31272 PMP Autumn 2024 Case study

Background

The CEO of Project Management Professionals Pty Ltd has been in talks with management of the

recently reorganised Nouveau Event Creations (NEC) regarding initiatives to modernise facilities,

introduce new methodologies and update infrastructure across NEC’s Australian operations. As stated

by the new Managing Director at their annual general meeting, NEC intend to adopt a much more

proactive, disciplined and project-based approach to doing business, “… leaping ahead from passively

organising seminars and club-tours for visiting speakers and performers to the orchestrating of noisy,

extravagant, highly-publicised and ever-larger entertainment events”.

NEC recently won a bid for running a large full-day concert in January 2026 concluding the Festival of

Sydney. However, as a first-of-its-kind happening they recognise that this will be a challenge to do,

especially since they don’t have an existing system or procedures capable of managing the complexities of

large events. Consequently, PMP (with their solid reputation for project competence) has been invited to

assist by preparing a project management briefing paper for the NEC Board covering development

planning for a new Events Management System (EMS). If the anticipated report is clear, detailed and

complete, NEC have suggested this could not only form the basis for running the Festival concert but

potentially lead to beneficial ongoing business arrangements for PMP including:

1. A proposal for the two companies to jointly develop the EMS and associated software. A success with

this initial venture could prompt a long-term partnership offer for PMP to help NEC fulfil a range of

other (still confidential) entertainment and sports industry projects. These significant joint activities

would become a lucrative (and high profile) income stream for PMP over the next 5 years

– plus give a competitive advantage over rival consultancies still unaware of the aggressive scale

of NEC’s intended market expansion or richness of their client list.

2. A highly regarded submission has potential to see the PMP CEO offered a non-executive

Directorship on the NEC Board of Directors. He regards this potential appointment, if it were to

happen, as an excellent opportunity for personal networking among the high-status peer group of

the entertainment and sports industries, opening business and social options that are normally

difficult to obtain.

3. NEC’s parent company, Recreation Amalgamated Holdings (RAH), is considering a ‘preferred

supplier’ arrangement with a proven information technology consultancy. The chosen firm would

not just provide expertise and services to one subsidiary (such as NEC) but act as primary

technology consultant/advisor to the entire conglomerate. This is an opportunity potentially worth

tens of millions of dollars for the enterprise selected. Exhibiting superior proficiency in working

with NEC could make PMP eligible for the appointment.

Needless to say, professionalism and thoroughness of the project management briefing report is

important for both the future of PMP and to its CEO personally.

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CASE STUDY

Nouveau Event Creations

Background

In early 2022 a collection of venture capital investors and small-to-medium sized recreation firms

examined the possibility of amalgamating to provide an umbrella company for the easy management

of large-scale health and holiday resorts around Australia. They decided to form Recreation

Amalgamated Holdings (RAH) - a major publicly listed corporation dedicated to the provision, rollout

and management of recreation services around the country. From this formation, and numerous

subsequent acquisitions of other high value firms in its target markets, the parent corporation now has

five autonomous and substantially-funded divisions: Pacific Resorts Group; Snowy Mountains

Resorts Group; Everyday Fitness Group; Southern Golf Group; and Nouveau Event Creations Group.

Although strategic directives and annual profit targets are issued by RAH, each division has its own

Board of Directors, internal operations structure, independent decision making and profit/loss

accountability – thus, operating as wholly-owned commercial subsidiaries within their individual

industry segments.

Recently, due to the wide-ranging disparity of systems and capability inherited from its mergers and

acquisitions, RAH has prioritised the development of a suitable integrated infrastructure to administer the

day-to-day needs of patrons and staff and to better monitor and provide services to its chain of affiliates.

The subsidiary covering event management activities, NEC, has been given the go-ahead as the first of the

five divisions to be modernised. To meet the timeline issued by their parent company, NEC feels that

design of an appropriate information systems architecture (and development of associated tools) should be

outsourced to an experienced consulting group with a track record of successfully integrating diverse

information needs with the latest technological advances. The selected consulting firm would lead the

upgrade program under NEC oversight – and then potentially across other RAH divisions once the initial

program with NEC has been deemed successful.

Currently headquartered in Sydney, NEC also has branch offices located in Melbourne and Brisbane.

Traditionally, it has operated as a management company for club tours, speaking seminars and small-

scale entertainments by overseas performers. More recently, it has acquired two rival firms of similar

size, growing total staff to nearly 120 people - prompting an internal reorganisation and the hiring of a

new managing director with very aggressive plans for the expanding company.

During 2023 NEC’s updated client list and sales structures encouraged them to bid for larger and

more significant engagements, including Australian tours by international artists and the management

of large-scale concerts and performance events. In fact, two months ago NEC put in a bid to manage

an open-air concert scheduled as one of the concluding entertainments for the 2026 Festival of

Sydney. The Festival is a January-long annual celebration jointly sponsored by Sydney City and the

NSW State Government, attracting millions of people into Sydney and with events often televised

across Australia and parts of South-East Asia. Needless to say, it is very high profile. Much to the

surprise of more experienced rivals (not to mention their RAH parent company who weren’t expecting

things to move so quickly) NEC actually won the contract!

