One of regional Australia's most successful festivals believes that the post event review process is the most important part of their event management process. In this episode we talk to Cathy Treasure from Parkes Elvis Festival about the importance of visitor feedback and event review to the growth and development of their event. Cathy shares great tips and insights into how they manage this process and the outcomes they have achieved as a result of a thorough and strategic post event review process.

In this episode we talk to Glenn about the importance of data collection for regional events. A key message from Glenn is that whilst events need to find out how they can attract more visitors to their event, just as important is how they can encourage them to spend more at the event. With tips and insights galore, this episode will leave you excited about data collection and what it can help you achieve for your next event.

Today we are talking with the inspiring and bubbly Karen McBride, the Citizenship Manager (aka volunteer manager) of the amazing Woodfordia - organizers of the Woodford Folk Festival, The Planting Festival and Festival of Small Halls.

The annual Woodford Folk Festival is the largest of the three events, which requires a small army of over 2,700 volunteers (including 150 department heads and an org structure that will blow your mind!).

The Woodford programme features concerts, dances, street theatre, writers' panels, film festival, comedy sessions, acoustic jams, social dialogue and debate, folk medicine, an entire children's festival, an environmental programme featuring talks, debates and films, art and craft workshops, circus performances and workshops, late night cabarets, parades and special events including a spectacular fire event.

Karen talks to us about the Woodfordia philosophy of empowerment and gratitude, the innovative volunteer software they've created called 'Venus' and how she ensures supreme efficiencies in everything they do by having robust systems and good tools. Karen's number one tip in recruiting and retaining volunteers is MAKE THEM LOVE YOU.

Risk management is something many event committees avoid. 'Those things will never happen to us,' they say. I call BS. Risk can happen to any event, no matter what size or scale. I believe it is the lack of awareness around what risk is for events that creates this apathy.

Risk is so much more than the health and safety of event attendees - think environmental risk, financial risk, marketing or reputational risk.

Understanding all of the different types of risk for an event can be overwhelming and quite frankly may make you reconsider running the event ...but with simple systems and processes in place to manage risk you will be fine - it does not have to be as scary as it sounds!

In this episode, Linda shares a four-step process to effective risk management.

"I'll try hard not to scare you. There is a fine balance between being aware, addressing risks and still delivering an amazing experience. Risk management is not about not-having parts of your event; it's about making sure you can deliver a quality experience for your attendees safely."

Highlights:1:37 The four-step process to effective risk management1:58 How to identify your event's risks3:39 How to work out the level of risks5:17 How to mitigate and prevent medium and high risks7:08 Contingency plans7:55 The goal of risk management8:37 Post-event debriefing9:02 A template for your event's risk management plan and risk action plan9:25 Your committee's legal responsibilities and getting legal advice10:23 Insurances12:22 Licenses and approvals13:08 Traffic management14:19 Who is responsible for managing risk - committee member or a professional?14:52 Terrorism

Risk management is something many event committees avoid. 'Those things will never happen to us,' they say. I call BS. Risk can happen to any event, no matter what size or scale. I believe it is the lack of awareness around what risk is for events that creates this apathy.

Risk is so much more than the health and safety of event attendees - think environmental risk, financial risk, marketing or reputational risk.

Understanding all of the different types of risk for an event can be overwhelming and quite frankly may make you reconsider running the event ...but with simple systems and processes in place to manage risk you will be fine - it does not have to be as scary as it sounds!

In this episode, Linda shares a four-step process to effective risk management.

"I'll try hard not to scare you. There is a fine balance between being aware, addressing risks and still delivering an amazing experience. Risk management is not about not-having parts of your event; it's about making sure you can deliver a quality experience for your attendees safely."

Highlights:

1:37 The four-step process to effective risk management

1:58 How to identify your event's risks

3:39 How to work out the level of risks

5:17 How to mitigate and prevent medium and high risks

7:08 Contingency plans

7:55 The goal of risk management

8:37 Post-event debriefing

9:02 A template for your event's risk management plan and risk action plan

9:25 Your committee's legal responsibilities and getting legal advice

10:23 Insurances

12:22 Licenses and approvals

13:08 Traffic management

14:19 Who is responsible for managing risk - committee member or a professional?

14:52 Terrorism

Following on from episode 3 where we looked at financial sustainability of events lets dig deeper into one of the core funding sources for all events - sponsorship and grant funding.

We love it and we hate it right?!

