Experience University Podcast

S5E6: Culture Makes or Breaks Your Event with Lili van Wegen

September 09, 2021 Extraordinary Events Season 5 Episode 6
Experience University Podcast
S5E6: Culture Makes or Breaks Your Event with Lili van Wegen
Show Notes Transcript

We're surrounded by different people, from different backgrounds and cultures. Join us as Lili van Wegen provides us some advice and explains the importance of culture in events! Culture has many layers, by understanding “cultural onions” is key to successfully event planning!

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Dr.K: In the intro to events class, students have to show mastery of the design thinking process. Students are able to show this mastery in a variety of different ways, such as designing a training video, a game, or even a podcast. They're able to choose any topic and organize their activity in any way that they want. As long as they follow this design process. These student creative podcasts have offered so many insights into what students are thinking and experiencing that I've decided to take two Thursday's a month to feature these works of art. I hope you enjoy today's student created podcast.

Lili: Hello everyone, my name is Lili van Wegen and I am a student from Amsterdam in the Netherlands. I am 22 years old, and I have already finished my bachelor’s program in Biomedical Sciences here in the Netherlands. Currently I am taking a minor Hospitality, Restaurant and Tourism Management online at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, since I now know that I aspire a future in the Hospitality and Events. I am taking the Intro to Events class with dr K. and I am so excited to be with you today to talk about cultural differences in event management.

This topic intrigued me, because as a Dutchman studying at a university in America, I discovered some differences in culture. For example, American people are so kind and nice to one another! In the Netherlands we are not used to others being so extremely kind. Dutch people might sometimes be very direct and therefore not so kind. Also, weddings are a big deal in America. Weddings are spoken about a lot during my classes at the University of Lincoln, which I find interesting and funny, because in the Netherlands it is extremely common not to marry at all! 

The importance of embracing cultural differences in event planning could not be missed. But unfortunately, it is an aspect that is often ignored. However, embracing culture could make or break your event. I would like to give you some advice regarding culture to make your event. Therefore, I would like to explain to you why understanding “cultural onions” are the key to successfully event planning. 

The need to consider culture has all to do with globalization. Because of globalization, the meetings and events industry operate on a mega big global scale. People from all over the world are now able to fly for a very reasonable price to attend a meeting in a particular city. In this way people can travel the world to discover new places and experience new cultures. 

When planning an event, you cannot base your attendee profile on the people you are familiar with, you have to allow for people from a lot of different cultures.

Now back to the cultural onions. Ingrid Rip, a Dutch professional in the field, says we have to think of people as onions. Onions have different layers and so do people. These layers radiate out from the heart. The first layer is the heart, with each person having their own core values, including rituals, symbols and role models. The closer the layer of culture to the layer of the heart, the harder it is for people from the outside to see this aspect. 

Symbols are things like the country’s flag, the logo of their company; basically, all the things that a person feels connected with. 

Role models could be the king, the president, the boss, a sports hero, or your mother. 

Both symbols and role models could be easily identified, but the difficulty lies in the ritual aspect. These include the “unwritten rules”. An example: when you start working in an organization, you are first unfamiliar with customs or rituals that are normal in the company. When you work in the company for a while, you become familiar with these unwritten rules. For an outsider it is still hard to see those unwritten rules. And on a personal basis, those unwritten rules are the rituals and values that are important to someone, which are important in creating business relationships, friendships and romantic partnerships. 

So now that we understand the concept of “cultural onions”, we also know that we have to plan an event for people from different cultures. It is time to discover what those different cultures are and what the differences are between them. Namely, people from different cultures greet each other differently, interact with each other differently and have different dining and drinking styles. 

Cultural considerations are important when planning an event, because then you understand what influences your attendees, how they want to be greeted and what they expect from the food and beverage offered. Instead of just determining who your stakeholders are, you also have to consider the cultural differences in a certain group of stakeholders. For example, when planning a food event, your stakeholders might be restaurant owners or chefs. But you have to dive deeper into the profile of your attendees to be able to understand them. There are chefs in every country, and they all have their own cultural rituals. While determining what kind of food you offer at your event, you also have to take differences in diet in account. This is a tricky part, because culture could easily be misunderstood.

The effect of culture on society is also shown in the language people use with one another. Language barriers go beyond simply linguistic differences. Communication styles can be culturally driven. For example, researchers have found that people in what they call high context cultures tend to communicate ideas and opinions in an implicit way whereas people in low context cultures tend to exchange information more explicitly through the message itself.

The explicitness of any particular message communicated can vary on a continuous spectrum ranging from low to high depending on the setting and people involved. Subgroups in the same larger culture also may have different communication styles. For example, in America a typical New Yorker will tend to be more explicit in his or her communication than a typical Texan. 

These different communication styles also influence their learning styles. Some cultures learn well by interactions and discussions, while other cultures might learn the best when listening to a presentation and reading papers. Some cultures are open to new ideas for learning, but other cultures are very conservative. Therefore, it is the best to offer a mix of learning ways for your event.  

So, there are so many differences between cultures that it is no longer possible to plan an event without taking these aspects into consideration.

But what about the event planners and all the different people involved? Therefore, I would like to address the two different meanings of the word ‘culture’. The Cambridge Dictionary gives two senses of the word. On the one hand, culture means the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs of a particular society. On the other hand, culture could mean the ideas and ways of working that are typical for an organization, and as a result how its employees behave. You do not only have to consider the cultural differences of your attendees, but also of the people and organizations involved in the whole event planning process. All these different people in different organizations have different goals, different wishes and so on. 

The Event Industry is an extremely technical industry. Clients require you to work hard and challenges need to be overcome quickly. However, it is easy to just work, work, work and forget about the cultural aspect behind the service. When an employee has a certain expertise, this person could become arrogant, resulting in a toxic culture on the work floor. 

Having all the eyes on the same page and clarify the values for all the employees builds a healthy work culture for the employees. This “company culture” isn’t a new thing. Several authors like Peters & Waterman and Deal & Kennedy wrote about this as a business model in the 80’s. The key point is that it is really important to have a team that embraces and pursues the values of the company. When having this accomplished, you can start building the event together. Having an open working environment, where people feel convenient enough to stand up for their own (cultural) values, makes your event successful.

So, thank you all for listening today, I had so much fun to make this podcast and I appreciate your time. And don’t forget; culture, with its different meanings I talked about before, could make or break your event. Once again, thank you so much!