AGENDA ITEM 5(iii)
REPORT TO: / Executive BoardREPORT NO: / CEDO/10/04
DATE: / 20 April 2004
REPORTING OFFICER: / Chief Economic Development Officer
CONTACT OFFICERS: / Peter Scott (01978) 366366
Economic Development Manager
SUBJECT: / Economic Development Events Programme
WARD: / N/A
1. PURPOSE OF THE REPORT
To seek Members approval to the Economic Development Events Programme and to the commitment of resources to enable ongoing delivery.
2. INFORMATION
2.1 Policy Framework
The events are supported in the Council’s policy framework through the draft Economic Development Department Strategy 2003-2007.
2.2 Budget
The budget position is set out in Appendix 1. Funding shortfalls have been covered from within the Economic Development Department’s cash limited budget, from vacancy control management and from surpluses earned on external contracts. Sponsorship for events is extremely difficult to achieve and is subject to annual fluctuations. However, the Economic Development Department, working with partner organisations has been successful in delivering major events which have helped to put Wrexham on the map.
Funding surpluses from earnings on external contracts has been a significant bonus. However, Members should be aware that the Business Eye contract will be re-tendered in the financial year 2004/5 and should we be unsuccessful and the contract lost it would not be possible to maintain the funding of events in their present format.
2.3 Consultation
Consultation will be undertaken with partners including the WDA, ELWa, NEWI, Yale College, private sector supporters and sponsors. In respect of Town Centre Christmas festivities this will be undertaken with Town Centre occupiers and the Town Centre Forum to ensure that attractions are appropriate and support retail businesses in the town.
2.4 Further Information
The Economic Development Department is now involved in a number of high profile events which aim to contribute to promote the economic well being of Wrexham County Borough. The department’s involvement in this type of activity has grown substantially during the past six years since the Wrexham Science Festival was first launched in 1998. The department is now responsible for:
a) Wrexham Science Festival;
b) Wrexham Business Week;
c) Queen’s Square Christmas activities; and
d) a proposed music and media event.
a) Wrexham Science Festival
Wrexham Science Festival was first established in 1998. Initially the Festival was a three-way equal partnership comprising CELTEC (North East Wales Training & Enterprise Council), NEWI and Wrexham County Borough Council which each contributed £15,000 to fund the event. The three partners shared the aspiration that the Science Festival would generate an understanding of science and promote Wrexham to the wider community and show that it was a town more concerned with the future than the past.
It should be recognised that the Science Festival makes a substantial contribution towards the Welsh Assembly Government’s policy to promote technology and science outlined in the ‘Entrepreneurship Action Plan’, ‘Winning Wales’ and ‘Pathways to Prosperity’ which seek to promote knowledge based businesses in Wales.
The original Science Festival offered a programme of around 25 events and attracted and audience of 5,000 people. From its modest beginnings the Science Festival has grown substantially - by 2004 over 300,000 programmes were distributed and the event attracted a total audience of around 20,000 people to a diverse programme that contained over 170 events and confirmed Wrexham Science Festival as the largest science festival in England and Wales and as one of Europe’s premier showcase events for the popularisation of science. The event has established media sponsorship from BBC Wales and North Wales Newspapers and generates considerable coverage in local, regional and national titles. The value of this coverage is estimated to be in the region of £80,000. BBC support gives coverage of the Festival on BBC TV Wales, Radio Cymru and Radio Wales in addition to the BBC World Service. In addition, it is acknowledged that the event has also paved the way for the establishment of Techniquest, the respected interactive science centre and visitor attraction at NEWI.
The Science Festival Task Force which manages the event remains a free-standing, independent organisation, supported by officers of the Council. However, in 2003/04 the funding was brought “in-house”, to be managed by the Council on behalf of the Task Force in order to protect the Council employees who were potentially liable for the festival’s activities.
