Setting the Stage…

In real estate jargon they say a great looking house has “curb appeal”. When they want to make the inside of a house more appealing, they call it staging! What they are talking about is marketing, making the house saleable. There are lots of television programs on the air right now about this subject. Festivals and events should learn from the real estate industry!  Festival and event organizers should pay greater attention on how their event looks, both on the inside and the outside! An appealing outside will attract people; make them want to come in to “check” the event out. A well planned inside will make them want to stay, spend money and tell their friends about the great event! It will also bring them back, year after year. “Setting the stage” is easy to do, but it takes thought and planning. Not just the day before the event starts, but right from the beginning. Staging an event includes the basics such as, great location, well planned site layout, interesting activities and events, clean and convenient washrooms and informed volunteers. It also includes the not so basics, well place signs and a lot of them, a simple but effective internet website, happy and enthusiastic vendors and a workable “green” plan! Really, proper “staging” is the anatomy of a well-run successful event. The more effort that is put into this area, the better the final outcome will be. And this, in today’s competitive and costly environment, will mean the different between survival, growth and prosperity or defeat, lose and closure!