State of Research

The definition of competence requirements for the project management of events is mostly done without an empirical basis from the analysis of tasks, areas of responsibility and authority ^[14][4] or from the necessary knowledge and skills in event management ^[6]. The few studies, such as a survey of 21 event management experts ^[5] or 16 event managers ^[1], remain qualitative. Quantitative studies on personal and social competences in event project management do not exist.

Arts-based learning is considered to have considerable potential in the literature. According to this, arts-based training has positive effects on competences such as perceptiveness and creativity and has a positive impact on social competences such as communication skills, cooperation skills and intercultural competence ^{[15] [4]}. However, the empirical foundation of these hypotheses on arts-based learning is unsatisfactory. Only a few studies focus specifically on personal and/or social competences and break them down. The available studies are predominantly qualitative in nature. Almost all are limited to one-off and/or time-limited learning arrangements. The most meaningful analyses refer to arts-based learning of children, young people or students ^{[5] [9] [8]}. The few analyses that focus on the acquisition of competences in the context of further education concern the broad field of management or leadership ^{[7] [16] [13]}. The application of arts-based learning in project management in general and in the project management of events in particular has not yet been investigated.

Methodical approach

In the first step, interviews were conducted with proven experts on the basis of a developed guideline on the behavioural expectations of project and event managers that are relevant to success. In addition, the personal and social competences that are relevant for this group of people are examined with guideline-based interviews. For the development of a competence model, the behavioural patterns are then clustered and the components are operationalised on the basis of concrete observation anchors.

In the second step, theatre and dance-based training modules were developed and implemented together with qualified artists, which are suitable for addressing the identified competence gaps. For the implementation, test persons were recruited from the companies involved in the project, who perform project and event management tasks in companies.

In the third step, which accompanies the implementation of the training and, if necessary, leads to a revision of the modules, the effect of the further training on the individual competences of the test persons was determined in an experimental control group design. In this step, control groups were used that were trained without artistic components. The levels of learning and behaviour were assessed before the training and after the interventions. At the learning level, an objective test was developed in addition to the subjective self-assessment and carried out with the test persons.