Inside Events & Festivals - July 2020

Inside Events and Festivals The official publication of the Washington Festivals & Events Association

Seattle Special Events Committee Extends Ban of Special Event Permits Through November 1: Page 5 •

Thinking Outside the Box with Peter Schrappen: Page 7

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WFEA Conference Set for October 13-15: Page 9

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How Drugs and Alcohol are Affecting Drive -In Events: Page 11

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Get registered, cast your ballot, and stand up for what you believe in at Century Link Field: Page 15

Inside Event & Festivals, June 2020

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The Lineup Seattle Special Events Committee Votes to Extend Ban of Special Event Permits Through November 1, 2020 The Seattle Special Events Committee has voted to extend an administrative decision to not issue Special Event Permits through November 1, 2020. This extension will go into effect immediately.

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What I’m Thinking About‌ Thoughts from Peter Schrappen, CAE, Northwest Marine Trade Association Page 7

WFEA Annual Conference Set for October October 13-15, 2020 Register at WFEA.org Page 9

Drive-in events allow you to distance, but what about addition of drugs and alcohol?

While drive-in festivals allow physical distancing, they bring new challenges for promoters, police and health workers.

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Get registered, cast your ballot, and stand up for what you believe in Seattle Seahawks in partnership with King County Elections have announced CenturyLink Field as an official Vote Center location Page 15

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What I’m Thinking About….

From Peter Schrappen, CAE Vice President & Director of Government Affairs Northwest Marine Trade Association

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re we marketing the boat show like it’s 1985 or 2020?

What if instead of spending $X on traditional and/or digital advertising, we spent $X on digital (realizing that no one watches live television anymore and/or listens to radio ads) and targeted a pool of prospective customers (our superfans w 80% of our time and energy and 20% w new qualified prospects (“new boaters)) and sent them $100 to attend the show. If 1,000 (!) people took us up on the offer, we would be out the same $150,000.

This $100 could be in cash. This $100 could be in a gift card and the $100 could turn into a $1,000 if it’s used to buy a boat.

Seem crazy?

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When I worked for Anheuser-Busch in 1996 (whoa, I’m old), AB mailed me a check for $24 to each employee. I worked at their banquet center and meeting facility. The money came with a letter that I was supposed to use that money to buy beer for my friends.

AB was stingy. They were onto something and I bet that there accounting department fought the sales team to not send out those checks (“Can’t we make it $12 and not $24?” That seems like something an accountant probably said back then.)

Question from this helpful website: “Begin (planning) instead with the smallest viable market. What’s the minimum number of people you would need to influence to make it worth the effort?

How can we build the show so it appeals to the smallest viable audience (to make it worthwhile)?

Kevin Kelley is a household name is a lot of households. He’s the editor at Wired. His most famous blog post is “1,000 True Fans”. It was written back in 2008.

The lede: “To be a successful creator you don’t need millions. You don’t need millions of dollars or millions of customers, millions of clients or millions of fans. To make a living as a craftsperson, photographer, musician, designer, author, animator, app maker, entrepreneur, or inventor you need only thousands of true fans.

for “true fans”) as those people who had a relationship to the show, to boating and the capacity to buy a boat. (Qualified prospects = Relationships + Capacity) What if we built our cookie pool up now and stockpiled them for January?

What if we rented names from a list broker of people who subscribe to boating magazines?

What if we just asked this one simple survey question, which is considered the best single question to ask to determine your superfans: How likely are you to recommend us to your friends and family on a scale from 1-10? (And zero in on the superfans who give us the best scand treat them like VIPs) (Source: Harvard Business Review: The only number you need to grow) What if we created a remarkable campaign (defined as a campaign that people will positively remark on) that our 1,000 superfans would evangelize to their friends on our behalf? If this reasoning is true (and Roper Surveys thinks it is, one person in ten determines how the other nine vote, purchase, think), then let’s look for the influential boaters and treat them like royalty.

Seth Godin's 9 Tips On Creating A Remarkable Product LINK

What if we moved away from the advertising budget and developed the smallest viable audience and built our show that way. What if we embraced this famous bell curve and targeted the “early adopters”?

(What if we focused 80% of our resources at the true fans and 20% on the rest of the bell curve?)

Helpful TED Talk (the second most popular one) to change thinking/ reorient around the “why” you exist first and foremost and not the “what” you offer or the “how” you are going to go about it. LINK

What if we tried to not appeal to new boaters but appealed to our true fans (From the Kelly blog post): A true fan is defined as a fan that will buy anything you produce. These diehard fans will drive 200 miles to see you sing; they will buy the hardback and paperback and audible versions of your book; they will purchase your next figurine sight unseen; they will pay for the “best-of” DVD version of your free youtube channel; they will come to your chef’s table once a month. If you have roughly a thousand of true fans like this (also known as super fans), you can make a living — if you are content to make a living but not a fortune.”

How do we create value?

What if we took Dale Carnegie’s advice embraced the principle that “it's easier to get additional sales from existing customers than it is to find new customers.”

Kurt Vonngegut would write with one person in mind. His sister.

What if we planned the show for just a handful (1,000?) of people and see what happened. What if we defined qualified prospects (a synonym

Inside Event & Festivals, June 2020

Questions to ponder:

What is our value proposition?

Let’s take a step back: How do we define value? How is value different than price?

I think about Bob Burg's definition of value a great deal and just went back to make sure i have it correct. Whew, I do. Bob defines value as the “desirability of a thing as perceived by another person.”

