While the demand for online education and the diversity of online students have been increasing worldwide, how online students motivate themselves to continuously engage in learning remains to be appraised. Research in the face-to-face contexts reports that academic motivation is central to student success and wellbeing, and the type of motivation can differ by subject. In particular, the motivation of business students and healthcare students can differ considerably. This study aimed to understand the motivation of online students, and compare them between business and healthcare students using a concurrent nested mixed-method design with correlation and thematic analyses. A survey regarding motivation, learning enjoyment, and study willingness was responded to by 120 online students (61 business and 59 healthcare). Business students were associated with extrinsic motivation, whereas healthcare students were associated with intrinsic motivation. While students in both groups enjoyed the pursuit of knowledge, healthcare students valued the process and accomplishment, whereas business students regarded education as steppingstones in their careers. Findings can help educators develop effective motivational support for these student groups.

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The events industry was estimated at $1,100 billion in 2018 and was expected to grow to reach $2,330 billion by 2026 (Allied Market Research, n.d.). Year 2020, however, turned out to be perhaps the most transformative year in the industry in the last decades. Numerous events, from smaller family occasions, like weddings, to major events of the likes of the Wimbledon tennis tournament, the UEFA EURO 2020, Glastonbury Festival and the Cannes Film festival, had to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The combined economic impact is not yet known but will be a loss in the hundreds of billions of US dollars (Gössling, Scott, & Hall, 2021). This shows the vulnerability of the events industry to major crises. Despite the negative impacts of crises on events, there is a paucity of research that explores organizational responses under unusual, unprecedented or critical circumstances in the events sector. This chapter applies the concept of agility in event organization within volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, so-called VUCA, environment (Bennett & Lemoine, 2014) that dominated year 2020 due to the unfolding pandemic. The agile approach is often seen as a stream of new ideas leading to elegantly simple solutions. It requires a high energy level of the team involved due to the tight constraints and deadlines. The authors introduce a case study of a business festival organized in Turku (Finland) and discuss the decision-making process, stakeholder involvement, introduction of a new modus operandi, and the new event format that was chosen.

Major international cultural exhibitions, often referred to as touring ‘blockbuster’ exhibitions (TBEs), are arguably among the most stimulating and engaging event experiences. The role of orchestrating an experience that is meaningful and memorable has captured the attention of scholars in the events literature over recent decades. The aims of this paper are to re-conceptualise major international cultural exhibitions as special events, present a framework of the experiences these exhibitions generate for visitors, and explore the roles such experiences play in visitor well-being. The study draws on the findings of qualitative research conducted in Australia and New Zealand. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives of art galleries and museums in Melbourne, Canberra, Auckland, and Wellington involved in hosting ‘blockbuster’ exhibitions, as well as representatives of regional cultural, tourism, and events organisations. This paper presents a ‘3Es’ experience realms framework, which comprises the key experiences that a major cultural and arts event generates for visitors: entertainment, enrichment, and emotional engagement. The first realm of the 3Es framework, entertainment, has encountered scepticism in the museum field; however, research findings here corroborate the arguments of those scholars who hold that entertainment may help to engage visitors and facilitate education. Enrichment comprises the creation of a favourable environment for new knowledge to be processed, and the enhancement of knowledge. The third realm is an emotionally engaging experience that results from social interactions, activities, and contemplation of and learning about unique exhibits. The framework demonstrates an interplay of these three major experiential dimensions and visitors’ hedonic and eudaemonic well-being. Exhibition and event organisers can utilise this framework to plan the delivery of memorable experiences for visitors and explore the ways in which their event can be made enjoyable, enriching, and emotionally engaging.

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The sustainable development of an event portfolio requires a synergy between the different types of events included in it. The pool of events that are commonly used by city event planners and destination marketers usually revolve around major sport events, cultural festivals and celebrations, and world trade expositions. Some cities, however, also attract and stage international touring exhibitions that bring together a collection of rare art works, significant cultural objects, or memorabilia to tour a limited number of destinations. In this chapter, major events such as international touring exhibitions will be explored as key components of portfolios of events in Canberra and Melbourne. The chapter discusses the different ways event and tourism planners in Canberra and Melbourne have been approaching major touring exhibitions, and the specific roles these events can play in delivering a balanced and successful portfolio. It will be demonstrated that the decision making around events and event portfolio composition needs to be considered within a wider context, in the light of the city’s geography and demographics, as well as political, social and cultural factors. An exploratory qualitative research was conducted in Canberra and Melbourne, Australia. The primary data was collected from 12 semi-structured interviews with managers and executives in tourism and major events planning in both cities, as well as managers and curators of the cultural institutions that had hosted major touring exhibitions. The secondary data included a range of documents pertinent to the cities’ tourism and major events policy and strategy, existing research about touring exhibitions, and websites and articles in the mass media. In the chapter, examples of past major exhibitions are given.