Mid Sweden University

Purpose: This paper explores event value from the perspective of policy stakeholders and discusses potential implications of this stakeholder group's perceptions of value on event policy, event evaluation and the public discourse on the value of events. Design/methodology/approach: A thematic analysis is employed to analyze nine interviews from respondents who were deemed to fit the study criteria in the case of Östersund, Sweden. Findings: Findings indicate that value is portrayed in largely economic terms or in proxy-economic terms even though the respondents expressed awareness and concern for social aspects of value. Moreover, the article highlights the glaring omission of the relationship between policy stakeholders and the nature of evaluation efforts in the industry and academia. Originality/value: The article addresses a still somewhat unexplored dynamics between influential policy stakeholders and how events are regarded in terms of their potential contribution to community development. To what degree does the way the events sector and the general public value events emanate from the way events have been instrumentalized in policy throughout history? 

Policymakers in destinations regularly struggle to identify effective ways to evaluate the impacts of planned events. Especially problematic is the relative lack of knowledge about the social impacts that planned events incur. This challenge is largely attributable to the historic focus on economic impacts. However, this trend is shifting along with the realization that events often fail to deliver on promised economic trickle-down effects. This paper addresses the absence of a unified view on social impacts, and how this impedes destinations that aspire to work strategically with planned events. Policymakers at the destination level currently lack the common language needed to effectively measure these impacts. We use a Delphi approach to pinpoint social impact indicators that are of use in policy settings. The results show six indicators that meet the study criteria, thereby contributing towards a unified set of indicators for dealing with strategic event management at the destination level.

This study aims to suggest a way through which policymakers can easily understand the nature of the social impacts of events through a spatial framing of such impacts. The case study is based on two major sports events, namely the Alpine and Biathlon World Championships, which took place within a small time frame in spring 2019 within the same region in Jämtland County, Sweden. As the region shares an overarching events strategy, the goal of which is to benefit the entire regional population, this study sets out to understand the spatial distribution of the social impacts of the above-mentioned two events, which, together, are branded as the World Championships Region. Using an SMS-based distribution method, and then applying a cluster analysis based to the 4886 acquired responses, this study identified patterns of social impact according to regional inhabitant perceptions across four social impact indicators. Results demonstrated that the strongest positive and negative reactions to the events came from residents in the host municipalities and the municipalities adjacent to where the events took place. Meanwhile, regional residents who felt a high degree of pride but little else in the form of social impact were primarily concentrated on the peripheries of the region. These findings suggested that whilst negative sentiments were not necessarily highest amongst those who could not access the events, these groups still exhibited a strong sense of emotional investment in the events and regional identity. Overall, this paper contributes to a deepened understanding of the social equity dimension of events in relation to space. It also shines a critical light on the often-held assumption that large-scale events in one location are unequivocally beneficial for all of the regions or nations that surround them.