It goes without saying that events are an interesting tool. From youth movements to companies, from city services to international NGOs: at times, everyone relies on a ‘temporary activity that can be moved in time and space, organised for a specific target group’. Over the past three years, IDEA Consult has supervised numerous event projects, including for Event Flanders, Triennale Beaufort, Leuven and Knokke-Heist, and the candidate cultural capitals of Ghent and Leuven. A wide range of contexts from which we can draw a number of interesting lessons. What have we learned?

Why do they do it?

Local and Flemish authorities generally have three ambitions with events:

1. Reputational impact

2. Economic impact

3. Social impact

Reputational impact

The reputational impact concerns the (inter)national reputation of the city, region or Flanders as a destination:

Short-term impact – during and immediately after the event

• The ambition is to attract visitors from home and abroad (leisure tourism). To achieve this, it is also important to reach the media and influencers.
• In the context of businesses and the research world (conferences). To achieve this, reaching conference organisers and visibility in international (research and business) networks is a key focus.

Long-term impact – after the event

• Through events, cities and regions also strive to strengthen their reputation as exciting places to visit, live, work, study, do business and conduct research. Of course, a single event cannot achieve this, because once the caravan has passed, this impact quickly disappears. But events can, of course, contribute to building that reputation.

Economic impact

The economic impact refers to the direct and indirect impact on the economy: turnover, investment and employment.

• Short-term impact – during and immediately after the event: e.g. direct job creation, turnover from visitors, overnight stays, turnover in local hospitality and retail, etc.
• Long-term impact – after the event: what remains after the event is over, e.g. the lasting impact of investments in infrastructure and mobility, lasting employment, lasting economic growth, etc.

Social impact

The social impact has only recently come to the fore as an area of impact. Here, the emphasis is on the impact of the event on various stakeholders.

Short-term impact – during and immediately after the event

• Impact on participants: was the approach and programme inclusive, did participants actively contribute to the creation, did they feel connected to others, did they learn something new, did they enjoy themselves, were they challenged, did they have an aesthetic experience, was a diverse audience reached, did they feel safe, etc.?
• Impact on partners: were artists involved, was there co-creation with participants, did partners break new ground, find new partners, discover new things, find a new audience, were partners and artists properly compensated, were partners and artists involved in the evaluation…
• Impact on employees: did employees feel good about their job, did they feel proud, were they able to use their expertise, did the event run safely, were employees involved in the evaluation, etc.?
• Impact on local residents: did local residents feel informed, did they feel involved, did they feel proud, did they participate or collaborate, was there any nuisance, was the event safe for the neighbourhood, were local residents involved in the evaluation, etc.?

Long-term impact – after the event

• Impact on participants: have participants been sustainably strengthened in their capacity to act, have they built sustainable new networks, do they have a positive perception of the city or region, etc.?
• Impact on partners (artists, organisations, etc.): have partners built sustainable new networks, have innovations been embedded, do partners have a positive perception of their participation, do they want to collaborate again in the future, etc.?
• Impact on employees: have employees learned new things that they can continue to apply, do employees want to collaborate again in the future, etc.?

Impact on local residents: do local residents have a positive feeling about the event, do they want to host the event in their neighbourhood again, etc.?

International ambitions at the Flemish level

When we talk about “international” events or ambitions, tourism is often an important partner, even though the content of events is usually shaped by other policy areas such as culture or sports. Event Flanders is a specialised service of Tourism Flanders that brings international events to Flanders and supports top events in Flanders in their international ambitions.

In the past, cooperation between tourism and organisers from other policy areas sometimes led to tensions: the organisers involved did not necessarily view the label “international” in the same way. Nor did they always take into account ambitions in terms of international visitor numbers and how to reach those visitors, because they had their own objectives in other areas, such as artistic developments, impact on a local audience, etc. Different ambitions, priorities and expectations, which were often not properly discussed, frequently led to resentment about choices made and results not achieved.

In this regard, we are seeing an interesting shift: in times of overtourism, the tourism sector is no longer focused on simply attracting “more” visitors. Travelling to tomorrow, the tourism philosophy of Tourism Flanders, aims to find a balance between visitors, residents and the carrying capacity of the destination. As a result, the gap with organisers from other policy areas, and certainly culture, has narrowed.

For several years now, Event Flanders has also been focusing on developing a “Theory of Change” for tourism-related events. This approach, which is also useful in other contexts, helps to bring out unspoken assumptions and expectations and create a shared vision of the future: what are the short- and long-term ambitions, and what does this mean for the organisation of the event? What “change” does the event ultimately want to contribute to? This is also made tangible: if these are the ambitions, what should the programme look like, where and when will it take place, who are the partners, what marketing strategy is needed, what investments, how will we measure the intended impact, etc.? In this way, ambitions and mutual expectations can be made translated into a concrete approach and organisation, with more attention to the sustainable effects of events.

European Capitals of Culture: more than a festival

This evolution can also be seen in the Capitals of Culture. Whereas in the past the primary ambition was to attract a large number of European visitors during the event, much more attention is now paid to sustainable social, economic and reputational effects: the “legacy” of an event. Lille 2004 set a trend in this area, and the cultural transformation of the metropolis continues to build on the legacy of 2004. Belgium has been selected as one of the host countries for the European Capital of Culture 2030. At present, the cities of Brussels, Leuven and Namur are still in the running. Previous Flemish candidates Kortrijk, Bruges and Ghent were eliminated in the first round. ECOC experts made the important point beforehand that winning the nomination should be seen as the icing on the cake: even without the nomination, the candidacy sets in motion a valuable process of unleashing energy, creating new networks, etc., which can lead to a lasting impact. For the city that will actually win the nomination, the bid book will have to focus not only on visitors, but also on sustainable cooperation within the city, with the surrounding region and in Flanders/ Wallonia, cultural exchange with other ECoC cities, the creation of new European networks between artists and organisations, the dissemination of knowledge and innovative practices, investments in infrastructure, mobility and sustainability, and so on.

Event policy in cities: liveliness & liveability?

Cities are often drivers in the creation of top events with tourist potential, but those cities also have other concerns. In addition to the “external” impact, there is a growing awareness in many places that a growing number of events are putting increasing pressure on local residents, traders and flora and fauna. An events policy on the level of a local government, aims to create a balance between a lively and a liveable city. Several considerations come into play here: reputational and economic ambitions, but also social impact. The balance between major attractions and small local and neighbourhood events; between recurring events that may never be questioned and space for innovative and new initiatives; the balance between events organised by the city or municipality, by associations and by professional organisers; the pressure of frequent events on local residents, traders and nature; the flow and requirements of an event application with a view to, among other things, risk management and controlling overcrowding; the question of who can benefit from what support, … in short, a tangle of perspectives. This involves a wide range of policy areas, which often only see their own piece of the puzzle: from substantive areas such as culture and heritage, youth, sport, economy and tourism, to support services such as public domain, mobility, fire brigade and police, waste management, parks and gardens, etc.

With more than 750 major events per year, including several international top events, Rotterdam is a pioneer and an interesting case in the development of a comprehensive events policy. Among other things, Rotterdam pays attention to planning in terms of time and space, content balance, managing overcrowding, sustainability measures and public impact. We find their model of location profiles particularly worthy of emulation. These location profiles are useful for informing organisers in advance about the possibilities, but they can also be used to define the total event capacity. The closer you get to that maximum capacity, the clearer it becomes that measures and criteria are needed to keep (future) pressure manageable.

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