The cost of the Science Festival varies from year to year, but it currently, operates an expenditure of around £130,000 a year with a £25,000 contribution from the Economic Development department which has either been matched or exceeded by the WDA, and supplemented by sizeable contributions from ELWa, North Wales Tourism Partnership etc, which this year totalled £50,000. Overall, public sector contributions account for approximately 60% of the budget with around 20% from private sector sponsorship and 20% from ticket sales.
A substantial element of time for Science Festival organisation goes towards the annual process of assembling the funds needed to run the event. In addition because income is generated annually on an ad-hoc basis, no long term planning or commitments can be undertaken. Consideration could be given to underwriting the event in order to allow more resources to be devoted to planning and building the Festival.
Pressure from sponsors dictates that the size of the Festival should be maintained, otherwise sponsorship may be jeopardised.
The Science Festival has always sought to balance its books. In the first four years of its operation its budget was smaller and it was successful in achieving that aim. Disappointingly, the 2003 Festival recorded a small deficit of £2,500. However, an unexpected reduction in sponsorship and public sector contributions in 2004 is likely to result in a deficit of approximately £15,000. This deficit could have been higher had it not been for the implementation of a cost cutting strategy which affected advertising spend and reduced the number of celebrity speakers compared to recent years and forced an increase in the cost of tickets. This deficit has been covered by the department from surplus earnings on external contracts and through vacancy control management.
Overall, in the last two years the Science Festival has become increasingly the administrative and financial burden of the Council. It is the intention of Officers to raise the issue with our strategic partners and to seek assurances as to their continuing support for the Science Festival in order to secure its longterm financial future. However, Members may wise to also re-affirm the Council’s commitment to the Science Festival and to consider underwriting the festival in future years by utilising the ITeC reserve, in addition to an allocation of at least £25,000 from the Economic Development Department’s cash limited budget, (the aim being to reimberse the ITeC reserve).
b) Wrexham Business Week
Wrexham Business Week is now an established showcase for entrepreneurship and demonstrates to the local business community the whole range of business support available. Prior to Wrexham Business Week the Economic Development Department and other business support organisations in the area organised ad-hoc events to promote themselves and showcase business related issues throughout the year. The problem with this approach was that events were low profile in publicity terms. Consequently, they were often poorly attended and did little to enhance the image of the County Borough or to promote the wide range of business support services which are available to help local business.
The first Business Week was held in November 2002 with a programme of around 25 events attracting an audience of around 2,500 people. It featured celebrities such as ‘trouble-shooter’ Sir John Harvey Jones and financial guru Justin Urquhart Stewart who is a regular contributor to BBC 2’s Working Lunch programme.
The first Business Week was successful in terms of attracting attention from the local and regional press and consequently it helped to promote Wrexham as the primary commercial centre in North Wales and attracted an audience from the wider region and the North West of England.
A second Business Week was held in October 2003 and featured a programme of approximately 50 events over a 10 day period and included such celebrities as motivational speaker and Falklands’ veteran Simon Weston, TV’s finance expert Alvin Hall and expert on the car industry, Quentin Willson. This second Business Week built upon the success of the first and around 100,000 programmes were distributed; consequently the event attracted an audience of around 4,000 people. It was also successful in attracting television cameras from BBC’s Working Lunch who undertook a live, outside broadcast at our ‘Mind Your Own Business’ exhibition held in the Memorial Hall. Other mentions included Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine’s lunchtime programme.
The event attracted contributions from the Welsh Development Agency and other organisations of £26,000 together with ticket sales and exhibitors’ fees of approximately £8,000, giving a total support package of £34,000. This was matched by £41,000 from the department and funded from the marketing budget and from operating surpluses generated through the Business Eye contract.
In 2004 it is proposed to set a budget of £35,000 for Business Week - reflecting the likely reduction in sponsorship.
c) Queen’s Square Christmas Activities
Christmas 2003 saw the substantial expansion of entertainment in the town centre by incorporating an ice rink to attract young people and add vibrancy, colour and movement to Queen’s Square - which is recognised as the town’s premier public open space. In addition, the log cabin which was used as Santa’s Grotto and attracted 3,000 children.
