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Participation

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Why Measure Participation?

This area of eventIMPACTS looks at measuring the potential of an event to effect a change in people's thinking - and possibly their behaviour - around a certain activity.

From an event organiser's perspective, it is important to be clear about the impacts that an event can reasonably expect to achieve in participation terms. Events often act as an excellent 'shop-window' for a particular activity, and in this respect they should be recognised as a valuable tool. However it is a major leap of faith to expect interaction with an event to automatically deliver increased and sustained engagement with a particular activity. Events ideally need to be supported by ancillary programmes, run by specialists in the area of developing participation and engagement, and accompanied by well-managed and clearly defined pathways capable of delivering such changes.

In setting targets linked to supporting changes in people's behaviour, event organisers might consider the different stages of the 'participation continuum' and, in particular, whether an event can actually deliver a behavioural change, or merely create contemplation or the intent to change behaviour. If it is the aim is to create intent to change behaviour, then these outcomes can be assessed with intermediate level processes (not dissimilar to those used to measure satisfaction and identity, image and place). If the intention is to achieve a sustained participation increase then the measurements required will be more advanced.

Choosing a level of Impact

Participation impacts have been broken down into two categories based upon the ease with which they can be measured. Further details on this categorisation can be found here.