دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی خلاقیت در رویدادها: داستان ناگفته - امرالد 2018

Introduction

The relationship between creativity and events is an emerging concern for UK event management educators and academics. There has been some recognition that events can be creative and that leadership of creative brokering is important to success (Ensor et al., 2007). There have been notable contributions in the area of event experience design (Brown and James, 2004; Berridge, 2007, 2010, 2012; Nelson, 2009; Brown, 2014; Beard, 2014; Tattersall and Cooper, 2014; Beard and Russ, 2017) but very little on the persons or processes involved (Berridge, 2014). It has been surprising that literature mapping out the event research agenda has not included creativity in their findings and recommendations (Mair and Whitford, 2013; Van Niekerk, 2017). Whilst design was added as a domain in the Events Management Body of Knowledge in 2005 and creativity labeled as a core value in response to academic and practitioner requests (Brown, 2014), robust research on the cognitive and affective processes of creativity in the context of event design has been lacking.

Discussion

The main observations of these findings, is that creativity cannot be taken in isolation and that there are some interesting characteristics that require reflection when practicing, researching and learning about events management. Whilst the facets identified relate to both the cognitive and affective elements of creativity, they have to also relate to conative elements (Getz and Page, 2016); the behavior and action of event managers.

The creative and the pragmatic

The tension between the creative spark of ideation in event design and the pragmatic requirement of planning for event deliverables is largely unresolved in the literature to date. Negus and Pickering (2004) discuss this dichotomy, highlighting that the divergent creative is a product of a modern preoccupation with individuality, which has skewed a more holistic appreciation of creativity as both an exceptional and a mundane phenomenon. Bilton (2007) extends this argument by highlighting that creative endeavour requires both divergent and convergent thinking to flourish, and that perhaps the tension between these seemingly opposing thought-systems is necessary for creative output to be produced. Bilton (2007) identifies the characteristics of creative thinking as: thinking through or into a problem, continuity, digging a deeper hole, being systematic, formal and focussed, working within constraints and working with conscious process. Whilst these authors are working outside the direct field of event management, the idea that creativity is also present in the process is clearly germane to the aim of this research project. In the event context this is not just about the individual being both creative and pragmatic but all those involved. As a result there was evidence that having processes in place for both was important.