INDEPENDENT NEWS

Major Event Funding round one recipients announced

Published: Thu 24 Jul 2014 01:18 PM
Major Event Funding round one recipients announced
Recipients of the first round of this year's Economic Development Committee's Major Events Fund have been announced.
The following events have been allocated sponsorship:
• Leadfoot Festival: $40,000. This is a unique weekend in Hahei bringing together a mix of classic cars, vintage motorcycles and motorsports legends.
• Thunderbeach: $5,000. This is a three day Motorcycle Rally based out of Mercury Bay.
• Tairua Wet n Wild: $5,000. A two-day wet and wild jetski action in Tairua Harbour.
• Thames Festival of Mindsports This is a weekend of sports that challenge the mind including sudoku, chess, dungeons and dragons and much more. $5,000 (from round 2 fund)
There will be another funding round later this year. For more details, go to our Major Events Fund page here.
The decision was made by our Economic Development Committee.
We want to congratulate event organisers who have been successful with sponsorship.
"The Committee has made decisions on events that have the most potential to grow economic returns to the district, over time, and those most closely aligned to the intent and criteria of the event strategy;" says Mayor Glenn Leach. "It was a tough series of decisions to have to make".
Why did other applicants not get funded?
Essentially, the purpose of the Major Events Fund is to:
1 - Help take existing events to a significantly higher level
2 - Incubate new events (based on the criteria specified here)
Existing events
If a successfull existing event did not receive finding it was likely because the applicants did not show how the investment from the fund would take the event to a much greater level. The fund is not designed to sustain existing events at the current level. Nor is it designed to help incremental growth. The committee needed to feel the investment would take the event to a significantly higher level.
Given the events fund is administered by the Economic Development Committee, it would be reasonable to expect that significant growth should be presented in measurable economic or commercial terms to the Committee.
New events
What about relatively new events with great ideas and a growing support base that didn't get funded? Relatively new is not the same as a new idea needing support to get started.
Unless the event is so new that without incubation investment it would not have a chance, (or is receiving followup from an initial incubation investment by the fund) the committee would have declined.
What if an event is up and running but is running purely on vounteer support? The events fund is not provided to replace volunteers or corporate sponsorship. In fact, even new events have to show how they will support themselves after the initial investment. The committee is looking for self-sustaining events.
If an event is already up and running with reasonable support, then local Community Boards are more likely to be able to help with incremental growth.
Relatively new - but existing - event applications need to convince the commercially focussed committee of a significant jump in economic benefit beyond what could be expected without Major Event Fund investment.
Who makes these decisions?
Economic Development Committee Membership
His Worship, the Mayor Glenn Leach (Chairperson)
Councillor, Peter French
Community Board Chairperson, Bob Renton (Tairua-Pauanui Community Board).
External members who have now been appointed are:
Mr Brent Page
A resident of the Coromandel, Mr Page is a director and part-owner of a nationally recognised computer and IT services company. Mr Page is currently the Chair of Destination Coromandel (our Regional Tourism Organisation) and was instrumental in the successful restructure of the RTO over the past few years. Mr Page brings to the committee extensive commercial and governance experience.
Mr. Leigh Hopper
A well-known and successful businessman on the Coromandel, Mr. Hopper has extensive experience in property development, marketing, contracting and entrepreneurship. As the principal shareholder and managing director of Hopper Developments, Mr. Hopper is responsible for the day-to-day running of the Hopper Construction company and the strategic planning and direction of the organisation.
Mr. Grahame Christian
Mr Christian is a property-owner at Whangapoua, and managing director and single shareholder of Smart Environmental - a large national refuse and recycling firm. Mr Christian has extensive commercial and governance experience and is very also experienced in the local government sector. He is Chairman of the Pare Hauraki Asset Holdings Limited, a significant commercial entity in the region, managing fisheries assets for the Hauraki Maori Trust Board.
ED Committee and delegations
Free investment resources
When putting together your business plan, you need to convince the committee of the economic benefit of your application. You need to know your numbers and have a good grip on measurable data.
To help you, we've made available - FREE - a number of tools you'd normally have to pay to access. You'll also find access to tons on other information that normally takes lots of time and effort to pull together.
We encourage you to make the most of these tools when planning to invest in the Coromandel and when building your business plans.
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