ADVANCES ON INFORMATION PROCESSING AND MANAGEMENT

Transcription

1 ADVANCES ON INFORMATION PROCESSING AND MANAGEMENT 1

2 To learn more about Scientific Events, including the Book Series, please visit the webpage 2

3 Unified Approach in MANAGEMENT Managerial papers from International Conference on Tourism Development and Management Kos, Greece September 2009 EDITORS Damianos P. Sakas University of Peloponnese, Greece Nikolaos Konstantopoulos University of the Aegean, Greece All papers have been peer-reviewed Pafos, Cyprus 2010 SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 3

4 Editors Damianos P. Sakas University of Peloponnese Faculty of Science and Technology Department of Computer Science and Technology Address: End of Karaiskaki St., 22100, Tripolis, Greece The copyrights will be owned by the authors under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial license ( which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any non commercial medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ISBN: ISSN: Printed in the Cyprus, EU 4

5 Unified Approach in MANAGEMENT THE CONTRIBUTION OF PUBLISHING HOUSES COMMUNICATION TO CONFERENCES SUCCESS DAMIANOS P. SAKAS Department of Computer and Technology Science, University of Peloponnese, Praxitelous 89-91, Piraeus, 18532, Greece MARINA C. TERZI Department of Mediterranean Studies, University of the Aegean, Ethnikis Antistaseos 17, Korinthos, 20100, Greece PETROS TOMARAS Department of Marketing, Technological Education Institution (T.E.I.) of Athens Ag. Spiridonos Str., 12210, Athens, Greece The conference industry is nowadays in crisis due to the plethora of global events throughout the world. For a conference to ensure its success and preserve its viability needs the organizers to invest in new ways that are able to guarantee a competitive advantage. The attraction of new scientists requires events of high quality that adds value to its participants. The present paper illustrates that, through strategic communication, the participation of a famous publishing house is able to provide the conference with significant benefits. Keywords: Event Management, Strategic Communication 1. Introduction Depending upon the situation, communicating strategically a message which meets an organization s objective, both internally or externally, is the key to increase its effectiveness and preserve good relationship with key stakeholders (Foster and Jonker, 2005). In today s complex and perplexing environment, where business viability and stability relies on the entrenchment of a competitive advantage, it is not safe to only steady against a plan. In the case of the conference industry, strategic communication requires greater effort due to its nature. Unlike businesses, the conference industry offers a service that significantly influences academics, researchers, students, 266

6 ADVANCES ON INFORMATION PROCESSING AND MANAGEMENT institutions, and publishers, among others. Developing new theories, testing previous methods or implementing methods to other scientific areas, among others, all contribute to its success by allowing the distribution of information to interested parties (Donaldson-Briggs et al., 2002). Therefore, a conference performance depends on the stable and smooth co-ordination among all the groups that contribute to its organization (Triantafyllopoulos and Konstantopoulos 2010). Academic journals form one of the most important parts of a conference. Journal publications are important since they contribute to academics continued existence (Falk, 2003) and proved to be beneficiary to the constant advancement of knowledge, new or existing, through researches. Traditionally, journal publications were referred only to printed materials; however, the evolutionary progress of the Internet has bred its impact on online publications as well (Falk, 2004). Even in this case, the opportunity of potential conference s participants to publish their works in well-known journal act as a motivation to their involvement in the event. 2. Participation of Publishing Houses to Conferences The competitive nature of the conference industry imposes to its organizers to find new attractive ways in order to ensure the participation of more and more applicants. Participating publishing houses form the new way of adding value to the participants of a conference. No matter what the co-operation is like, in terms of sponsorship (Fahy et al., 2004) or promotional agreements, the advantages for the conference, the publishing house and foremost the participants are significant and multidimensional. The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence to the positive outcome of a publishing house s participation in a conference. The approach of a publishing house requires the development of a strategic communication plan which is in total accordance with the conference s objectives. The delivery of the effective messages to the publishing houses is the key to ensure a successful co-operation that will enhance the brand name of a conference and benefit the participants. 3. Materials and Methods The research was carried out based on a tourism-oriented conference s website, taking place in Greece. The dynamics of the conference is high due to the fact that five leading Universities of World participate as co-organizers. 267