The company is now faced with a serious dilemma. It has people with event management and

entertainment industry knowledge but insufficient information infrastructure to easily organise a

concert that is much grander and more extensive than anything they have ever attempted before. To

help overcome this they have decided to automate as much as possible as quickly as possible –

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completely replacing old equipment with a new technology platform and streamlining internal

operations. An immediate priority within their modernisation program is developing a bespoke

software system to integrate and coordinate the various activities needed to run a significant

concert or similar event. This is urgent. Existing packages they have reviewed have been found

unsuited to their needs and NEC simply cannot afford to have the Festival concert fail - their

reputation and future business is now riding upon orchestrating a successful event.

NEC openly state that they are not information systems experts. Thus, they have engaged Project

Management Professionals to prepare a Briefing Paper outlining work estimates, resourcing and

preliminary planning for building a robust Event Management System (EMS) using typical project

management disciplines. While it is understood that the organisation actually doing the development

work may have their own methodology for ensuring successful delivery, NEC hope that this initial

Briefing Paper will allow their oversight of the process to be an informed one.

A preliminary budget of $1.5 million has been allocated to the EMS project, however NEC Managing

Director has emphasised that money is less important than time and quality. The system must be fully

developed, tested and implemented two months prior to the Festival concert scheduled for 30 January

2026. Having it live and in use even earlier (if possible) would be looked upon favourably.

Objectives for the Proposal

To provide for the easy running of significant entertainment events by automating, integrating and

simplifying a number of manual processes currently requiring human intervention and/or where the

existing service is inconsistent. At a minimum, this should encompass:

1. Maximising event attendance;

2. Ticketing and registration of audience attendees;

3. Venue management;

4. Easy management of event suppliers;

5. Simplified scheduling and management of performances;

6. Managing the booking of performers;

7. Managing event budgets;

8. Managing event sponsorships;

9. VIP and special guest management;

10. Continuous improvement in the operating of future events.

Initial Scope and Requirements

NEC has resolved to issue a contract for a new state-of-the-art, automated and integrated Event

Management System (EMS) to largely replace disparate individual methods currently in use. They

envisage the new system will allow:

Targeted marketing of an event. The system should be able to manage and track push-advertising

over multiple channels including email campaigns and social/online media feeds as well as

website access. It should also be able to note the schedule and track delivery of paid advertising

segments on mass-market media such as radio and TV.

Security. The Events Management System will include security systems. Each event will have

CCTV, there will be facial recognition and patrons who have previously misbehaved will be

banned. A list of the names of banned people will be checked before tickets are sold. Mobile

phone use will be banned during the event and there will be a no photo and no video policy.

Integrated/online ticketing, registration and payment. Permit individuals to acquire tickets using a

number of different online payment options including cash, credit card or PayPal account. Tickets

can be dispatched electronically to a registered mobile phone number or email address or be

physically posted to a mail box if postage details are provided. Tickets may also be sold directly at

the venue itself. Entry to the event is via electronic ticket/barcode swipe at the venue gate(s).

Venue management. A detailed site plan of seating, entry/exit locations, stage areas, service areas,

running of cables, lighting/sound placement, etc. should be able to be easily constructed and made

available for a venue. This will allow attendees, performers and event management staff

knowledge of required service facilities, specialised areas and public-permitted versus off-limit

areas. It will also be useful if management needs to guide emergency services or security to

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specific locales within the venue. As new venues are added their maps should be able to be easily

included/updated.

Event risk management. List of mitigation strategies and approved action plans for emergencies

(medical, fire, etc.), poor weather, poor audience behaviour, no-show of performers, etc.

Supplier network management. Suppliers for an event should be noted, geographically placed

within a venue and able to be managed during an event. This includes validating licence

requirements such as NSW WWCC (working with children check), food permits for the

food/drink vendors, merchandising, emergency services (e.g. medical), janitorial services,

security services, etc. Specific arrangements, service location assignments and on-call staff details

should be recorded and tracked. Some venues (mainly indoors) may already have their own

operations for these so importing of this data into the EMS should be made as easy as possible.

Performance management. Performance schedule, queuing/location (if more than one stage is

used), allocated set-up time, specialised equipment, sound/lighting, back-up alternatives, etc.

should be recorded and tracked for each individual act booked to appear at an event.

Artist management. Performer booking details, travel itinerary/arrangements, accommodation

details, entourage associates, special needs, communication contacts, contract details, appearance

fee, additional costs, etc. should be recorded and tracked for each performer (or group) scheduled

to appear at an event.

Event budgeting. Expenditures associated with staging an event including detailed tracking of

planned versus actual costs, unplanned overheads, management approvals for cost items, expense

reconciliation against supplier invoices, contingency allocations, etc.

