To develop myself further in my ivestigative abilities I set a Smart goal to explore event preferences. I wanted to do this with a specific focus on Limburg since I am from that Province and plan on working here in the future.   The objective was to identify current audience interests and emerging trends to understand their wants and needs. My methodology involved gathering insights from 30 individuals through structured interviews and surveys, culminating in a data analysis report published by June 10th.

I felt very excited for this research because I felt like it was very valuable to me and the results are effective for me to use when thinking about organising an even t but also for my internship in Limburg. I was very motivated by how relevant this is research is for event planning and how it could improve my practical research skills. However I was unsure whether I would be able to collect meaningful, consistent information. This because I had already sent out so many surveys I expected people to ignore this one. To my surprise I received 70+ answers which was more than the other surveys. The survey provided great insights, the structured nature of survey allowed for clear, focused data collection. I also found that people liked to share their event preference.  I think perhaps I could have added even more questions but was held back by thinking people wouldn't answer the survey if it became more.

This research had positive impact on the development of my investigative ability and aligned research questions. I began with the research question: “What are the preferences for event types among potential attendees?” From there, I created some survey questions focussed on figuring this out. Through this process, I learned how to, create specific research questions, use desk and field research, Structure surveys to balance closed and open-ended questions, analyse data and make conclusion. When analysing the results I found that there was a preference for live music events between younger demographics. The respondents that were a bit older preferred cultural festivals more, this suggests that there is a segmented market, which I as a future event planners should take into account when organising an event.

This smart goals make me gain experience with figuring out what possible event attendees want and value in an event. I now have a better understanding with how to research and analyse results to draw conclusions and find our recommendations. I understand the importance of planning each step carefully and good time management.

I the future I will work on strengthening my investigative abilities by, trying to use software tools for qualitative coding to speed up analysis, combining interviews and surveys and refining my ability to formulate research questions that can get a more specific in dept result.