School of Tourism graduate Kasper Roe Iversen shares his story

Posted . Filed under News, Student Experience.

This week International Event Management Top Up Graduate, Kasper Roe Iversen returned to Bournemouth University to meet with his dissertation tutor, Caroline Jackson.  

Kasper’s dissertation focused on Sport Sponsorship and Caroline put him in contact with Rob Mitchell, BALM Graduate and Commercial Director at AFC Bournemouth. 

Kasper and Rob have kept in touch and the business events that were the recommendations of Kasper’s dissertation now has a membership of nearly a thousand.

The current Event Management students will be working with Kasper and his charity event going into the future.

We asked Kasper to provide us with a brief history of what he has been up to since leaving university in Denmark:

I studied service management in Demark and after my studies I worked for a year as a project manager an IT company. I then decided to do the top-up (BA) Hons International Event Management course at Bournemouth University to help me get back into the industry.

My dissertation was about Sport Sponsorship and B2B networking at AFC Bournemouth, which essentially lead to the development of the AFC Business.

 After my top up course, I decided to do a Masters degree. I graduated from the MA in Sport Managements from London Metropolitan University in 2011.

I then secured an internship at Carlsberg Denmark within their sponsorship department. I had the responsibility of looking after their major sponsorships in the 2 Danish Premier League football clubs Esbjerg fB and Silkeborg IF.

After my internship with Carlsberg, I landed a part-time job at a Handball Agency where I help manage the players endorsements.

At the same time, I started up my own company, Sponsor Active. Sponsor Active aims to assist companies in activating their sponsorships.

I have also created a charity football event that focuses on sport sponsorship and CSR. The event has been planned to take part in both Denmark and England. I have formed a partnership with AFC Bournemouth and SOS Children as part of this event.

Students and Lecturers give Slacklining a go in Induction Week:

Posted . Filed under News, Student Experience.

Last week saw new Undergraduate and postgraduate students join Bournemouth University School of Tourism for induction week.

The students were welcomed with activities, talks from Lecturers and talks from SUBU.

One activity students (and lecturers!) got involved with was slacklining. BALM Lecturer Kat King set up a slackline in the front of Poole House with help from Maverick Slack Lines (www.maverickslackines.co.uk).

Slacklining is where you tie a line to two points (i.e. trees) and try to walk across it. It was originally started by surfers and skateboarders as a way to improve balance but soon they realised they could do tricks including flips on the slackline.

Although our lecturers and students weren’t doing any tricks (just yet!), everyone was giving it a go.

In the short time we were there, Events Management and Leisure Marketing programme leader Nick Rowles; Event Management Level C Tutor Teresa Robinson; School of Tourism Director of Operations Robert Hydon and PA to the Executive Zoe Larrad all gave it a go!

You can see our pictures of slacklininig on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/BUSchoolofTourism

For more information on Maverick Slacklining please visit www.maverickslacklines.co.uk or www.facebook.com/maverickslacklines

School of Tourism Staff Successfully Wins Bids to Host Events as part of the ESRC Festival

Posted . Filed under News, Research.

Two School of Tourism staff has successfully won bids to host events as part of the ESRC festival this November.

The ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) funds research into the big social and economic questions facing us today and the annual ESRC Festival of Social Science is part of this.

Dr Debbie Sadd and Dr Richard Shipway from the School of Tourism are both hosting events as part of the 10th ESRC Festival of Social Science.

Debbie Sadd’s event will take place at Bournemouth University and aims for teenagers to debate the theme of “London 2012: Was it worth it?”

This interactive debate will ask young people (13-18) from Dorset to question whether hosting London 2012 has been benefit to the area in which they live and to the UK as a whole. It will also ask them to consider the impact that the London Games will have on the sporting future of the UK, and to what extent they will take the legacy of London 2012 forward into adulthood.

Young people will be asked to vote (using a digital device integral to the venue) before and after facilitated discussion, following short speeches from representatives from Dorset 2012, Sporting Legacy, Podium and Bournemouth University.

