DESCRIPTION
Special events should be considered broadly as they can encompass any form of celebratory activity that involves a cross-section of the community. This includes activities such as festivals, field days, sporting competitions and many more.
USESThe primary purpose of the event relates to the nature of the occasion. The community can use events to generate local economic activity. Events have the capacity to:
• bring tourists, sporting teams, relatives etc to the district;
• showcase local produce;
• showcase business opportunities;
• publicise a region;
• provide an opportunity for local business networking;
• raise community morale;
• provide opportunities for local entertainment;
• keep more of the ‘entertainment dollar’ local; and
• attract seasonal workers - e.g. harvesters - and retain income generated through increased employment within the local economy.
HOW IT WORKSGood planning, communication and management are needed in order to derive full benefit from local events. An annual calendar of community events needs to be compiled and publicised.
Events are characterised by a large number of people in the one spot at the one time and for this reason they provide an excellent marketing opportunity. It is a classic win-win situation and the key lies in establishing an excellent contact network in the community to use events as showcasing a broad range of opportunities.
Events can also be used to showcase the locality. Success in this is dependent on carefully targeted publicity to appropriate bodies and individuals both within and beyond the region. Don’t forget to extend invitations to appropriate television shows/personalities, remembering that they will be most interested in the visually unusual.
Events can also be used to generate new small business opportunities. Some examples might include things such as trestle table hire, local food produce in take-away form, clowns/acrobats performing at intervals in sporting matches, and sightseeing tours.
Events can also be used to attract seasonal workers (e.g. Country and Western concerts/dances in the town hall), spoiled produce ‘battles’, end of harvest celebrations. Word of mouth will spread through the professional harvesting community and the back-packers, that your town provides great socialising opportunities as well as work. Such social occasions have the added advantage of putting some of that harvest money back into the local community.
Informal networks and cooperation are inherent in the proximity required by the organisation and participation in such events. The community can be coached to be aware of the potential for these networks to generate more lasting arrangements and benefits.
Events need to have the potential to cater for ‘add on’ activities. The event organisers are thereby assured of a greater turn out because of the ‘add-ons’ in the form of exhibits, stalls, markets, entertainment etc.
PREREQUISITESUsing this tool successfully requires a commitment of some time and money, however this commitment is small compared to the possible outcomes. There are several essential prerequisites. A clear community agreement that events are going to be used as multiple-purpose activities.
People resources to:
- compile and maintain an annual calendar of events;
- organise the ‘add-ons’ with the event managers;
- publicise the events to potential stall holders, exhibitors; and
- liaise with and assist events managers in publicity and advertising.
Contact point and person.
A commitment from interested business and individuals to prior planning. Local businesses need to be prepared to showcase themselves effectively in outside or other environments. The local caterers and food businesses need to equip themselves to operate outdoors or in a different environment. Craft, home and rural producers need to plan output around the calendar. The entertainment groups, buskers, and children’s entertainers need to be prepared for a variety of venues.
HOW TO STARTTo achieve ongoing success, the community needs to consider the program and contribute to framing a commitment to it. This will inevitably involve a meeting at which key stakeholders such as council members, officials and representatives from business groups should be represented. This group needs to be charged with the task of gathering resources to:
• Compile a calendar—Consider events in the broadest possible way so as to include public holidays, field days, show days and traditional town festivals. Smaller communities might consider events such as the junior sporting finals, school concerts, local races, historical milestones or seasonal occasions such as harvesting.
• Enthuse and recruit local business support and commitment—Distribute the calendar to local businesses, keeping in mind the broadest possible definition of businesses, including farmers and home-based businesses. This involves selling the opportunity and providing ongoing encouragement.
• Provide a contact point and secretariat support—This could be accomplished by enrolling the local tourism office to ‘sponsor’ the project. Provision of people and secretarial support may potentially come from councils, schools, training institutions, Business Enterprise Centres, and private businesses.
• Maintain good contact with event organisers—Facilities, licences and insurance are all issues that will need to be negotiated.
• Publicise the events—in conjunction with, and in addition to, the publicity normally generated by the events organisers.
STRENGTHS• This can be a low-cost way to generate extra business activity, attract out-of-region custom, publicise the region and keep the entertainment dollar local.
• Ownership is already vested locally. This tool has the dual strengths of building on existing community partnerships and initiatives, and of providing the opportunity to form new partnerships and initiatives.
WEAKNESSES• Success is dependent on key individuals, having the commitment and motivation to see the program through.
WARNINGS• It could be tempting to ‘take over’ the event management.
• Ensure that the calendar matches the resources of your district and don’t go for overkill. Too many events could end up costing the businesses money.
INDICATIVE PRICE/COSTS• This depends totally on the size of the community. The main costs would be time, printing and secretariat assistance. The project could be adopted by existing organisations, thus minimising extra expenditure.
• If successful, this program could be self-funding.
FUNDING RESOURCE OPTIONS• State Government Departments of Tourism, Business or Regional Development.
• ‘Adoption’ by an existing organisation.
• Business Sponsorship.
• Stallholder fees.
• Entrance fees.
• Sale of merchandise.
• Car parking.
MONITORING AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION• Continued attendance at events, satisfied exhibitors and businesses, increased tourist activity, increased media coverage and the commencement of new partnerships and initiatives will act as success indicators.
• Improved community spirit and morale will also justify resources devoted to this end.
SIMILAR TOOLS• Arts and Crafts Development.
• Community Committees.
• Events Management and Organisation.
• Media.
• Taking Advantage of Cultural Capital.
• Volunteering.
INFORMATION RESOURCESCouncils, local community, social and sporting groups, historical societies; tourism offices are excellent sources of information.
See also Exhibitions and Events Association of Australia Website at:
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http://www.eeaa.org.au