Events legacies have become a common feature in the public policy rhetoric surrounding sport events of all sizes. Public policy planners and event organizers are increasingly promoting the legacies of sport events to justify significant investments required to host them. Within the context of special events, legacy is most often recognized as the long-term or permanent outcomes for a host city from staging an event. These outcomes include potential economic, tourism, social, physical, and/or environmental factors. However, the justification of legacies from events remains complicated due to inconsistent conceptualizations of legacy across academic and industry practice. While legacy is an increasing component of event bids as well as funding justifications and postevent reports, the concept itself has attracted limited critical analysis. This article puts forth a comprehensive review of literature that has sought to define legacy, from 1991–2008, drawing on event management, sport management, and urban planning contexts. An inductive interpretive analysis of definitions was undertaken, in which key considerations were identified and definitions assessed against these. The analysis revealed five key considerations of legacy in application to the sport event management context. In doing so, this article contributes to both theoretical debate and improved strategic practice surrounding the emergence of “legacy” as justification for staging sport events.

Sport events are believed to promote dialogue, integration, and peaceful understanding among disparate groups, even when other forms of negotiation have not been successful. However, the social outcomes from sport events are largely anecdotal and there is a need to empirically examine the active engagement of groups with "others" in participatory sport event projects. This article investigates the potential of an intercommunity sport event in contributing to intergroup development and social capital building in the ethnically divided Sri Lanka. It follows an interpretive mode of inquiry where findings are derived from the analysis of 35 in-depth interviews with Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, and international event stakeholders. By providing evidence of the varying sociocultural experiences at the event, this article discusses the event's impact on intergroup relations and its influence on the stock of social capital available to communities. Findings can assist governments, policy makers, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in advancing policies and practical measures that build on events as vehicles and catalysts for enhanced intergroup relations and the creation of social capital.

For many years, special events have played an important role as strategic elements within community development. However, to date little work has been conducted on how to maximize the social potential of special events in low- and middle-income countries. In addressing this issue, we reflect on event management processes and leverage mechanisms that have underpinned a community sport event in the Pacific Island nation of Sāmoa, and identify strategies for maximizing beneficial event outcomes. We present findings related to previously identified leverage areas, including sociocultural and participatory leverage, and also suggest new areas that seem particularly relevant in the context of community development, including educational, health-related, and reputational leverage. Finally, key challenges and opportunities for event managers and local communities are discussed, implications for event leverage are provided, and areas for future research are outlined.

Business events are celebrated for their contributions to community and industry. They are understood to be shared social contexts in which people meet to advance knowledge, sell products, and network. Less celebrated and, arguably, less understood is that business events provide a context for the development of friendships. In 2011 an online survey was conducted with the delegates of five international business events held in Sydney, Australia in the period 2009–2011. The survey was designed to investigate business legacies of the events (such as investment opportunities, research collaborations) rather than sociable legacies. however, a surprising number of references to friendship were made in the “additional comments” sections of the questionnaire. reflecting on this finding, this article argues that friendships forged at business events contribute to, respectively: the well-being of delegates, association membership levels, conference attendance, retention of personnel in the profession, successful research and professional collaborations, and creativity and innovation in the sector. Business event planners can maximize opportunities for sociable outcomes among delegates by designing warm and inviting event spaces that facilitate interaction, and by providing social space for the development of relationships, optimal conditions for sociability, and opportunities for play to stimulate creativity and build community.

Leisure in the postmodern environment is often regarded as superficial, depthless, and meaningless, dominated by simulation and hyperreality. Many aspects of the Parkes Elvis Festival fall clearly into the category of simulation and hyperreality as attendees imitate Elvis Presley (and other associated characters) and are willing to accept the fake and contrived as real. However, the simulation does not, in the case of the Parkes Elvis Festival, lead to a depthless, meaningless, or inauthentic experience. Using Huizinga's ideas of play and Bateson's play frame we present the Elvis Festival as a liminal social space that invites playfulness and creativity. The theory of Georg Simmel is explored to show how sociability is created at the event to facilitate play. Finally, Csikszentmihalyi's theory of flow is used to demonstrate ways in which the enjoyment of the playful event experience is maximized for participants. We argue that play provides the substance that makes the Parkes Elvis Festival memorable and meaningful. An understanding of play theory may assist event managers to increase social facilitation at festivals and events, ensuring an enjoyable, sociable, creative, and authentic experience for attendees.

Rationale/purpose: To determine if the field of sport for development (SFD) presents opportunities for the employment of design thinking approaches toward enhancing organizational innovation. Design/methodology/approach: We undertook a scoping study to determine if and how SFD research and practice aligns with five established themes of design thinking practice. Findings: Design thinking indicators are present across the breadth of SFD research. A total of 14 SFD articles display total thematic alignment with design thinking practice, particularly in regard to five key indicators of such alignment: (a) deep user understanding, (b) diversity of perspectives, (c) testing for user feedback, (d) futuristic thinking, and (e) bias toward action. Practical implications: Five key indicators represent logical points of entry for the employment of design thinking in SFD research and practice. Research contribution: Design thinking has become popular in the broad field of management, but this is the first study of the concept in the sport management domain.

Government and industry are aware that the full value of the business event sector needs to be established. To date, the sector has been evaluated on the economic contribution it makes to host destination tourism. The tourism contributions have been impressive in themselves; however, this narrow focus has failed to account for a more extensive set of contributions to economies and communities. Impacts from business events in areas such as innovation, education, networking, trade, research, and practice are generally considered to outweigh the financial returns of the tourism spend. Although anecdotal evidence of the value of business events beyond the tourism dimension has been evident for some time, empirical research in this area is limited. This article has four objectives: first, to highlight the research need for understanding the broader impacts of business events beyond the tourism spend; second, to identify the range and impact of contributions made by business events to host communities beyond the tourism spend; third, to examine five Australian business events utilizing a grounded theory approach and present a range of identified legacies in the categories of knowledge expansion; networking, relationships, and collaboration; educational outcomes; raising awareness and profiling; and showcasing and destination reputation. Finally, the article discusses the implications of these findings for the business events sector.

Music events are elements of entertainment that are important to people's social lives. Large indoor entertainment venues meet this need through the provision of entertainment such as live music performances. While large indoor entertainment venues impact the economies of the communities in which they are located, there is minimal research that investigates their economic contribution. To address this gap, this article examines the inscope expenditure arising from a range of events held at the Sydney Entertainment Centre (SEC) for the areas surrounding it—Chinatown/Haymarket precinct, the Darling Harbour precinct, and the City of Sydney local government area. It was found that the SEC benefits the immediate venue location, as well as adjacent business precincts, with backward and forward economic linkages evident in visitor expenditure patterns. Surprisingly, free concerts were also found to generate high expenditures in surrounding areas. Implications for stakeholders are discussed.