In this episode, Linda shares about

• How you can be more efficient and effective in attracting funding support for your event

• Systems and processes to use in securing sponsorship and grant funding

• Practical tips to get better at securing the right partnerships for your event

Highlights:

1:23 Getting clear on what you need and want sponsorship and grant funding for

3:02 Identifying your perfect sponsor match

3:39 What your event can offer sponsors

4:24 What sponsors want to achieve

5:20 Your sponsorship tracker spreadsheet

5:38 Pitching

6:16 Making an initial contact and researching (never pitch cold!)

7:41 10 tips for applying for grants

9:37 Grant Opportunities toolkit

10:08 Pitching process

10:52 Servicing your sponsorship agreement

12:07 Over deliver where you can

12:18 6 tips for sponsorship partnerships

14:18 Renewing sponsorship agreements is far easier than developing new ones

In Episode 3 we are going to look at the pathway to financial sustainability, to help you transition your events to be financially-viable and self-sustaining just like many other regional festivals throughout Australia and the world are.

Having a clear and focused pathway to financial sustainability will support the success of your event. This pathway will dictate the strategy of your event and should form a large part of your decision-making.

It does not matter how small your event is or if it is a community event - an event is a business and it needs to be treated that way. We would not run our businesses without sound financial management and budgeting, so we should not ignore this for our event.

In this episode, Linda shares about

The four stages on the pathway to financial sustainability

Setting the event budget

The responsibilities of the Treasurer

Income and expenses

Useful tools

Highlights:

1:19 Your financial drive - your reason for raising funds

1:56 Pathway to financial sustainability

2:08 Four stages of the pathway:

Stage 1: Seed-funding new events

Stage 2: Becoming financially viable in 2-5 years

Stage 3: Moving to self-sustainability - 5 years+

Stage 4: Optional: commercialization

3:02 What stage is your event in, and where would you like it to be?

3:33 Setting your event budget - in an efficient and effective way

3:57 Committee's risk appetite

4:52 The Finance Coordinator/Treasurer's role

5:13 Regular budget monitoring - tracking expenses

5:46 Do you set your income or expenses first?

7:06 Expenses: estimates, monitoring actuals

7:40 Portfolio managers to manage their own budgets - and not overspend!

8:49 Income: benchmark ratios, breakeven point

10:10 Scenario planning: targets (e.g. ticket sales) for best case, worst case, break-even and other scenarios (e.g. big headline acts)

11:26 Revenue streams to replace reliance on grants and sponsorship, including year-round revenue stream examples

13:13 Ticketed vs free events

13:44 Last minute and unplanned expenses

15:02 In-kind sponsorship that reduces expenses

15:49 Useful tools for financial management: Xero, Stall Manager, Local Tickets and similar, online banking, rEvents Academy templates

The pre-planning stage is the golden nugget that all event committees need - a way to systemise their event and create plans and processes that will empower the team.

This stage is the most critical in terms of being more efficient and reducing unnecessary pressure and stress.

Setting milestones, deadlines and key dates for the overarching event plan allows you to better delegate tasks and reduce the stress for all committee members. Stop overloading your mind and document the process!

In this episode, Linda shares practical tips and advice on how to effectively pre-plan for your event to save time and stress in the entire planning process based on these 5 steps:

1. Setting up the overarching event planning timeline

2. Updating your strategic and operations plan

3. Ensuring you have the appropriate team within your committee and equipping them with the tools they need to get on with their job

4. Setting up efficient and effective meeting processes

5. Setting up online collaboration systems

Highlights:

2:05 The 5 steps of event pre-planning

2:50 Step 1: Your 12-month planning timeline - the executive group's Bible

4:11 Step 2: Using your strategic & operations plan

5:24 Step 3: Ensuring you have the appropriate team within your committee and equipping them with the tools they need

6:08 The most effective event committee structure

7:09 Step 4: Setting up efficient and effective meeting processes

8:37 Communication methods for the committee

9:49 Setting up effective online collaboration and record-keeping systems

11:11 Setting up efficient communication systems

11:35 Setting up email addresses

11:56 Setting up a mobile phone

12:13 Setting up a shared calendar

12:38 Setting up an online discussion board

13:19 Where to find DIY tools and templates for pre-planning - and how to get them for free

The first step in planning your event begins at the end!

Who is in your tribe? Do you engage with your tribe in order to grow and develop your event? In this podcast we will talk about the importance of the post review phase in the event planning cycle, providing practical insights and take aways to assist you in ensuring that you event is successful and sustainable.