Managementul riscului. studiu de caz - concert Madonna la București

1 Summary

The world of events has evolved to being a very profitable industry that now exists in its own right, independent from tourism, hospitality or leisure sectors. The event manager is confronted with the pressure of creating a successful event and not making any mistakes, as there is only one chance to get it right. In this context, it was considered that the project management process plays a very important role in delivering the expected results on time and at a high quality.

The project explored this perspective by focusing on risk management and applying the concepts to a contemporary event. The chosen case study referred to Madonna’s concert in Bucharest, which was held in 2009 in Romania, as part of the “Sticky & Sweet” worldwide tour. Although the tour was very successful, this particular event was intensely criticised by the media and the participants.

Consequently, the project analysed the risk management problems encountered in the event, in an attempt to see if they were related to errors in the risk assessment process and suggest operational changes for improving the event, or other events like it, in the future. The focus was on various aspects of strategic risk management, such as reputation risk, communication risk, financial risk and human resources risk.

The discussion revealed the fact that the event organiser ignored the importance of risk management and chose a location that was not suitable for this event, leading to numerous difficulties on the day and implicitly, to a large number of negative reviews from the public and the media.

The conclusion demonstrated that this event had the potential of becoming a resounding success, but it failed to deliver the expected outcomes, due to major errors in the risk management process. Therefore, a more thorough planning of the multiple aspects of this process would be essential in order to improve the event and create a memorable experience.

2 Background

On the 26th of August 2009 the “Queen of Pop” held her first concert in the city-capital of Romania, Bucharest. The event was organised by Emagic Entertainment, being a part of the “Vodafone Best Music” series of concerts taking place in Romania. Among other famous names of the international music stage that were brought through this project we can count Shakira, Beyonce and Rolling Stones. (Concerte, 2010)

“Sticky & sweet” was Madonna’s eight worldwide concert tour and is considered to have the biggest success out of all of the artist’s concerts. (Feeder, 2010) This tour is aimed to promote the artist’s new album “Hard Candy”, which is also considered to have a massive success worldwide. As special guest of the concert Madonna has invited the international renowned DJ Paul Oakenfold. He was the opening act for 80 concerts out of the 85 concerts in the tour.

Per total he concert was attended by 3.2 million people from 32 countries on 3 continents – America, Europe and Asia. (Ziarul Financiar, 2010) This set a new record regarding the number of tickets sold a concert tour of this type; and also won two Billboard Tour Awards: Top Tour and Top Draw. (Billboard Events, 2010)

The opening concert of the tour took place in Cardiff – Wales on the 23rd of August 2008 and the audience was promised “a rock driven dancetastic journey” (Madonna News, 2010). It was divided into four sections: Pimp – combining 1920’s art deco and “modern gangsta pimp”; Old School – showing the birth of rap; Gypsy – fusion of Romani music and dance; and Rave – with eastern influences. (Realitatea, 2010; Aceshobiz, 2010)

A number of controversial statements circled around the tour, because of some of the performances, most of them being of political matter.

The image of US republican candidate John McCain was shown in a video alongside communist rulers Hitler and Mugabe, as part of her performance of the song “Get Stupid” (Mad-Eyes, 2010). As response McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds called the comparisons “outrageous, unacceptable and crudely divisive all at the same time”. (Breitbart, 2010)

Another “event” was the dedication of “Like a Virgin” to the Pope Benedict XVI during the Rome concert. (Reuters, 2010)