Media Industries Individual Progress Report
In our Media Industries Project, My group and I will be embarking on a research journey along the event's sector, focusing on the Melbourne's Events market (because we are here) and the Singapore's Event's market (because that where most of the group members come from.
Our primary research question that we formulated after a fair bit of brainstorming and research is:
"How to genera profit from non-traditional events management using online media."
We will be looking into areas such as how to incorporate new media into ongoing events that are already successful and see how new media will help takeout heir success to a whole new level. How events in general be created and managed solely using new media such as social media networks and online media resources.
We will also be looking into managing online events. Online events are events that are held entirely online. Some of the examples of online events are, online film festivals, virtual conferences, seminars and Mass forum gatherings. Many online events are known to exist but most of them are free and non-profit. Our research will mainly be zeroed in on how to leverage on online events and turning them into a profitable events management business. Our main research areas are,
Online events-how new media can be the platform for events.
Clubbing events - how a club promoter can make use of new media to increase publicity
Music Festivals - how new media can enhance these festivals?
Basically, I was the person who initiated the idea on researching into the events sector. Back in Singapore, I own and run an events company and will continue to do so after graduation. This research will greatly help on my business back in Singapore therefore I feel that it is important to do well in this research. My exact role in this group is to research into online events, looking into current and upcoming successful online events and also get feedback from internet users on ideas and feelings about such a venture. My role in this group is also to keep the research within topic.
So far, I am in the stage of prowling the Internet for successful online event s and collecting as much data as possible. I need to find out how these events work and what make them successful. I had looked through some online film festivals but they were mainly non-profit and are mostly funded by sponsors and advertisers. We are currently combing the Internet for online events that are ticketed. My group members and me had formulated the Project brief and Contract and we hand came up with a few surveys that we are currently in the process of distributing the surveys among our friends. The results will be collected shortly and will be useful for us to learn about how the general crowd feels about our research.
A few strategies were used in our research. Firstly, We came up with some keywords to for us to use in search engines to initiate our research on out topic. Some of these keywords, " online events", "virtual conference" and "online film festivals" were used on search engines to find our resources.
Another strategy we are using is by doing a survey among our friends and get them to share their ideas, feelings and opinion on Online events and events in general. Three different surveys are done
Currently, we don't have many problems at hand with regard to the research question and the research project. However, we did face a little problem with communication, as we are a relatively bigger group. These problems had have been resolved by tithing communication lines between group members, setting up a communication platform where all members can access frequently (facebook).
Should any problem be raised, we can use the collaborative contract to guide us through the problems.
One of the problems regarding the research is that Online Events is a relatively new idea. Although the idea of people conjugating at a pre-defined time online is not new, actual organized online events are rare and only recently they’re more of them. Therefore, this topic has not many resources and examples for us to research. This problem can be solved by extensive research and initiative on our parts to come up with refreshing ideas and also combine ideas online to make it work.
This Project can be connected to various existing projects, as what we are doing is very relevant to what I am studying. The research can be integrated into Production Project 1's Social Media Producer Project as both Projects touch on media convergence and new media. Research contents from other media projects can also be incorporated into this project as to help us more understand the intricacies of new media and the tips and tricks on convergence.
This Research will greatly benefit my personal research project for business opportunities for my Events Company back in Singapore. The research done can help me break into the Online market and also help me get a better understanding of the Melbourne events industry giving me a foot-in-the door to penetrate this immense and vibrant market. The research on the use of new media on traditional events is very relevant on my events project where I can learn effective ways of applying social media networks, blogs, onine advertising, instant messaging etc. to help promote future events.
In conclusion, this project Topic and research question is beneficial for me in both academic and business fields. The project workflow is now healthy with workload spreader efficiently among members and a great deal has been learnt through our current research.