In addition to being highly successful in visitor throughput, the grotto also attracted the attention of the Daily Post which recognised it was one of the most magical Christmas experiences for children in North Wales. A subsequent Internal Audit report of Town Centre Christmas festivities acknowledged that it has been generally recognised and agreed that the 2003 festivities have been the most successful to date.
The expanded Christmas facilities in the town centre, including the grotto and the ice rink, cost £34,000 with a net cost of £28,000 after income from ticket sales was taken into account. In addition it should be noted that Christmas lights and the Christmas tree cost £48,000 giving a total cost of £76,000 of which budget allocation was £52,000. The shortfall on planned expenditure was £24,000 which was funded through vacancy management control and surplus earnings on external contracts. It is hoped that by attracting increased sponsorship and taking a more commercial view, the budget for 2004 should be £85,000. Plans involve opening the skating rink on a later date in December and keeping it open until approximately 3rd January to optimise income during the Christmas and New Year school holiday period.
d) Borderlands - a week of music and media events in Wrexham
The Economic Development department has been approached by a consortium of local private sector businesses including music promoter ‘CAM Management’, award winning recording studio K Klass and a number of entertainment venues, to instigate an event called ‘Borderlands’ which will be a week of music and multimedia events in venues across Wrexham during 9th and 14th August 2004. The week will consist of a series of educational and multimedia workshops and will attempt to reach out to socially excluded groups – especially young people throughout the County Borough through the medium of music and live entertainment.
The event organisers are seeking support from the County Borough Council to help promote the event.
The Economic Development department is currently working with a number of organisations including the Welsh Music Foundation (a WDA funded organisation) to encourage the creation of music and media related businesses. This is an acknowledgement that the sector is growing rapidly and provides a number of quality jobs within the local and national economy. It is proposed that the Council works in ‘partnership’ with the private sector businesses who will lead the project and to provide support for marketing and promotion of the event – including possibly the production of a programme similar to that produced for Business Week and the Science Festival. Expenditure incurred may be covered though sponsorship but if a contribution is required from the Council, it could be made from the Department’s marketing budget. If Members support the project, a sum of £10,000 could be allocated.
3. RECOMMENDATIONS
Members are recommended to.
a) Wrexham Science Festival
· re-affirm their support for the Wrexham Science Festival;
· agree to the Economic Development Department contributing a minimum of £25,000 from its cash limited budget, plus additional staff time each year;
· require the Chief Economic Development Officer to seek assurances from partner organisations as to their longterm financial commitment to the Science Festival and to identify and establish the appropriate organisational vehicle (e.g. company limited by guarantee) for the Science Festival; and
· to approve the use of funding from the ITeC reserve each year, at the discretion of the Chief Economic Development Officer, to underwrite the cost of the Festival, (to be reimbursed from sponsorship and earnings) to allow officers to plan future Festivals.
b) Wrexham Business Week
· agree to the Economic Development Department contributing £35,000 gross from its cash limited budget, each year to support Wrexham Business Week (+/- income earned from sponsorship).
c) Christmas Events
· agree to the Economic Development Department contributing £85,000 gross from its cash limited budget and from surpluses on external contracts, each year, (less income earned and sponsorship).
d) Borderlands - Music and Media Event
· agree to support the proposed Music and Media event in August each year and agree to the Economic Development department contributing £10,000 from within its cash limited budget, if required.
e) to authorise the Chief Economic Development Officer to continue to utilise Economic Development Department resources to support the Wrexham Science Festival, Wrexham Business Week, Christmas Events and the Borderlands - Music and Media Event until such time as the Council decides to withdraw its support.
4. REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATION
a) To enable the 2005 Wrexham Science Festival to be constructed and to identify the most appropriate organisational structure for the future of the Science Festival in order to provide longterm stability.