Sponsor management. Sponsorship arrangements for events should be captured, maintained and

managed. This will allow for sponsor tracking, venue/grounds corporate advertising, access to

VIP areas, patron backstage passes and introductions to performers, sponsor special services, etc.

VIP care. When required, specialist concierge, security and special needs services should be

identified and managed for best care of attending dignitaries, celebrities and high-profile VIPs.

Data Analytics. A series of reports should be generated covering events summaries, financials

information, audience numbers, ticketing demographics, etc. These reports should be informative

and useful in helping measure the degree of event success and/or identify areas needing attention

for future events of this type.

Maintenance. The whole Events Management System must be easily upgradeable, robust and

scalable. It should easily extend to cover events from 100 to 10000 attendees and cater for various

types of venues (indoors and open-air).

This is by no means an exhaustive list. PMP should include additional scope items in the briefing paper if

such are judged useful/essential to the Event Management System’s (EMS) final product. NEC plans on

selecting from among a short list of development firms by no later than mid-July 2024, leaving

approximately 18 months for the winning company to complete this project and deliver a fully tested and

working system. All involved understand that this may be a tight deadline but it also has some very big

benefits for both NEC and the partnering consultancy if, together, they achieve success.

Once the EMS is complete, NEC intends investing a further 12 months undertaking a comprehensive

modernisation program (this latter series of projects has yet to be fully scoped or budgeted).

Out of Scope Components (i.e. not to be addressed in your Project Briefing Document)

While some items might need to be later considered for the actual project when it is commissioned,

they are not of immediate interest to the Board. Therefore, for the purposes of the Briefing Paper, the

following items are known to be out of scope:

 Buildings, space and general office fit-out for the EMS Project Office and its staff;

 Administration staffing and support personnel not directly engaged in Project development;

Back office, financial and other systems not directly related to EMS project development;

 Sourcing of ‘non-project’ hardware not directly linked to EMS development/testing (i.e.

concert hardware will be acquired by separate negotiation direct with equipment vendors);

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 Provisions for issues and risk related to legislation, environment, land and governing bodies

(e.g. Tax Laws, Immigration Laws, Property Development applications, local council permits,

etc.);

 Direct management of the 2026 Festival Concert (although recommendations are welcome).

 Other later projects linked to the NEC modernisation program that may follow or run

alongside the intended EMS (i.e. for now, only the EMS planning/development is to be

considered ‘in-scope’).

Additional Notes (some possible project considerations identified)

At the last monthly meeting of the NEC Board certain items relating to the proposed Briefing Paper

were discussed. After the meeting, the CEO of PMP had an informal discussion with the Board

Secretary and wrote down some bullet points over coffee regarding areas of importance to the Board.

These notes are made available below although the PMP CEO has not assessed their relevance to

preparation of the Briefing Paper – they are almost certainly incomplete, may not be relevant to

immediate project decisions and are not in any set order. However, the PMP CEO has provided them

to help provoke thought about activities the project plan might include:

1. Sourcing, modifying and installing security hardware;

2. Preparation of a list of potential suppliers needed for a large concert event;

3. The Festival Concert venue and start/finish time are yet to be confirmed. At the moment The

Domain on Sydney Harbour is likely but is by no means finalised as discussions with Sydney

City are ongoing;

4. Day to day project administration including human resources management, organisational health

and safety compliance, performance reviews, staff leave records, etc.;

5. Warranty period for the delivered EMS system (i.e. length of free support once implemented);

6. Maintenance contract post-implementation (i.e. support arrangements once free period expires);

7. Negotiations with owners of two additional event management firms are currently progressing

and an agreement-in-principle for sale of both companies to NEC is expected by June 2024. This

would increase NEC staff to 190 and extend coverage beyond eastern Australia to the cities of

Adelaide and Perth. A preliminary dialogue has also been opened with a potential third company

in Hobart but as of January 2024 no detailed cost/benefit analysis has been conducted and no

acquisition offer has been made;

8. Planning, development and integration of:

Membership rewards program for regular patrons of NEC-run events;

Appropriate fall back procedures to replace or bypass equipment;

Business continuity and disaster recovery planning for any potentially catastrophic event;

A mobile phone application (mobile app) to easily check event updates (and possibly provide

additional NEC-linked services for registered account holders);

Co-existence with, or replacement of, pre-NEC websites;

Backup processes for all data captured in relation to the EMS;

Data mining and modelling software for ongoing system analysis and

improvement; Robust security and system software to protect the entire operation.

9. NEC is currently bidding to run an international celebrity golf tournament in late 2026. It would

be run jointly with the NSW Golf Club and with proceeds going to charity. It would be useful if

requirements for such an event would be catered for by the proposed Event Management System;

10. The January 2026 Festival Concert is going to go after dark into the evening. Fireworks are

likely;

11. Complete testing of all components to analyse reliability, ease of use, repair and replacement;

12. Some events for which NEC has won (or will win) management contracts will be annually

recurring;

13. Satisfactory testing of the disaster recovery plan;

14. The January 2026 Festival Concert is a family-friendly event so children will be attending.

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