Embracing Events: Delivering Commercially Successful Events - Garden Show Ireland

now Ursula Fay is director of community planning from antram and newon ABI burough Council the council took ownership of the garden show Ireland brand in 2019 and the show boasts a diverse three-day program Ursula is here to share her experience and thoughts on delivering commercially successful events so let's hear from Ursula feay and all about Garden Show Ireland Ursula thank you okay thank you Donna um and I have to say before I start I have a little bit of garden Envy here in montalto today what what a stunning venue we're in um okay Garden Show Ireland one of council's key Flagship events and never want to miss an opportunity I just want to let you all know tickets are on sale they've been on sale since pre- Christmas um and I'll the slide also gives you um a good look at the new brand we developed in 2023 which I'll talk about a little bit about later um which speaks to our fabulous show Garden creation for Return of the event in 2022 okay so I'm just going to explain a little bit about what we do in terms of council events in general uh set the Strategic context for why Council does events and why we purchas this Garden Show give you a little bit poted history of garden show Ireland talk about the elements of the event the flowers the food and the fun and then as suppose the key bit talk numbers um get into the spend the income streams and so on uh which comes from our tickets our trade Partnerships and sponsorships and touch lightly on future plans in this uncertain climate so in terms of myself my role is director of community planning which is a very strange title and really it means everything to do with community and culture in 2021 when I was appointed the council also did a little bit of internal restructuring to create um a combined unit of Arts culture tourism and events looking strategically Council recognized the key importance of delivery of events with our tourism offer tourism having previously sat across with colleagues who worked in Economic Development so that connection also brought about something my team were thrilled about and that was responsibility for delivery of the entire Council portfolio of events which is massive and runs 12 months of the year more or less including Christmas tree lights switch on and anything and everything from Art in the Park Summer band concerts Halloween extravagances fireworks displays and the flagship events two of which are enchanted Winter Garden and garden Sho Ireland why does the council do events why do any of us do events I sometimes think we must all be mad but events are great events bring life to places they get they give experiences to people and for us as a corporate organization we have three strategic themes around our people people our place and prosperity and our events really speak to all of all of those themes in lots of ways they entertain engage um educate inform bring our people together um give opportunities employment business opportunity skills development and Foster good relations they animate showcase and promote all our wonderful places and again we for most of the events um there's there's fruitful to the to the burough there's fruitful to places there's local business support and there's that economic return um that that we've already heard about so Council made the Strategic decision that it would invest heavily in two shoulder season Flagship events our Enchanted Winter Garden Christmas event and Garden Show Ireland and as as Donna has said we purchased Garden Show Ireland from a private operator in 2019 so here's just a quick glimpse of the vast portfolio of council events which ranges from very low-level community events and animations it's a diverse program I met somebody earlier from Bal Clair and um I don't think she realized that the Bal Clair Mayfair is probably one of Northern Ireland's longest running events we do that now too it was established in 1756 and in 2023 we established a new six- mile Festival event so our portfolio is wide ranging it's diverse it brings culture and color and Life to our bough um and it's something we invest very heavily in we also host Regional events of significance and the 22nd of June we'll be hosting Armed Forces 2024 and we've done things such as the isps isps golf Handa Invitational the super Cup and the uler pipe band championships as examples okay what is Garden sh Ireland if you don't already know what it is well funly enough it's a garden show and it's about gardening and it's based in antrum Castle Gardens which is one of Northern Ireland and Ireland's most stunning um Garden restoration projects that there has been though to say I'm here in another stunning example of a wonderful visitor attraction set in stunning Gardens garden sh Ireland was established in 2003 so it's a long running firm fixture in the northern Irish event calendar it's a three-day Festival formerly and in spring up until last year when we edged it into early summertime runs for three days Friday to Sunday and generally had been delivered in in early may as I've said already so very much established and firmly at home in the wonderful setting of antrum Castle Gardens so a little pot of history as I say established by a commercial operator um Soul Trader lady called Clare Faulkner in 2003 in hillsbor Castle and Clare