First of all, what a difficult title to remember. I told people all weekend that I went to a food and wine festival over the weekend, but could never get those 4 words in the correct order when trying to tell them the name! I'm not sure where the name came from, but in terms of branding, it's not a great idea if it's nearly impossible to remember!
Pier 94 as an event space was different than I expected. I didn't really expect it to still look like a pier freight house, with some pretty fabric and carpets thrown around! It certainly was big and customizable, but everytime I looked up it was an eyesore! I'd be curious to see what it looks like after renovations.
The festival itself was good. I made some strong connections with some products, and even raved about a pasta sauce to everyone I talked to for the next few days! As a poor grad student, the free part and the samples made it a great experience for me. I couldn't see myself paying $325 a ticket though. While I'm not the demographic they're looking to target for many of their goods, I am the demographic for some of them (the pasta sauce, the flavored waters, a lot of the alcohol and beer, etc.) Even as I looked around, the people there did not seem to be people who had paid $325 a ticket either (most seemed to be comp'd in through someone too). I saw more real interaction occuring between different vendors than actually between vendors and interested patrons (with the exception of a lot of smaller food offerings, such as the woman who made her own pesto and the family pasta sauce company, who really could engage their clientel with their new products and demonstrated a clearer zeal in speaking about the product). A few people I spoke with manning the booths said they were volunteers and had minimal product knowledge! I know that if I were paying to show my product at this fair, I would certainly make sure the people at my table were extremely knowledgeable and sales driven.
In general, all of the infastructure elemens seemed well managed (bathrooms, places to sit when we got tired, etc.). The ambience upon entering was nice, but the people at check in were not helpful, and more interested in their own conversations than assisting me (again, they all appeared to be volunteers).
Monday, October 29, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
I found Andrea Van Der Kamp's lecture fantastic! She really gave a clear picture of not only fundraising, but also how to take a project and really run with it. I think the topic of urban architecture as a tourism grab was a great topic for this course. It was interesting to study the "bilbao effect" both as a positive and negative thing. While it may initially attract millions to see a new structure, that structure must have unique or interesting programing that goes on within it (or else be iconic, such as the statue of liberty or memorials on the national lawn in DC). Ms. Van Der Kamp stressed how important the programming at Disney Hall is to ensuring that is doesn't fizzle out, but rather continues to revitalize the downtown area.
The presentations have also been interesting to watch. Despite the guide provided, there is still a variety of approaches that were taken (ie. some groups chose to analyze competition more than stress the tourism effects, etc.) I thought that each group really indentified with and were excited by the festival that they chose. I learned the most from the Tribeca Film Festival group, as they chose an event that has changed so much in such a short time. This kind of dynamisim is exciting, but also needs to be controlled. But I think it's important to recognize how festivals can grow, expand, and change; in some cases, becoming completely different festivals! I think this occurs as festivals attempt to stay up with changes and new trends in the marketing competing for attendance. I don't, however, believe that festivals should be untrue to their origins by completely changing. For example, I think it's ok for the Tribeca Film Festival to "sell out" and become less of an independent film festival and more of a hollywood-style film festival. But, I don't think that the San Genaro Festival should include food vendors from other nationalities, as this is completely contray to their identify! People will attend that festival to experience Italian-American culture, not just to eat some food. Therefore, incorporating Asian or other ethnic food would really injure the festival's identity.
The presentations have also been interesting to watch. Despite the guide provided, there is still a variety of approaches that were taken (ie. some groups chose to analyze competition more than stress the tourism effects, etc.) I thought that each group really indentified with and were excited by the festival that they chose. I learned the most from the Tribeca Film Festival group, as they chose an event that has changed so much in such a short time. This kind of dynamisim is exciting, but also needs to be controlled. But I think it's important to recognize how festivals can grow, expand, and change; in some cases, becoming completely different festivals! I think this occurs as festivals attempt to stay up with changes and new trends in the marketing competing for attendance. I don't, however, believe that festivals should be untrue to their origins by completely changing. For example, I think it's ok for the Tribeca Film Festival to "sell out" and become less of an independent film festival and more of a hollywood-style film festival. But, I don't think that the San Genaro Festival should include food vendors from other nationalities, as this is completely contray to their identify! People will attend that festival to experience Italian-American culture, not just to eat some food. Therefore, incorporating Asian or other ethnic food would really injure the festival's identity.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
It's been a while...
So it's been a while since I posted, but that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about events and tourism!
First off, a friend of mine was in town a few weekends back with her boyfriend, who had never visited New York. Saturday was my turn to play tour guide, and he requested to grab pizza in Little Italy for lunch. I had completely forgotten that the Feast of San Genaro was still going on. Unfortuantely, it was raining this Saturday afternoon. Fortunately, the bad weather showed me how poorly laided out the traffic plan for this festival was! We had 1 large umbrella for 3 people, and were surrounded by people with other umbrellas. With the streets already narrowed by booths of vendors on both sides, there was barely 1 standard sized traffic lane in the middle for human traffic. Add hundreds of people and hundreds of umbrellas, and it was a complete jamming mess. The traffic way turned into a giant clogged and drippy mess. We eventually jumped out at the first opportunity we could and walked into the next available pizza place, not caring about the name or price. I'm shocked that they are allowed to have that many people in such a small space without a better traffic plan! All it takes is a rain storm to create chaos!
