Auckland Lantern Festival Project Plan

Introduction

The Lantern festival is a celebration that usually takes place on the 15th of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar. Fundamentally, the festival is celebrated as part of marking the first fool moon night in the lunar year as well as the symbolism of the return of the spring. The lantern festival is critical in bringing together the families and enable them to appreciate their diversity. The lantern festival will, therefore, take place in Auckland, New Zealand. The Auckland Lantern Festival will, therefore, be an essential celebration that will take place in Auckland. It intends to bring together all the Chinese and any other Asian families or residents together to appreciate their diversity far away from home. During the festival, people light up fancy lanterns and eat a variety of food to mark the celebrations. The Auckland Lantern Festival will be delivered by the Auckland Festival Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED) on behalf of the Auckland Council in collaboration with the founding partner of the New Zealand Foundation. These organizations constitute the festival's major stakeholders.

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Project Scope

This project, therefore, offers an exposition of the various components of the festival, in addition to the numerous logistical issues that will be involved in the project. As such, the project will incorporate the information about the availability of the location for the festival, list of sponsors, the information about the invited artists and guests, ways of attracting the audience, the event program, stage preparations, and catering issues. Other crucial details about the project will include the organization of fireworks as well as the consideration of the transportation and parking issues.

Project Deliverable

The project intends to provide the information about the resource consent for the use of the Auckland Domain, the Health & Safety Plan related to the festival, Site Specific Safety Plans (SSSPs), as well as getting the necessary licenses. These include Safe Work Method Systems, which will ensure that the project takes place in a well-planned and organized manner to achieve its objectives.

Project Priorities

The priority of the project is to ensure that the festival is conducted in a more organized manner bearing the cost and the expected performance as the outcome. To ensure that all these are achieved, various strategies will be employed, and this includes consultations and one-on-one meetings with the affected parties. The issues raised, addressed will be assessed to ensure that a workable solution is achieved. This project will offer suitable guidelines aimed at proactively identifying the potential needs and viable solution before they emerge as tremendous obstacles. Undeniably, the festival follows a critical and expected direction, and the ultimate tool will constitute to a post-event debrief where stakeholders have the opportunity to provide the feedback (Pettiford, 2016).

Possible Risks and Their Mitigation

Various potential risks are anticipated and may occur during the Auckland Lantern Festival. These include the LPG bottles risk, the security risks, and the high attendance risks.

LPG Bottles Risk

Concerning the LPG bottle, it is evident that the Auckland Tourism, Events, and Economic Development (ATEED) manages numerous festivals where the LPG bottles are a crucial tool for the food vendors. However, as event planners, we intend to create the bespoke plan which will help mitigate any possible health and safety dangers that may potentially occur during the Auckland Lantern Festival. It is crucial to note that the current legislations that guide the gas bottle utilization is mostly focused on the building. A pop-up marquee will not be taken into consideration as a building per se. However, the vent team managers will adjust their model appropriately (Friesen, 2015). All measures, including keeping fire extinguishers in easily accessible locations, will be crucial. In the same way, no vendor will be allowed to get into the site with his or her gas bottles. A dedicated team will be deployed on the site to deploy the gas bottles when refiling is needed.

Huge Attendance

Producing a successful event such as the Auckland Lantern Festival is a significant problem in itself based on its size and the number of people who may attend (Shen, 2014). This project is aimed at delivering the festive vision, achieve the vision and ambitions of the organization, and enhance the balancing of the needs of the stakeholders. The mitigation measures will be put concerning the identified risks.

Safety and Security Issues

While the team has identified security and safety issues as another significant risk, the team will seek permission from the authorities to help in the deployment of the security officers throughout the festival. This will not only guarantee the safety of the attendants but also prevent any danger or causalities that may emerge as a result of criminal activities (Cheng, Shih, & Chen, 2016).

Cost and Time Estimation Approach

One method that will be used to estimate the sot will involve taking the current data and comparing them with those collected in the previous festivals. For example, if we want to estimate the cost that will be incurred on choosing the best site that will fit the entire population. Examination of the waste levels and comparing numbers to past event years as well as the gas bottle is highly necessary.

Budget

• Location charges-$5,000
• Catering issues, toilets, security, and safety-$15,000
• Entertainment-$37,500
• Invited Guest (music, dance and theatre performers)-$22,500
• Transport and parking costs-$15,000
• Miscellaneous/Unforeseen expenses-$5,000

Resource Allocation Issues

Various resource allocation issues are expected about this project. These include the financial allocation for the unforeseen situation. The number of people in attendants may exceed the anticipated number. Thus, the team pre-empts incurring other extra costs in such circumstances. Additionally, some items may consume more resources than the amount allocated for them (Cheng, Shih, & Chen, 2016). The team will, therefore, try to allocate resources based on the anticipated maximum cost to ensure that the festival proceeds smoothly.

Project Stakeholders

The main delivery partners for the Lantern festival since 2000 have been the Auckland City Council as well as the Asia New Zealand Foundation. However, ATEED is the present deliverer and stakeholder of the festival. Other stakeholders include the Auckland Chinese Community Centre, Auckland Council parks, heritage and compliance teams, the police authorities in New Zealand, Auckland Transport, and the Auckland Hospital (Friesen, 2015). The Waitemata Local Board members, as well as the Auckland Councilors and the residents near the festival sites, will also form an integral component of the festival's stakeholders (Cheng, Shih, & Chen, 2016).

Conclusion

In conclusion, we anticipate that this year's Auckland Lantern Festival will be amazing and will play a critical role in bringing various Chinese and Asian families together to appreciate their diversity. With the appropriate planning and risk identification strategies, it is expected that the project will lay a suitable mechanism to ensure that the festival's objectives are achieved.

References

Cheng, J. S., Shih, H. Y., & Chen, C. H. (2016). Festival revisiting intention and quality: The case of Taiwan's Lantern Festival. Universal Journal of Management, 4(10), 575-580.

Darby, A., Hindmarsh, G., Kenny, C., Marriott, B., Ombler, K., Pamatatau, R., & Stearne, M. (2017). Fodor's essential New Zealand.

Friesen, W. (2015). Asian Auckland: The multiple meanings of diversity. Wellington: Asia New Zealand Foundation.

Pettiford, R. (2016). Lantern Festival. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Jump! Inc

Shen, S. (2014). Intention to revisit traditional folk events: A case study of Qinhuai Lantern Festival, China. International Journal of Tourism Research, 16(5), 513-520. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jtr.1949