Welcome to Unit A2 1: Event Management in the Active Leisure Industry
Welcome to your study notes for Unit A2 1: Event Management in the Active Leisure Industry. In this unit, which is assessed through an internally marked and externally moderated portfolio worth 24% of your total A Level, you will plan, deliver, and evaluate an event. But before jumping straight into running an event, every good event manager must ask one essential question: Is this event actually possible and worthwhile?
This critical first step is called determining the Feasibility of the Event. A feasibility study acts like a structural blueprint. It ensures your event has a real purpose, will attract participants, stays within budget, meets all legal standards, and avoids catastrophic failures before you spend time and money setting it up.
Key Takeaway: Feasibility is the process of testing whether an event concept is realistic, legally compliant, financially viable, and practically achievable.
1. Types of Events and Key Stakeholders
Under the CCEA specification, your event must firmly sit within the active leisure sector. It must fall into one of three core categories:
• Sport: Competitive and structured activities with formal rules (e.g., a 5-a-side football tournament, a track and field sprint clinic, or a badminton knockout cup).
• Physical Activity: Structured bodily movement aimed at health and fitness (e.g., an aerobic dance-a-thon, a couch-to-5k running session, or a kettlebell circuit class).
• Active Recreation: Leisure pursuits carried out for pleasure and relaxation during free time (e.g., a community orienteering treasure hunt, a recreational rounders afternoon, or an outdoor obstacle challenge).
Who Are the Stakeholders?
A stakeholder is any individual, group, or organisation that has an interest in, is affected by, or can impact your event. In your feasibility study, you must clearly identify who is involved:
• Participants: The individuals actively playing, competing, or taking part.
• Spectators: The audience, families, and supporters watching the event.
• Sponsors: Businesses or donors providing funding, prizes, or equipment in exchange for publicity.
• Local Authorities and Facility Providers: School boards, local councils, leisure centre managers, and regulatory bodies who grant permissions, rent facilities, or enforce local rules.
Analogy: Think of stakeholders as the pieces of a puzzle. If you forget to plan for spectators (e.g., providing parking and viewing space) or local authorities (e.g., booking confirmation), the whole puzzle falls apart!
Key Takeaway: Your event must link directly to Sport, Physical Activity, or Active Recreation, and your planning must account for all key stakeholders from the outset.
2. Setting Clear Aims and SMART Objectives
Many students confuse aims and objectives. To score top marks in your portfolio, you must clearly distinguish between the two.
• Aim: The overall broad purpose or long-term vision of the event. It answers the question: Why are we doing this?
Example Aim: "To promote female participation in active recreation within the local sixth-form community."
• Objectives: The specific, actionable steps and targets that must be met to achieve the overarching aim. Objectives must always be written using the SMART framework.
The SMART Framework
• S – Specific: State exactly what you intend to accomplish (clear details on who, what, where).
• M – Measurable: Include clear numbers, statistics, or percentages so success can be measured.
• A – Achievable: The target must be realistically within the power of the team to accomplish.
• R – Realistic: The target must make sense given the available resources, budget, and timeframe.
• T – Time-bound: Set a clear deadline or date by which the objective will be completed.
Example of a weak objective: "Get lots of people to enter the tournament." (Vague, unmeasurable, no timeline).
Example of a SMART objective: "To recruit 8 teams of 5 players (40 participants in total) from Year 13 and Year 14 by Friday, 14th November."
Key Takeaway: The aim is the destination; the SMART objectives are the measurable milestones along the route. Strong SMART objectives are crucial because you will evaluate your event against them later in the unit.
3. Market Research and Identifying Demand
You cannot simply assume people will turn up to your event—you need solid evidence of demand. Market research helps you confirm that people actually want to attend and helps you identify your target audience.
Primary and Secondary Market Research
• Primary Research: Gathering brand new, first-hand data tailored specifically to your event (e.g., distributing paper surveys or online questionnaires to fellow students, conducting focus groups, or interviewing sports teachers).
• Secondary Research: Analysing existing data (e.g., past participation rates at school sports days, local council leisure reports, or national sports body statistics).
Assessing the Target Audience and Competition
• Target Audience: Who is the event for? Define their characteristics, such as age group, fitness level, gender, or skill level. A primary school mini-Olympics requires vastly different planning than a staff vs. student charity basketball match.
• Competitor Analysis: Check for competing activities or scheduling clashes. If your school has an exam week, or if a major local sports final is happening on the same afternoon, your attendance will suffer.
Key Takeaway: Market research provides concrete data proving your event is wanted by its target audience and won't be derailed by competing activities.
4. Financial Viability: Budgets and Break-Even
A feasibility study must demonstrate that the event is financially viable. You must construct a realistic budget calculating both Projected Income and Projected Expenditure.
Projected Income vs. Projected Expenditure
• Projected Income: All money expected to flow into the event. Sources include entry fees, ticket sales, commercial sponsorship, grants, bake sales, or raffle ticket sales.
• Projected Expenditure: All costs associated with planning and running the event. This includes venue/facility hire, equipment purchase or rental, marketing/printing, referee/coach fees, prizes, medals, first aid supplies, and insurance.
Calculating the Break-Even Point
The Break-even point represents the precise point where total revenue equals total costs. At this point, the event makes neither a profit nor a loss.
