HALLMARK EVENT STRATEGY AND POLICY

Executive Summary
The report primary engages in evaluating the impact of London Olympic games on Sociocultural and economic life of UK. The report is important to understand the potential areas of
development and community benefits those are the results of infrastructure development and
more investments in trade and commerce. Any hallmark event like Olympic also increased
the potential of the site as a tourist destination and local communities can increase the crosscultural interaction to engage in enhance cultural values of the site. The report offers a
holistic view of the impact of the games and in the second part of the report; the learner
evaluates those impacts with drawing proper theories and models.

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Coursework 1: Impact of London Olympic 2012 on economy and communities of host areas 4
Summary....................................................................................................................................8
Recommendation........................................................................................................................8
Coursework 2: Theory based evaluation of success or failure of London Olympic 2012.......10
Theories and models for drawing the evaluation.....................................................................10
Discuss the factors that contribute to the success of London Olympic 2012...........................13
Conclusion and recommendations...........................................................................................14
List of references......................................................................................................................15

Introduction
As event management industry has grown rapidly over last few years, it has also been
emerged as the academic discipline with rational planning and management process. Prior to
the setting of any hallmark or large, proper planning is necessary. The impact of planning
process in the success of the event or failure is beyond any discussion in recent academics.
The prime reason behind selecting a hallmark event is its size and area of impact. The learner
selected London Olympic Games 2012 as a hallmark event because it provides the learner
with greater ability to discuss about plausible impacts on society and economy. This paper
examines the conceptualization of London Olympic games 2012 that is still remembered as a
success regarding its economic and socio-cultural benefits exerted upon UK citizens. This
paper documents the impact of London Olympic Games 2012 in social, physical, political
and economical hemisphere of the society. The study further draws some relevant theories to
assess the success or failure of the event against the planning process along with discussion
of the critical factors responsible for the result.

Coursework 1: Impact of London Olympic 2012 on economy and communities of host

areas
A hallmark event is the event that is having national importance and is held on a regular or
One-off basis. Over here, the learner selects London Olympic Games because of its
international status and size of operation. During the event, there are lot of promotional
activities and most importantly significant development in tourism facility of the host nation.
London Olympic 2012 has been a consideration because of its overarching impact on tourist
destination and sporting and public utility infrastructure.
Socio-Cultural impacts:
.A prime socio-cultural impact of any hallmark event is to continue the path of legacy and
phenomenal sensation of the historical perspective of the event. Think about Wimbledon or
CWG or even FIFA World Cup, they all are about the set the course of history back to the
legacy of these events. London Olympic games 2012 was not any exception of that.
According to the European Communities (2007), social impact entails the consequences of an
event on human life, behaviour and cultural interaction between two different ethic
individuals. Social impacts are also beneficial in terms of increasing destinations health;
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enhance the local communitys life expectancy and new sporting facilities (Weed et al. 2012,
p. 75).
Providing a sense of identity with widening cultural horizons:
The social impact of London Olympic games 2012 has long-term influences over host
community including reinforcing the cultural values and traditions and increasing the sense of
patriotism among the citizens along with greater sense of community belonging. It is indeed a
fact that a sense of prise was always prevalent during the continuation of Olympic Games.
England is mostly charged up like this during Wimbledon and Ashes. Therefore, it can be
stated that sports has created a powerful connection with social life of Britain. Staging the
Olympic in London created growth opportunities as well employment and education training,
which can be used further for economic regeneration.

Infrastructure and facilities

Such a Hallmark event like Olympic aimed at discovering the potential of employability
skills present in the local communities. The Games bore a positive impact on enhancing
social reconciliation and collaboration via development of local entrepreneurship and
government facility. However, Mackintosh et al. 2014, (p.23) noticed that sometimes, the
inter-urban competition can produce social waste investments, which intensify the problems
like facility development or job growth rather than resolving.

People, skills and employment

One of the significant impacts of the London Olympic Games 2012 was on people of Lower
Lea valley and North East London. The employment in the 5 boroughs throughout NE
London and Lower Lea Valley was increased by 27% during the Olympic Games. There was
a vital economic reintegration in Londons poorest and disadvantaged areas in Lea valley
(Giulianotti et al. 2015, p.99). The Olympic Park provides the people with improved
opportunities for jobs, education and training. Evidence from the reports published after
Olympic 2012 reflected that the games supported wider regeneration policies including
empowering the disadvantaged groups via employment opportunities along with increasing
the employment prospect through experience gained from before and during Olympic period
employment.

