Events Management

Introduction
The event i chose was the Children's Season, a local event, at the National Museum of Singapore. I visited Mozart: A Child Prodigy, which cost me $8.50, as well as Imprint and The Murmurs Playground, a fraction of the many exhibits, workshops, performances and presentations that have been organised for Children's Season. I also viewed Transient Light Whispering Breeze exhibit which is in association the the Singapore Arts Festival.

Background of The National Museum of Singapore
The National Museum hosts a variety of festivals and events throughout the year, not just artefact and exhibitions. The museum continually attracts visitors by making constant improvements and having a diverse assortment of exhibits. The museum mixes the old with the new, having a mix of "do not touch" exhibits and those offering ones where you can see, touch, taste, hear and smell. It has a mix of permanent and temporary exhibitions so that it constantly draws crowds.

Role of Events & Festivals to the National Museum
The different events and festivals each have a different impact on the museum. Many of the events help boost the museum's reputation through using state of the arc technology which are innovative and interactive.

The ever changing events attract a variety of visitors, those there for a specific event and others who are there for the heritage and cultural education. The events are also animators, encouraging more visits, especially repeat visits as the ever changing events always brings something new for them to experience.

Events and festivals also creates awareness and prestige for the museum.

For example, the Children's Season is an event that tries to change the image of the museum from a reserved, "adults only" atmosphere to a vibrant child-friendly one. The exhibits encourage learning and creativity through hands-on exploration. At the same time, it encourages families to visit the museum. This portrays Place Marketing, the creation of a positive image while improving the quality of life.

Stakeholders in the Event
The museum's main stakeholders are its sponsors [Sony, Hugo Boss, Cisco, Panasonic and Sennheiser, and potential sponsors and philanthropists], schools, museum members, volunteers, staff, artists, board members, media, National Heritage Board and the public.

Within the museum, each exhibition has its very own specific stakeholders. For example, the Children's Season has stakeholders such as National Family Celebrations and MediaCorp's Kids Central. Within this, the Mozart Exhibit has stakeholders such as Zoom Kindermuseum and Da Ponte Institut [organisers], Artex and WeinOzart 2006, Chartered Asset Management Pte Ltd [ sponsor] and Lobmeyr [ supporter].

Target Market
The National Museum's target market has no defined age group, however certain exhibitions do.

The Children's Season is targeted at families with children under the age of 12. Most of the exhibits are for 6 to 12year olds but there are a few that are designed for the younger ones.

Generally the targeted families are those that are affluent enough to afford the various activities and also have a keen interest in developing their child's mind.

Marketing Strategies
The National Museum used a series of road shows and press releases to market this event on top of the usual brochures and web pages. Using a niche strategy, they marketed Children Season on the morning news to capture the well-educated parents' interest.

Organisation of Event
The event was well organised, paying attention to small details.

As Children's Season caters to kids, precautions were taken to ensure that health concerns were met. Upon entering the exhibit, hand sanitization is strongly encouraged. Also there were multiple helpful facilitators on hand to help the children at the various activities to guide them[refer to appendix pictures]. Lanyards were also handed out which is good because children tend to lose small things like ticket stubs.

Tickets are also easy to purchase with options of purchasing through the National Museum Website, Sistic and the Visitor Service Centres at the museum itself. Although some of the activities are free, others require payment which is $7.50 for a child, $15 for an adult and $8.50 for students/senior citizens/NSF.

I think that the ticket fee for the child is fare since they get to bring home things that they make in the exhibit, like paper wigs, self-made tooth paste and drawings. But the $15 for adults is a bit too much. The high price encourages adults to skip the children's exhibition and explore the rest of the museum on their own. I would think that usually children have lower entrance fees because they get less out of the experience, but since this event is made for children, their fee should be higher and the adult's lower. The high price for the adult just encourages them to forgo the childrens exhibit in favour of something more interesting and engaging at the same price.

Children's Season was well organised to meeting the needs of the participants. There are games to make it enjoyable while learning, film screenings and performances for entertainment, and numerous activities to stimulate creativity and education.

The venue was also made child-friendly with soft carpeted floors and interesting vibrant decorations. There were also multiple staff on hand that would approach you and give you directions if you looked lost or if you looked bored, they would point out interesting activities that you could try. All the staff were very friendly, greeting you whenever you entered or left an exhibit.

The museum itself is conveniently positioned in the heart of the city, a stones throw away from Orchard Road. Getting there is easy, being a 5minute walk from Dhoby Ghaut MRT station, and there are multiple signs to guide you along the way. There is ample parking sapce and has the usual facilities; museum shop, restaurants and cafe.

Potential for Tourist Demand
The Museum's permanent galleries are enough to draw the typical sight-seeing tourist looking to learn about singapore's history and diverse culture, all the other exhibits would just be a bonus.

Hosting more international events would definitely boost the tourist demand such that tourists would come to Singapore just to participate in an event the museum is holding. An example would be the 14th International Symposium of Electronic Arts [ ISEA2008], partly sponsored by Uniquely Singapore and is the second time this event is being held in Asie. This event alone will bring hundreds of tourists to Singapore and it's just considered a major event on the smaller side.
If the museum was able to secure bids to more international events such as this then it could increase tourist demand.

Suggestions on how to Raise Tourism Value
I believe that a major problem is that many of the "big" exhibitions are foreign works, and these works usually travel the world. This means that someone on the other side of the world could just wait there for the exhibition to come to them and not need to come here to see it. The foreign exhibitions may lack exclusivity which home grown exhibitions would have, if we had them.

Another way is hosting major events to draw more visitors.