Diana Gomez-Fullaway gave an excellent presentation on the current status of this year's Carols by Candlelight event, which is to be held on Saturday 15th December at the Edwin Flack Reserve in Manuka Road, Berwick.With the aid of a PowerPoint presentation, Diana summarised the evolution of the event over the last 4 years, highlighting the good points and noting problems that have to be addressed.
This is a community event and it will be the 5th time that it has been organised by the Club. Based on past experience, Diana outlined the points that make the Carols event attractive to the community. They are:
- A program focused on children "Happy children makes happy parents"
- Good entertainment
- An effective PA system
- A spectacular fireworks display
The areas that need to be improved are:
- Stage decoration
- First Aid response
- Better communication between the various teams
- The PA system
To improve the PA system, a different company has been employed, who have successfully assisted the Narre Warren North Carols by Candlelight event over several years.
Other improvements that are being addressed, are better advertising and branding, a different location for the stage to minimise evening sun glare and the introduction of pre-entertainment for children. This will involve activities such as facepainting and Elf Christo, who mimes, juggles and bends balloons.
In addition to the ever popular Bethany Fisher dancers, Diana indicated that the program will also include pupils from Berwick College and Berwick Primary School, as well as two new young entertainers Dhee (16 yo) and Lucy (14 yo). The program is aimed at a younger audience this year.
The importance of Facebook in promoting the event was highlighted. We should use it to indicate how we are addressing last year's criticisms and provide regular updates prior to the event. It was also suggested that we introduce a Facebook Photo competition for the audience during the event, with prizes for the best photo presented very 45 minutes, or so.
Issues that still need to be discussed with the City of Casey events team are parking arrangements, council advertising and crowd exit arrangements from the oval, after the event.
We will not operate a barbecue this year, which is very labour intensive, competes with the food trucks and does not raise a lot of money for the effort involved. Instead, we will increase the number of food trucks at the event and raise additional funds in this way.
A budget has been set and approved for this community event and the aim is to break even, while making it really enjoyable for the audience.
In conclusion, we need as many club members as possible to assist on the day, to make it a successful and memorable event.
