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Innostutaan metsässä!

Event Studies - Theory, research and policy for planned events

The book I have chosen to read for the Inno58 is Event Studies – Theory, research and policy for planned events by Donald Getz. I decided to read a book regarding event management, since this topic is directly related to our customer. After looking at possible editions at the library, I chose this book, because it seemed to be the best choice, as it is covering a wide range of the event business.

The book covers many aspects of event management, but I focused on the importance of service design and the quality of events. Since events are a kind of service and therefore intangible they can’t be measured as such in terms of quality as a product. How an event is perceived is strongly related to a person’s experience. Two people can experience the same event in a total different way.  

To assure that customers have a good experience at the event, the organizer can design the following:

• Setting (site and venue, layout and décor)
• Theme and program design
• Services (service blueprint)
• Consumables (food and beverage)

Furthermore sensory stimulation like for example lightning, color, sound and smell can affect the experiences at events.

Another important aspect of service quality is to create tangible evidence, since the customer can’ experience the service beforehand. One example of a tangible evidence is the staff appearance. According to the SERVQUAL theory the staff is supposed to show the following:

• Responsiveness
• Assurance
• Empathy
• Reliability

In the book were much information I already knew, since I had lectures on this topic back home, but it is well written and points out the aspects one should be truly aware of when planning events. Furthermore I am sure that my practical experience in the field of organizing trade fairs and congresses will be helpful for our work at Kunstenniemi.

- Anja -

Smile More Often

We did finally have this unofficial meeting with our whole Inno-group! We went to Koulu for a pint and some nice snacks to truly innovate but also discuss about how to keep on going!

This was great place to chill out and get to know each other better. We made some organization changes and updated action plan for our group. We also decided about things that we should still find out before Monday and Kunstenniemi.

Organization changes:

Team Leader - Minna
Responsible for communication - Sanna
Secretary - Anja
Responsible for group to be Innovate - Marko


New actionplan:

Searching information about:
* Unusual ways of marketing (guerilla marketing)
* Viral marketing and marketing in social media
* Marketing strategies that could help to advertise the winter season
* Marketing strategies that could help to create relationships with new customers
* Tools to innovation

- Marko, Minna, Sanna, Anja -

Some useful links

Here's some really interesting sites I found. Some of the sites are about Viral-marketing and others about social media. Most of them are in finnish, but two last ones are in english :) Check them out:

http://publications.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/22726/ojala_tiina.pdf?sequence=1

https://wiki.uef.fi/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=16090458

http://www.akvamariini.fi/blogi/2010/05

http://bloggaajat.com/tarkein-salaisuus-hyvin-toimivan-viraalimarkkinoinnin-taustalla/

http://socialmediatoday.com/node/585936?utm_source=smt_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

-Marko

New Design in Hospitality

This is something I found really open-minded thinking. It's focus is on Hotel management
but it's main points are easily adapted to other Hospitality industry as well.

http://library.the-group.net/ihg/client_upload/file/The_new_kinship_economy.pdf

I hope you find it as useful as I did!

-Minna

Second working day @ Novia

The day started at 9 a.m. by Johanna and Sari from "Get a Life" telling us about the future and progresses in innovation processes. As there were only two group members present in the morning, we decided to join the team Lightbulb. Our task was to brainstorm the future needs of our clients customers and the basic needs that result for the company. After that we chose one topic. The topic we chose was about the winter season in Kustavi. See picture.

The last task was to write a short story about Kustavi's winter season in 2025. One team member of Spark Plugs joined us at this time. We finished the task and presented it to the other Inno Groups and Coaches before the lunch break. The rest of the day we discussed the information we received from the client Pekka Kuru. It was really fun to cooperate with the team Lightbulb and to get to know new people.

 - Anja, Sanna, Marko

The meeting with Pekka Kuru

So we met our client Pekka Kuru yesterday at TuAMK. The meeting started at 12 o'clock and it was arranged together with team Lightbulb, check also their blog at http://teamlightbulb.wordpress.com/ :) The meeting started by Pekka Kuru introducing his company and telling about his company Kustavin Kipinä values. We found out about the idea behind the project which is to increase customer revenue.  His wish is that we find the way to make people to travel to Kustavin Kipinä even from a distance and expand customer arriving off season (winter time). We asked some specific questions about marketing and other customer segments. Overall the meeting went well, and things got more clear. 

The picture above is about the information we gathered as a mindmap after the meeting.

Now that we know our task, we hope that this will give us more courage to work harder for this project.

-Marko, Sanna and Minna 

Worth watching

Video

"Tom Wujec from Autodesk presents some surprisingly deep research into the "marshmallow problem" a simple team-building exercise that involves dry spaghetti, one yard of tape and a marshmallow. Who can build the tallest tower with these ingredients? And why does a surprising group always beat the average"

-Sanna-

Some questions for Pekka Kuru

Soon me, Marko and Minna are going to meet our client Pekka Kuru from Kustavin Kipinä here in Turku AMK. I was wondering few questions which might be good to get answers to.   

