Get Ready. It’s Time to Re-Connect

By Colleen Murphy

Winter in Iowa is cold. January temperatures average 14 degrees Fahrenheit. Then we have something called the “feels like” temperature which averages in the wind speed, humidity, and ambient air temperature. If the temperature outside is 14 degrees, the “feels like” may be four, or negative four, depending on the day. For some reason, the “feels like” is never warmer.

Each year the cold temperatures cause many of us to hibernate in our homes with warm food, jigsaw puzzles, movie nights and generally speaking, staying in. It is a season of disconnect. Why do I live in a place where the wind hurts my face and I spend two months primarily in solitude? Because after winter, comes spring and nothing feels better then reconnecting with friends after a long winter.

To me, the pandemic feels like the longest winter ever. It has brought feelings of solitude, discouragement, frustration, and fear. We’ve all asked, “when will it end!” about the pandemic. Well, I’ve also said that about winter. When I heard the news of the vaccine, it started to feel like mid-February in Iowa. This is when you know it’s not going to get better really soon, but its ok to start planning because better days are around the corner.

Analogies aside, as we move through the pandemic to re-opening, our events will be tasked with re-connecting our communities. This is a daunting assignment because we’ve each been through our own series of trials, both professionally and personally, and we all have opinions and assumptions about another person or organizations status or position.

The concept of re-connecting hit home to me when I served on the IFEA Re-Connecting Communities Task Force. It was a privilege to meet other event professionals from across the country and learn from them in a way that I never experienced at a convention, meeting, or webinar. Although our specific events are different, at their core, we all bring our communities together, drive tourism and support our local economies.

Joining the Task Force, I assumed that everyone in the meeting would be similar to me, an event professional who’s had a horrible year. That was true. But as we began sharing our experiences, I saw our group fall into two camps - private organizations (Non-Profit or For-Profit) or Government. Each had our own set of challenges, struggles and benefits. As a Non-Profit organization, I felt that it was a gift to me to learn more about the challenges that the cities are facing. In previous jobs I have worked for both a city and State Government, so I understand the daily operations of Government work, but I haven’t worked for the Government in a global pandemic. I listened carefully to their challenges because I knew that the information they shared will valuable to me in the future, when I start to work with my own city government.

Our key take-away was that events will be the catalyst for the revitalization of our communities. It will be vital for event producers to engage with our elected officials, chambers, visitor bureaus, venues and other civic based organizations to create bonds within our communities. We need to create meaningful engagement between stakeholders, sponsors, contractors, volunteers, and guests.

The theory of events as catalysts for a city, can be proven in my hometown, Des Moines, Iowa. In the late 90’s, downtown Des Moines was struggling. It was not dangerous. It was dead. Community leaders came together and invested in a small, but popular art fair known as Art in the Park and created the Des Moines Arts Festival®. The Festival was a catalyst for vibrancy and excitement in our community. Today, the award-winning Des Moines Arts Festival is the largest festival in the state of Iowa, a top destination for summer entertainment and is a gold-standard in our industry. The key to the Des Moines Arts Festival’s story is that community leaders invested in its future.

When thinking about investing in our future, budgets are the first thing on an agenda. Our Task Force talked at length about tight budgets. We all have them. So, we brainstormed many ways that events can thrive under these constraints.

First, smaller events may not have the same resources and networks as larger festivals. Pooling resources, sharing staff and loaning infrastructure can be a great way to support each other. I’m personally an example of a shared resource. I work for two different event organizations, with one event paying for 25% of my time. Our organizations often support each other in numerous ways. Rather than laying off staff, could you job share a position with another organization? This could include sponsorship management, volunteer management, programming, or production assistance.

The same could be done with offices, storage space, venues and equipment. For many years the two organizations I work for have shared many resources and basic infrastructure. One year one event organization was running short on zip ties so the other organization came to the rescue. Following the event, the organization that was short the zip ties replenished the other organizations supply. The icing on the cake is being supported by people who understand your work and don’t question your challenges. They’ve been there.

To continue collaboration, events of all sizes should consider sitting down with city departments to identify areas of collaboration. Prior to the meetings, events should work together in approaching cities to streamline the conversation, process, needs and overall efforts. We can’t be afraid to open the communication lines between our organization and others in our community. For events to return, we all must be transparent with our needs and opportunities. This is the year we should dismiss any feelings of competition and focus on teamwork and partnership within our communities.

Here in Iowa, we don’t have a regional event organization or IFEA chapter. A group of colleagues and I have created our own small group to support each other and discuss our challenges. We began to meet a couple of years ago to discuss event security and the conversation has evolved, especially in the pandemic. This group is so valuable to me because we are following the same rules, using many of the same vendors and face many of the same challenges and opportunities. I never see them as competition, I see them as a resource. I hope they see me in that same light.

