From Event Planning to Legacy Planning

The importance of legacy and legacy planning is increasing in the event industry. Mega-events are becoming so expensive to host that the opportunity costs decreases the amount of potential future hosts. The events aim to surpass the costs by creating positive legacies, impacts that last longer than the event itself. Small-events can also have legacies and the positive affects can be even more significant than with the mega-events. Event planning must change to legacy planning in the future, because the positive impacts events create at present is not enough to justify public support for hosting. The future of event planning is delivering legacies and the legacy should be the main reason why an event is organized Event planning is already changing because of the increasing demand for benefits by the stakeholders. Some changes have already been adapted, some are currently taking place and some needed changes are still to be included in event planning. Legacy planning is systematic event planning work with the help of relevant data collection in order to maximize the benefits and minimize the negative effects of an event to all the stakeholders. This research shows that involving the stakeholders from the very beginning of the event planning process is as necessary as data collection, analysis and data-based decision-making, also known as sport business intelligence. This research will present the traditional event planning process followed by detailed insights about legacy planning, to which event planning must change to be able to deliver sustainable legacies that affect all stakeholders. The aim of this research is to review the existing legacy planning definition: “systematic event planning work with the help of relevant data collection in order to maximize the benefits and minimize the negative effects of an event to all the stakeholders” and update it to best meet the requirements of modern legacy planning. The second aim is to create a legacy planning based on sport business intelligence framework, which illustrates the process of creating sustainable legacies. The definition of legacy is also updated. This research is conducted as a comprehensive literature review of event planning and legacy planning. The structure of the conceptual framework connects legacy planning process to knowledge management and shows reasons why events should be planned based on the legacy plan and data analyses during the whole event planning and implementation process. An integrative review presents the state of the research of the topic and has the potential to build new theories and concepts, informing research, practice and policy initiatives. Integrative literature review is an applicable method when the aim is to describe the research topic diversely and to possibly develop new information from the research subject, such as frameworks and perspectives. The researcher proposes new legacy and legacy planning definitions and presents a legacy planning based on SBI framework. The new definition highlights the importance of stakeholders in the process and long-term utilization of sport business intelligence. The presented framework clearly demonstrates the different phases of legacy planning and connects SBI to the process. The framework helps events in planning and preparing for legacies