ran the event herself um up until 2013 in hillsbor Castle in 2012 the council and the national lottery Heritage fund had invested in audio visual equipment and Wi-Fi but it's usually me that is the technical the technical challenges so I feel at home I like myself Donna I can I yeah then and then lose my place and it'll be a whole disaster there we go there we go so 2012 Council and National loty Heritage fund invested 6 million in a fantastic amazing transformation of antrum Castle Gardens um to create as I say most most fabulous venue part of the task from and part of the ask National lot Heritage fund was go off and find some wonderful programming for the stunning venue that you have now and in particular find appropriate events to deliver so before my time the the Anam Council Legacy team approached Garden Show Ireland and garden Ireland moved to antram Castle Gardens in 2014 and we calling it it came home really because what a fabulous pairing and the stunning Center set setting of antrum Castle Gardens to have a garden show the event evolved over time from its Inception in 2003 when largely it was very purist around it was a garden show it was about plants it was about flowers it was about show Gardens and it was about displays and over time the event has evolved into be being this three-day Festival of flowers food and fun in 2018 the event owner delivered the event in Anon Castle Gardens for the last time and at that stage the weight of responsibility as we've already heard about really became too much for her the council had since 2015 really been embracing the event as very much a partnership and very much as our own own event offer for our residents and for visitors so it didn't take much to persuade us to make the investment in the purchase of garden show Ireland brand and to take on the responsibility of delivering the event however best L plans and all that we all know what happened in March 2020 the event wasn't held in 2019 as as as we took stock of the situation and took our time to invest in the event so in March 2020 everything came to standstill and and and events were decimated we didn't recover the event until 2022 um but in 2021 we started to think about what we were going to do in 2022 and that led the foundations for the event as a council owned and operated event from 2022 onwards we approached dermit Gavin and asked him if you consider coming on board as kind of like our show Ambassador endorser but also to create kind of some kind of why factor to bring the event back with a real Bank the council identified the opportunity of the Platinum Jubilee program and the desire to Lad leave some Legacy out of that program and that opportunity and that as they say one thing leads to another so we ended up with the stunning dermed Gavin Clockwork Garden creation which is currently featuring on your TV screens in our TNI advertising campaign so the show came back in 2022 really successfully um however it wasn't without his challenge I think we were still coming out of Co there was a lot of challenge in particular engaging traders to participate in the event that year um a lot of Traders had moved online and a lot really um were were risk averse and and really didn't didn't participate in the levels they had previously but in 20203 the event really um got back up to pre-pandemic levels and I think it was our most successful year yet as I said it's a festival of flowers food and fun and it's a gardening show it's all about gardening That Remains The Core offer of the event so we engage celebrity stars such as dermit Gavin and we have the wonderful Pamela Balentine who plays host to range of garden gurus and experts who entertain and engage and and talk and lecture and do demos and really give every aspirational Gardener Gardener out there something um something to be engaged with and some reason to come along and attend the show we had the Magnificent Clockwork Garden Show Garden in 2022 that's not an investment we can make every year into deliver Garden Show Ireland the picture in the middle shows your house plant Heaven dermat Garden dermat Gavin Garden installation which we had in 2023 but the cost of that kind of Y factor and that kind of show Garden feature um is something that I don't feel we're going to be able to sustain so we're looking at ways that we can do continue to create that aspirational desirable inspirational feature and and showcasing of gardening and all things gardening um without the big price ticket and again what we try to do and what we're going to do more of is identify the fact that Anam Castle Gardens in itself is the perfect backdrop to inspire and impress people with flowers and with gardening and with all that that brings so the food the food's a really key element um to any successful event and Festival experience and it's been very much embraced by Garden Show Ireland prior to council ownership and really links back to when T and I started to really promote the the nor the northern Irish food and drink offer as part of our visitor offer crazy Baker Paula McIntyre Gemma Austin hopefully in 202 four are all the celebrity chefs that we involved to really promote that Northern Island food offer and this is an example how we've really embraced a really positive partnership to deliver an element of the event we partner with food ni to deliver our food so good part