Conference and Event Organization in Hospitality

BRIEF COURSE DESCRIPTION
This subject provides specific knowledge, skills and techniques which will enable students to manage and organize events at hospitality venues. The focus of the course is on acquiring knowledge of the potential wide variety of corporate and associative events to hold, the demands of Business Travel and Business Events, and who are the most important professional organizers; it will also focus on defining B2B and B2C business strategies. Furthermore, the subject will present the latest trends and practices in the MICE sector in terms of strategies such as Event Canvas or in the Management of Experiences such as Meeting Design, which may be implemented in hospitality companies.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Know the information systems for management applied to hotels.
2. Know the main methods of financial planning to optimize financial resources.
3. Know the processes of planning and organizing events.

ACADEMIC CONTENTS
UNIT 1: Tourism, events & 3rd party companies involved
1.1. Current situation of the mice industry
1.2. Business travel and Event Travel (MICE)
1.3. Event management terminology
UNIT 2: The role of DMOs (Destination Management organizations)
2.1. The Convention Bureau (CB): Definition and types
2.2. Strategies for promoting and attracting events
2.3. Importance of the convention bureau in the mice industry: Type of events in which CB participate, which sectors are generating these meetings, where are these meetings organized, type of accommodation selected, daily spent, participants’ nationalities, economic impact, etc. Contribution of a CB in the congress activity of the city.
UNIT 3: Types, organization and management of professional events
3.1. Professional Events
3.1.1. Corporate events: convention, teambuilding, incentives, etc.
3.1.2. Associative events: congresses, conferences and workshops
3.2. Social Events
UNIT 4: Professional event organizers
4.1. Event travel (MICE) organizers
4.1.1 Professional congress organizers (PCOs)
4.1.2 Destination management companies (DMCs)
4.1.3 Other event organizers (communication agencies, etc,)
4.2. Business travel organizers
4.2.1 Travel management companies (TMCs)
4.3 Other Event Organizers.
UNIT 5: Professional event suppliers
5.1. Venues, meeting spaces, congress centres, etc.
5.2 Other suppliers: Audiovisual companies, transportation companies, entertainment companies, activity companies, other companies, etc.
5.3 Companies providing additional services
UNIT 6: The hotel MICE department
6.1. Organization chart
6.2 Resources: equipment and systems
6.3 Workflow: Client attraction, quotation, coordination, operations and payment

LEARNING METHODOLOGY
The learning methodologies planned for this subject contemplate different activities that contribute to develop the skills related to this course. Some of the learning activities that will be developed are the following:
• Lectures
• Case studies
• Discussions
• Practical exercises
• Problem-based learning

ASSESSMENT SYSTEM
The assessment system measures the student’s achievement of learning outcomes regarding the subject’s competences and contents.
Students may choose continuous assessment or single assessment:
Continuous Assessment:the teaching-learning process is assessed by a continuous monitoring of the work done by the students throughout the course and a final individual examination. Students must attend classes in order to be assessed by continuous assessment. Single Assessment: for those students who cannot come to class regularly, they can choose to be assessed by single assessment. The teaching-learning process is assessed by means of the assessment of all activities and in-person individual examination at the end of the course.
To qualify for this form of assessment, students must apply within the first 15 days of the start of the course through the assessment section of Virtual Campus.

The assessment activities planning will be public for the students from the start.
 

To pass the course, it is mandatory to have obtained a minimum final grade of "5", as long as the student has completed the individual exam/s or work/s established in the course.This exam/s or final work/s must be graded with a minimum of "4" in order to be able to calculate the average of all the assessment activities carried out during the course.

Revision and Reassessment of the Course
The student has the right to revise all the evidences that have been designed for the assessment of learning.
If a student fails to achieve the learning objectives of the course, in order to opt for the subject reassessment, it will be necessary to have obtained a final grade of the subject between "4-4.9", and to have attended the individual final exam/s or final work/s of the course.
The reassessment process will only involve the modification of the final grade in the case that the new assessment activity is passed and, in any case, the maximum grade will be "5". This grade will be averaged with the other grades of the assessment activities carried out by the student during the corresponding academic period, considdering the percentages established in each subject, setting the final grade for the course.