Many members of our task force shared ways that they work closely with the other events in their community to promote and support each other. Often this is done through social media and newsletters which provides each Festival added content for our audience. As we navigate tough budgets, consider other ways you could partner with other events. For example, for several years our World Food & Music Festival has partnered with the Latino Heritage Festival. The two festivals are back-to-back on the calendar. In our partnership, the Latino Heritage Festival brings a group of dancers that perform at the World Food & Music Festival and they actively promote the upcoming Latino Heritage Festival. They receive free access to our audience and in turn, our Festival enjoys talented performers on our Cultural Stage for no cost. Our audience loves it!

As we look into the future, we need to open up our minds to new ideas and concepts. And I don’t mean the COVID19 protocol plans that we’re all making. Take a break from that, it’s depressing. I mean, take a look at your event with new eyes. Sometimes tough times can mean ending a program or event that probably should have been ended sooner. It could also mean a lot of small changes, ones most people won’t notice, that equal a big, positive result.

The first big event that I led on my own was loved by the community, operated well, not great, and made a little money. To improve operations and give us a larger net profit, I made a series of small changes that ended up amounting to a wonderful outcome. Five years after I started, operations were vastly improved, we had tripled our number of sponsors and the event was the largest fundraising activity for our Non-Profit organization. Better still, because we had more sponsors, the guest experience was enhanced. Although we didn’t make those changes because of the pandemic, we were forced to evaluate that event because our organization needed more financial support. We were looking for funding in every place we could. If it hadn’t been for those hard times, we never would have done that deep dive. Our organization and our community were better for it.

Evolving our events and our resources is a must, not only to save expenses, but also because funding streams that we are reliant on may not be available in 2021. If your organization has benefited from or depended on grants funded by hotel/ motel taxes, that funding may not be there this year. Many grant opportunities may not be available, and sponsors may have shifted their priorities as their funding tightened. I have friends who work for large companies and have furloughed often throughout the pandemic. I’m sure that financial strain will trickle over into their giving plan, at least for 2021. As we make those connections in our community, we should look for non-traditional revenue streams. Many of these could be beneficial to not only our organization, but others.

One of my favorite win-win programs in our community is the Des Moines Arts Festival’s Non-Profit beverage program. The Festival features four beverage stations and each station is managed and staffed by another Non-Profit organization. That organization earns a percentage of revenue from the stations sales. Through this partnership, The Festival has a partner who is inve station is profitable while also supporting another community organization.

Will our organizations be better after the pandemic is over? I’m sure most would say no, but in some ways, we might say yes. Personally, there are many things I hope that I’ll never again take for granted; foremost the privilege to produce live events. I miss the noise from a sound check, the weight of a radio on my hip and the laughter and giddiness that I feel when I’m overly tired, but don’t realize it. If we really love live events and love what we do to create them, then we need to re-connect to bring them back.

Back to my winter analogy…spring is coming. It’s a season of growth and re-birth. In Iowa, it’s a season to get back to the baseball fields, patio parties, farmers’ markets and outdoor events. As the time comes, will your organization be ready to tackle the new challenges? To be open and transparent? To connect? Get ready. That time is almost here.

Colleen Murphy is the Downtown Events Director for the Greater Des Moines Partnership in Des Moines, Iowa. In addition to producing four events for The Partnership, Murphy is the Sponsorship Manager for the Des Moines Arts Festival and plays a support role on Des Moines’ Downtown Farmers’ Market. She has over 15 years’ experience in the event industry. The IFEA Covid-19 Re-Connect Task Force was a collaborative effort by the Committee Chairs and the work of their committee team members including:

• Committee Co-Chair: Keli O’Neill Wenzel, CFEE, O’Neill Marketing & Event Management

• Committee Co-Chair: Stephen King, CFEE, Des Moines Arts Festival

• Karen Churchard, CFEE, City of Scottsdale

• Dianna Craven, CFEE, SunFest of Palm Beach County

• Kalie Crose, City of Henderson, NV

• Randy Dewitz, CFEE, CFM, Fanfare Attractions, LLC

• Jasmine Freeman, City of Las Vegas

• Kevin Grothe, Memphis in May International

• Andrea Hostetler, National Cherry Blossom Festival

• Jessica Howard, National Cherry Blossom Festival

• Lillian Iverson, National Cherry Blossom Festival

• Paul Jamieson, CFEE, SunFest of Palm Beach County

• Hayden Kramer, Town of Indian Trail Parks & Recreation

• Janet Landey, CFEE, IFEA Africa

• Dom Leyden, Rosterfly

• Brittney Lindsay, City of Chamblee

• Delores MacAdam, City of Ottawa Cvents Central Branch

• Colleen Murphy, Greater Des Moines Partnership

• Mary Pinak, CFEE, City of West Palm Beach

• Steve Schmader, CFEE, International Festivals & Events Association

• Katy Strascina, City and County of Denver

• Joe Vera, CFEE, City of McAllen