of garden show Ireland and part of the festival experience the food ranges from producers the best of food and drink the best of local produce and it was great to have that relaxation of license and regulations so now we can really include the drink offer um as part of the producer offering out the the event Street food's a really essential ingredient to any good Fe festival and we think Food Northern Ireland give a really high quality offer to our visitors I've talked about our celebrity chefs they participate in demos and talks and the tast and tast and tri element of the show is a really really popular ingredient Festival fun every good Festival needs to be about fun and I suppose as the event has evolved over the years it's moved away maybe from its Earnest and serious gardening begin to be very much a fun day out for all the family everybody wants to have a great day out and we want to maximize our attendances at the event so it's really important that there's fun there that there's a Family Focus that we provide entertainment and enjoyment there's live music there's busking there's Street Theater we think we provide something for everything and obviously there has to be a dog show involved for all of those who who love our four-legged friends and they're very much part of the family the fun adds value to the event it creates that great out and creates that multigenerational experience now to talk numbers suppose what you all want to hear about never easy in this challenging climate and Garden Show Ireland is one of our well it's our second most expensive event that we deliver with the spend in in the in the hundreds of thousands being a council it's a really tricky area and what we spend and what we spended on we know we're subject we're spending public money we're spending rate payers money and we're subject to public scrutiny that perhaps those priv private operators aren't going to be when we set our expenditure budget for 2022 it was a little bit uh there was a little bit of guesswork or should I say estimate and involved because obviously Clare Faulkner had done the event with a very different financial model and she had significant levels of sponsorship to support her expenditure levels our expenditure to some extent has elements that are completely fixed in terms of the event infrastructure and all the normal things that we need to supply to deliver an event in an outdoor space but then we have decisions to make around what we spend on in terms of the gloss of the event for instance our celebrity our celebrity ambassadors our Cooks our gardeners and so on our speakers um the street data that we put on the entertainment the live music those are all things where we make decisions how much can we we spend how much can we expect to get in return we have a trading history for the event and we know that we need our income to get to the certain level which covers the cost of the expenditure so there's a very close relationship there it's not been easy we aim to break even with the delivery of this event in terms of the council's financial model in future years we really want to generate a surplus we believe the event has the potential to do that so we try really hard to bring the expenditure to an acceptable level to create a really high quality offering without extravagant expenditure without anything that'll get us in bother with the kind of things we're spending our money money on but something that that creates the right level of offer to generate then the right level of income through in the main ticketing sales but also we get income through trading trading income and partnership and sponsorship income but the event for our area is a huge brings huge economic impact around half a million in direct economic impact um but lots other non- monetary benefits in terms of the community engagement we deliver as part of garden show the Boost to local business the Boost to our hotel and accommodation providers and really that Feelgood factor for the burough and Beyond and also the opportunity for local business to to business to participate I've talked there about 3/4s of our income comes from our ticket sales in the early days of garden show Ireland it was entirely about walk up so there was an admission charged at the door over the last few years of CLA delivering the vent in antham Castle Gardens she tried to get she established a standalone website and she tried to get encourage people to book their tickets in advance but that was one that was that was really slow to grow we went after that in Earnest when we took on the event and in 2023 we had 64% of our tickets were booked advance and booked online from a previous 25% in 2018 29% were walk up sales and 7% were booked on the phone 77% of the attendees to Garden sh irland came from outside the burrow which is really really important to us because it brings that additional visitor spend we will continue to be data driven we use an online booking system which is the beauty of providing with all sorts of information postcode analysis can tell us where our visitors coming from the majority of them are coming from 1 hour's travel time but we're reaching into the South and we're Reaching Across the Water to GB and that's an area we we want to expand upon because obviously it brings the greater economic return in terms of setting the date for the show