This study aimed to evaluate outcomes and support use in 12- to 25-year-old visitors of the @ease mental health walk-in centres, a Dutch initiative offering free counselling by trained and supervised peers.
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Abstract: Experiences are becoming increasingly important in events and festivals, which are prime manifestations of the experience economy. However, research on event experiences has generally been concerned with economic impacts and visitor motivations [Gursoy, D., Kim, K., & Uysal, M. (2004). Perceived impacts of festivals and special events by organizers: An extension and validation. Tourism Management, 25(2), 171–181. doi:10.1016/s0261-5177(03)00092-x]. Few studies have attempted to operationalise and quantitatively analyse experiences, and there is no consensual definition regarding the essence of experiences [Walls, A. R., Okumus, F., Wang, Y., & Kwun, D. J.-W. (2011). An epistemological view of consumer experiences. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 30(1), 10–21. doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2010.03.008]. This article develops an Event Experience Scale (EES) for event experiences. In this exploratory study the item generation and selection for this scale are presented in three phases: specifying the domain of construct and generation of items, item selection, and scale purification. An 18-item scale, comprising four dimensions – affective engagement, cognitive engagement, physical engagement, and experiencing newness – with satisfactory values for Cronbach's alphas (.83,.86,.86, and.87), emerged. Implications for theoretical and practical research are discussed.
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This study assessed the effect of visitors' personality and emotional response on finding positive meaning in life and the intention to spread positive word of mouth. The sample (n = 260) consists of visitors to Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum near Berlin. Findings indicate that the emotion of interest positively contributes to finding positive meaning in life and positive word of mouth. The effects of personality are marginal. Personality explains little of the variance in positive meaning and positive word of mouth. Emotional response accounts for 25% of the variance in finding positive meaning in life-in terms of finding personal benefit from the visit, controlled for personality. Despite the dominant negative emotional response, tourists find positive meaning in their visit. These findings correspond with those observed in studies on personal trauma and loss. Positive meaning could potentially contribute to adjustment processes to cope with what occurred. Future research should include address longer term effects on postvisit behavior.
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Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) involves uncontrollable drinking despite negative consequences, a challenge amplified in festivals. ARise is a project using Augmented Reality (AR) to prevent AUD by helping festival visitors refuse alcohol and other substances. Based on the first Augmented Reality Exposure Therapy (ARET) for clinical AUD treatment, ARise uses a smartphone app with AR glasses to project virtual humans that tempt visitors to drink alcohol. Users interact in a safe and personalized way with these virtual humans through phone, voice, and gesture interactions. The project gathers festival feedback on user experience, awareness, usability, and potential expansion to other substances.Societal issueHelping treatment of addiction and stimulate social inclusion.Benefit to societyMore people less patients: decrease health cost and increase in inclusion and social happiness.Collaborative partnersNovadic-Kentron, Thalamusa
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a pattern of alcohol use that involves having trouble controlling drinking behaviour, even when it causes health issues (addiction) or problems functioning in daily (social and professional) life. Moreover, festivals are a common place where large crowds of festival-goers experience challenges refusing or controlling alcohol and substance use. Studies have shown that interventions at festivals are still very problematic. ARise is the first project that wants to help prevent AUD at festivals using Augmented Reality (AR) as a tool to help people, particular festival visitors, to say no to alcohol (and other substances). ARise is based on the on the first Augmented Reality Exposure Therapy (ARET) in the world that we developed for clinical treatment of AUD. It is an AR smartphone driven application in which (potential) visitors are confronted with virtual humans that will try to seduce the user to accept an alcoholic beverage. These virtual humans are projected in the real physical context (of a festival), using innovative AR glasses. Using intuitive phone, voice and gesture interactions, it allows users to personalize the safe experience by choosing different drinks and virtual humans with different looks and levels of realism. ARET has been successfully developed and tested on (former) AUD patients within a clinical setting. Research with patients and healthcare specialists revealed the wish to further develop ARET as a prevention tool to reach people before being diagnosed with AUD and to extend the application for other substances (smoking and pills). In this project, festival visitors will experience ARise and provide feedback on the following topics: (a) experience, (b) awareness and confidence to refuse alcohol drinks, (c) intention to use ARise, (d) usability & efficiency (the level of realism needed), and (e) ideas on how to extend ARise with new substances.
ALE organised an event with Parktheater Eindhoven and LSA-citizens (the Dutch umbrella organisation for active citizens). Five ALE students from the minor Imagineering and business/social innovation took responsibility for concept and actual organisation. On Jan 18th, they were supported by six other group members of the minor as volunteers. An IMEM-team of 5 students gathered materials for a video that can support the follow-up actions of the organisers. The students planned to deliver their final product on February 9th. The theatre will critically assess the result and compare it to the products often realised by students from different schools or even professional ones, like Veldkamp productions. Time will tell whether future opportunities will come up for IMEM. The collaboration of ALE and IMEM students is possible and adding value to the project.More than 180 visitors showed interest in the efforts of 30 national and local citizen initiatives presenting themselves on the market square in the theatre and the diverse speakers during the plenary session. The students created a great atmosphere using the qualities of the physical space and the hospitality of the theatre. Chair of the day, Roland Kleve, kicked off and invited a diverse group of people to the stage: Giel Pastoor, director of the theatre, used the opportunity to share his thoughts on the shifting role of theatre in our dynamic society. Petra Ligtenberg, senior project manager SDG NL https://www.sdgnederland.nl/sdgs/ gave insights to the objectives and progress of the Netherlands. Elly Rijnierse, city maker and entrepreneur from Den Haag, presented her intriguing efforts in her own neighbourhood in the city to create at once both practical and social impacts on SDG 11 (sustainable city; subgoal 3.2). Then the alderman Marcel Oosterveer informed the visitors about Eindhoven’s efforts on SDGs. The plenary ended with very personal interviews of representatives of two impressive citizen initiatives (Parkinson to beat; Stichting Ik Wil). In the two workshop rounds, ALE took responsibility for two workshops. Firstly the workshop: Beyond SDG cherrypicking: using the Economy for the common good’, in cooperation with citizen initiative Ware winst Brabant en Parktheater (including Social innovation-intern Jasper Box), secondly a panel dialogue on local partnerships (SDG 17) for the sustainable city (SDG 11) addressing inclusion (SDG 10) and the livability (SDG 3) with 11 representatives from local/provincial government, companies, third sector and, of course: citizen initiatives.
