTL%20Referencing%20Guide.pdf
Remember to cite all of your sources. You should write in your own words wherever possible, and keep quotations to a minimum. Small

quotes are okay, but you should always make it clear that they are someone else’s words, through the correct use of quotation marks

(inverted commas). Resist the urge to copy & paste into your report, as this is how you can end up with problems of plagiarism.

Marking criteria
Marks will be given for:
• Evidence of research/investigation, including references (20%)
• Content including originality, analysis and argument (40%)
• Supporting evidence, including appropriate use of academic theory (20%)
• Clarity, structure and quality of presentation (10%)
• Your ability to demonstrate your understanding of the topic (10%).

The marking criteria have been explained to you in class. If you have any questions about these criteria, or anything else to do with the

assessment, then please let me know as soon as possible, so that you can make sure you’re on the right track before you submit the

coursework.