For example: 

What is the competitive advantage of Kustavin Kipinä?(Kilpailuetu?)

What makes Kustavin Kipinä different among the competitors?

Who are the main costumers? Customer segments?

In which direction the industry is going?

What are the future prospects?

We'll see how the meeting goes :)

-Sanna-

DEVELOPING HOSPITALITY

Developing Hospitality Properties & Facilities - Edited by Josef Ransley & Hadyn Ingram. Second edition 2004.

I chose this book because of my interests to hospitality management. All the examples through book were about hotels, which isn't directly what Kustavin Kipinä does. But it's wide discussion about the things need to get done when developing hospitality industry. From my point of view it's easily applicable to other industries as well. It's written by specialists and experts of hospitality management which brings examples to real life and existing companies. 

It’s a guide to develop your product to respond to the change of climate, market and consumer’s, owner’s & staff’s needs. It’s cut up in five sections, which all together build practical and operational product. Contrary to old system, where developing process has been seen as chain, today’s model is circle where all sectors affect to product through all processes. These sectors are concept, planning, construction, operations and asset management.

Concept is about how finished product might look; what market it might serve. It’s part of an overall development and brand management. Two main divisions are feasibility (inc. market research, financial analysis & reporting) and design (strategy that will develop the property).

Planning chapter highlights the importance of development strategy to be well prepared and achieved in every section: design, finance, risks, legal agreements, contracts, brand ect. Construction is about building, renovation and adaption. This chapter increases awareness of design as a part of hospitality development process.

Operation chapter considers meaning of operational planning and relationships: How to involve all participants (customer, the owner, the management company, staff) into developing process and how to reflect to their different needs. Asset management chapter is about unit operations, maintenance & how climate, geography and culture affect to the developing process.

It was lots of information I already knew but though numerous examples I got truly different kind of understanding these aspects in developing. This was again mind opener for me. Thou it wasn't much new info, it was different way to see things. This is well done outside-box thinking (development only seen by owner in my before readings). Nice advance for my mind & thinking. 

-Minna

TOURISM DEVELOPMENT HANDBOOK

A Practical Approach to Planning and Marketing, Kerry Godfrey and Jackie Clarke

The book I decided to read for Inno58h was The Tourism Development Handbook written by Kerry Godfrey and Jackie Clarke. I knew absolutely nothing about the book before borrowing it, but it was recommended for me by a friend. After reading the back of the book, I chose it because it seemed interesting and I thought that it could benefit me by giving me a good overall look in the industry that our client Kustavin Kipinä works in – tourism.

Even though the book is written thirteen years ago it still seemed really relevant while I was reading it. The way to improve tourism in development area is not just about offering everything to every potential customer, or copying the ideas from those places that have great number of tourist arrivals. Every destination that wants to develop their tourism needs to find their own attractions and make a careful and detailed plan on how to meet the goals that they set for themselves in the development plan for the destination.

There are truly many aspects on how to make your destination attracting for those who have never visited there before. Like I said earlier you can’t just offer everything to everyone, you need to segment your potential customers and try to focus on how to get those tourists interested in your destination. The way to choosing your segment group is not just picking those tourists that have most money to spend, but picking those customers whose interest in the destination has more pros than cons overall. Sometimes you even have to use unorthodox ways such as demarketing to ensure that your destination area is valued by those that come to visit your location.

The key elements of the book include organization and development objectives; aspects of supply and demand; marketing; customer care; and monitoring and evaluation. Sustainability is and should be most critical factor in long term tourism. There are long term goals that can be met only by careful planning and all time evaluation of the tourism in the area.

Tourist destination should also always keep self-updated on the global trends of tourism, since they tend to change every now and then. What’s popular now might not be popular anymore in five years. Tourism is industry which is really sensitive to economic fluctuations, so you can never know for sure what’s going to happen in future. Because of that tourism should never be main industry of the destination area. It should rather be in more supportive and complementary role.

I believe that The Tourism Development Handbook gave me a lot better overall view on the whole industry and I’m sure that it will help me and my team in the task that we are yet to be received in Kunstenniemi. :) I would like to recommend this book to everyone interested in tourism, since it gives really much information of the industry that is rapidly expanding whole time.

-Marko

DANGEROUS IDEAS

The book I decided to read for INNO58 was Dangerous Ideas (Finnish title Vaaralliset ideat) written by Alf Rehn.  I have read this book earlier, and I found it very usefull back then. Now when i read it second time it gave me even more than for the first time. 

Dangerous ideas is not quite the classic book about creativity and innovations. Normally these books always follows the same pattern, the same creativity exercises and claims how fun and easy creativity is. Alf Rehn slightly disagrees. He believes that creativity is hard, and if you want to create something truly new and creative, our brains need to work so hard that it hurts.

