Goals and Objectives of Event Management Associations.

This paper reviews the literature on professional associations and specifically explores the goals and objectives of event management associations. Its study identified 147 professional associations worldwide involved with event management. Rather than use or adapt an existing framework for analysis, this study applies a grounded approach to the analysis of the content of the goals and objectives; that is, the categories of meaning were developed from an analysis of the data provided rather than imposed by an existing typology from the literature. These associations were categorized by location, including international, regional, and special interest associations, with numerous sub-categories. Regional associations were divided into continents so that there were six sub-categories. The special interest associations were included as there were a number in the sample that did not fit within the first two categories, yet they were deemed significant to the study because they dealt with event management issues within the context of a specific industry. The study concludes that event management associations have a strong record in developing goals and objectives as part of their operational framework. The key variables that emerged are information exchange, education and training, identity and recognition, ethics and standards, networks and collegiality, business management, membership, premier representative association, product development, and being a change agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]