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To date, the importance of smaller, local community events in the place branding process has been overlooked in the place branding and event studies literature – yet they are recognised as a means of increasing the attractiveness of a place for residents, through building a sense of community and contributing to quality of life. The purpose of this paper is to make clear the contribution of community event narratives to place branding.

A qualitative approach was adopted. The public narratives of a portfolio of 14 community events (from event websites, press releases and media discourse, local government strategic policy documents) were examined. An inductive thematic analysis was conducted, and a visual framework for analysing and discussing the findings was created.

Community event narratives provide a useful resource that could be drawn upon by place branding practitioners to reach potential new residents who share similar ideals as local residents. The findings from this study demonstrate that local community event narratives do indeed tell “stories about who we are”.

This paper has implications for place branding initiatives seeking to attract new residents, particularly where there is a sense of fear and resistance from residents about “outsiders” moving in.

This paper presents an alternative model to the traditional city branding campaigns that seek to attract new residents, in the form of a values-based event-led branding strategy that may be more appropriate and compatible with local stakeholder goals.

Tourism and hospitality research is frequently cross language in nature; yet, English is the most used language to disseminate research findings. The use of thematic analysis is increasing; yet, critical discussions of the implications of the timing of translation when applying this method are rare. The purpose of this study is to present a model for bilingual researchers undertaking qualitative studies in their mother language who are reliant on their own language skills to translate and overcome language differences, and who are using thematic analysis.

Thematic analysis is a six-phase iterative analysis process during which the main themes are identified and a network of related themes is constructed to facilitate the interpretation of the material. The model is illustrated through reference to a research project carried out by the first author on the role and manifestation of intangible cultural heritage in tourism in protected areas in Iran.

The model introduces translation as an internal procedure within thematic analysis, situating it between the second and third phases when the codes are being consolidated into basic themes. Translation is viewed as a part of the iterative process of thematic analysis.

This model is the first to provide bilingual cross-language researchers with a practical and epistemologically, methodologically and ethically sound rationale for the timing of translation when using thematic analysis. While it was developed on a tourism case study, the authors believe it is applicable to research in other disciplines where cross-language qualitative analysis is used.

Gender inequality is evident in many academic practices, but research has often focused on the male-dominated science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. This study responds to calls for more work in the business disciplines which have been overlooked by comparison and focuses on academic conferences as a higher education practice. Conferences are manifestations of the research being conducted within the discipline, representing the type of knowledge that is considered valuable, and who the thought leaders are considered to be. This study investigates whether equal representation of women at such conferences really matters, to whom and why.

The research was designed using a critical feminist theory approach. An online survey was disseminated to academic staff and postgraduate students in the 25 top ranked business schools in Australia and New Zealand. A total of 452 responses were received, and thematic analysis was applied to open-ended responses.

Equal representation does matter, for two sets of reasons. The first align with feminist theory perspectives of “equal opportunity” (gender is neutral), “difference” (gender is celebrated) or “post-equity” (the social construction of gender itself is problematic). The second are pragmatic consequences, namely the importance of role modelling, career building and the respect and recognition that come with conference attendance and visible leadership roles.

The findings have implications in regards to job satisfaction, productivity and the future recruitment and retention of women in academia. Furthermore, in areas where women are not researching, the questions and issues that are important to them are not receiving the attention they deserve, and this gender data gap has consequences for society at large.

This study moves beyond simply identifying the under-representation of women at academic conferences in yet another field, to investigate why equal representation is important and to whom. It provides valuable evidence of the consequences of under-representation, as perceived by academics themselves.

Place-based community events fulfil important functions, internally and externally. They provide opportunities for people from diverse communities and cultures to encounter each other, to participate in pleasurable activities in convivial settings and to develop mutual understanding. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the value of such events as a means of resisting or challenging the deleterious effects of territorial stigmatisation.

The authors explore two place-based community events in areas that have been subject to territorial stigmatisation: Govanhill in Glasgow, Scotland, and South Dunedin, New Zealand. They draw on in-depth case study methods including observation and interviews with key local actors and employ inductive analysis to identify themes across the datasets.

The demonstrate how neighbourhood events in both Glasgow and Dunedin actively seek to address some of the deleterious outcomes of territorial stigmatisation by emphasising strength and asset-based discourses about the areas they reflect and represent. In their planning and organisation, both events play an important mediating role in building and empowering community, fostering intercultural encounters with difference and strengthening mutuality within their defined places. They make use of public and semi-public spaces to attract diverse groups while also increasing the visibility of marginalised populations through larger showcase events.

The empirical element focuses only on two events, one in Glasgow, Scotland (UK), and the other in South Dunedin (New Zealand). Data generated were wholly qualitative and do not provide quantitative evidence of “change” to material circumstances in either case study community.

Helps organisers think about how they need to better understand their communities if they are to attract diverse participation, including how they programme public and semi-public spaces.

Place-based community events have significant value to neighbourhoods, and they need to be resourced effectively if they are to sustain the benefits they produce. These events provide an opportunity for diverse communities to encounter each other and celebrate what they share rather than what divides them.

This paper is the first to examine how place-based community events help resist narratives of territorial stigmatisation, which produce negative representations about people and their environments. The paper draws on ethnographic insights generated over time rather than a one-off snapshot which undermines some events research.

