Online Event Approval Portal
Fraser Coast Regional Council
Queensland’s Fraser Coast is the home of World Heritage-listed natural gems, the world’s largest sand island, K’gari (Fraser Island), coral cay Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort, Maryborough’s quirky Mary Poppins Festival, and Hervey Bay Whale Festival, held at the best place to watch humpback whales and their babies play.
PROJECT PURPOSE
Fraser Coast Regional Council’s event regulation process was at times confusing and frustrating for both event organisers and Council’s staff.
As part of Tilma Group’s development of a Regional Events Strategy for Council, we undertook mystery shopping to better understand how ‘event friendly’ the Council’s process was.
Key learnings were
Council’s website was not user-friendly for an external event organiser looking to host an event in Fraser Coast, or for a local event organiser. There was no dedicated event support section and information was confusing and clunky.
Council reception staff were not clear on who to direct event enquires to.
Getting to the ‘event concierge’ was a long and challenging process with phone calls and emails, however once this person was reached, they were very helpful.
Internal departments were confused and frustrated by the event approval process.
Events were being approved for Council’s grant funding before they had gained approval.
Project Overview
As one of the recommendations in the Regional Events Strategy, Council undertook a streamlining of its event approval application process to make it easier for event organisers to host events in the region, and reduce the paperwork barrier to some events taking place at all.
Project Outcomes
The Council Officer who manages the event approvals process found the process is much improved now that it is all online. Though getting the forms set up on Smartygrants took longer than expected, now the online process is saving heaps of time and the various teams in Council associated with event approvals are much happier with the process.
See Fraser Coast’s
Referee
Michaela Davis
Administration Officer – Events Advisory Service
Tourism, Economic Development and Partnerships
Fraser Coast Regional Council
0436 810 011
events@frasercoast.qld.gov.au
www.frasercoast.qld.gov.au