What a small community can achieve with an event strategy, collaboration, and passion
Growing off-peak visitation through events
In 2022 Tilma Group worked with Destination Phillip Island on a support program to grow three events to increase visitation during the off-peak season.
For each event, the program included
event management and marketing training
a complete event operations manual
an event revitalisation plan
new branding and marketing
a grant application.
TIDAL Seafood Festival
This year San Remo Fishing Festival was transformed into TIDAL Seafood Festival, San Remo.
The event coordinator’s experience
We interviewed the event coordinator, Craig Edmonds, President of San Remo District Tourism & Business, who host the event to support local businesses in the off-peak tourism season.
Not only did you pull off a successful festival, but you also implemented a serious amount of change with an almost completely new team. You should be very proud!
What impact do you feel the event strategy and operations manual that Tilma Group developed for TIDAL had on the planning and delivery of the 2023 festival?
It added structure and a direction that everyone knew at the start. Having said that we still had to remain flexible and make changes even well into the planning.
Did having a team that had ownership of their part of the festival help take the pressure off you as the main coordinator?
This year I was busy with communicating with the event team. Last time I just did it at my pace. The meetings, calls, and emails were brief with people just running ideas past me or checking on things.
The difficult thing I found was getting people up to speed this time on what it was they were to do. This will change of course if the same people stay with the event.
Having said that, it was much easier to get other people to chase things!
What are the key things you have learnt from the process you went through with Tilma Group?
The importance of structure and direction if you want to take your event to the next level.
What’s next? What elements of the strategy will you now focus on for TIDAL?
After our debrief meetings (there will be a couple - one to listen to everyone and a second one with just a select group to go through what did and didn’t work), we will then look towards next year based on this year and fine tune the strategy to suit our needs.
Do you have any other thoughts now that you’ve delivered your first event after all that background development work?
I am now convinced that this event won’t work with a paid coordinator who has doesn’t have a real vested interest in the event. Most elements of the event and the structure behind it work because it is largely a community event. To work well it almost needs to treated like we are all family – everyone: committee, volunteers, stallholders, food vendors, sponsors, all going just that little extra for the event.
The feedback from the stallholders, volunteer, and everyone who has contacted me, was, ‘Have you worked out the date for next year and can we be involved again?’ The overwhelming comment from the stallholders was, ‘There are few real community events that have that feel of everyone is welcome, come be part of the family.’ Those, to me, are signs of success.
You can build a long running event by treating everyone right and have an event that lasts for years.
The destination manager’s experience
We also interviewed the GM of Destination Phillip Island, Kim Storey.
Having invested in TIDAL’s development and strategic planning, and having seen the festival unfold, what would you say are the outcomes from the off-peak event support project?
The project has helped consolidate a framework with a range of digital assets and branding which lifted the presentation of the festival in marketing and advertising and inspired the development of the program.
New approaches were tested, a stronger committee structure was formed and a genuine excitement was established.
Resourcing is still a key factor, but building the event’s plans and templates moves the opportunity forward to reduce some of the burden.
As always, it’s left to a few, and Craig once again has led the team and should be applauded. But new recruits are essential and hope there is a new respect and consideration of what this festival can deliver and own for the village and the many businesses.
Are you happy with the return on investment from the project overall?
Absolutely happy, and still see the key opportunities to review and restructure following the 2023 debrief. Collating the wins and considering the negatives is an important task and collating and documenting the process and draft approach for 2024 is really important. We would appreciate your input to this.
Image credits: Destination Phillip Island, TIDAL Seafood Festival