Program Topics, Workshops & Event Facilities Famil Tour
Keynote Address: The Future of Festivals – Where to from Here?
Speaker: Phil Tripp – ex-Senior BDM (Australia, NZ & Hawaii) for South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference & Festivals in Austin, Texas, USA
What does the future hold for the Australian festival industry? Phil will draw upon his almost 50 year expansive career in the music, festival, film and technology industries to outline the immediate and future opportunities and challenges facing organisers.
Adelaide Fringe’s Digital Transformation
Speaker: Heather Croall – Director and Chief Executive, Adelaide Fringe
Five years ago Adelaide Fringe found themselves at a major crossroads. The systems they were using needed a complete overhaul. The Fringe underwent a massive digital transformation in order to meet the expectations of its stakeholders, including artists, venues, sponsors, audience, and more. Adelaide Fringe embarked on a major Digital Transition Process and built a brand new digital platform, involving a newly integrated ticketing back-end system, web front-end and an open-access artist and venue registration system. Heather will take delegates through the process, the challenges and results.
This year Adelaide Fringe sold over 825,000 tickets – a 17% increase on last year’s sales. For the last decade, Adelaide Fringe has seen continual ticket sales growth. 2020 will make the Festival’s 60th birthday, making it the 2nd longest running fringe festival in the world. It is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, as well as Australia’s biggest ticket selling, open-access arts festival!
Measuring your Event’s Success – Tracking Attendance & Visitation
Speaker: Glenn Hardy – Partner, IER Pty Ltd
Does your festival know what’s involved when it comes to best-practice measurement of attendance? Can your festival demonstrate that a destination’s visitation has increased due to your event taking place? There are a wide variety of stakeholders that require festival organisers to demonstrate their event’s success. Many government departments and grant programs often require their applicants to demonstrate that they have adequate tracking systems in place to measure their event’s attendance. Additionally, many sponsors appreciate the opportunity to review an event’s audience profile(s). Glenn will guide you through sound research methods and equip you with the necessary tools and techniques required to effectively demonstrate your event’s results.
Volunteer Management: Strategies for Acquisition & Retention
Speaker: Carol Hughes – Events Officer, Tamworth Country Music Festival (Tamworth Shire Council)
Volunteers are a vital component of any festival’s successful operations. Now the largest music festival in Australia, Tamworth Country Music Festival relies on over 1,000 volunteers to ensure its delivery. The event runs for ten days and ten nights every January, and this coming festival will be its 48th event! Carol will provide you with key strategies and tips on how to successfully acquire and retain a volunteer task force for your event!
Topic + Workshop: Crowd Safety Management
Speaker: Jon (J.C.) Corbishley FSIA, Director, The Safety Officer Pty Ltd
Festival organisers are facing more pressure than ever before to ensure their event is safe, but where is the industry heading? Does your festival have an appropriate risk management plan and the associated systems in place? What other key stakeholder bodies does it engage with to ensure these plans and systems are effectively carried out? Drawing upon his 30+ year career in large-scale, public outdoor mass gatherings, Jon will take you through the latest best-practice crowd safety management solutions, using examples and case studies.
Jon will also deliver a follow up workshop on Friday 25th on the topic of crowd safety management. The workshop offers delegates an interactive and hands-on educational experience, and an opportunity to come away with hard skills and knowledge that can be immediately put into practice.
Engaging your Local Indigenous Community to Kick-start a Festival – A Case Study
Speaker: Chris Spencer – General Manager, Saltwater Freshwater Arts Alliance
Chris is one of the original founding members of its flagship event – Saltwater Freshwater Festival. The annual Festival, which falls on Australia Day, is the only Aboriginal cultural festival of its kind in regional NSW. It is a true showcase of local culture, skills, music, dance, art, lifestyle and culinary talent. The first Festival was held in Coffs Harbour in 2010 and attracted 12,000 people. It continues to build its audience, with the overwhelming response to the day being one of appreciation for the opportunity to experience such an incredible day of cultural celebration and inclusiveness.
Using Saltwater Freshwater Festival as a case study, Chris will take you through the process, challenges, barriers to success, results and opportunities when it comes to kick-starting an indigenous festival. He’ll also provide delegates with tips and tools on they may go about engaging with their respective local Aboriginal community in the context of festival organisation.
‘Building an Event Destination Profile – Coffs Coast: A Case Study’ + Famil Tour
Speaker: Dan Heather – Section Leader, Stadium & Major Events, Coffs Harbour City Council
Coffs Harbour is in the midst of transitioning from a coastal town to a major thriving regional city. Events and festivals play a vital role in developing the vibrancy of a city and deliver significant community, cultural and economic benefits.