The presentation in class by Type Social gave me the insight of creating a real specialization and strategic strength for an events planning company. With their heavy background in night life promotions and guest lists, Type Social is a different kind of event company that not only plans events, but also invites people to them. In most cases, as the client wants sales as a result of the event, this means acting indirectly as a sales agent. I wonder how much pressure the guests in Type Social's database feel when attending an event. Do they realize that they're invited as a targeted buyer? I also thought about extending this guest list specialization to tourism. Could an event planning company successfully plan an event at a destination, then use it's guest list to get numerous visitors to travel just for that event. Meeting and conference planners do it all the time. But what if the organizers of India at 60 obtained a guest list while here in New York, and now were throwing events in India for tourism or corporate clients. Could they pursuade guests from New York at attend?
Last weekend, I also attended the New York Leather Festival with my boyfriend. Not much of a festival, and therein lies the room for all the critique on this blog! It was located on a small 1 block street in the West Village that had been closed down. It was $5 to gain access (procedes to charity), though with the way the wooden horses were blocking the street and the lack of staff to man the enterance, one could easily get in without paying. There were a number of lackluster vendors with leather gear and some organizations set up with information. It was dead and boring. There was no experience, no wow. For a leather festival, almost everyone was dressed in regular street clothes. We left and went to the park, returning about 2 hours later. By then, there were more people, which made it more interesting. It was then that I realized the pure value and entertainment of this street fair was in the people attending it, not in the festival, its infastructure, vendors, or any organizated entertainment. Suddenly it became fun as we were talking about other attendees: what they were wearing and what they were doing (all clearly more exciting than us, so we must have bored them). The festival then tried to bring it up a notch with a man demonstrating how to crack a whip. However, this wasn't interesting or entertaining at all for me. Maybe my reasons for attending the festival (just for the unique experience, more focused on people and the "out of the ordinary") were completely different than those of other attendees (to see the whip demonstration, or buy new leather gear, or join organizations). This got me thinking about the diversity of reasons that people attend festivals, and the needs to both target specific niches and cater to an overall crowd at the same time.
We've finished our group project by now. I think my study of the Foxwoods Food and Wine Festival showed me how a tourism attraction can use an event to attract new crowds to it. For the Foxwoods festival, they accomplish this by highlighting other aspects of their destination that visitors might not normally think of when visiting Foxwoods. This makes the destination look more attractive overall, and improves business/visits overall. It's been a valuable lesson to learn!
First off, a friend of mine was in town a few weekends back with her boyfriend, who had never visited New York. Saturday was my turn to play tour guide, and he requested to grab pizza in Little Italy for lunch. I had completely forgotten that the Feast of San Genaro was still going on. Unfortuantely, it was raining this Saturday afternoon. Fortunately, the bad weather showed me how poorly laided out the traffic plan for this festival was! We had 1 large umbrella for 3 people, and were surrounded by people with other umbrellas. With the streets already narrowed by booths of vendors on both sides, there was barely 1 standard sized traffic lane in the middle for human traffic. Add hundreds of people and hundreds of umbrellas, and it was a complete jamming mess. The traffic way turned into a giant clogged and drippy mess. We eventually jumped out at the first opportunity we could and walked into the next available pizza place, not caring about the name or price. I'm shocked that they are allowed to have that many people in such a small space without a better traffic plan! All it takes is a rain storm to create chaos!
The presentation in class by Type Social gave me the insight of creating a real specialization and strategic strength for an events planning company. With their heavy background in night life promotions and guest lists, Type Social is a different kind of event company that not only plans events, but also invites people to them. In most cases, as the client wants sales as a result of the event, this means acting indirectly as a sales agent. I wonder how much pressure the guests in Type Social's database feel when attending an event. Do they realize that they're invited as a targeted buyer? I also thought about extending this guest list specialization to tourism. Could an event planning company successfully plan an event at a destination, then use it's guest list to get numerous visitors to travel just for that event. Meeting and conference planners do it all the time. But what if the organizers of India at 60 obtained a guest list while here in New York, and now were throwing events in India for tourism or corporate clients. Could they pursuade guests from New York at attend?
Last weekend, I also attended the New York Leather Festival with my boyfriend. Not much of a festival, and therein lies the room for all the critique on this blog! It was located on a small 1 block street in the West Village that had been closed down. It was $5 to gain access (procedes to charity), though with the way the wooden horses were blocking the street and the lack of staff to man the enterance, one could easily get in without paying. There were a number of lackluster vendors with leather gear and some organizations set up with information. It was dead and boring. There was no experience, no wow. For a leather festival, almost everyone was dressed in regular street clothes. We left and went to the park, returning about 2 hours later. By then, there were more people, which made it more interesting. It was then that I realized the pure value and entertainment of this street fair was in the people attending it, not in the festival, its infastructure, vendors, or any organizated entertainment. Suddenly it became fun as we were talking about other attendees: what they were wearing and what they were doing (all clearly more exciting than us, so we must have bored them). The festival then tried to bring it up a notch with a man demonstrating how to crack a whip. However, this wasn't interesting or entertaining at all for me. Maybe my reasons for attending the festival (just for the unique experience, more focused on people and the "out of the ordinary") were completely different than those of other attendees (to see the whip demonstration, or buy new leather gear, or join organizations). This got me thinking about the diversity of reasons that people attend festivals, and the needs to both target specific niches and cater to an overall crowd at the same time.
We've finished our group project by now. I think my study of the Foxwoods Food and Wine Festival showed me how a tourism attraction can use an event to attract new crowds to it. For the Foxwoods festival, they accomplish this by highlighting other aspects of their destination that visitors might not normally think of when visiting Foxwoods. This makes the destination look more attractive overall, and improves business/visits overall. It's been a valuable lesson to learn!
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