that has been something that that that's quite a challenge and I wanted to highlight early May was was the kind of established date for garden show Ireland but may is hugely crowded as you know with the Northwest the Bal moral show we have the Tulip Festival the steam rally in Anum itself work being within the council we always have elections in May which again it's it's not ideal for us to clash with those um so the date setting is has been quite quite a puzzle for us um in 2023 we took a leap of fa faith and moved the event completely out of May and into mid June and we're going for the same weekend again in 2024 in 2022 we went for the last weekend in April early May and we found the event it was just too early for a gardening event there wasn't enough color in terms of the gardening and the floral offer it was a little bit too cold for some of the sellers and Growers and just too early in the season I have concerns that mid June is a little bit too late I am a gardening Enthusiast myself and I do feel that from Easter onwards I'm in and out of gardening centers by the time it gets to June I kind of done with that however 2023 went really really well and all our Sellers and Traders reported a great response we do a really comprehensive marketing and PR c campaign again to drive those ticket sales we had a Christmas offer we're coming up to Mother's Day mothering mothering Sunday we'll be asking you know people to give the gift of flowers buy tickets for a garden show and our campaign in Earnest will really ramp up after Easter driving people to our website and them to make those Advanced sales because then we know the money's coming in it's guaranteed and it's weatherproof to a certain extent getting the right pitch is really really important as you'll all know in terms of the trade the trade is not just an income stream for us but it's a very important part of the event part of the event content and something people want to engage with when they go to the event people want to buy they want to shop uh and they want variety there they want good good quality products it's really important though that we don't just go after the money for us it's really important to get the quality right and to get that fit with our core brand which is the Festival of flowers food and fun Food Northern Ireland look after the food element in its entirety for us but we ourselves now are looking after all the other trading elements we do have a shopping mall which moves slightly away from that core sort of gardening flowers food and and fun theme but again we try to stay really true to to our brand we don't want have too many because then the Traders won't get the level of sales that we want we try to grow our relationships with the Traders we want loyal traders that come back to us and again we want new traders who are bringing nice new products to us as I said 2022 we were light on trade for lots of reasons and I think mostly related to to the timing and coming out of the pandemic we have a plant M as part of the event we have specialist grower stalls we have our shopping mall as I talked about Garden Artistry the treed Village which is where we really sell well we sell everything from portunus to P patio par washers but the treed village is where you get that real specialist outdoor gardening related content and then we have our street food to go shop local is a bit of an issue for us as a council and what I mean by that is we get a lot of pressure from local traders who maybe aren't the right fit for us but they approach their local elected representatives and they want the opportunity to be part of the event to trade at the event but they're not really what we want and that in spite of our arms length relationship and our relationship and partnership with Fooda and I continues to be a challenge for us okay this this is probably the most complex area Garden Show Ireland when owned and operated by Clare Faulkner had an almost six figure um income from sponsorship some of that came from the council in terms of our our our financial contribution for hosting event in from Castle Gardens but there was a headline sponsor in the form of aliance Ireland and there was also significant sponsorship from the TNI event sponsorship program but we know the challenges that that program has faced that funding has has disappeared in terms of now the council run the event councils and sponsorship it's a bit of a tricky area I do feel there's a perception that why you know why would private companies sponsor a council who have the public purse at their disposal and really don't don't need that in stream but to continue to grow and expand the event and generate that Surplus and reduce the impact on a rate pair we really do want that sponsorship when we heard dobbies were coming downum and coming to the junction who we already have a really great relationship with we were rubbing our hands and Glee thinking this is this is it we're going we're going to get uh we're going to get huge support here from dobbies coming to antrum and they're a perfect fed for garden show Ireland we've talked to them we've engaged with them we've had conversation and we still haven't got anywhere in terms of actually them writing any checks and at the stage we're at for the 2024 show it seems unlikely that we're going to have anything in place for that show Chris