This event has been chosen as there is a growing research agenda on the impact of mega-events on society at a local and national level. Thus researchers recognise the need to engage young people in discussion about how London 2012 has impacted their lives and how they will engage in any legacy.

Richard Shipway’s event will be held at the EBC in Bournemouth and covers the theme of optimising Olympic tourism opportunities after the 2012 Games. The “Going for Gold: Leveraging the Olympic tourism legacy beyond 2012” conference will see keynote speakers discuss the main tourism opportunities that will fall in the years immediately after the Games

Following the conclusion of the London 2012 Games, the conference will investigate the potential for the London Olympics to generate tourism benefits long after the hosting of the Games.

The workshop will look at issues surrounding the management, organisation and analysis of mega event sport tourism, building on the outcomes of a previous ESRC funded project (RES-810-21-0013) which explored the impacts and issues associated with sport tourism development. 

 Drawing from the experiences of both academics and industry practitioners involved in both the London Games and other global mega sports events, delegates will debate potential strategies to optimise the success of managing tourism in the post 2012 era.

The conference is aimed primarily at tourism business communities across the South West and South of England (incorporating London), exploring the potential to leverage tourism benefits.

From an academic perspective, the aim of the event is to revisit the theme of Olympic tourism by inviting delegates to consider advances which are theoretically grounded in one or more of the core social sciences. Key workshop sessions will be facilitated by stakeholders involved with the delivery of the 2012 Games including Visit Britain, Visit London, London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG), European Tour Operators Association (ETOA), and leading academic tourism experts. 

Debbie Sadd’s event is November 5th and Richard Shipway’s is on November 9th.

We will be covering both the events extensively via blogs and other social media.

If you would like to attend Richard Shipway’s event please contact Dr Rebecca Edwards on redwards@bournemouth.ac.uk or 01202 961206

For more information on either events please contact Naomi Kay (nkay@bournemouth.ac.uk) or visit the ESRC website

Bournemouth University Welcomes Launch of Innovation Vouchers

Posted . Filed under News.

Bournemouth University’s School of Tourism can now work with companies using Innovation Vouchers, to offer businesses an external expert view to help businesses gain new knowledge as well as innovate, develop and grow.

The Technology Strategy Board’s national Innovation Voucher scheme enables a business to obtain help from a range of expert suppliers – universities, further education colleges, research & technology organisations, technical consultancies and Catapult centres, design advisers and intellectual property advisers.

Help from an expert could include advice on an innovative idea, learning more about using design within your business or the management and use of intellectual property.

 Bournemouth University’s School of Tourism is offering its help as part of the Agrifood Innovation Vouchers. There are many small businesses in the Agrifood industry and margins are often tight.  Time for innovation is also scarce.

Innovation Vouchers present an ideal opportunity for a business to think about how outside help and working with others can help them to grow their business profitably.  It’s a low risk way to explore new ideas that could make a real difference.

The global agricultural industry faces major challenges as it aims to produce sufficient food to meet anticipated future demand and meet changing public expectations. Rising raw material and energy costs and increasing regulation around greenhouse gas emissions and waste management also pose significant economic and operational challenges to the agriculture and food sectors – particularly smaller companies without internal R&D departments.

New technology-based solutions are needed to overcome these challenges.  An example could be smaller food manufacturers who don’t have in-house resources to help them to respond to the increased demands to improve the nutritional value of their products.  

Examples for how innovation vouchers could be used in this first round for agriculture (including horticulture and aquaculture), food and drink could include:

  • developing a novel food or drink product for a particular target market
  • product innovation/differentiation
  • innovations in plant or animal breeding that deliver new or improved varieties or breeds
  • reducing the impact of disease on crop or animal production through innovation
  • implementation of new measurement or diagnostic technologies to improve business performance or product quality
  • accelerating the delivery to market of a novel food processing technology that provides business benefits
  • radical reformulation to reduce costs, reduce environmental impact or improve product quality/performance
  • advice to improve management of intellectual property in the business as part of taking a new idea forward
  • specialist advice to incorporate design more effectively into a planned R&D project from the outset

Bournemouth University’s School of Tourism has expertise to help companies within the Agrifood area. For more information regarding Agrifood and the types of companies/projects that are supported, please visit – https://vouchers.innovateuk.org/agrifood-voucher.

