Dance card : light : sound : space : moves : a live-performance mix-re-mix event

12 minute solo within an hour-long work, performed 18 - 22 February 2004  at the Dancehouse, Melbourne

Unrealistic optimism and event threat

Individuals typically exhibit “unrealistic optimism” (UO), the belief that they are less likely than the average person to experience a negative event. This may be because, fearing the event, they try to reassure themselves by distorting their reasoning to conclude that they are at comparatively little risk. If this is so, the greater the “event threat” (i.e., the more serious the event's consequences and/or the greater the likelihood that those consequences will be experienced), the more reassurance should be required, and the greater the UO that should be observed. This prediction was tested in a study in which students (N = 148) were informed about a type of heart disease that could develop in later life due to inadequate diet when young. The risk attributable to diet was stated to be either slight (low-threat condition) or great (high-threat condition). Participants were asked to rate their own risk and that of the average student of developing the disease; question order was counterbalanced. The effects of event threat and question order were found to interact: event threat affected UO in the predicted way, but only when the question about own risk came first. The results are explained in motivational terms. Implications for health education are discussed.

A scalable and extensible segment-event-object-based sports video retrieval system

Sport video data is growing rapidly as a result of the maturing digital technologies that support digital video capture, faster data processing, and large storage. However, (1) semi-automatic content extraction and annotation, (2) scalable indexing model, and (3) effective retrieval and browsing, still pose the most challenging problems for maximizing the usage of large video databases. This article will present the findings from a comprehensive work that proposes a scalable and extensible sports video retrieval system with two major contributions in the area of sports video indexing and retrieval. The first contribution is a new sports video indexing model that utilizes semi-schema-based indexing scheme on top of an Object-Relationship approach. This indexing model is scalable and extensible as it enables gradual index construction which is supported by ongoing development of future content extraction algorithms. The second contribution is a set of novel queries which are based on XQuery to generate dynamic and user-oriented summaries and event structures. The proposed sports video retrieval system has been fully implemented and populated with soccer, tennis, swimming, and diving video. The system has been evaluated against 20 users to demonstrate and confirm its feasibility and benefits. The experimental sports genres were specifically selected to represent the four main categories of sports domain: period-, set-point-, time (race)-, and performance-based sports. Thus, the proposed system should be generic and robust for all types of sports.

Analysis of satisfaction at Gallipoli on ANZAC day, 2007 : results of a survey of event participants

This paper explores the critical success factors of special events, in this case the Anzac Day commemorations at Gallipoli, Turkey. This event has become increasingly popular in recent years with crowd numbers growing to around 20,000 people traveling to attend the 2005 Dawn Service at historic Anzac Cove on Anzac day. The aim of this research is to investigate the success factors associated with Anzac Day commemorations at Gallipoli and to assess how these influence visitor satisfaction. Data was collected from 331 attendees of Anzac Day commemorations at Gallipoli while they were in transit from Gallipoli to Istanbul on 25 April 2007. The analysis of this data was undertaken using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis as a basis to the development of a model of satisfaction using structural equation modeling. In this case constructs relating to amenities, transport, ceremonies and recommending behavior were found to be significant predictors of event satisfaction. These issues during the event were found to be of equal importance for both genders and all age groups.

Examining the relationship between event owners and host destinations

The event sector has often come under the scrutiny of the public. A cursory glance at print and electronic media highlights some of the many negative attitudes social commentators and residents of host destinations have of special events. While there are a number of stakeholders of events, two entities which play a pivotal role in whether, when, and how events are delivered are the event governing bodies (or owners) and the host destinations. This paper examines the relationship between these two stakeholders. Research questions guiding this study are: Do event owners vary in their interactions with event destinations? Should event destinations be more discerning in their selection of the events they host? Can event destinations be more discerning in their selection of the events that they bid for?

While considerable research has focused on the relationship between event owners and host destinations during the event bidding process, this study aimed to explore the relationship more generally to provide greater insights into the event planning process. Thus, the study aimed to address a gap in knowledge about event marketing and management to understand motives for destinations to engage with event owners, and ultimately to enhance the quality of the event experience (for both attendees and non-attendees). A qualitative research approach was employed for this study, with elite interviews being the main data collection method.

The findings indicate that the relationship between event owners and host destinations can be highly problematic. A number of factors were identified as contributing to this situation, including the varying objectives that event owners have for their events; the way in which these objectives are congruent (or not) with host destinations objectives for events in their community; and the way in which a potential match or mis-match of objectives impacts a host destination’s ability to leverage an event. Overall, the researchers concluded that when there is disparity between the culture of the event owners’ organisation, and the social culture of the host destination, this situation is exacerbated. When event owners demonstrated empathy and an understanding of the host destination’s culture, and an understanding of the host destination’s aim for delivering an event, greater levels of perceived success are evident.

In the past, the bid process has been highly competitive. Host destinations have been at the mercy of event owners. However, the authors of this study indicate that as a result of this research, host destinations should be more discerning with regard to which event owners they ‘lie in bed with’ to ensure that the outcomes of the events are beneficial for their myriad stakeholders. It is acknowledged that the event planning and execution process is set within a political market square, as per Larson and Wikstrom’s (2001) suggestion, and that this context provides a fertile ground for research on this topic.