Flynn who's in the photograph there he's the director of The Junction he on the other hand is a sponsor dream he gives us a financial contribution and he asks for very little in return a number of years ago I embarked Upon A sponsorship journey in relation to our other big event the enchanted Winter Garden and I very naively snapped the hand off uh a corporate sponsor who wanted to give us a not insignificant sum of money uh and have naming rights for the event what I didn't think to ask or didn't think to really explore was what they wanted in return and I'm ashamed to say about 2third of their funding went back to servicing the sponsorship and giving back to them um our event experience so that that was that was a tough lesson to learn thankfully it wasn't huge amount of money but still it just shows you that that the sponsor relationship is not always an easy one which is why we really really value um the relationship that we have with Chris and with the junction we deliver our park and ride for our two large scale events from the junction so therefore we drive the fruit full there we hope he receives additional sales from that um and then I refer to the relationship with our with our garden Ambassador dermit Gavin this is the third year we're going to work with dermit we really believe that the association with with the personality with the celebrity does inspire people to come to the event does spark interest we get loads of publicity out of that we were able to get lots of column inches really helps add value to our marketing and PR campaign however we really want to keep the event fresh and keep the offer offer evolving so that's something that we're under we're considering for our for our future years talked about the junction um Chris does a wonderful report for us after Garden Show and um and this is this is what he what what he has told us and you can see there the real positive endorsement of what he gets from being one of our sponsors and we get we get huge huge amounts of of benefits from working with Chris and his team and he asks for very little in return he's an ID sponsor and partner um I just hope he can persuade dobbies maybe depart with her checkbook in a future years and that's a work in progress and I'll I'll keep you all posted so so in success of of the the last couple of years and again ready for 2024 we're all about planning for the future you all know events are constantly imp planed especially big Bas like Garden Show Ireland uh we're continuing to think about 2025 as we get ready for 2024 jury still out on the date selection we'll see how it goes in the mid June calendar slot um we are going to include pitches to potential sponsors as part of our 2024 approach to the event we're going to Target and invite and Court people to come along and experience Garden Show and see if we can entice them to become future sponsors but again there's a fine line between the effort the time and the energy that you need to put in to appealing to sponsors and the actual return that you make get we already know what a challenging environment it is we're going to keep trying to expand and Branch out in 2023 we introduced a spring plant Fair under the garden sh irland brand one day event delivered in April and it's coming up April 13th at Mosley Mill partly influenced by our political political Masters who want to you know who want events to be spread across the burough so we have an element of garden show Ireland now delivered and now be on an annual basis we're toying with the idea of looking at an evening Festival element to the event which appeals to our younger um younger audiences your um young professionals and the festival goers we're not sure really we're not sure if the income will exceed the expenditure and it's something we won't be doing doing for 2024 but we're we're considering how we can expand the 3-day offering and that 3-day Festival feeli given the the the success of the daytime visitor numbers that we have today around 24,000 came to the event in 2023 that was up from the 20,000 in previous years and back to pre pandemic levels the Botanical burough is a concept unique to Anum in newon Abbey that evolved out of the relationship with dermed Gavin and our corporate strategy is currently being ReRe and will introduce a fourth P which is planet so really that Botanical burough initiative which talks about our entire burough being a giant Botanical Garden there's a wonderful fit for garden show Ireland and we want to see if we can capitalize on that relationship and that concept to really expand the impact of garden show Ireland particularly amongst our local community the council's also committed to a sustainability action plan and I've been away with some of you um on this study visit to Scotland to look at how we can all make our events more sustainable garden sh Ireland for a number of years has really been doing what it can in relation to no plastics the Petree compost uh and kind sponsorship we had last year from New Leaf um and we're continuing to look at ways that we can really make Garden Show Ireland a Trailblazer in terms of a sustainable event so before I go I just want to give you a little flicker through a taste of flowers food and fun in 2023 with a little film of garden show Ireland okay thank you

2024-03-08 23:35

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