The Hunter Joint Organisation successfully secured $860k funding for events economies through the Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund (BLER) in late 2021 through to June 2023. This fund was granted for our Accelerating Event Economies (A2E) project to build economic resilience and recovery by stimulating regional event capability.
The Hunter Region already has fantastic event capability; however, there is potential for driving economic recovery through identifying systems and processes that will make regional collaboration simple and more effective; unlocking the potential to attract bigger and better events at a regional scale.
A2E aims to strengthen the region’s collective voice as a visitor and event destination and increase the capacity of Councils through shared resources.
A stakeholder group with representatives from our ten Member Councils’ tourism and events teams, along with Destination Sydney Surrounds North, Committee for the Hunter, and Department of Regional NSW met monthly and attended multiple workshops throughout the project to inform the outcomes.
The robust conversations as a group, and extensive efforts of multiple consultants culminated in assets that will help position our region to achieve our vision of being recognised as a destination of choice for world class events that align with our unique offering.
This Bushfire Local Economy Recovery Fund project is jointly funded by the Australian and NSW Government under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangement.
This project included:
- KPMG Hunter Event Economic Analysis Report
- KPMG Event Economic Modelling Tool
- KPMG Event Prioritisation and Assessment Framework
- Facilities Audit
- Strategic Recommendations for Event Infrastructure
- Event Planning Guide
- Event Licencing Recommendations
- Consistent Templates for Event Management
- Major Event Feasibility Study
- Hunter Event Destination Guide
- Cross Regional Itineraries
- Promotional Videos
- Events10 Website
- Regional Marketing
Benefits:
- Understand the economic benefits of events in our region.
- Identify the gaps in infrastructure to support event attraction.
- Provide data to develop business cases to encourage infrastructure investment in the region and have evidence-based conversations with stakeholders.
- Position our region as a destination of choice for events.
- Make it easier for event managers to find, select and host events in our region.
Events10 Website
A website designed for event planners has been developed as part of the Accelerating Event Economies project to provide a wealth of information to help position our region as a destination of choice for events.
A one-day conference was held for tourism and event professionals in the Hunter in July 2023 to provide an overview of all the information, tools, and resources that have been developed to provide a foundation for event attraction in the Hunter region.
Visit events10.com.au
Verbatim Feedback
The website is fantastic – congratulations! It’s easy to navigate, love the branding, is inviting and seems to have all the information I would be looking for. This is such a useful resource, and I hope it is successful for everyone involved. – Belinda, King Events
This project has been extremely valuable. I think the resources are well rounded and relevant for the target groups (of Event Planners). – Jacqui Blakewell, Upper Hunter Shire Council
All of our Member Councils are involved in this project.
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About the Bushfire Local Recovery Fund (BLER)
BLER is a $4.5 billion bushfire support program that is co-funded by the Australian and NSW Governments for bushfire recovery, response and preparedness for natural disasters in NSW. This program supports job retention and creation in bushfire impacted regions, strengthening affected communities and community resilience, and reducing the impact of future natural disasters. The funding is driven by specific recovery needs of communities and based on submitted applications.
Visiting the Hunter
If you’re interested in visiting the Hunter region, for inspiration Visit NSW.
Project Contact
For more information about the project, contact Kim Carland, Program Lead on kimc@hunterjo.nsw.gov.au
