Cultural Festivals and Events - Ottawa, Ontario
October 12th - October 16th
Atlantic Canada is home to many cultural festivals and attractions. These elements of our provinces have always attracted tourists to our region. Participants will visit a destination where culture is the “raison d’être” and the destination is successful in utilizing authentic characters, product, music, and culture to promote their respective region. As tourists look for cultural, entertaining experiences, it is important for the Atlantic Canada provinces to promote themselves regionally through cultural festivals and other special events while maintaining their authenticity.
This mission will focus on a destination that promotes cultural festivals and events, whereby the city and the province have collectively made festival and events a key attraction throughout the year for tourists and locals. This location is known for its successful festivals and special events from the planning and background work to the execution of these events. The destination is one that has excelled in all areas of cultural attraction tourism. Participants will be immersed in topics such as partnership opportunities, packaging, marketing initiatives, effective communication between event organizers, successfully managing venues, and recruiting talent.
The following are mission learning objectives that have been identified:
- How to develop events that are unique and well-linked to local culture, history, environment, strong connection to place
- To realize the potential of cultural festivals and special events as an economic generator and how the tourism industry can capitalize on these opportunities
- To learn about potential partnership opportunities surrounding festivals/events
- How to effectively promote and market a cultural festival/event
- How to secure widespread media coverage through related events and how to benefit from website advertising and increased awareness amongst visitors and the local community
- To learn of the benefits of establishing a local festivals and events network and to create an effective networking environment for event members to operate more efficiently.
- How to build cultural festivals and events as part of branding of city or community
- To learn techniques to properly plan and schedule the organizational aspects of a festival or special even
- To learn how to discount and offer group rates in an effort to attract groups to festivals/performances
- How to effectively recruit and manage talent and a volunteer base
- How to create a communication link between event organizers
- How to successfully manage venues
- To learn marketing ideas for shoulder season festival and events
- How to promote a total authentic experience within the area surrounding the festival (packaging with local businesses) and how to tailor a community strategy to attract various markets to these events.
- To learn from other professionals and national events on ways to upgrade and improve our events