As we think about communicating our value, this is a good use of six minutes: https://burg.com/2011/08/defining-value-different-fromprice-and-why-thats-important/ How have consumers changed their sense of value since COVID? This podcast focuses on the food and beverage industry but helps around this question for us: Value in the time of COVID podcast

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WFEA ANNUAL CONFERENCE OCTOBER 13-15, 2020

REGISTER AT WFEA.ORG .

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Drive-in events allow you to distance, but what about addition of drugs and alcohol?

By Nicole Lee and Monica Barratt, The Conversation Medical Xpress

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he cancellation of events due to the COVID-19 pandemic has hit Australia's music industry hard, with reports of losses up to A$200 million.

But music festivals have quickly adapted. First, they moved to live streaming. Now drive-in music festivals are popping up across the globe.

In response to the pandemic, the world's first drive-in rave took place in Germany in May. Australia followed suit with Airwaves on the Sunshine Coast earlier this month. The Drive-in, a series of pop-up gigs in Melbourne, was also planned for this month but has now been cancelled.

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While drive-in festivals allow physical distancing, they bring new challenges for promoters, police and health workers.

People will be driving to and from venues where alcohol is available, and in some cases where illicit drugs are used.

Risk of drink and drug driving Normally, festival-goers can reduce risks of harms from alcohol or illicit drugs by not driving to and from the event. And some festivals are multi-day events where people stay overnight, so they can plan not to be intoxicated for the drive home.

But drive-in festivals require people to bring their own car. And they need to drive home immediately afterwards.

The Victorian code of practice for safer music festivals explicitly says alcohol- and drug-affected people should be strongly discouraged from driving.

Online harm reduction communities that have been operating for years, like Bluelight, and more recent digital communities, like Sesh Safety, could provide harm reduction information specifically aimed at drive-in festival goers, through their existing digital channels.

Usually at a music festival, attendees are standing, dancing or moving around the festival ground. So, security, outreach workers and other patrons can look out for people who may have been affected by alcohol or other drugs and take them for medical or first aid treatment.

But with drive-in festivals, there is less incidental opportunity to direct people to help.

So promoters could distribute information about where to access harm reduction information, and about available medical and first aid help, as people drive into the festival.

Drug checking

Although legally you can have small amounts of alcohol in your blood while driving, the key message is not to drive if you have had any alcohol at all.

Drug checking allows people to anonymously submit drug samples for forensic analysis so they can make informed decisions about what they're about to take. Counselling is also offered.

This is because most people cannot accurately estimate their blood alcohol concentration after drinking. And people who are riskier drivers tend to underestimate their blood alcohol levels.

We know drug checking is effective in reducing harms at music festivals, but it is not available in Australia outside specific trials.

Alcohol and other drug testing One option is to conduct roadside tests for alcohol and illicit drugs as people leave drive-in festivals. Police already do this routinely at festivals.

There is good evidence alcohol breath testing is effective in reducing road crashes and deaths. Breath testing could prevent road incidents after drive-in festivals in the same way it has reduced incidents among the general population.

Blood alcohol testing detects current levels of alcohol. The higher your blood alcohol concentration, the more impaired you are behind the wheel.

But illicit drug testing is not a direct measure of impairment at the time of testing. It only indicates whether you have used a drug within the window of the test. Some drugs can be detected in the system for several days after use. Drivers could test positive but not be affected by drugs at the time.

Running a drug checking service from a drive-in festival in COVID19 times would be more challenging, but not impossible, by using technology to deliver feedback via text or app.

Festival-goers could chat by text with the drug checking team to discuss their specific drug-use history, circumstances, and the results of the analysis. But there would be less anonymity than a usual drug checking service.

Promoters, police, health workers and young people Although smaller music venues are slowly reopening in some states, large music festivals are likely to remain closed for some time. So drive-in festivals might sound appealing.

But they throw up specific risks promoters need to address to ensure the safest possible environment for people eager to access COVID-safe live music venues.

So promoters need to work closely with police, health workers and young people themselves to effectively address some of these additional risks.

There are also questions about the reliability of the tests and very little evidence roadside drug testing is associated with fewer crashes.

What else can we do to reduce harms?

Peer organisations, like DanceWize, provide harm reduction information and outreach at music festivals. They provide a safe space for people to chill out, chat with peers or ask questions about drugs and mental health concerns.

But during a drive-in festival, people need to sit in their cars. So there is less opportunity for them to access outreach services in the usual way.

Event-based harm reduction services like DanceWize have already responded to COVID-19 by sharing harm reduction advice through Facebook Live events and Instagram.

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Get registered, cast your ballot, and stand up for what you believe in.

The Seattle Seahawks in partnership with King County Elections have announced CenturyLink Field as an official Vote Center location.

The CenturyLink Field Vote Center will be open on Saturday, August 1st, Monday, August 3rd, and Tuesday, August 4th for the August 4th Primary election. Drive-up services will be available in addition to services for those arriving by foot. In an effort to prevent the potential spread of COVID-19, a face mask is required to attend, and will be provided to voters if needed. Elections staff will also be properly equipped to ensure the safest, healthiest voting process possible.

For more details and timing, visit the King County Elections site below. Make your voice heard and cast your vote!

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Click Here to View WFEA Membership Directory

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Washington Festivals & Events Association 1015 Georgiana St. Port Angeles, WA 98362 www.wfea.org

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