Michael Duignan is a “pracademic,” combining academic insight with real-world experience to explore why hosts, destinations and communities stage events—and how to maximize their impact. His work focuses on medium and large scale sports, cultural and business events, examining why some succeed while others fail, and how events shape industries, places and people.

With global experience working alongside thousands of professionals and hundreds of organizations, Michael analyzes events across 11 impact dimensions, including economic, social, cultural, environmental and reputational outcomes. These insights inform his research, consultancy and training, as well as his thought leadership through publications, keynote presentations and media contributions for outlets including BBC, The Guardian and Sky News.

Michael is Founder and Chair of the Centre for Events & Festivals, Professor at the University of Paris 1 and Editor-in-Chief of Event Management Journal, the world’s leading peer-reviewed academic journal for events.