It’s time for regional events to rethink human and financial resource models! 

Prior to COVID, many regional event committees struggled with insufficient (skilled) committee members and volunteers to plan and deliver their events, and with generating and securing enough money to support their events.

It seems as though this has not changed, and could be worse.

Almost 10% fewer Australians are volunteering today compared to pre-COVID and they way people volunteer has changed significantly, and recently, event costs have climbed significantly, while the availability of grants and cash sponsorship have reduced significantly.

I presented a webinar to Council event staff from across regional Australia where participants could share the current challenges they are seeing within their local area, and surprise surprise…

Together, these challenges pose a serious threat to the future of many events in regional Australia and it appears as though they are not going away.

So, what are the solutions to overcoming these serious challenges that so many events share?

I strongly believe that it’s time for events to rethink their financial and human resourcing models.

We have entered an era of ‘casual volunteering’ where people are much more interested in short term task based volunteering rather than committing to a permanent role on a committee, and third party funding from government and corporates is harder than ever to secure.

It’s time to stop doing what has always been done and complaining that ‘young ones don’t volunteer these days’ and take the time to think about how to set up your event for future success, where it is less dependent on third party funds and moves towards a position where paid staff are engaged and supported by a team of casual volunteers.

I appreciate that this is a big mindset shift for many events, but we need to start empowering them to think this way or the inevitable is going to happen to many great regional events.

Please share your thoughts…