Capacity Building for Emerging Events
Bass Coast Shire Council
The Bass Coast lies to the south east of Melbourne, east of the Mornington Peninsula, with rugged coastal cliffs and rural landscapes. It’s main attraction, Phillip Island, attracts 3.5 million visitors annually from around Australia and the world, particularly for fairy penguins and motorsports.
Project Purpose
The development of a Growing Off Peak Events plan for Bass Coast Shire Council by Tilma Group identified an opportunity to increase the benefits for the region from its off peak, homegrown and authentically-Bass Coast events.
These events are run by community organisations who needed upskilling in knowing how to leverage their events for increased visitor expenditure and other benefits.
Project Overview
Council asked Tilma Group to design and deliver a capacity building program that had components for all Bass Coast events to participate in and components to more intensively support the off-peak events to grow and develop.
A one-day event development bootcamp was held in the region for all the local event committees.
Three events held outside the peak tourism season with potential to grow into significant events for the region in terms of visitor economy benefits then received intensive one-on-one monthly event coaching via webinar in a six-month customised and structured development program. This was a modified version of the rEVENTS Academy Foundation Program where the committees selected five modules to make up their personalised program.
The committees also received a resource kit with supporting tools and resources for each of the modules; access to a Q&A platform where all the participating events could ask questions, share knowledge and cross promote; and a wrap-up report with an action plan outlining the strategic and operational priorities for the event moving forward.
Lastly, an in-region half-day presentation and Q&A session was held for all of the Bass Coast event committees where the three events who had undertaken the intensive development program shared their learnings with the other Bass Coast committees.
“When Council asked our committee to be part of the program for the San Remo Fishing Festival, I was a little skeptical thinking we know what we are doing but accepted their offer.
How wrong I was! While we had a successful event the things Linda spoke about and took us through made us realize we were not only missing out on opportunity but lacking real direction for the event’s long term future.
One of the main lessons learned was the importance, but also the ease in which planning can be achieved to make things easier on a committee.
There are many things we took from the program which not only assisted with this year’s event but has also given a head start to next year with the modelling we have now created.
We found Linda to be very accommodating and easily understood through the online sessions and it was more of a discussion with purpose than a teacher-student scenario.
We recommend this program to any event committee regardless of what stage you are at or how long the event has been running but would especially recommend it for new events at the start of planning.”
Referee
Peter Francis
Manager, Economic Development and Tourism
Bass Coast Shire Council
76 McBride Avenue, Wonthaggi VIC 3995
0419 560 603
peter.francis@basscoast.vic.gov.au
www.basscoast.vic.gov.au