If you would like to discuss Bournemouth University’s School of Tourism business services please contact Claire Main on cmain@bournemouth.ac.uk.

 

Improving The University IT Services

Posted . Filed under News, Research, Student Experience.

Do you have issues with the Bournemouth University IT services? Or have you had a positive experience with IT services? Do you want to help improve IT services for other students around campus?

IT Services are looking for people to join their SUBU affiliated IT Ambassadors Group. The IT Ambassadors act as the eyes and ears of IT Services reporting back and problems that students face to IT Services.

An IT Ambassador will engage with students and reports any positives or negatives of using IT Services back to IT.

For example, IT Services want to know how students want to hear about key information such as if lectures are cancelled on a snow day.

IT Services also want to hear about your experience of using IT. Did the university IT facilities live up to what you were expecting? How could the IT facilities be improved?

If you would like to become an IT Ambassador or simply provide us with some feedback please contact Claire Wilkinson wilkinsonc@bournemouth.ac.uk

Guest Blog: Miguel Moital shares his experiences of visiting conferences in Brazil:

Posted . Filed under Guest speakers, News.

I recently returned from Brazil, where I spoke at two tourism conferences in São Paulo. Attendance of these two conferences follows from the work I have been carrying out about the barriers to publishing in English Language Tourism Journals (ELTJ) by Brazilian tourism academics. At present, only around 30 articles have been published in ELTJ by academics affiliated to Brazilian institutions. In order to understand the reasons behind this rather low level of publication, in April I interviewed 17 academics from 5 different universities.

The first conference was the IX ANPTUR – The annual conference of the Brazilian Association of Tourism Research and Post-graduation (Anhembi Morumbi University, 30-31 August). This is the third time I have attended the ANPTUR conference, having been a keynote speaker both in 2008 and 2010. My active participation in this year’s conferences involved running a 2h30m workshop on the differences between publishing in a Brazilian and English language tourism journals. There are many differences both in terms of the research process on which the publication is based, and how the research is communicated. However, in my interviews with Brazilian academics it became clear that the overwhelming majority were not aware of such differences. This is not surprising because virtually none had gone through the process of submitting a paper to these journals.

In my session, three topics were covered – communication (both language and linguistic issues), literature review and research process/methodology. Simple things like the length of sentences can make a difference on how the research is perceived by the reader. Articles in Brazilian tourism journals tend to feature much longer sentences. I gave an example from a Brazilian journal where a sentence contained 129 words! In the example from an ELTJ, no sentence had more than 3 lines. In the literature review section, I explained the three types of literature review (theoretical, integrative and methodological), and emphasised the need to include mainly journals and in English language journals (books and national journals are the norm in articles published in Brazilian tourism journals). I also explained the three levels of analysis at which a literature review can be done: descriptive, analytical and evaluative. With regards to the methodology-process aspects, ELTJ are much more detailed about the process of research, which reflects a concern with the validity and reliability of the evidence required to produce conclusions.

A total of 26 academics participated in the workshop and their feedback was tremendously positive. I have been in discussions with two Brazilian colleagues (who have done their PhD in the UK / Australia) for a while with a view to organise a two-day workshop where we would share our experiences of publishing in ELT journals, much in the light of this workshop. We have now drafted a programme for the workshop and are finalising a proposal to be submitted to CNPq (a Brazilian research funding body).

The second conference was the V CLAIT – Latin American Tourism Research Conference (São Paulo University, 3-5 September). The main involvement in this conference was through presenting the results of a review of the 28 publications in tourism ELJ by Brazilian academics. Some conclusions from the review include:

  • The number of tourism publications by academics affiliated to Brazilian institutions is remarkably low, which leads to a lack of international visibility. However, those that exist tend to be of a good standard (as given by the ABS rating);
  • The first author tends to be Brazilian and the majority of papers did not involve foreign academics. However, publication in English language journals is still somewhat dependent on collaboration with foreign academics or Brazilian academics who have studied in the UK/USA, notably when it comes to publishing in the top journals (3/4-rated);
  • Articles tend to use primary data collection, however the methods section of those who claim to have collected primary data is not always very detailed (specially when interviews and/or content analysis are used).
  • From the three areas of tourism, hospitality and events, past research has focused mainly on tourism, and to a less extent on the hospitality sector. Only one article on events was published.
  • Studies tend to be biased towards studying the relationship between the public sector and tourism, often from a sustainability/ecology/environment point of view, at the expense of the private sector/business side of the industry.

