​The Ryder Cup gets a Festival and Event Management critique

As part of an EventScotland supported project 40 Festival and Event Management students attended the Ryder Cup in September, recording their experiences for a collaborative piece of research.

Dr Ivana Rihova and Maren Viol (a SoMTL GTA) led the trip itself, taking an early coach to see Friday’s play at Gleneagles. This was part of EventScotland’s ‘Experiencing The Ryder Cup’ programme, which also involved students and staff from UWS, RGU, QMU and GCU. During their visit the students gathered data on their experiences of the day, reflecting on how these compared to their expectations in a range of areas. Dr Jane Ali-Knight and David Jarman (also in SoMTL) are leading on Edinburgh Napier’s contribution to this research, which included setting up the faculty-funded debrief event. The debrief had three main components: students from different institutions held 30 minute focus groups to compare their experiences; they were then given presentations from EventScotland staff (including Robbie Clyde, who has led the Ryder Cup project for many years); finishing the day with some searching questions that EventScotland did their best to answer!

It is anticipated that the data will contribute to a collaborative piece of published research, with all five universities contributing. EventScotland have been an active partner throughout and are keen to further develop links with Higher Education, not least because of the insights that our students can offer into their highest profile projects.

The closing word comes via a tweet sent by one of Edinburgh Napier’s third year undergraduates, on her way home from the course: What a day it's been! Going home a tired but really happy girl :) #rydercup2014 #brilliantmoments