Time: 10am-4:30pm
Location: United Way Learning Centre (580 Main Street)
Cost: $375 ACI members before October 4 | $455 non-members / ACI members after October 4
* Travel subsidies may be available for those traveling from outside of Winnipeg. Please email Carol or phone (204) 927-2787 for more details. *

The Festival and Event Management Master Class is an intensive 2 day program designed to inform and inspire anyone involved in the business of creating, managing and developing festivals and events. It is a highly practical course full of ideas and examples to increase participants' knowledge and improve their events. It includes sessions on key tasks and challenges for festival organisers such as marketing, press, programming, evaluation, sponsorship and fundraising.

The Schedule:

Day 1

Festivals and Great Festival Destinations
Understanding what makes outstanding festival destinations work and assessing how to make the most of your own festival environment.

People and Partnerships
Looks at how effective festival organizations manage themselves, their relationships with stakeholders and collaborations with partners.

Programming
The key to the success of any festival is the strength of the program. This session explores a number of successful programming approaches.

Sponsorship and Fundraising
This session considers how to approach sponsors and explores other ways of generating much needed income.

Festivals, Tourism and Destination Branding
This session considers how festivals can play a crucial role in raising the profile of a destination.

Day 2

Festival Marketing
This session examines a number of successful marketing approaches adopted by leading festivals.

Venues and Festival Infrastructure
This session considers how to make the most of the venues available to your festival and the infrastructure required to run festivals successfully.

Working with the Media
Every festival needs good press coverage and this session considers how best to achieve this aim.

Festivals - Impact and Evaluation
This session considers how festivals should look to maximise and evaluate their impact economically, socially and culturally.

Instructor: Paul Gudgin

Paul Gudgin has over 20 years experience in the management of festivals and events and was for 8 years the Director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. This was during an exciting period that saw the event double in scale hosting 12,000 performances and selling over 8 million tickets. Paul is the Senior Consultant at the Edinburgh Institute for Festival and Event Management at Edinburgh Napier University. This course provides a unique opportunity to work with one of the world’s leading festival and event management professionals.

Selected Winnipeg Participants’ Comments:

• “Informative, interesting and worthwhile master class” Crystal Kolt, Flin Flon Arts Council
• “This course was excellent and above average. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting inspiration and increased knowledge.” Dave Barber, Winnipeg Film Group
•  “Excellent way to increase knowledge; definitely good for experienced festival people too!” Karen San Filippo, Winnipeg International Writers Festival

This workshop will count for 14 Edge Seminar credit hours toward Arts and Cultural Management Certificate Program at the University of Winnipeg's PACE. Arrangements must be made with Carol in advance.

To register, email Lindsey or phone (204) 927-2787.