Greater participation sports and culture

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The Olympic Games increased the investment in sports and gym facility not only in London
but also in the poor and disadvantaged areas in NE London sites. Reports published after the
Games reflected that investments are also accelerated in the training facilities along with
sports facilities in different parts of UK. The Games contributed to the increased participation
in sports and this would create positive consequences on physical and mental wellbeing of the
UK citizens. London Olympic 2012 provided local people with significant cultural
improvements and social regeneration. Social inclusion was increased during that time and in
a diversified city like London there was enough amalgamation between two different cultures
to make the others aware of cultural heritages of UK.
Following the negative impact on Olympic Games, it is assessed that crime and alcohol
consumption are two prime areas, which are generally increased during the event. However,
London Olympic did not see any significant growth in crime rate during the time but alcohol
consumption was increased by 15% comparing to a traditional time. However, that did not
affect the behaviours of tourists, as state organized a strong security measures.
Physical impact
Physical impacts of any hallmark events are significant and visible to the entire audience of
the world. Therefore, the government or concerned committees always try to provide best
infrastructure development to the players, coaches, managers and tourists. It is indeed a fact
that sometimes hallmark events can transmit the sporting infrastructure of the nation to a new
level. However, Prayag et al. (2013, p.629) further added that public utility services are also
benefitted through infrastructure development during large events. Roads, transports, waste
management systems are renewed and physical environment surrounding the communities
become more commendable. The physical impacts of London Olympic Games 2012 are both
tangible and intangible in terms of using those physical benefits in future. The infrastructure
created at that time is still facilitating sporting and training along with public facility, which is
tangible and increased participation in national sports is intangible benefit. One of the key
characteristics of physical impacts of hallmark events is that the infrastructure are developed
long-term achievement for the communities and can be used in future for organizing similar
kind of event. Specific planning for infrastructure development included the increase of
capability of the sports stadiums. Seat numbers of the stadium was increased to 25,000,
which helped to create a multipurpose venue for athletes and different disciplines in sports. It
was also arranged with training facilities and offices for sports sciences. Medication facilities
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across the building were also increased and there were different sections for gym facilities,
physiotherapies and meditation training (Firstpost, 2012).
The committee also developed aquatics centres with two 50 m pools and a 25 m diving pool.
It also arranged a fitness centre to accommodate with elite and local clubs for community
users. The capacity for spectators was increased to 3500 and now local athletes and clubs use
those for own purpose. However, regarding waste management facilities, the infrastructure
can be referred to strategic failure. Due to overcrowded visitors number, waste management
activities could not be placed properly. However, the committee introduced a multi-discipline
cycling centre that included a 3000 seat Velodrome, a road track and recreational BMX
tracks. Along with all those developments, the committee also developed a mountain biking
course used by different athletes. There was also a hockey centre developed for training and
competition facilities at all levels.
Political impact
In 2012, politicians addressed the appreciation for games even more than before because they
started to see the implication for organizing gaming activities to turn their vote bank on. Any
significant event success has prior political indication that the government sets up a positive
image to the nation regarding success of the game. However, we have also noticed fallacies
and corruptions during the games. Commonwealth Games in India is still a popular example
of political corruption regarding the infrastructure building for the event. Boris Johnson, the
mayor of London was the biggest winner because of his successful contribution to the
continuation of the event. The impact was so fruitful for the mayor that he might as well be a
good contender for next presidential election. However, David Cameron also won hearts of
millions because of projection Big Society during the Olympic event (Watt, 2013, p.99). It
was assessed at that time that Camerons campaign would attract the volunteers to become
enthusiastic in serving the nation. The assessment was not found popularity, until London saw
70,000 enthusiastic volunteers gathering to support the crowd and London tourism. Cameron
now eyes for next Olympic and Paralympics games in Rio for which he pledged a 125 million
GBP per year. Significantly, previous two Olympic Games in London were associated with
war conflicts but for this event, there was no significant terrorist upsurge around London.
However, the government and committee both organized strong security measures for any
possible terrorist attack.
Economic impact
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This is the most significant impact any hallmark event because the economy of the local
community is largely related with tourist numbers and their spending pattern. During the
Olympic Games UK economy has seen a boost of 9.9 billion from trade and investments. A
report from UK government department suggests that UK put with new contracts, sales and
offshore investments down the next period from games. UK Trade and Investment
Department reported that during the games, there were 2.5 billion inward investments and
majority of the amount was invested outside of London. The report also suggested that there
was a total 5.9 billion sale following the promotional events of Olympic. There were 1.5
billion high-valued overseas contracts for designing other facilities in different venues in
different host nations. Therefore, it can be stated that there were real jobs and adequate
amounts of money spent on the project to gain nationwide economic viability. On the other
hand, they have a significant impact over GDP of UK as it was increased by 9% at that time.
The significant areas of economic development come from construction and tourism. Reports
suggested that there were at least new 1000 buildings those were developed just as apart of
supporting the accommodation of huge tourists number. Reports suggested that 75% of total
revenue from Games came through tourism and construction activities.

