With the brand new downtown event centre opening this fall, the City of Moncton is developing a ten year Event Attraction Strategy to help maximize the unique benefits of the Hub City.
TSE Consulting presented their report to Council Tuesday night, recommending five goals, ranging from expanding the Moncton footprint, prioritizing core sports and arts strengths, to creating signature homegrown events.
Michelle Perry says the City can’t be every thing to every one, so they created a list of priority sports.
“You can see again some familiar faces here, with hockey, curling, track and field, soccer, baseball, figure skating and ice action sports,” says Perry. “But with this strategy it’s also important to make sure that it’s built to be nimble and flexible.”
On that note, Perry says they also added eSports to the list because the competitive video game world is growing, with Newzoo estimating global audience numbers to top 215 million this year.
She adds targeting events in the cultural and artistic world like touring musical acts, award shows, and community festivals is also recommended.
“As we look to expand this grouping, we think an area of opportunity, and quite frankly an important area to focus on is that identifying areas and opportunities for us to showcase Acadian cultural expression,” says Perry.
She adds event organizers are looking for more than just economic spinoffs, and facilities, they want to see an active and engaged community, and cities are increasingly placing a high value on ‘social benefits.’
That is to say, how can major events help to reinforce local community initiatives.
