MAKING YOUR COMMUNITY
FESTIVALS BETTER
Vern Biaett, PhD, CFEE
Faculty Associate
School of Community
Resources & Development
WHO ARE YOU …
and what do you do?
WHAT DO YOU WANT …
to make better at your community events?
ORGANIZE YOUR THOUGHT PROCESS
people
activity
staff
$$$
venue
THE 1ST STEP IN MAKING THINGS BETTER …
knowing what you already have.
THE 2ND STEP IN MAKING THINGS BETTER IS …
knowing what you are really trying to accomplish.
OK, NOW THAT YOU HAVE …
some basic structure to what you’re doing let’s talk about
your stakeholders.
Who are they?
MAKE THINGS BETTER BY …
making things better for every one of your stakeholders.
MAKE THINGS BETTER BY BEING …
a better communicator.
What is Marketing & Promotion?
What is your plan … do you even have a plan?
PROMOTION
There are 5 basic forms of promotion





Advertising
Publicity
Sales Promotions
Selling/Personal Contact
Non-Media
HOW TO CREATE A BETTER POSTER …
in only 10 minutes.
ONE LAST THOUGHT ON PROMOTION
7 images
Less is better and more powerful
TO MAKE THINGS BETTER …
you have to be better at financial things.
Revenue Generation
Sponsorship
Financial Controls
“With money in your pocket, you are wise, you are
handsome, and you sing well too.”
Old Jewish Proverb
WHAT IS THE NUMBER ONE SOURCE …
of revenue for festivals and events?
THERE IS MORE THAN ONE …
type of admission fee.
THERE ARE 1,000’S OF OTHER WAYS …
to generate revenue for a community event.
On-site
Off-site
Day of
Year round
SPONSORSHIP
The old way of thinking
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Basically just begging
SPONSORSHIP
New way of thinking … Asset Benefit Exchange
Sponsor
assets
Event
benefits
SPONSORSHIP
What can a sponsor give you?
What do you have that a sponsor wants?
Tangibles and Intangibles
SPONSORSHIP
And there is so much more
Categories
Leverage
Values - IEG
Sales People
and on and on and on
BOTTOM LINE – TO MAKE SPONSORSHIP BETTER …
Have a plan
Know what you want / need
Know what you have to exchange
Sponsor > Partner > Friend
WHAT IS THE #1 REASON EVENTS …
TO MAKE YOUR EVENTS BETTER …
understand what your financial goals are.
Make a Profit
Break Even
Lost Leader
TO MAKE YOUR EVENTS BETTER …
Use a Cost – Revenue financial system
Revenues are highly unpredictable
Expenses must be controlled to maximize success
Budgets cannot be made in stone
TO MAKE YOUR EVENT BETTER …
make your staff and volunteers better.
Leadership
vision
tasks
WHAT MOTIVATES STAFF & VOLUNTEERS?
MARKETING, CHECK – SPONSORSHIP, CHECK
FESTIVITY … WHAT WAS THAT AGAIN?
What is the most important thing you do for an event?
I WOULD SUGGEST THAT …
the most important thing you should be doing is
creating the BEST possible experience for each and
everyone of your stakeholders
LET’S REDIRECT OUR FOCUS TO …
creating great experiences for those stakeholders we
call attendees, guests, participants, visitors
BUT YOU ASK …
what is the BEST possible experience?
How do I go about making that happen?
TO BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND …
let’s first use the word festivity to describe experiences
that might take place at festivals and events and take
a quick journey through history
THE EVOLUTION OF FESTIVITY
From Paleolithic (20,000-8,000 BCE) hunter-gathers,
through the Neolithic (8,000-4,000 BCE) first
farmers, and into the first civilizations (4,000-800
BCE) festivity was ORGANIC
Communal
 Spontaneous
 Amalgamated with Mythos in celebrating celestial
seasons and regeneration of life
 A state of being meaningful only unto itself

SIDEBAR
Goebekli Tepe
Oldest religious structure in Turkey – predates Stonehenge
 Roaming clans of hunter-gathers came together for festivity
and cooperatively evolved into the first agricultural
societies

THE EVOLUTION OF FESTIVITY
As civilization progressed through the Axial (800-200
BCE) and Post-Axial (200 BCE – 1500 CE)
Mythos and its deep emotional participation was
surpassed by Logos
 Festivity evolved into an activity with a sense of purpose
and reason
 and then …

THE EVOLUTION OF FESTIVITY
With the Enlightenment (1500 CE) festivity became
very spatially
 very temporal
 and culminated during the industrial revolution as a
method to manage and control urban masses

Festivity became ORGANIZED
THE EVOLUTION OF FESTIVITY
Following World War II and for the past 6 decades with a
general emphasis on public relations, materialism, and
technology festivity morphed into mercantile activity
with focus on
Financial gain
 Efforts to gain public attention

Festivity became a COMMERCIAL ORGANISM
THE EVOLUTION OF FESTIVITY
Has the time come to return to a more organic form of
festivity?
Is a more organic form of festivity the key to producing
truly great experiences at today’s festivals and events?
Can festivals and events once again be about having fun
for the sake of fun … like play?
SO, HOW DO WE NOW …
go back to the ancient roots of festivity and create those
BEST experiences for those who attend our festivals
and events?
A KEY TO ANCIENT FESTIVITY
Collaboratively Creative Social Activity
Loud music with deep bass and heavy drum beats
Performing arts … dance, drama
Visual arts … masks, costumes
Wild abandonment … joyfulness
A KEY TO ANCIENT FESTIVITY
NO Spectators
MAN’S USE OF LEISURE TIME
SECOND - FLIP THE PYRAMID
SO, WHY DO WE WANT TO DO THIS?
Substantive Theory from research
Social capital bonding is strongly evident and easily recognizable
within friend and family groups at community festivals. This
heuristic phenomenological type of bonding spreads to peers
with shared similarities outside the friend and family group as
levels of festivity increase.
Social capital bridging exists between attendees at community
festivals, but primarily as a sense of generic communitas at a
subconscious hermeneutic phenomenological level which
intensifies as levels of festivity increase.
Event manages possessing both the aspiration and knowledge to
program quality festive experience have the ability to accentuate
the development of both bonding and bridging social capital at
community festivals.
OR, IN SIMPLER TERMS
Increased levels of festivity at events raises the sense of
community among attendees
NOW …
get ready to experience what a high level of festivity is
really all about
Being a Spectator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfdjoovzn2w
Being Physical
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zfCkR5Fp-A
Being Collaboratively Creative
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_q8L8Tksd8
WANT TO HAVE THE BEST FESTIVALS?
NO Spectators
Oh, the places you go
LET’S RECAP WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT TODAY
You have got to know who you are and what you’re about
 Create a basic plan to organize every event
 Know your stakeholders and create a great experience
for each and every one of them
 Marketing & promotion requires a plan
 7 images is powerful
 #1 reason events fail is financial reasons
 Sponsorship is about Benefit-Asset exchange S-P-F
 Use a Cost – Revenue financial system
 Leadership requires visionaries and task masters
 Understand what motivates staff and volunteers

AND OF COURSE …
To build community you need to program activity with
higher levels of Festivity
JUST SAY NO TO SPECTATORS
THANK YOU
Vern Biaett, PhD, CFEE
vbiaett@asu.edu
623-251-1867