True creativity is anything but a little fun gameplay. It's dangerous, disgusting and uncomfortable, and above all difficult and exhausting. Creativity which really is close to creating new ideas forces our lazy brains to work in new unpleasant ways. In reality, the ideas which arise among the group easily without any effort and which are accepted by the team without any criticism, are very conventional ideas. Ideas that have been around for ages and ideas competitors already use.  

Our brains are extremely comfort-loving and good at generating passion and feelings of success to keep us focusing on the things we know already. Particular concern about all of this is in the fact that although the company thinks it is developing to a new level, our customers have found these tricks of the trade a long time ago. In this case the company is not creating new and innovative changes. 

New ideas should always be tested well before any action is taken larger. If your idea makes the listener protest by saying things such "That would not work in our markets!” or "Who the hell would want to use this service anymore if we did like you are considering, ridiculous thought", there is an opportunity to develop something really NEW and innovative. If negative reactions are born the idea should be tested by the person who can question the idea from many perspectives but still gives the inventor of the idea room for develop idea further so that it will take the later attacks and criticism.

I believe this book helps me and my team in our project whatever the assignment will be. I hope every team member is open-minded for the ideas that will born in Kunstenniemi and we can create something really new, something that has never seen before. Sad but true the fact is that "something" has to make us feel uncomfortable! :)

-Sanna-

Our INNOvation Group

Name: Minna
Studies: Bachelor in Hospitality Management

Beliefs: Honesty, Smiling and Spontaneous solutions

Well then, who is that girl behind locks and why is she here?

My interests are mostly in travel business. Through years I've worked as well in Finland as abroad too. Mainly with tourism, gardening  and catering. I'm about to found small business on my own(kind of B&B). Hopefully any day now.

This project truly inspires me. I'm waiting to learn new tools which could help me further with my own business idea. I'm grateful to have Kustavin Kipinä as our employer. I got feeling that they're struggling with same issues that I've faced during starting and developing my friends company.

At this time I'm also in other project where I'm in charge about marketing in social media. I've already scan through plenty books and other sources and also worked with small companies home- and Facebook-pages. 

I got insanely motivation and savor for our project. We do have a smashing INNO-Group! 

Greets. Minna

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Name: Sanna                   

Age: 25

School: TuAMK, 2nd year

Horoscope: Aquarius

Favourite food: As unhealthy as possible

Favourite TV show: Salatut elämät, now and forever <3

Hi guys! I'm a second year student from Turku University of Applied sciences. What will I be graduating to? Well, here's one cool name for you: Bachelor of beautycare and management a.k.a estenomi. I'm specially interested in developing services and marketing in the wide range of beauty. I really enjoy working in a team and that's propably the best part of our studies. At the moment I'm working as a beautytherapist so it's very interesting to work for Kustavin Kipinä which is quite far away from my own field. :)

I also like the fact that in Inno58 we can bounce ideas off each other to create something that nobody would have been able to create on their own. The opportunity to develop new skills, get to know new people and learn from other team members is great. I'm looking forward to work in Kunstenniemi and let the Spark Plugs SPARK! 

-Sanna-

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Name: Marko
Age: 22
School: TuAMK, Bachelor in Hospitality Management
Horoscope: Aquarius
Attitude to life: Stay positive
Favorite band: Guns N' Roses
Favorite TV show: Californication
Favorite Quotes:

"He was a wise man who invented beer."

-Platon

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with intent of throwing it at someone else; your the one who gets burned."

-Buddha

Hey there! I am first year Hospitality Management student from Turku University of Applied sciences. I am particularly interested in the tourism sector. 

I have worked in past as; elementary school substitute teacher, retreader(construction), care assistant and sports director. These being mainly summer jobs and internships. So I have tried many different fields before finding my own area. 

I chose INNO58h-course because it seemed interesting. I have always enjoyed working with a team and I like the concept of the course. Kustavin Kipinä is familiar to me from the quest lecture we had in my school, so it's not totally new company for me. We have great team and I'm sure our team will find good way to satisfy our customer! :)

-Marko
         
        ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Name: Anja

Studies: Bachelor in Tourism Management

University: Novia University of Applied Sciences, exchange student

Hello everyone!

I am an exchange student from Germany, currently studying Tourism Management at Novia University of Applied Sciences in Turku. I have chosen to study at Novia as it offered the most interesting courses compared to the other Scandinavian partner universities of my university. During my stay here I would like to gain insights in the Finish lifestyle, as well as the cultural, touristic and academic side of Finland.

Since the Inno 58 project was highly recommended from students who participated in it the last time, I chose to take part. Additionally I enjoy the fact that this project gives me a good opportunity to meet people from other Finnish universities in Turku. I am really pleased that our group got Kustavin Kipinä, because to me it is the most interesting project, as I am interested in the event sector.

I look forward to work on this project with our great team.

Greetings Anja