To calculate the break-even number of participants, use this simple formula:
\( \text{Break-Even Point (Participants)} = \frac{\text{Total Fixed Costs}}{\text{Ticket Price per Participant} - \text{Variable Cost per Participant}} \)
Worked Example:
• Total Fixed Costs (Hall hire + Equipment hire + Medals): \( £120 \)
• Variable Cost per Participant (Water bottle + Certificate): \( £1 \)
• Ticket Price charged per Participant: \( £5 \)
\( \text{Break-Even Point} = \frac{120}{5 - 1} = \frac{120}{4} = 30 \text{ participants} \)
This tells the event manager that at least 30 participants must enter and pay before the event covers its costs. If your market research shows you can only recruit 20 participants, the event is not financially viable in its current form and must be adjusted.
Key Takeaway: Financial viability proves you can cover all expenditures. Calculating the break-even point tells you the exact minimum turnout needed to avoid a financial loss.
5. Resource Requirements: Human and Physical
To establish feasibility, you must check whether you have the physical materials and the people required to stage the event safely and professionally.
Human Resources
Human resources refers to the staff, volunteers, and officials required. You must detail:
• Staffing Levels: Exactly how many people are needed on the day.
• Roles and Responsibilities: Clearly assigned jobs (e.g., Event Director, Registration Officer, Timekeeper, Referees/Umpires, First Aider, Marshals).
• Expertise and Qualifications: Ensuring individuals have the appropriate skills (e.g., qualified referees for rule enforcement, a certified first aider for medical emergencies).
Physical Resources
Physical resources cover all non-human assets:
• Facilities: Availability, capacity, accessibility, and suitability of the venue (e.g., indoor sports hall vs. outdoor grass pitch, spectator seating, changing rooms, toilets).
• Equipment: Balls, nets, posts, bibs, whistles, cones, scoreboards, and clipboards.
• Technology: Sound systems/PA systems for announcements, laptops or tablets for scorekeeping, digital timers, and display screens.
Key Takeaway: Having the right people with the right skills and securing appropriate facilities and equipment on the chosen date is essential to practical feasibility.
6. Legal and Regulatory Considerations
Running an event places legal and moral duties of care on the event organisers. Ignoring these can lead to cancellation, fines, or serious harm.
• Health and Safety Requirements: Ensuring the venue is safe for use, emergency exits are clear, fire regulations are followed, and a full preliminary risk assessment is completed.
• Insurance: Securing Public Liability Insurance. This protects the organisers financially if a member of the public, participant, or spectator suffers injury or property damage during the event.
• Licensing and Permissions: Checking whether specific permissions are required, such as a music licence (PPL/PRS) for playing background music, facility-specific permits, or local authority permission for using public parks or roads.
Key Takeaway: Legal compliance—especially public liability insurance, appropriate licensing, and health and safety checks—is non-negotiable for event viability.
7. Risk Assessment and "Showstoppers"
A central part of your feasibility portfolio is anticipating what could go wrong and putting plans in place to prevent or manage problems.
What is a "Showstopper"?
A showstopper is a critical hazard, failure, or unforeseen circumstance that has the potential to force the immediate cancellation or postponement of your event.
Common Showstoppers & Mitigation Strategies:
• Showstopper 1: Extreme Weather (for outdoor events)
Mitigation / Contingency: Book a backup indoor sports hall or establish a pre-agreed alternate date communicated to all participants in advance.
• Showstopper 2: Venue Unavailability (e.g., double-booking or facility maintenance issue)
Mitigation: Obtain a formal written booking confirmation well in advance and maintain a direct contact line with the venue manager.
• Showstopper 3: Key Personnel Absence (e.g., the primary first aider or referee falls ill)
Mitigation: Identify and brief backup staff/volunteers who can step in at short notice.
• Showstopper 4: Inadequate Sign-ups (far below break-even point)
Mitigation: Set an early registration deadline to evaluate numbers, combined with a secondary promotional push across multiple communication channels if numbers are low.
Key Takeaway: Identifying showstoppers is not about proving the event cannot happen; it is about proving you have robust contingency plans that safeguard the event's delivery.
8. Common Pitfalls to Avoid in Unit A2 1
Keep these common student mistakes in mind when writing your Feasibility chapter:
• Writing Vague Objectives: Stating "We want to raise money" instead of "We aim to raise \( £150 \) for Charity X through entry fees and a raffle by 3:00 PM on event day."
• Underestimating Costs: Forgetting "hidden" costs such as printing promotional flyers, purchasing first aid supplies, insurance, or a contingency fund for unexpected expenses.
• Relying on Guesswork for Demand: Stating "Everyone will want to play" without including evidence from surveys, sign-up polls, or focus groups.
• Superficial Risk Mitigation: Identifying severe risks (like bad weather or zero attendance) but offering vague solutions like "We will hope for the best" rather than a realistic, actionable contingency plan.
Quick Chapter Summary Checklist
Before submitting your feasibility chapter, check that you have covered each core area:
• Event Classification: Clearly identified as Sport, Physical Activity, or Active Recreation.
• Aims & SMART Objectives: Broad aim accompanied by specific, measurable, realistic targets.
• Stakeholders: Participants, spectators, sponsors, and facility/local authorities addressed.
• Market Research: Primary/secondary data presented proving target audience interest and checking competition.
• Financial Plan: Projected income, projected expenditure, and break-even calculation complete.
• Resources: Detailed staffing roles, facilities, equipment, and technology listed.
• Legal & Safety: Health and safety protocols, public liability insurance, and licences confirmed.
• Showstoppers: Major risks identified with clear mitigation and contingency plans.