DWC’s Sport Management’s Dr. Eric Schwarz making waves ‘down under’

(Australia) — Nashua, NH’s Daniel Webster College Professor Eric Schwarz, director of Daniel Webster sport management program and currently on sabbatical in Australia, is working in the School of Human Movement and Sport Sciences at the University of Ballarat as a Visiting Senior Lecturer/ Researcher. This fall, his role is focusing on research in two areas: working with members of the School of Human Movement and Sport Sciences to complete and compile market research conducted with sport and leisure festivals in Australia, as well as with sport organizations, such as the Australian Football League (AFL). Additionally, Professor Schwarz is developing a curriculum for postgraduate degrees in sport management, including a Graduate Certificate, a Graduate Diploma, and an MBA.    

As a result of analyzing multiple years of research, Dr. Schwarz published an article in Australasian Leisure Management this past September, "Out of the Bermuda Triangle: The Place of Festivals in Leisure ... The Case of Three Victorian Festivals." His article reports on three distinctly different Victorian festivals — the Horsham Awakenings Disability Arts Festival, the Port Fairy Folk Festival, and the Ballarat Begonia Festival — and how the festivals are indicative of hundreds of other festivals held across Australia and New Zealand.

Schwarz notes that festivals are an important component of social and cultural life in Australia and New Zealand, as well as an important component of leisure management. However, festivals often fall into the “Bermuda Triangle” of Leisure Studies, Tourism, and Recreation, having little visibility because they do not fall entirely in any one area. Thus, he contends, the body of knowledge in the area of festival marketing has not advanced as it should.

Another article by Schwarz is also being published on the Horsham Awakenings Disability Arts Festival in Parks and Leisure Australia this fall. The article focuses on the history of the festival and the benefits the event provides for the disabled participants and their families. Schwarz specifically focuses on the important role the festival plays in mainstreaming the disabled, as well as the importance the event has in creating public awareness of disability arts. 

Dr. Schwarz will also have an article published in "Sport Marketing in the New Millennium: Selected Papers from the Third Annual Conference of the Sport Marketing Association."  The paper, "Enterprise Sport Marketing Management," focuses on the evolution of CRM (Customer Relationships) into CEM (Customer Experiences), the importance of owning the brand experience, and the involvement of the entire sport enterprise in the marketing process. The book is expected to be published this fall.

Finally, Dr. Schwarz has accepted the honor of being the keynote speaker of the South Australian chapter of the Australian Society of Sport Administrators 7th Annual Excellence in Sports Administration Conference on October 27.  He will be offering his observations of sport in Australia and a comparison/contrast to sport in the United States. The focus will be on the history and future of local and professional Australian sport based on the increased globalization of sport, the increased cost of sport, and growth in both traditional and non-traditional sport.