This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of information and communication technologies (ICTs) used by event organizers and attendees. The ways that ICTs are integrated into event administration, design, operations, marketing, and risk management, both back-stage and in plain sight, are considered from an applied perspective and through the lenses of theories applied in the literature. Currently, events and festivals use diverse ICTs to enhance utilitarian aspects, such as ticket purchasing, safety procedures, wayfinding and scheduling, as well as hedonic visitor experiences, like virtual and enhanced reality, gamification, and innovative programming using social media. How ICTs influence attendees' experiences is discussed in-depth by exploring the contribution of ICTs to "communitas," "liminality," sense of place, mindfulness, memorableness, and co-creation. Throughout the chapter, both emerging and established ICTs are described, and real-world examples from festivals are provided to gain insights into the opportunities and drawbacks of ICTs in the event and festival domain. The chapter focuses on ICTs used during the festival experience. However, the importance of the pre-and post-event and festival experience is acknowledged as well.

PurposeThe purpose of the study was to explore multidirectional flows of information over the course of an emergency. The following research questions were designed to guide this study: How does social media communication unfold over the course of an emergency at a cultural event? How does the nature and purpose of social media communication between all SM users change once an emergency occurs that affects event operations? How does the sentiment of social media communication change once an emergency occurs that affects event operations?Design/methodology/approachThis study explored how social media was used to communicate about on-site emergencies at community cultural events. Three events were studied before, during and after an on-site emergency that disrupted the event. The Twitter and Facebook posts referencing emergencies that took place at Shambhala, Detonate and Zombicon were explored, and the nature and purpose of the posts revealed how online communication changed throughout the emergencies. The Social Mediated Crisis Communication Model guided this research and findings contribute to the model's ongoing development by incorporating additional theories and models.FindingsThe research demonstrates that social media communication shifts during an emergency and how communication moves through a network changes. Once an emergency is underway, communication increases and who is talking with whom changes. The nature and purpose of the social media conversation also evolves over the course of an emergency.Research limitations/implicationsThis study examined the social media communication during three on-site emergencies at three different cultural events. The findings contribute to the understanding of the Social Media Crisis Communication Model. Specifically, the research confirms the various actors who engage online but also shows that two-way communication is not common. As this study only examined three events experiencing three different emergencies, we have a limited understanding of how the type of emergencies affects social media communication.Practical implicationsThe findings show the need for pre-crisis work by event organizers. It is necessary for the events to build trust with their online communities to ensure that when an emergency occurs the event will be seen as a trusted source. Also, staff training is needed to ensure people are prepared to handle the complexities of communicating online during an emergency. Issues like misinformation, influencers and the rapid pace of social media communication create a challenging environment for staff who are unprepared.Originality/valueEmergencies can threaten the survival of event organizations and put the health and wellness of attendees, staff and other stakeholders at risk. The study of crisis communication in special event contexts has received little theoretical attention and yet it is an important area of event management practice. Social media is an essential part of communication strategies and should be integrated into emergency planning to best reach people when an emergency threatens the safety of those involved with the event. The Social Media Crisis Communication Model offers some insight, but understanding its relevance is necessary if it is to be integrated into event emergency management.

There are many reasons organizations cancel a festival. Regardless of the rationale, the organization’s reputation can be preserved by communicating this crucial message in an appropriate way and by understanding people’s perception of a cancellation announcement. The purpose of this research is to find out how festival administrators communicate a festival cancellation on social media and how the attendees, who will ultimately determine the success or failure of a festival, react to this message. Between January - June 2018, we collected 47 festival cancellation messages on Facebook and the 8886 replies to these messages. We undertook a content analysis of both the cancellation message and the comments on the Facebook cancellation post. We found that most of the organizers used a primary response strategy, characterized by accepting blame to communicate the cancellation of the festival. This kind of response has a significant positive association with the comments characterized by building relationships. The sentiments in the cancellation posts were mainly shame and sadness and the comments on these posts were most often negative with sad and disgusted sentiments. Findings were somewhat consistent with past research and recommendations provide insight for further theoretical development.

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