Formative Initial Research Proposal

I took Franc’s advices, he offered me to focus on just about Istanbul and search the outcomes of the European Capital of Culture City Event. One of the reasons he suggested that research because it may be so difficult for me to do primary research in Liverpool and the second reason was Istanbul has lots of opportunities to search about. So I changed my mind and decided to look for outcomes and expectations of Istanbul 2010 Event and I think I could compare the previous Culture capital cities in my conclusion part. Therefore while I was preparing my Formative Initial Research Proposal, I modified my primary idea and I changed my methodology that I declared in first formative assignment. Consequently I will use Hybrid Approach. With that Approach I can use both methods (quantitative and qualitative) and I can ask questions to residents of Istanbul and interview with key people such as politicians, business people and artists.

Topic Analysis Presentation

I prepared my topic about European Capital of Culture City Event. I started my presentation by describing the European Capital of Culture City and than I explained why do I want to choose this topic. My reasons were generally related with future career plans and the importance of the event for Istanbul. My topic is: The Effects of European Cultural Capital Event in Socio-cultural Development. After the presentation, James told me that my topic looks like good enough for first stage but Elizabeth asked me a important question that how am I going to do my research? My answer was a kind of case study which contains questionnaire, interviews and secondary research. Subsequently I understood that it is not easy to prepare it and before the “Formative Initial Research Proposal”, I decided to take Franc’s advices because I know that he is interest in quantitative methods.

Current Issues!

I do not have any idea of current and unique events even in London. We have a lecture which is so called ‘current’, contemporary, prevalent, present, recent, popular... It looks like so theoretical and everyone can reach that information from internet or textbooks. University should present other teaching opportunities. For instance, lecturers can prepare audio visual documentaries about current event issues instead of showing power point slides.

Cinema and Future Shorts are my much-loved events so far. I take in part the previous event at Shepherds Bush Empire, London. It was incredible. I can define it as combination of cinema, event and performance. To Follow it: http://www.secretcinema.org/

European Capital of Culture City

While I was in Istanbul, I realized that there were lots of advertisements about European capital of culture city event. Istanbul is going to be the host city in 2010 and lots of my friends recommend me to choose European Capital of Culture City Event as a topic for my dissertation. I thought that it could be a good idea. As I will be in Istanbul after May, 2009 I may easily reach large numbers of information and collect my research data. Here is the official website of Istanbul 2010. (http://www.istanbul2010.org/en/) At least, I could prepare my dissertation about my favourite city of the world. ‘ISTANBUL’

‘What a silly’ conception non-profit

Actually I want to prepare my dissertation about art or underground events. I do not like our MA programme viewpoint about event industries. However I comprehend that it is really difficult to research about underground art events in this programme such as the cans festival. (http://www.thecansfestival.com/ )



My four months experiences and reflections in the University of Greenwich show that commonly mega events such as Olympics are significant for lecturers. I do not agree this viewpoint. “Events = Money” It is not my favourite equation. Additionally this credit squeeze indicates that world of business require to changing because the economical system commenced to consume them self. Hopefully next decades, the history will be recurrence consequently ‘Event Managers’ may prepare Events and Festivals for public instead of business front.

First steps...

In the beginning of the first term, I was thinking to choose a dissertation topic. I was considering the events industry in Turkey therefore my primary topic idea was art sponsorships. There is a different event business situation in Istanbul. Generally the Banks are the main sponsors of art galleries and event venues. My favourite one is Aksanat. This is sponsored by Akbank. Akbank is one of the biggest banks of Turkey and it means White/clean bank in Turkish and Aksanat means White/clean art. Readers can find more information from their official website. (http://www.akbanksanat.com/ ) My questions could be why the Turkish banks support arts and events in Turkey? And what are the differences between United Kingdom and Turkey in terms of Art Sponsorships. Is it beneficial to open an event venue instead of sponsoring an event venue?

When I returned back to Istanbul in Christmas holiday, I started to search about Art and event venues. My initial research indicates that Turkish banks have some benefits from government when they invest art business. Even this could be good topic but I thought that my topic will be related with law and finance more than event and art so I started to search for another topic.