I watched a YouTube video that explored the planning and execution of U2’s 360° Tour, which began in 2009. This video provided insights into both the logistical and the creative aspects of large scale event management.

One of the takeaways was understanding the range of roles involved in the production. Jake Berry (production manager) and Arthur Fogel (tour promoter) showed the responsibilities of project managers like handling budgeting, scheduling, leadership, and ensuring the tour met all its deliverables. The creative team, including show designers and consultants, had a focus on experience design they were crafting the visual and emotional atmosphere that defines the audience's engagement.

This made the difference between technical success and experiential success clear. A project manager ensures an event runs smoothly, while an experience designer ensures the event leaves a lasting emotional impact. I had underestimated the complexity of visual effects. Every visual was meaningful, tied to a story or message, and created to influence the audience's emotions. I was also impressed by U2’s conscious approach. They made sure all attendees had a good view by using a circular stage set up, kept tickets affordable to ensure accessibility, reduced the carbon footprint of the tour through sustainability initiatives.

This video gave me a better understanding of how experience design, sustainability, and social impact can be integrated into a large scale events such as concerts. It made clear that artists and event professionals can influence not just entertainment but also society if they do it correctly and put effort into it.

This documentary shows how a festival that was promoted to be a luxurious, once in a life time experience on the Bahamas turned out to be a festival goers worst nightmare. Attendees were promised villa's and a luxurious setting to party in the reality of the event was worse than horrible. A lineup with artists like Blink-182, Major Lazer, Disclosure, Tyga and many more was promised however some artists never even got booked and others cancelled after seeing what the festival grounds looked like. instead of the luxury villas that were promised attendees were given disaster relief tents. The ones used for emergency shelters after natural disasters. These tents had no air conditioning, no locks and were wet due to a storm. The matrasses were wet and people had to share tents with strangers due to not enough tents being placed. This played a huge role in the outrage and chaos that followed. The attendees who were promised meals prepared by celebrity chefs such as sushi and a pig roast received cheese sandwiches in a styrofoam box  this was widely shared on social media and revealed the disasters of the event

This documentary shows how important proper logistics, budgeting, and honest communication and promotion are in event management. It showed that without a plan, trained staff, and safety measures, even the most insane marketing cannot save an event. This also shows that is important no promote wat is truly going to be the event and to stay true to this. The festival also failed to meet Maslow’s basic needs like safety, shelter, and food, which made the crowd frustrated and distressed this added to all the choas in a negative way.

This relates to smart goal 1 ''improve my knowledge on events and artists''. The documentary gave me valuable insights into what can go wrong when principles are ignored. It improved my understanding of risk management and gave me a real life example. It showed me that it is very important to honestly market your event.

This documentary shows the evolution of Coachella started in 1999 to now being one of the biggest names in events. It shows the festivals growth and impact on the music and event industry. It showcases how their lineup changed from rock and indie acts to now being a diverse mix of EDM, hiphop and mani different artists. They keep changing themselves to satisfy audience preferences and trends. Coachella show to dive into trends and developments by creating a social media worth instagram setting but they also showed this in 2012 when implementing a tupac hologram during snoop dogs performance. The pyramid stage Daft Punk used in 2006 also made a big impact by introducing creative stage design.  Coachella collaborates with artists to create art installations and immersive experiences and therefore adding value to the customer journey and making the vent a complete experience. These are as simple as painted trash cans to promote throwing away waste. Coachella has implemented recycling initiatives and is commited to reducing there ecological footprint. Overall this documentary really showed how Coachella has evolved over the course of two decades. As a future event manager this was very inspiring to see and I can learn from the way Coachella implements trends and developments. The pre, direct and post exposure by Goossens and Mazursky can be applied.

Pre - exposure: coachella has a strong brand indentity and high marketing, limited tickets creates FOMO and a buzz around the event, direct-exposure: very immersive and euphoric experiences, post- exposure: attendees specifically influencers share content online, aftermovies, merchandise.

This relates to smart goal 1 ''improve my knowledge on events and artists''. Watching this documentary showed me branding of an event but also the evolution of a very large festival. It thought me that it is important to stay true to your brand but also evolve with your attendees and implement trends and developments. It showed the connection of the before, during and after part of an event and showed me new theoretical concepts.

