The Royal Welsh Show: The Nation's True Cauldron

Abstract

The Royal Welsh Show (RWS), which is the largest event of its kind in Europe, is used as a single case study to examine events as a catalyst in the context of networks and the knowledge economy. The long-established essence of agricultural shows is a coalescing of dispersed populations in a temporary cluster, expressed most recently as "rural buzz." This article takes a new and emerging perspective of value and specifically examines how the show, through its manifold platforms and fusing of resources, generates network value. The RWS operates in a 176-acre showground, with exhibitors, partners, and close to 250,000 attendees; therefore, engagement platforms are many and varied, and often coproduced. Thus, the event is a canopy, both within and beyond of its 4 days each July, for incalculable planned and less planned interactions and linkages. The event has been labeled "the nations true cauldron," reflecting its proven potential to engage people and organizations alike, and consequently cocreate network value. The extensive case study includes 43 interviews and 1,322 questionnaires, in addition to archival research. The analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data is used to develop a "taxonomy of platforms," exposing the multilayered, cocreative, and pervasive approach to the generation of network value. The findings reveal the importance of such knowledge sharing and creation. Also evident is the manifest and focal role of the RWS in merging the events value creation partners and enabling linkages that can endure and underlie the stimulation and perpetuation of networks. The study endorses the virtue of the network lens through which to examine and reveal event-induced value, but also as a way of more introspectively interpreting how value is extracted by event actors.