Event Revitalisation Plan, Operations Manual + Marketing Plan
ALICE SPRINGS ROTARY HENLEY ON TODD REGATTA, NT
The Henley on Todd Regatta is a fun, quirky and participatory ‘boat’-racing festival held annually on the dry sandy bed of the Todd River in downtown Alice Springs - the only dry river boating regatta in the world, and an iconic and famous NT event.
Attendees compete in ‘boat’-races Flintstones-style, holding a metal frame and running for the finish line. The day’s finale is a battle of three motorised battleships with flour bombs and water cannons.
For six decades Henley-on-Todd has been run by a Board of nine volunteers from the three Alice Springs Rotary Clubs, in more recent times with support from an event management consultant.
Henley-on-Todd’s success is measured by its organisers in its profit which is used for charitable projects locally and across the globe. $1.7 million has been raised for charity over its history.
Project Overview
To support the event’s continuing long-term sustainability and future growth, Tilma Group developed a strategic business plan, online operations manual, new governance framework, and strategic marketing plan for the event.
Developing these assets for the festival involved extensive consultation with key stakeholders in and around Alice Springs, and research to understand the tourism and events landscape in Central Australia and the Northern Territory.
The event strategy identifies key priorities for Henley-on-Todd:
Improve commercialisation and increase profits
Reduce the labour burden by improving efficiencies and productivity
Grow event attendance and participation
Increase overnight visitation and visitor expenditure in Alice Springs and Central Australia
Manage risk and sustainability
These goals provide direction to the Board to assist with decision making and activities, and highlight areas that require investment in time and money as well new partnerships.
For each priority key actions for achieving them are identified, broken down into three stages, paced over the next five years.
A major challenge for Henley-on-Todd’s sustainability is the diminishing numbers of Rotary Club members to fill the Regatta’s management needs, as well as the major commitment required of a number of the volunteers. The first stage of the five-year plan is to establish efficient festival management practices to free up volunteer capacity.
Tilma Group restructured the event’s committee to make more efficient use of the available volunteers. This new structure is supported by a roles and responsibilities document that aligns with an overarching planning timeline developed to ensure that all critical deadlines and milestones are scheduled for each role on the organising committee.
The online event manual was designed as a toolkit for ongoing sustainability and effective succession planning. It ensures all event activities are documented in one central location, so committee members won’t leave their role with event documentation on their personal computer as a permanent loss to the committee.
A marketing action plan was developed to support the festival’s broader strategic direction and priorities. This more clearly articulated the high-value target markets for the event. This was supported by a 3-month content plan that was pragmatic and activation focused.
Project Outcomes
An impressive achievement in the first year of implementing the marketing plan was instigating a partnership with Tourism NT to secure lifesavers from the TV show Bondi Rescue to visit Alice Springs and attend the event. The resulting one-hour show was seen by 2.1m viewers in 40 countries.
Attendance increased by 4.4%, with 62% from interstate (44%) or overseas (18%), an overachievement of the marketing goal of a 2.5% increase. The economic boost to Alice Springs of the out-of-region visitors was estimated to be $4,463,723. Online ticket sales were introduced to increase attendance as well as speed up entry and support cash flow.
Henley-on-Todd enjoyed an 8.5% increase on the previous year’s revenue, to well above their goal for giving to charity. A portion of the profits were set aside into a fund for reinvestment into the event, something that had not been done in recent years in preference for profits for charity.
As the program of Henley on Todd is comprised entirely of participatory races, it is vital that attendees join in the fun – if not, there is no show! In the first year after our work with Henley on Todd, 11% of attendees participated in the races, a 15% increase over the year before. This was the result of innovative new activities to increase local participation, such as a competition for local gyms, encouragement of company team building participation via a corporate challenge and the addition of more children’s events.
For the first time the visitor survey included questions on customer satisfaction; 98% of attendees were either very satisfied (66%) or satisfied (26%) with the event. Just over half of all respondents (56%) indicated that they were very likely or somewhat likely to attend the Regatta again the next year, impressive considering that only 37% came from the NT. 81% of locals were very or somewhat likely to attend again the next year.
The activities undertaken to bolster Henley-on-Todd’s revenue streams, as well as address operational challenges, will ensure the Festival’s viability and its economic and tourism benefits for the community for decades to come as Alice Springs continues to celebrate its zany dry riverbed boating regatta.
“We picked apart the strategic business plan we received a year ago from Tilma Group and the risk management plan we received from Ernst & Young to apply for and win very significant funding from two multi-year grants.
The plans identified the key things the event needed to work on, and the budget required for each, and when we applied for funding, we received about 90% of what we needed for the first three years of the plans.
The plans have also given us clear direction. Now all of us on the committee know what we are doing and how to go about it. This year was all about rebranding as a base to move the event forward. We have added a new event the night before the Regatta, and expanded the event site for a quiet space for kids activities and to eat at tables. Now we’ll focus on the next thing.”
Referee
Dale McIver
Henley on Todd Event Director
Alice Springs Event Management & Consultancy
PO Box 5191
Alice Springs NT 0871
0417 864 085
dale.mciver.au@bigpond.com
www.alicespringsevents.com.au