7 Unified Approach in MANAGEMENT The research mainly depends on the comparison of statistics that were derived from the website, by using statistical analysis software. It was conducted by comparing two same periods of time, before and after the post of the publishing house s link on the conference s website. On the first launch of the conference s website, all the necessary data regarding the online visits were recorded as well as the percentage of success in viewing the registration form, which is the last stage before the final participation of an applicant. After negotiations, a famous publishing house accepted to participate in the conference, (Emerald, 2009) not by providing sponsorship but by providing other advantages. The advantages were related to the announcement and web link of the conference on journal web sites, the announcement and web link to a monthly newsletter as well as 30-day online access for all delegates to all journals that belong to the publishing house. The statistics were recorded based on the frequency of visits, the eventuality of returning customers and the access into the registration form. 4. Results: Before the participation of the famous publishing house to the conference, the website was online for 5 months. During the period in question, a percentage of were new visitors whereas returning visitors. The average time on the website was 2 minutes and 44 seconds and the mean visits per day were The most visited top contents of the website were the home page with a percentage of 37.90, followed by sessions, publications, registration and useful links. Table 1: Statistics before and after the participation of the publishing house on the conference s website VISITORS ACCESS IN CONFERENCE S WEBSITE BEFORE (%) AFTER (%) Home Page Sessions Registration Publications Useful Links Registration Form 44 views 89 views 268

8 ADVANCES ON INFORMATION PROCESSING AND MANAGEMENT After the post of the publishing house s link under the label of useful links, there was a significant increase in visits in the region of 16.25%. This increase provides evidence to the assumption that the introduction of a publishing house s logo greatly influences the visits in the conference website. The new link was only 1.5 half month online and the marketing campaign, through e- mails, was already introduced to the marketplace. The percentage of returning customers was increased by 7.73 points. Although the period of the new post was relatively small, all visitors mean length of stay was 3 minutes and 54 seconds, a fact that indicates the upswing of interest for the conference s website. Support to this is provided by the upward tendency of visits per day with an average of visits. 5. Conclusions: The outcomes of the research are very encouraging. The in-depth analysis of the results indicates that there is a great increase in the conferences visits. (Figure 1) This increase is further encouraging if taking into consideration the small period of time in which the new post of the publishing house s participation is online. The online presence of the new logo further attracts potential participants by the use of marketing. Therefore, it is worth mentioning that the introduction of the new link proved to be helpful in contacting once more with potential participants and thus, promoting the conference.! Figure 1. Increase in the conferences visits! Half of the websites have higher percentages after the release of the new post. The scores before the release have not great deviations, especially if considering the period of time that the new logo is online. Returning visitors compose one of the most important parts of the research as the more the 269

9 Unified Approach in MANAGEMENT returning visitors, the more the chances to proceed to registration. For potential participants to revisit a website means that they find it important and, after an internal process, they have come at a decision relatively to their participation. Another important aspect of the research is the average views of the conference s registration form, which are double in amount after the post s release. This is another supporting fact relatively to visitors formation of perceptions about their participation. The average percentage of visits on the Useful Links page, under which the new post is being hosted, is higher by 16.25%. This is one of the most encouraging information of the research since it demonstrates the importance that visitors place on the participation of a famous publishing house on the conference s website. Based on the research s outcomes, it seems that visitors acknowledge the power that a publishing house has when participating into a conference. They appear to be interested in benefiting from the advantages that such a cooperation is able to provide to them. Overall, it is safe to say that the cooperation with a famous publishing house is an effective way of attracting new participants, maintaining existing ones, adding value to the conference s nature and gaining a competitive advantage over other conferences. It is therefore important to invest in good relationships between publishing houses and scientists committees of conferences in order to post the publishers logo as soon as possible. References 1. Donaldson-Briggs, A., Peters, J., Whitfield, R. (2002) I don t know much about art but I know what I like: Measuring and managing supply quality in a publishing company, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics, 32 (10): Emerald Publishing House. Tourism and Hospitality Journal Collection. [Online], Available at: r3dsqttmmj5edg0hcfp0&phpsessid=por49vr3dsqttmmj5edg0hcfp0&ph PSESSID=por49vr3dsqttmmj5edg0hcfp0&subject=tourism [Accessed 14 July 2009]. 3. Faly, J., Farrelly, F. and Quester, P. (2004), Competitive advantage through sponsorship: A conceptual model and research propositions, European Journal of Marketing, 38 (8): Falk, Howard (2003) Technology corner: Journal Publishing is ripe for change, The Electronic Library, 21 (2): Falk, Howard (2004) Technology corner: The revolt against journal publishers, The Electronic Library, 22 (2):

10 ADVANCES ON INFORMATION PROCESSING AND MANAGEMENT 6. Foster, D. and Jonker, J. (2005) Stakeholder relationships: the dialogue of engagement, Corporate Governance, 5 (5): Triantafyllopoulos I. K., Konstantopoulos N. (2010) The Role of Culture in Mergers and Acquisitions, in D. P. Sakas, and N. Konstantopoulos (Eds) (2010) Marketing and Management Sciences, Vol. 1, London, Imperial College Press, forthcoming 271