Since Council endorsed the Coffs Harbour Events Strategy 2020 in June 2016, Dan’s team has been consistently developing tools and resources to help event promoters run events on the Coffs Coast. The overarching direction for the Events Strategy is simply to attract, grow and retain events on the Coffs Coast, with the aim of delivering a diverse calendar of events that run all year round and across a variety of interest areas.
Coffs Harbour has won the internationally acclaimed ‘International Festival and Event Award — Event Friendly City’ from 2015-2018. Dan’s presentation will zoom in on what it looks like to be an Event Friendly City and how a city can partner with major events and festival promoters to deliver safe and successful events.
Industry Expert Panel: Pre-Hospital Health & Medical Safety at Festivals
Panellists include (in order, as above):
- Daniel Madeddu – Director, Alcohol and Other Drugs for the NSW Ministry of Health
- Elliot Williams – Clinical Lead, St Johns Ambulance NSW
- Mike Hammond – Director, EMS Event Medical
Full bios of our industry experts can be viewed here.
AFIC presents the first ever expert panel discussion on the topic of pre-hospital health and medical safety. This is an interactive and dynamic session focusing on the unique role, demands, and benefits of pre-hospital event medicine. From the latest in event medical research, to current legislation and guidelines, to the latest in event medical technology, the discussion will touch on some of the most current and topical issues facing the Australian festival industry. This is your chance to hear from some of Australia’s most respected event medical professionals!
A key highlight: Mike Hammond of EMS Event Medical will introduce and outline ‘EMS Assist’ – a revolutionary new event medical app that his company has developed. It sends an instant request for urgent medical assistance at events. From pre-planning to execution, Mike will outline best practices in event and mass gathering medicine, combined with powerful anecdotes and data collected from event medicine and mass gathering medical care from across Australia. Mike will outline the paradigm shift required when providing effective event medical services – not first aid – in a collaborative and symbiotic relationship with local ambulance authorities and health services.
Workshop Program – Friday 25th October
Workshop 1: Crowd Safety Management
Festival organisers are facing more pressure than ever before to ensure their event is safe. Does your festival have an appropriate risk management plan and the associated systems in place? What other key stakeholder bodies does it engage with to ensure these plans and systems are effectively carried out?
Drawing upon his 30+ year career in large-scale, public outdoor mass gatherings, Jon Corbishley will take you through the latest best-practice crowd safety management solutions, using examples and case studies. The workshop offers delegates an interactive and hands-on educational experience, and an opportunity to come away with hard skills and knowledge that can be immediately put into practice.
(Note: Jon will also present on Thursday 24th on the topic of crowd safety management)
Workshop 2: NSW Funding Opportunities for Festival Organisers & Artists
Learn what funding opportunities exist for you as an artist and/or festival organiser. Sam Wild from Create NSW and Phil Ventham from Destination NSW will provide delegates with an overview of their funding programs, and some examples/case studies of successful applicants.
Workshop 3: Campaign Planning 101 + Event App Development (Co-hosted)
Are you keen to expand your festival’s audience profile to include international markets? Perhaps you’re considering developing an event app but don’t know where to start and what’s involved?
Alana Hay from Milestone Creative represents one of Australia’s leading creative agencies specialising in destinations, events, hospitality, arts and tourism. Joining her is her client, Leah Trafford from SailGP – a brand new annual, global sailing event, held in some of the world’s most iconic city waterfronts, such as Sydney, San Francisco and New York, where national teams compete in supercharged F50 catamarans. Using SailGP as a case study and example, Alana will guide you through what it takes to plan an international marketing campaign and grow and expand your’s audience reach.
Leah will provide you with an overview of the type of analysis required for event app development, as well as proving you with an insight into the challenges and useful tips on sourcing an app developer.
Workshop 4: Federal Funding Opportunities for Festival Organisers & Artists
Learn what funding opportunities exist for you as a festival organiser and/or artist. Dane Hunnerup will outline Australia Council’s Grant Programs – Art Projects for Individuals, Arts Projects for Organisations – and information on regional and remote touring programs – Playing Australia and Contemporary Music Touring Program.
Event Facilities & Site Management Tour – Friday 25th October
Join Coffs Harbour City Council’s Section Leader, Stadium & Major Events, Dan Heather, on a hosted tour of its local event facilities, including the Cex. Coffs Harbour International Stadium. It recently underwent a $13m upgrade, which included new Grandstands, catering and event facilities, co-located offices for local sports administrators and stadium event organisers.
Delegates will also be treated to a site visit of Park Beach Reserve to hear from Zaccaria Concerts during their set up of their concert, ‘By the C’ – to be held the following day on Saturday 26th October!