You’ll develop skills such as formulating policy and planning for the future, as well as developing your softer skills in the likes of time management, project management, and formal presentations.
You’ll also develop business and marketing skills that relate specifically to the design, management and evaluation of large and small-scale events and festivals with an international focus.
Through lectures, guest speakers and case studies, you’ll develop an advanced understanding of the contemporary issues and key concepts involved in the international festival and event industry.
With our close connections within Edinburgh’s festivals community, and the large number of tourist ventures and operations in or near the city and further afield, you’ll have plenty of options for part-time work and opportunities for employment after graduation.
If starting in January you may have the opportunity to gain some of your own work experience by gaining employment within the sector during Edinburgh’s summer festivals, for example the Festival Fringe, International Festival, or Jazz and Blues Festival.
Modules
- Festival and Event Management
- Business Skills for Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management
- Experience Design and Management for Tourism, Hospitality and Events
- Contemporary Issues in Festivals and Events
- Two option modules
- Research Methods
- Dissertation
Lead Academics
- Dr Jane Ali-Knight is a Professor in Festival and Event Management and a Visiting Research Professor at Curtin University, Perth. She is currently leading and developing the festival and event subject group as well as lecturing at Universities internationally and facilitating training and development in the field. Her core activities fall into three main areas: event and festival related programmes; research and publications and conferences and professional events. She is currently a board member of BAFA (British Arts and Festivals Association), Without Walls, Vice Chair of Women in Tourism and is a Fellow of the HEA and Royal Society of the Arts.
- Dr Ivana Rihova, FHEA, is a Lecturer and the Programme Leader for the MSc International Festival and Event Management. Having held a number of customer-facing roles in the tourism and hospitality industry in Europe and the United States, Ivana gained her MSc in International Tourism Management at Edinburgh Napier University in 2008. Her PhD, completed in January 2014 (John Kent Institute in Tourism, Bournemouth University), explored the notion of customer-to-customer value co-creation at festivals. Approached from the perspective of the Customer-Dominant logic in marketing, the research incorporated concepts from service marketing research and practice theory to unpack the processes at work when festival customers co-create value with each other.
- Dr Martin Robertson's career in academia followed his professional development and managerial experiences within the areas of conference organisation, tourism, travel and economic development (private and public sector). He has maintained his contact with the industry environment through Business Events and Conference Management and through Art Festival logistics and also through event resilience and leadership research. This drives his continued desire for a learning, and teaching experience - alongside subject related research, that is professionally and socially useful.
- Martin’s concern for teaching and learning application and excellence has been successfully applied in his roles over the last 20 years as an academic. Most of those years have been spent in leading roles for degree programmes, both as a faculty wide Director (3 years) and for 15 years as Programme leader (PL). Currently he is PL for MSc Business Event Management.
- Dr Louise Todd is a Lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Royal Society of Arts and Royal Anthropological Institute. Louise’s research interests lie in tourism, cultural events, art, experience design, visual culture and marketing communications. She has published her research in journal articles, book chapters and presented at international conferences.
- Louise has experience in designing and delivering research dissemination and public engagement events and activities on a national and international basis. In August 2017, she was invited to present key aspects of her research into the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and its stakeholders as a public performance during the Fringe. She has also been involved in the design and development of Knowledge Exchange and CPD activities, including an externally funded Executive Programme she co-delivered in Singapore to members of the Tourism industry. The content of this was informed by her co-authored published research.
