Evaluating An Event

As I mentioned in previous Blogs, one of the ways Judi and I occupy our time on the long trips home from a visited event, is to complete an informal evaluation of the event. This series will explore some of the events aspects that we discuss.

Curb Appeal

How an event looks and feels is very important! It not only enhances the visitor experience, but encourages people to both come back and to tell their friends. As I mentioned under Advertising and Promotion, “Word of Mouth” is the best kind of advertising!

Parking

Another frustrating area for Judi and me, is parking or lack of it. Imagine driving 100+ kilometers to an event and then have to drive another several kilometers just to find a parking spot. I remember driving to an event in Toronto, one Saturday, to visit an exciting music event. I drove to the event through Toronto traffic (2 hours of travel), only to discover that there was no parking available! I’m not talking “not available” close to the event, I’m talking “not available”  within many miles from the event and, there were no shuttle buses. I turned around and drove home! Not a great experience! To make it worse for the event, I have told this story to many people, warning them not to attempt visiting the event. The fix would have been fairly simple. Arrange for offsite parking and shuttle buses, and then advertise the offsite parking as a great service. By doing this, everyone would have won - the festival, the visitors to the festival and the potential bus sponsors. Also, the bottleneck that this event caused on the major Toronto roads, was incredible. So, not only was I disappointed and frustrated, just imagine how Toronto road travelers felt!

(To Be Continued)

Evaluating An Event

As I mentioned in previous Blogs, one of the ways Judi and I occupy our time on the long trips home from a visited event, is to complete an informal evaluation of the event. This series will explore some of the events aspects that we discuss.

Curb Appeal

How an event looks and feels is very important! It not only enhances the visitor experience, but encourages people to both come back and to tell their friends. As I mentioned under Advertising and Promotion, “Word of Mouth” is the best kind of advertising!

Location

The location of an event is very important. Not only for the purpose of holding an event, but also that it is easy to locate! I can’t tell you how many times Judi and I have driven into a community only to become frustrated because we couldn’t find where the event was being held! Additionally, the look or curbside appeal is also important. You know the old saying “First Looks Are Important”! This applies to people, homes and festivals/events. You always want to “Put your best foot forward”. These sayings may be old, but they have become part of our vocabulary for a reason, they work!

(To Be Continued)

Evaluating An Event

As I mentioned in previous Blogs, one of the ways Judi and I occupy our time on the long trips home from a visited event, is to complete an informal evaluation of the event. This series will explore some of the events aspects that we discuss.

Event Promotion

Obviously one of the important pre-event activities is event promotion. Where possible, Judi and I try to look at each event’s promotional efforts.

Advertising and Promotion (Part Six)

Eventually the organizing group decided that they wanted a separate a Program Guide. They approached the local newspaper to see if they wanted to produce it for us. They did, and made a proposal. Their offer, essentially, was to produce a multipage glossy magazine that would contain all of our event's information. They, in turn, could sell ads in the Guide. In doing this, we received a sum of money, the production of our Program Guide and a number of extra copies to hand out. In addition, the Guide was sent out with their newspaper, thus giving us fabulous media coverage. Over the years the Guide has been very successful and the amount of revenue to the event has increased. The advantages of this arrangement, for us, was have a professionally produced Program Guide, exceptional distribution of the Guide, sponsorship money and a way of getting our message out, at no cost to the event! The advantage for the newspaper were that they were able to earn extra revenue through ad sales in the Guide, they were also able to increase their visibility in the community, they became the “official” newspaper of the event and they had the “honour” of supporting the successful community event. All-in-all a winning combination for everyone! 

(To Be Continued)

Evaluating An Event

As I mentioned in previous Blogs, one of the ways Judi and I occupy our time on the long trips home from a visited event, is to complete an informal evaluation of the event. This series will explore some of the events aspects that we discuss.

Event Promotion

Obviously one of the important pre-event activities is event promotion. Where possible, Judi and I try to look at each event’s promotional efforts.

Advertising and Promotion (Part Five)

The final method of advertising and promotion that I would like to discuss is the Festival/Event Program Guide. This can take many forms, from a simple one page flyer to a full colour magazine. During our travels, we have seen both kinds. Usually, the bigger the event, the more elaborate the Program Guide. These Guides normally evolve as an event grows and becomes more prosperous. Here’s an example. On an event that I worked on, our first Guide was part of a newspaper … the local newspaper just took our list of events and then re-printed them in their newspaper. Fortunately the event was very successful in its first year, so we had no problem convincing the paper to expand its coverage on our event. As the event continued, the paper, seeing its success, wanted to become a sponsor and to give us sponsorship dollars. They recognized that our event earned them extra income, because they were able to sell ads around event coverage.


(To Be Continued)