Summary
Prior to the London Olympic 2012, London and Britain feared about the success of the event
because of two correlated facts; the phenomenon of displacement and fear of disruption and
overcrowding. It seems that neither of them is actually very integrative in making the
spectators resisting from vesting the stadium. The success of any hallmark event is assessed
through the discussion of its positive impact on the socio cultural context of the nation. The
study of impacts found out that mostly NE London and Lower Lea valley was benefitted
during the time of Olympic. The economic upsurge was inevitable but it did not affect
positively upon every area and class in the society.
The number of inbound visitors and revenue from tourism is the prime impact of the London
Olympic Games 2102. However, the implication of the inconsistencies in managing the
success afterwards of the event must be considered for better results. It is not that once when
the event is finished, everything goes back to previous position. Follow up reporting after the
Games is a necessary thing to do to ascertain the level of national participation in
development of UK.

Coursework 2: Theory based evaluation of success or failure of London Olympic 2012

Over here, the report focuses on measuring the critical success of the games and evaluates the
extent to which the games hold a positive impact on the host community. Though, the prime
positive impact is economical but there is not any use of economical integrity, if that cannot
be incorporated into social lives of citizens.

Theories and models for drawing the evaluation

Social audit:
Social audit is the purpose to check whether official records of any enterprises are correct and
state reported money is actually spent on the ground. Social audit evaluates the level of
clarity and honesty in official works. The London Olympic 2012 was also a subject of a
social audit regarding the money and resources spent on the promotion and infrastructure.
The impact on community sector is mostly the discussable issue in the social audit of
Olympic Games. The necessity of social audit is to measure the social benefit from a
particular event or enterprise (Harcourt et al. 2012, p.2152). As mentioned in the previous
coursework, socio-cultural impacts are executed in two ways mainly; people, skills and
employment and legacy in sports and culture. It is assessed that the passion for sports in UK
is greatly harnessed after London Olympic Games. The host community is benefitted because
Olympic brought back the culture of competition in UK schools. When it comes in talking
about participation in grassroots level, it has been accelerated definitely after Olympics.
Therefore, it can be stated that socially London Olympic creates a buzz among the sports
lovers. The evaluation suggested that improved infrastructural framework and overarching
sports legacy objectives of Britain.
Social return on Investment (SROI)
SROI is a principle based method that is devised in order to track the extra financial value
related to the resource invested in any event. SROI method is further standardized by
incorporating a quantitative approach to understand the impact of an event or project. SROI
framework is prepared to compare the investment to return by measuring the social,
environmental and economic changes across the community involved in project (Davies,
2012, p.309). One of the prime benefit that can be addressed as the social is development of
Britains sporting legacy one again. Last time London held Olympics went back to 1948.
After that, 2012 London Olympic Games created much flatter among the citizens. The skills
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of the employees during the time have been increased greatly. In fact, most of the employers
were engaged in high profile construction activities, which also accounted for future
employment prospectus. More than 4,000 workers were trained across the nation to build up
construction facility.
Therefore, it can be stated that government and committee interventions in the employee
training and education developed a positive legacy in UK labour market due to the benefits of
engaging with more professional and experienced work-force. The investment over
construction facility allows the unemployed people to earn additional 121 million in wages.
However, household consumption indicator cannot be very satisfactory for own national
citizens. It was noticed that overall domestic consumptions were not raised during that period
because products were set at a high price. However, as the prospect of tourism is the key
matter of discussion regarding the benefit in investment, it can be surely told that crosscultural blending during the time was enormous and tourists spent quite an amount to visit
cultural heritage of Britain.
Social capital theory
According to the social capital theory when different individuals or groups start cooperation,
there are always collective or simply economic benefits. The basic of social capital theory
relies on very nature of individual interaction about culture and heritage for increasing
productivity. However, social capitals may be physical, cultural and even human subjects
those are closely attached to overall social development process. However, Houlihan and
Giulianotti (2012, p.701) argued that social capital is an abstract format in recognizing the
existence of actual resources. Since, London Olympic Games is a proper example of civic
engagement with government and corporation, the productivity introduced from the event are
blissfully eventful. All three pillars of the games worked well together to ensure most revenue
from tourist and construction facility.
Customer service of UK hospitality industry is well-known and in the time of Olympic
