Attracting public participation
The Southern Heritage Trust promotes the appreciation and preservation of Otago's social, cultural, architectural and industrial heritage, running events and liaising with other organisations and with individuals. In October 2017 the Southern Heritage Trust held a heritage festival with the Harbour City theme. The festival comprised a variety of events over the period 13 to 23 October.
To help with planning for future events, the Trust was interested to know which marketing channel was the most effective at attracting public participation in these events. For her research project for the Graduate Diploma in Event Management, Emily Metzger worked with the Trust before, during and after the Harbour City Heritage Festival to find out the answer to this question. Emily surveyed 51 event attendees on 14 and 15 October. She also investigated the experience of three other organisations in the event industry.
60% of Emily's survey respondents expressed a high interest in Dunedin's heritage, but 51% had not heard of the Southern Heritage Trust even though they were attending an event organised by the Trust. The main marketing channels that got people to attend were newspapers (22%) and word of mouth (29%). Emily recommended the Trust continue advertising in newspapers and also build up their Facebook page by posting pictures, videos and news regularly. She also recommended that the Trust survey event attendees regularly, not just to receive ongoing feedback but also to encourage attendees to join and/or volunteer for the Trust.
In addition to this project, Emily undertook an internship with Southern Heritage Trust. She helped coordinate the information needed for the festival programme brochure, contacting many different organisations on behalf of the Trust.