I was also invited to chair one of the sessions on Tourism & Marketing. On the 6th of September there was a TEFI (Tourism Futures Education Initiative) meeting, which I also attended.

School of Tourism Welcomes it’s New Post Grad Students

Posted . Filed under News, Student Experience.

Yesterday, the School of Tourism welcomed over 130 new postgraduate students to the School of Tourism.

The new starters were welcomed with tea and cakes in the Retreat and had a chance to mingle with other students and staff. The majority of our post grad students are international so the informal welcome was a chance for them to get to know the staff and the other new students.

We would just like to take this opportunity to wish all our new starters good luck and we hope you have a brilliant first term.

School of Tourism Alumni Hall of Fame

Posted . Filed under News, Student Experience.

Here at the School of Tourism we are very proud of our Alumni and we like to show case what they have got up to and how far they have travelled.

To celebrate this fact we are putting together a School of Tourism Hall of Fame. The “Hall of Fame” will consist of photos of our alumni in exciting places with a small caption that will be eventually displayed in the School of Tourism.

If you are part of our alumni we would love to receive pictures from you! We are looking for exciting pictures of you all around the world and a small caption about what you’re doing now and explaining the photo.

It could be anything from working in a foreign country to working or being part of the Olympics – we would love to hear from you!

The only requirements are you are in the photo and that you are part of the School of Tourism Alumni!

If you would like to get involved please send your photo and a small caption to Anna Jones ajones@bournemouth.ac.uk

Please note by sending your image you consent to it being used in School of Tourism Hall of Fame and potentially other promotional material.

New Additions to the School of Tourism

Posted . Filed under News.

Over the summer and after a lengthy interview process, we are happy to announce some new arrivals and promotions within the School of Tourism.

Dr Avital Biran will be joining us from the University of Surrey/Ben-Gurion University as a senior lecturer in October 2012. Avital will be joining the Tourism management team when he arrives.

Dr Anya Chapman will be starting in January 2013 as a Senior Lecturer in Tourism Management from the Liverpool Hope University.

Neil Cockbill will be joining the Events and Sports Management team as Associate Lecturer in Events and Sports Management.

Nicole Ferdinand will also be joining the Event Management team in January as a Senior Lecturer from London Metropolitan University.

Kate Jones who started on 10th September, has been appointed as a Demonstrator in Events Management

Dr Yeganeh Morakabati who started on September 1st, will be joining us as a Senior Lecturer, from the  University of Plymouth. Yeganeh will be lecturing in Tourism and Hospitality Management

Lucy Sheppard, who joined us in early September as an Associate Lecturer in Sport Management.

Richard Ward, who also joined us from early September from Cardiff University and will be teaching Hospitality Management.

Our final new addition is Dr Nigel Williams who will be joining us in January as a Senior Lecturer from University of Bedfordshire as part of the Event Management team.

Finally, we are pleased to announce that. Dr Neelu Seetaram has been promoted to Senior Lecturer.

Congratulations to Neelu and Welcome to all our new staff.

Bournemouth University School of Tourism at the Olympics

Posted . Filed under News, Student Experience.

It has been a great summer for Great Britain with the Olympic and Paralympic games being held in London and Bournemouth University School of Tourism has been right at the heart of it:

Several of our staff and students have been involved throughout the whole summer of the games. With roles ranging from Games makers, to Torchbearers, volunteers, venue managers and researchers, the School of Tourism has been thoroughly involved with the London 2012 Games.