This documentary explores the Astroworld festival in Houston were 10 people passed away and hundreds were injured. The documentary interviews attendeed of the festival and analyses footage of the event. The documentary shows how overcrowding, bad crowd control and and emergency respnders not being able to get through the crowd lost people's lives. One attendee shares the moment panic really set in and mentions “We were screaming for help. I was waving, trying to get anyone’s attention, but the music just kept going.” Despite all the issues occuring in the crowd the show didn't stop. Experts point to critical design failures and lack of crisis response protocols. They suggest that the incident could have been prevented. One expert mentioned ''this wasn't just a freak accident but it was a failure of planning, communication and responsibility.  It shows how important risk management is in events and to prepare for every possible situation.  The bottlenecks that can be found in this production were at the entrances with not enough staff which lead to people storming in, the front stage where there was no easy exit path, the medical team couldn't reach the injured.

This documentary connects to my smart goal 1''improve my knowledge on events and artists''. By showing how important ridk management is and preparing for the worst case scenario. It also highlighted how important clear communication is and how much effect an artists can have on the crowd. It helped me to identify bottlenecks and warning signs.

I went to an artist booking seminar in the Nieuwe Nor for Nieuw Nor Nacht academy an initiative to provide more live music and dance information/trainings in Zuid-Limburg. During this seminar I developed a deeper understanding of how professionals approach artist boking in this industry. There were 3 guest speakers I sadly forgot who all of them were but do remeber Claire Lagarde from Platinum Agency was there together with someone who used to do programming for 013. defining your target audience, understanding specific booking details like ticket fees and the capacity and how to connect with agencies were things that they discussed besides some personal experience stories. The most interesting thing was them mentioning to just start off small with creative but realistic concepts and to create connections with artists and labels as much as possible. They gave advice on how to approach agencies via mail mentioning clear communication, identifying what makes your artist unique and to keep the message as short as possible

This experiences relates back to smart goal 2: 'Expanding Theoretical Knowledge and Professional Insight with Event Experts''. By attending this seminar I made new network connections, the venue where it was held will actually be my internship location. It gave me realistic stories and advice from professionals this seminar was great for my theoretical knowledge and professional development in the event sector.

Attending the webinar about programming electronic festivals, hosted by Elvin Usidame who studied at Buas provided valuable insights into the behind-the-scenes work of a festival programmer. Elvin shared his journey from studying at Buas to becoming an artists to working in full-time artist management and programming at organisations like Paradiso, ID&T, Friendly Fire and now working for Best kept secret. He mentioned the importance of booking support acts, staying updated on trends and maintaining/making connections. One of the moest interesting parts for me was how he mentioned the uniqueness of organizing events outside of major cities to avoid much competition and artist getting tired of events in the same place.

The webinar highlighted effective ways to contact booking agencies/organisations. A tip was to reference past performances and showing genuine interest and understanding of their work/line up etc. Elvin explained how to build relevant line-ups not just based on popularity but rather on vibe and atmosphere. He mentioned how sometimes you just need artists with a name that attracts people but also book artists that are unique. Elvin said that he watches what is happening in clubs, releases, blogs and radio closely to fins new talents.

This experience is related to smart goal 2: “Expanding Theoretical Knowledge and Professional Insight with Event Experts” By joining this session, I was able to engage with someone who actively works in the industry and gain useful practical tips for programming and networking. It also reinforced the importance of research and personalisation when booking artists. This webinar connected to concepts of models in the industry like building brand identity through programming choices. It deepened my understanding of the strategic side of event planning.

The online knowledge session with Daniel Stroes offered valuable insights of the EDM industry. Mostly in DJ booking, marketing and management. He has experience in working for ADE and with artists like Marlon Hoffstadt. Once again like with every experience the importance of networking was highlighted as well as promoting yoursels and understanding different roles.

One noticeable thing mentioned was that artists must actively market themselves by attending events, connecting with people, and sharing their work. Daniel Said ''The best promoter of an artist is the artist themselves". Which reshaped my view on artist promotion and engagement.

This session directly contributed to my SMART goal 2 ''Expanding Theoretical Knowledge and Professional Insight with Event Experts'' by broadening  my understanding of real-world event and music management.