In this paper the authors seek to understand how academic conferences [re]produce deeply embedded gendered patterns of interaction and informal norms within the business disciplines.

Drawing on Acker's (2012) established and updated theory of gendered organisations, the authors focus on the role of academic conferences in the reproduction of gendered practices in the business disciplines. The authors surveyed academics at top universities in Australia and New Zealand who had attended international conferences in their discipline area.

Academic conferences in the business disciplines communicate organisational logic and act as gendered substructures that [re]produce gendered practices, through the hierarchy of conference participation. Even in disciplinary conferences with a significant proportion of women delegates, the entrenched organisational logic is manifest in the bodies that perform keynote and visible expert roles, perpetuating the notion of the “ideal academic” as male.

The authors call for disciplinary associations to formulate an equality policy, which covers all facets of conference delivery, to which institutions must then respond in their bid to host the conference and which then forms part of the selection criteria; explicitly communicate why equality is important and what decisions the association and hosts took to address it; and develop databases of women experts to remove the most common excuse for the lack of women keynote speakers. Men, question conference hosts when asked to be a keynote speaker or panelist: Are half of the speakers women and is there diversity in the line-up? If not, provide the names of women to take your place.

The contribution of this study is twofold. First is the focus on revealing the underlying processes that contribute to the [re]production of gender inequality at academic conferences: the “how” rather than the “what”. Second, the authors believe it to be the first study to investigate academic conferences across the spectrum of business disciplines.

This exploratory study seeks to understand whether an arts event designed with/by/for disabled people (the InterACT Disability Arts Festival in New Zealand) has the potential to create revolutionary futures, defined as those which help determine new paths, make the future less fearsome and allow more positive outcomes.

A qualitative approach was taken in this study. Interviews were carried out with ten disabled event attendees, two support workers, one family member, four event volunteers, two activity providers and the main event organiser of the 2019 festival. Active participant observation was also used to collect data. Deductive thematic analysis was used to determine themes and subthemes in the material.

The findings suggest the case study arts event does help to create revolutionary futures for disabled attendees through disrupting the narratives of disability, making sense of lives lived and changing lives yet to be lived.

Limited windows of opportunity were available to interact with attendees, and just 17 in-the-moment interviews were conducted. However, the findings still have value as data saturation was reached. A “revolutionary futures” conceptual framework is presented to understand the nexus between disability worlds and events and thus amplify the benefits for attendees.

Research carried out to date has provided much-needed understanding about the challenges facing disabled people at events, but this study turns this deficit approach around to focus on the opportunities provided by event participation.

The importance of events for marginalised groups has largely been overlooked within tourism, hospitality and event studies. The purpose of this study is to address this gap, emphasising the positive outcomes of power relationships rather than the negative, which have traditionally been the focus in event studies.

The study investigated eight events for indigenous and ethnic minority groups, rural women, disabled people and seniors in Australia and New Zealand. Qualitative data was collected via participant observation, reflexive ethnography, semi-structured interviews and in-the-moment conversations. An inductive thematic approach was taken to data analysis.

Eight themes around notions of power and empowerment were identified during the analysis: providing a platform, giving/taking ownership, gaining confidence, empowering with/through knowledge, respect, pride and affirmation, freedom to “be” and resistance. These were then viewed through the lenses of social-structural and psychological empowerment, enabling a deeper understanding of power at/through events.

The paper presents a framework for empowerment that enables event organisers to both understand and deliberately plan for the productive use of power, which can reaffirm important event aims, objectives and values. It can also be used by researchers as a framework through which to identify and assess the contributing elements of empowerment at events and by local government to guide policymaking around events.

This study is the first to highlight best practices for the positive use of power at events that “empowers” marginalised groups. Grounded in empowerment theory, the study offers a new lens to reframe notions of power and provides a theoretical framework that will be of value for both critical event studies researchers, event organisers and policymakers alike.

This paper explores mental wellbeing in the events industry. We argue that mental wellbeing is often difficult to achieve in the stressful and deadline-driven events industry, and that better awareness and understanding of specific actions for employees to flourish at work is needed.

We used in-depth semi-structured interviews with event professionals in the UK to investigate their individual coping strategies. To contextualise, we used the Five Ways to Wellbeing framework as an analytical tool.

Our findings reveal that event professionals currently unconsciously engage in a variety of actions to maintain and enhance their mental wellbeing outside of work, but not at work. Out of the Five Ways to Wellbeing, specific actions to Connect, Be Active and Take Notice were most important to event professionals. The remaining two ways, Keep Learning and Give, were also identified in the data, although they were less prominent.

We present recommendations for event professionals to more consciously engage with the Five Ways to Wellbeing and for employers to develop mental wellbeing initiatives that allow their employees to flourish.

In event studies, the Five Ways to Wellbeing have thus far only been applied to event attendees, volunteers and the local community. Our paper highlights how event employees can also benefit from engaging in some of the actions set out in the framework to enhance their mental wellbeing at work.

The aim of this chapter is to emphasize the importance of archival material and how, despite its secondary nature, it is capable of providing first-hand information for researchers. By providing a variety of examples from tourism, hospitality and leisure, this chapter demonstrates how this underused data can be a valuable resource for these areas of study. In order to illustrate how to use archival material as data, a step-by-step process to analyzing archival photographs is provided. The chapter discusses the challenges and ethical considerations associated with using archival material while also providing suggestions for the use of this data source in future studies.