City Council approves Events Strategy

14 December 2006

The Christchurch City Council unanimously approved the final of the Events Strategy at its meeting today without any further changes, enabling staff to get on with implementation.

The new strategy maps how the Council plans to achieve its vision for Christchurch and Banks Peninsula that: “Our events inspire passion for the lifestyle qualities and identity of Christchurch”.

At the strategy’s heart is a drive to support the development of at least two major events to icon level to reflect the character of Christchurch and Banks Peninsula lifestyles and to attract more visitors. The strategy’s implementation process has yet to assess which two events these might be and whether they come from the existing most popular events.

The strategy also aims to keep the garden city image of Christchurch, which young and old alike said during consultation they liked, but to trade in the conservative image of the city for more diversity and vibrancy.

There is an important link between the Events Strategy and Visitors Strategy, which has the sole aim of attracting visitors to Christchurch with a domestic and Australian marketing campaign to help change perceptions of Christchurch with the help of events.

To help deliver this, the Events Strategy aims to achieve five goals:

• To strengthen the distinctive identities and lifestyle qualities of Christchurch
• Produce a vibrant calendar of events that enhance Christchurch as a place to live and visit
• Ensure events provide multiple benefits to the city
• Build Christchurch capability to produce top quality events
• Build and encourage strong partnerships to drive increasing investment in Christchurch events.

Council refused to second Councillor Graham Condon’s motion to give staff  delegation of up to $100,000 so that they could respond quickly to potential event opportunities that arose, it did allow limited delegation of $20,000.

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