Page 41 - Zone Magazine Issue 007

After we were suitably fed and watered we headed back into the lecture hall and heard some more riveting presentations (with slides no less) from more industry leaders in Digital Marketing, and PR and to be honest, I was pretty blown away by every person who spoke at the event (except for some woman whinging on about waste disposal) and was sorry that I had missed the previous day. Sadly though, this event was only open to the press for the second day which personally I think was a great shame.
I’ll be honest, It is hard to get across what I learnt to you the readers as I learnt so much! In fact I wrote 11 pages of notes which I now cherish dearly and Peter my photographer took hundreds of photos. We met some really interesting and innovative characters throughout the
whole affair and I was astonished at how open various promoters actually were in what is normally a secretive business to work in.
As the day drew to an end, I had to ask myself was it worth the 200 mile round trip and the answer is a categorical yes. If you are indeed a festival promoter or run large scale events and have aspirations of becoming a festival organiser, I would strongly advise you to speak to the AIF and to try and make it to the next years Festival Congress. It really is an excellent way of discovering information and meeting people that are open minded and willing to share the secrets of their success.
In fact the only downside to the whole day was the fact that someone decided to do an emergency stop in the fast lane
of the M4 Motorway on the way home and sadly due to a day of solid rain and the fact that I was driving a very heavy vehicle meant that my emergency braking distance was a lot longer than his, and the outcome of that was whiplash for two and a written off people carrier for me! I did however learn that airbags are amazing and that reviewing events put on by the AIF are invaluable if you are in the business of entertaining large amounts of people at festivals.
Connect:
http://aiforg.com/
https://twitter.com/AIF_UK https://www.facebook.com/ aiforguk
Words By Danny Slade