Staff:

The School of Tourism has 3 lecturers who were nominated to be Torchbearers. Dr. Debbie Sadd, Dr. Dorothy Fox and Alexis Major were all chosen to carry the torch when it comes through the Dorset area from July 12th.  Dr. Keith Wilkes, the Dean of the School of Tourism, commented that “the fact that Alexis, Dorothy and Debbie were chosen is a fitting recognition and reward for their long standing contributions to various communities and groups within Bournemouth and Poole”.

Dr. Debbie Sadd has also completed her PhD concerning the Olympics entitled: Mega-events, community stakeholders and legacy; London 2012 around the impacts on the site residents in London and she will be working as a volunteer during the Games in the Basketball arena.

Dr. Matt Frew is also pursuing research around the Olympics. His ground breaking research looks into the use of Live sites and social media:  ‘Live Sites and Social Media: from policy to practice’  This is a study that focuses on how the policy of mega-event Live Sites translate co-created convergence/promotion to active participation through social media.

As well as lecturers being involved in London 2012, the School of Tourism have also helped place lots of current and former students from the school in high profile positions associated with the Olympics. Below are highlighted a few examples of the varied roles that our School of Tourism students have acquired:

 Students:

Our students have been heavily involved in the Games throughout the summer in a variety of roles. Below is just a brief highlight of our current and recently graduated student roles at the Olympics:

  • John Millard was involved in a consultancy project on motivational techniques for staff at Sodexo Prestige for the Olympic Games.
  • Rachel Rhodes was  a London ambassador for a week during the Games at Heathrow Airport
  • Emma Lincoln was working for a ‘behind the scenes’ catering company supplying catering services to the Olympic Broadcasting Services. She was also offered a Games Maker role in the Events Services team at the Handball Arena for the Paralympic Games.
  • Aini Maensivu, was an assistant venue manager at Eton Dorney, the rowing venue.
  • Charlotta Eriksson was volunteering during the Olympics, as part of the Press Operations Team as a photo team member at Excel
  • Zoe Poole, Rongrong Zhang, Eleanor Cole, were among many students working for Sodexo
  • Shun-Han Chang was working in Weymouth as an interpreter
  • Jessica Bailey was working with one of the marketing partners to deliver their hospitality programme centred around the Games.
  • Mustafa Saricalar was also working on the Games as a transportation team leader
  • Leroy-Winston Scott was working at both Games looking after the National Olympic Committees with roles including driving the delegations around from athletes to ambassadors and will be based at the Olympic village.
  • Valentina Tkachenko  was  working with Jet Set Sports an Official Olympic Games sponsor
  • Harriett Clarke was a volunteer at the Paralympic Swimming. In addition she worked on the Ceremonies in Weymouth & Portland.
  • Lucy Vollborth was part of the protocol team, particularly language services and will be based in the Athlete’s village

Recently graduated Events Management student Sophie Ridge worked within the Sport Information Team for the Gymnastics. Sophie gave us her account of her time working there:

“After working on the gymnastics test Olympics in January I was very excited to start working on the Rhythmic Gymnastics in the Olympics based at Wembley Arena. My role was Sport Information, I was based in an office right next to the field of play, and I could hear everything going on throughout the event which added to the excitement. I worked in a small team of five and between us we had to do 9 hour shifts, either an early morning shift starting at 6am (!) or starting around lunchtime.

Our main responsibilities were to ensure that any paperwork handed in by the gymnasts was processed properly and delivered to the correct location in the arena. This included routine difficulty forms, music submission, score inquiry forms as well as handing out specific letters to each country’s Head of Delegation and providing results and start lists. We also were identified as lost property due to our central location! Overall a variety of different tasks took place as well as a room for countries to celebrate their results!

I met some fantastic people throughout my Olympic journey, whether they were games makers, paid workers, tourists on the tubes as well as gymnasts and coaches.  I also formed a great relationship with someone on the organising committee for the 2016 Olympics in Rio! I was extremely lucky to have been involved in such a historical event and the atmosphere in London has been incredible.  I am definitely on an Olympic come down!”

The School of Tourism would like to congratulate all our students and staff in helping to put on such a successful Games.