Games, the customer service facility was increased further to support tourism. If we do
aftermath assessment of Olympic Games, it is noticed that with the modern infrastructure by
their side, sports coaching and volunteering to support and sustain increased participation has
been increased. However, it still remains unclear to which extent the London Olympic Games
2012 served in reinforcing the sports legacy in Britain because there is no particular
measurement indicator the assess the point. Still, it is a fact that Games has much
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contribution to the enhancement of participation and interest in sports as well other areas in
maintaining relationship with customers.
Social Exchange theory
Discussion of Social exchange theory is apt here because it stated that human relationships
are formed through active cost-benefit analysis regarding any phenomenon and participation
in that event. Regarding the cost-benefit approach, the theory has developed a root in
economical benefits because most of the tangible benefits to which human relationships are
concerned developed from economical regeneration. The theory further assessed that social
exchange is commendable only when it is mutually contingent and guaranteed a reward
process to one end of the string (Kavetsos, 2012, p.1453). In case of London Olympic Games
2012, the exchange was done as economic, social and physical benefit primarily.
Infrastructure was made from committee and other associates to support the game and
humans involvement was to gear up the economy by showing enough amounts of skill and
technical calibration.
Economy was further addressed because unless, proper skills were executed and customer
service facility was managed positively, there was no chance that the event would become a
huge success. The community was particularly benefitted as a whole because hotels numbers
has fallen short due to overcrowded tourist and local residents started to offer accommodation
to the tourists.
Contingent valuation
Contingent valuation is a survey based economic method that is intended to valuate nonmarketing resources like environmental preservation or effect of contamination during a
project or event. Severi et al. (2012, p.989) commented that these valuation indicators are
having no direct market price but they are responsible to shape the way of living of local
communities. It is often noticed that after any big event, mostly environmental parameters are
degraded because of loose environmental regulation. For event like Olympic, the statement is
more believable because within that certain period of time there was particularly very poor
waste management planning to control the wastages. The planning committee included green
building measures such as water recycling, engaging carbon footprint system in every project.
They also planned to source out 25% of the raw materials from recycled resources. Energy

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Company EDF announced at the time of Olympic to provide 24MW of energy produced
solely from renewable resources like Wind power.
Before the construction project began, committee planned to use 90% recycled material in
construction point. Ironically, more than half of the carbon emissions related with Games
generated from construction point. Carbon offsetting program lost the balance once when the
committee decided to consider Pay to pollute strategy. This means committee would fund to
different environmental projects to counteract carbon emission from own construction
activities. The solution was entirely a false one and environmentalists severely criticized the
strategy. Transportation chaos has become a natural issue across the Olympic sites. The main
problem was that everyone wanted to reach to the site and streets were almost congested. In
the year 2012, global flight emissions were also increased as more air transport during that
period.

Discuss the factors that contribute to the success of London Olympic 2012
The success or failure entirely depended on the planning process and their exact execution by
planning committee as well as government. Now, if we discuss about the success of the
Games, proper functional operation from London Organizing Committee of the Olympic
(LOCOG) must be introduced. One of the prime challenges behind starting of the constricting
operation was logistics factor. Moving of the technology and construction materials was a
challenge for the committee and the committee employed 70,000 volunteers in transportation
to remove the challenge. The government also spent 9.3 billion amount of money across the
department of culture, media and arts to manage the proper promotional and public relation
activities.
Moreover, government spent 377 million in making the public sector reliable and usable for
tourists and athletes. In constructing the Athletes village, the government also made solid
assumptions and contracting with suppliers and contractors made a beneficial factor for the
games because the expenses was not gone out of hand and unallocated money was used for
developing further accommodation activities. As the operational cost was not exceeding,
proper measures were taken to strengthen security and medication system in the stadiums. It
spent 500 million amount of money to tighten the security measures around Olympic venues.
Finally, collective efforts from local community and training program to the workers are most
two critical factors in determining the success of event. Local community showed a positive
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behaviour towards the tourists and supported the accommodation facilities. Employment
skills were greatly enhanced at that time and those employability skills could be used further
to integrate economic success among Britain employees.

