Buzzing Communities by Richard Millington

Author:Richard Millington
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Feverbee
Published: 2012-10-26T14:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

Events and Activities

Events play an essential role in the growth and development of communities. They unite audiences and create the social foundations for great things to happen.

Events can make communities more fun and provide constant activity. Events give members a reason to visit frequently to see what is happening in the community and provide motivation for lurkers to participate. Events can also provide a structure for the community. Members know what to expect and when to visit.

Chalip (2006) is a keen proponent of using events to support a community. He writes, “ . . .event organisers and host community planners should foster social interaction and prompt a feeling of celebration by enabling sociability among event visitors, creating event-related social events, facilitating informal social opportunities, producing ancillary events, and theming widely.

The resulting narratives, symbols, meanings, and affect can then be leveraged to address social issues, build networks, and empower community action.”

Sense of community experts McMillan and Chavis (1986) claim events are a key component in increasing the shared emotional connection between members. Events are a social lubricant that facilitates a strong sense of community among members.

Young et al. (2011) go further in describing benefits of events. They believe events help bond and increase participation in a community. They also note that events give communities a sense of history and purpose. Events encourage individuals to directly interact with each other. Such interactions are vital in facilitating trust and relationships.

The benefits of events, however, are not limited to offline communities. Several studies have shown that events have a strong beneficial impact upon online communities.

IMPACT OF EVENTS UPON ONLINE COMMUNITIES

Young et al. studied the impact of offline events upon online communities and discovered offline events can increase page views by 60.4% and participation by 27.2%. Likewise Cluett and Seah (2011) noted that interactions and conversations between fans are “most vigorous during times of major events.”

Events provide the context for many positive contributions to a community. Some of these are as follows:

• Events provide increased contact between individuals. The contact hypothesis (Allport, 1954) states that contact alone increased liking between individuals. Simply by having an excuse to connect with each other, the strength of relationships and bonds increase. This improves activity over the long term.

• Events celebrate the community identity. Community members feel a sense of pride and an increased sense of community (often known as communitas).

• Events initiate leverage to sustain broader community goals. After the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the partnership and sense of collaboration and togetherness was used to regenerate a vast area of the city.

• Events breed a shared sense of history. McMillan and Chavis (1986) noted the remarkable connection between a shared sense of history and community events.

• Events can help recruit volunteers to the community. Once people put themselves forward, they identify with the volunteer model. Event volunteers can be converted into regular helpers and supporters of the community.

In addition, there are economical justifications for events. Organizations can use events as a source of revenue for either a) supporting the community or b) increasing company profits.

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