Public invited to have a say on new Warrnambool City Council events strategy

 David McMahon.

Warrnambool City Council will publicly consult on its new events strategy, visitor economy manager David McMahon says.

It will be presented to councillors at an upcoming council meeting.

The new plan will then be on public exhibition and there will be a consultation period for the community and event organisers.

“The community will have an opportunity to have their say,” Mr McMahon said.

“It will be open for public submissions.

“We will also be having consultation sessions where people can let us know what they think face-to-face.

“We know we have a lot of hard work to do over coming years to build a portfolio of events with the right mix.”

Mr McMahon said it was positive to read suggestions for new events after the axing of Fun4Kids.

The Standard asked people to submit their ideas in an online poll, which gathered 508 votes/suggestions.

“We are very happy to see that the community are so engaged and looking at alternative events,” he said.

He said 80 per cent of the events budget was spent on Fun4Kids, but now it would be freed up for other initiatives.

“We are trying to achieve a better mix to service all the community’s needs and all of the citizens’ needs,” Mr McMahon said.

“Events need to service the local community, as well as attract visitation and they need to be the right sorts of events that people want to see and participate in.”

Mr McMahon said The Standard’s reader suggestions showed people wanted a range of events.

“It’s interesting now to see a good mix of food and wine, music, motorsport, high profile sporting events as well as a range of other unique, niche events that people want, but quite clearly what your (The Standard’s) results are showing is that family and children’s entertainment is important,” he said.

“We certainly agree with that.”

Source: http://www.standard.net.au