Dr Saunders: So, now let me turn to the actual event and how it went. As I said, we had the biggest offer of arts events in the four years we've been running the festival. In total, the number of visitors over the whole five days was 12,500, which is a 10% increase on the previous year and just over three times the number in the first year that we held it. This clearly shows that we're going in the right direction by expanding the variety of events on offer. The short film event at the university cinema was the best attended, with entries from a wide variety of nationalities here at the university on a number of fascinating topics. I think we can all agree that the quality was excellent, as was the standard of the photography exhibition and the paintings in the art gallery. Our feedback from students and visitors was very positive.
However, there are three issues that we should address in our discussions. First, Wayne Rogers, our headline music act, had to call off two days before the event due to illness and we didn't have time to find another act. Needless to say, all those who bought tickets for the main concert were disappointed and we had to return their money. We need to discuss suggestions for avoiding this in the future. Also, while we had some good crafts on display, especially the clothes, pottery, sculptures and glass objects, the exhibition was poorly attended, so we have to decide if it needs to be changed or perhaps reduced in someway.The last issue involves the art gallery and, in particular, security. Although we had attendants on duty all the time, three paintings were stolen, much to the disappointment of the artists who painted them. They were valued at around £3,000 in total, and the artists had expected to be able to sell them in the future, so we need to look into this and think about how we can increase security for next year, while also avoiding any unnecessary inconvenience for our visitors.
Regarding the arrangements for accommodation and catering, generally things went well, but there were some issues with the accommodation in the city college. As there were a lot of late bookings, we had to provide more accommodation than we had originally planned to do, with the result that some people ended up in accommodation of a lower standard than they expected. We apologised to them and gave them back part of their payments, but we need to avoid this issue in the future, especially as the festival is growing and we don't want to harm our reputation. Another issue was that, at certain times of the day, there were not enough volunteers on hand to help visitors, so we'll need to make sure that we organise the availability of volunteers better next time.On the other hand, the transport that we organised was excellent and the catering was highly appreciated, in terms of both variety and quality. So, I'd like you to think of more ideas to extend the catering opportunities for next year.
The last thing I want to focus on now is how much we spent. As I said earlier, we had budgeted for £50,000 to organise the event and expected £50,000in earnings from the event, but the final balance sheet showed that the event made just over £90,000, so we have some money to go into the budget for next year, which is an excellent result. However, I feel there are still some areas where we could cut our spending and perhaps reduce charges for visitors. Many of the volunteers felt that some of the paid helpers that we brought in to supervise the activities were not really worth the expense.They felt that some of them did very little for what we paid them and others didn't really organise some of the events that well, so I would welcome suggestions on improving organisation while saving money. Also, I feel that another good way of raising funds is to get more business support from local companies, who could help the festival grow by sponsoring events and advertising their products and services more around the festival.Now I'd like to turn to ... |
