Saad commentary: More of Dave's recommendations to SWOT team

Dave Saad(L)), SWOT chair Clinton Vuorimaki (R).

1. Eliminate the air show
The Festival no longer gets major air show status. The cost of the air show is exorbitant. Military acts are no longer available to the extent that they were in the past. The cost of the commercial shows is too high and the number of them required to make a decent show is out of the Festival’s reach from a financial perspective.

Set aside the money from the air show to attract either more entertainment or based upon availability a replacement for attractions such as the beach volleyball or strong man competition. Knowing that these kind of attractions either are not available or too costly, this surplus money should be divided between a debt reduction program and enhanced entertainment. The air show is no longer a viable attraction for the Festival based upon cost and availability of quality acts.

2. Eliminate Lee Park
Move the complete festival to the waterfront.
If the Country Open continues, utilize the main stage during the day time and perhaps stretch it out longer.

The vendors (non food), would have a more consolidated market and the festival could be more selective in what vendors they allow in. The food vendors that are used need to be controlled more in terms of the quality and variety of food and the pricing of the food that is available.

By moving to the waterfront completely, the number of vendors would not be as great, but the quality could be controlled along with the type of food available.

Move Conklin to the old Uniroc site as the revenue they generate is vital to the Festival and keep it outside of the wristband area.

3. Entertainment.
Joe Elastic and his Rubber Band will not cut it in making the festival attractive to citizens and visitors.

Local talent is okay as filler at best, but what sets the festival apart is the quality of the entertainment. With regard to your survey question “entertainment over the past five years”, who can remember who was here last year let alone five years ago?

The history of the festival entertainment package is outstanding and for the price it is the best deal you can get anywhere.

Just take a look at the line up for the Sudbury festival and the cost and our customers are getting one hell of a deal. We should be able to get back to that although the cost of entertainment is getting quite high. Expand the committee and utilize existing contacts to secure entertainment that meets the mandate.

4. Heritage.
The “heritage” component of festival’s past was tried and an honest effort was put forward under the chairmanship of Pam Handley.

After a couple of years, it became very difficult to get locals to participate due in large part to the time of the year and the lack of funds by many non profit organizations to be able to cover the basic costs related to tenting etc.

The final year saw just about every tent selling raffle tickets and served as a turn off for visitors. We also tried a community service tent at one time, but groups would show up on Friday and not return until Monday leaving a real mess of brochures and a disorderly looking area.

5. Kiddies Land
This should be seriously investigated and brought back.
The problem was a lack of a champion for this program, but it was a huge success and provided free entertainment and fun for the young children.


6. Festival Operation
The festival is a $1 million event.
It has one full time staff person. Name one other million dollar business that operates with one full time staff person.

Yes it is true that they secure funding for contract positions, but at the end of the program, they have to start over with staff orientation as most programs do not allow for return staff from a grant program.

This festival needs the right number of staff to get the job done. The relocation of the Festival office out of City Hall was a very good move and it should continue to be an arms length operation from city hall.

The utilization of city expertise related to the operation of special events has gone down over the past three years. In the past, the festival manager had direct access to city staff with a strong background in the operation of special events. While the Parks and Recreation Department has such a person, namely Melinda Fry, she is not directly linked to the festival.

She could serve as a tremendous staff liaison to the Festival and would also be a great check and balance for the existing festival staff.

To my mind, this would be the best use of internal resources.

7. Community Support
Many hotels in our area triple their fees for that weekend with a minimum night booking policy. Almost all of these hotels give nothing back to the festival and that is wrong. They should be encouraged to become sponsors.

No one is discouraging them from making money, but help the event that helps them!

8. Off Site Events
While the community should be encouraged to become involved, it is very difficult to move the festival to satellite locations.

To put a show in Memorial Gardens would cost in excess of $4000 to rent the building and you could only put 3,700 people in at best.

The capacity of the waterfront is essential for the type of shows that are brought in. You would also be paying twice for all technical services which carry a huge price tag. The atmosphere created by the waterfront is a selling point for the Festival and it is needed from marketing and a logistical perspectives.

9. Daily Passes
As much as I like the idea, it would be a logistical nightmare. If the festival can lower its costs, eliminate the air show and consolidate on the Waterfront, then a presale of $20 with a weekend sale of $25 is more than fair; $20 a day is a deal let alone for the whole weekend!

The festival needs the presale to self insure to a certain degree.

10. Public Sentiment
Related to the above mentioned event, it will not matter what the festival does if there is not a change of mindset by our community.

You can’t get prime rib for the price of hamburger.
If the price of the festival doubled, it would still be a deal.

North Bay has to wake up and realize the value for the dollar that they are getting and support the event or eliminate it. At the same time, it is essential to get involved with the festival.

A strong push for volunteers is required and necessary.
The coordination of the volunteers is a huge job and a strong committee is necessary to make this happen.

11. Management Committee
Quite a few of these people have been around for a long time and the festival needs their expertise.

What they need is support and additional expertise. Too many of these people have been a committee of one for a long time due to the lack of people coming forward. It is time to expand the sub committee base and get fresh new ideas combined with the expertise of those who have been involved.

At the same time, those long term members have to be receptive to change and can’t operate on the philosophy of “been there, done that”!

12. Marketing
The festival needs a new fresh look and it is time to change the logo and investigate a new name. If this can be done a little cost, it should be perused.