It goes beyond ordering large amounts of cheese Danish

AMANDA CECIL
Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Education and Tourism Management
Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana

What’s in a name? In this case, everything. Amanda Cecil’s department goes by the unusual name “Physical Education and Tourism Management,” a leftover categorization from the days when its emphasis on sports management came under the rubric of Physical Education.

“Since 2000,” she says, “the department has grown to 13 faculty supporting 350 undergraduate students. Now we are seeing business students taking events management as a minor, and events management students taking a minor in business. This trend demonstrates the correlation of the two disciplines. It is helping us to segment instruction into event strategy and design, as distinct from event planning and logistics.

“We need to remember that many professionals in the meetings and events industry, based on their respective specialty, came from theater, education and all forms of design. Ours is an interesting discipline combining in-depth knowledge of organizational behavior, psychology, project management, revenue management, logistical engineering, architectural design and much more—and yet the expectations on the planner are often completely out of touch with this profile, with many clients imagining that we simply order large amounts of cheese Danish for a living.”