Conclusion and recommendations

The report concludes with the findings that success of any major hallmark event depends on
integrate planning and execution process. As LOCOG made proper planning regarding
construction and operational planning, it brought back the legacy of Britain in sports and
culture. Impact of the event was also positive in most cases but it failed in meeting with
environmental sustainability program. The consequences of those construction activities were
considered as negative. However, if we follow holistic approach to judge the findings, it
becomes clear that the game has positive impact over making the site as tourist destination
and increase the economic growth of the nation. As the committee failed to be engaged in
proper environmental protection, it is recommended that from next time, collaboration with
some pollution control agency would be greater. Institution like Carbon trust could be
beneficial to minimize the environmental impact of construction activities and provide a
justified framework to reduce carbon emission.

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List of references
Books
Fussey, P., Coaffee, J., Armstrong, G., and Hobbs, D. (2011). Securing and sustaining the
Olympic City: reconfiguring London for 2012 and beyond. Farnham: Ashgate.
Journals
Davies, L. E. (2012). Beyond the Games: regeneration legacies and London 2012. Leisure
Studies, 31(3), 309-337.
Fussey, P., Coaffee, J., Armstrong, G., and Hobbs, D. (2011). Securing and sustaining the
Olympic City: reconfiguring London for 2012 and beyond. Farnham: Ashgate.
Giulianotti, R., Armstrong, G., Hales, G., and Hobbs, D. (2015). Sport Mega-Events and
Public Opposition A Sociological Study of the London 2012 Olympics. Journal of Sport &
Social Issues, 39(2), 99-119.
Harcourt, S. E., Fletcher, J., Loveridge, P., Bains, A., Morbey, R., Yeates, A., ... and Elliot, A.
J. (2012). Developing a new syndromic surveillance system for the London 2012 Olympic
and Paralympic Games. Epidemiology and infection,140(12), 2152-2156.
Houlihan, B., and Giulianotti, R. (2012). Politics and the London 2012 Olympics: the (in)
security Games. International Affairs, 88(4), 701-717.
Kavetsos, G. (2012). The impact of the London Olympics announcement on property
prices. Urban Studies, 49(7), 1453-1470.
Mackintosh, C., Darko, N., Rutherford, Z., and Wilkins, H. M. (2014). A qualitative study of
the impact of the London 2012 Olympics on families in the East Midlands of England:
lessons for sports development policy and practice.Sport, Education and Society, (ahead-ofprint), 1-23.
Prayag, G., Hosany, S., Nunkoo, R., & Alders, T. (2013). London residents' support for the
2012 Olympic Games: the mediating effect of overall attitude.Tourism Management, 36, 629640.

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Severi, E., Heinsbroek, E., Watson, C., and Catchpole, M. (2012). Infectious disease
surveillance for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.Euro Surveill, 17(31),
pp.989-1011
Watt, P. (2013). It's not for us Regeneration, the 2012 Olympics and the gentrification of
East London. City, 17(1), 99-118.
Weed, M., Coren, E., Fiore, J., Wellard, I., Mansfield, L., Chatziefstathiou, D., & Dowse, S.
(2012). Developing a physical activity legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and
Paralympic Games: a policy-led systematic review.Perspectives in public health, 132(2), 7580.
Williams, K., Sinclair, C., McEwan, R., Fleet, K., Balasegaram, S., and Manuel, R. (2014).
Impact of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games on demand for microbiology
gastrointestinal diagnostic services at the Public Health Laboratory London. Journal of
medical microbiology, 63(Pt 7), 968-974.
Websites
Firstpost, (2012). London Olympics: Britain's success and its domino effect - Firstpost.
Available from: http://www.firstpost.com/sports/london-olympics-britains-success-and-itsdomino-effect-418292.html [Accessed on 1 Nov. 2015].
Inhabitat.com, (2015). 6 Ways in Which London 2012 has Failed to be 'The Green Olympics'.
Available

from:

http://inhabitat.com/6-ways-in-which-london-2012-has-failed-to-be-the-

green-olympics/ [Accessed on 2 Nov. 2015].

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