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)