Battlefield tourism in Turkey : an empirical analysis of British ex-colonial event attendance

This paper explores the influence of visitor satisfaction on intention to recommend event attendance. The Anzac Day commemoration at Gallipoli, Turkey, an event that has become increasingly popular in recent years and provides the backdrop for the current study. Some 20,000 people travel to attend this event. Data was collected from 331 attendees while they were in transit from Gallipoli to Istanbul on 25 April 2007. The analysis of this data was undertaken using factor analysis as a basis for identifying model constructs to be tested using structural equation modelling. Findings suggest that the constructs relating to the ceremonies held at Anzac Cove and Lone Pine and the experiential and emotional aspects of the event were significant predictors of event satisfaction and subsequent recommending behaviour. The implications of these findings for events in general and the success of the Anzac Day commemorations at Gallipoli are discussed.

Sport/cultural events : public and private perceptions of the hybrid event

This paper explores the public and private perceptions of events that amalgamate two different themes into one unified event. In this paper, we refer to this as a hybrid event. The paper is set within the context of Melbourne, Australia, where two hybrid events (specifically a sport/culture event) were delivered in 2006 and 2007. Media reports about the 2007 event were analyzed to capture the public perception of the sport/cultural event, and focus group data, collected from attendees of the events, were analyzed to explore the private perceptions of the hybrid event. The results indicate that there are a range of views about the sport/cultural event, which are not always consistent. The findings of this study indicate that the hybrid event has the capacity to wade through a cluttered marketplace, but that it does require strong branding to position itself in the marketplace for competitive advantage.

Nurses' critical event risk assessments : a judgement analysis

Aims. To explore and explain nurses' use of readily available clinical information when deciding whether a patient is at risk of a critical event.

Background. Half of inpatients who suffer a cardiac arrest have documented but unacted upon clinical signs of deterioration in the 24 hours prior to the event. Nurses appear to be both misinterpreting and mismanaging the nursing-knowledge 'basics' such as heart rate, respiratory rate and oxygenation. Whilst many medical interventions originate from nurses, up to 26% of nurses' responses to abnormal signs result in delays of between one and three hours.

Methods. A double system judgement analysis using Brunswik's lens model of cognition was undertaken with 245 Dutch, UK, Canadian and Australian acute care nurses. Nurses were asked to judge the likelihood of a critical event, 'at-risk' status, and whether they would intervene in response to 50 computer-presented clinical scenarios in which data on heart rate, systolic blood pressure, urine output, oxygen saturation, conscious level and oxygenation support were varied. Nurses were also presented with a protocol recommendation and also placed under time pressure for some of the scenarios. The ecological criterion was the predicted level of risk from the Modified Early Warning Score assessments of 232 UK acute care inpatients.

Results. Despite receiving identical information, nurses varied considerably in their risk assessments. The differences can be partly explained by variability in weightings given to information. Time and protocol recommendations were given more weighting than clinical information for key dichotomous choices such as classifying a patient as 'at risk' and deciding to intervene. Nurses' weighting of cues did not mirror the same information's contribution to risk in real patients. Nurses synthesized information in non-linear ways that contributed little to decisional accuracy. The low-moderate achievement (Ra) statistics suggests that nurses' assessments of risk were largely inaccurate; these assessments were applied consistently among 'patients' (scenarios). Critical care experience was statistically associated with estimates of risk, but not with the decision to intervene.

Conclusion. Nurses overestimated the risk and the need to intervene in simulated paper patients at risk of a critical event. This average response masked considerable variation in risk predictions, the need for action and the weighting afforded to the information they had available to them. Nurses did not make use of the linear reasoning required for accurate risk predictions in this task. They also failed to employ any unique knowledge that could be shown to make them more accurate. The influence of time pressure and protocol recommendations depended on the kind of judgement faced suggesting then that knowing more about the types of decisions nurses face may influence information use.

Relevance to clinical practice. Practice developers and educators need to pay attention to the quality of nurses' clinical experience as well as the quantity when developing judgement expertise in nurses. Intuitive unaided decision making in the assessment of risk may not be as accurate as supported decision making. Practice developers and educators should consider teaching nurses normative rules for revising probabilities (even subjective ones) such as Bayes' rule for diagnostic or assessment judgements and also that linear ways of thinking, in which decision support may help, may be useful for many choices that nurses face. Nursing needs to separate the rhetoric of 'holism' and 'expertise' from the science of predictive validity, accuracy and competence in judgement and decision making.

Conducting event studies with Asia-Pacific security market data

We investigate the effectiveness of several well-known parametric and non-parametric event study test statistics with security price data from the major Asia-Pacific security markets. Extensive Monte Carlo simulation experiments with actual daily security returns data reveal that the parametric test statistics are prone to misspecification with Asia-Pacific returns data. Two non-parametric tests, a rank test [Corrado and Zivney (Corrado, C.J., Zivney, T.L., 1992, The specification and power of the sign test in event study hypothesis tests using daily stock returns, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 27(3), 465-478)] and a sign test [Cowan (Cowan, A.R., 1992, Non-parametric event study tests, Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting 1(4), 343–358)] were the best performers overall with market model excess returns computed using an equal weight index.