ARTA Annual Report 2009 - Auckland Transport

Case study – Special Events PLANNING
Shelley Simpson was a typically talented Kiwi who worked in Australia for 10 years and then wanted to
come home to be closer to her family. Also on her CV was a contract in Doha, Qatar, planning the Asian
Games in 2006. She approached ARTA to see if her skills matched a job vacancy.
The position of Special Events Planner was being newly created as a full-time job, to lead and coordinate
public transport services for sports and cultural events in Auckland. It requires Shelley to do every task from
planning through to implementation and review.
“There are so many passionate people working at ARTA and it’s such an interesting job. I’ve been able to
bring my experience with best practice internationally for event transport planning and have this adopted
here,” she says.
Integrated ticketing for sports and cultural events was well established internationally but unknown in
New Zealand. Since Shelley started the job, a whole range of tickets for events at North Shore Stadium,
Eden Park, Mt Smart and Vector Arena has been integrated with ‘free’ public transport. The results are a
big success in getting more people out of their cars.
Not everything that works internationally works here, says Shelley, but her theory is that if you provide
reliable, visible services and make it easy for people to use public transport, they will.
Shelley discovered initially that few event organisers understood what ARTA does. The same was true for
councils, traffic management teams and the Police. Becoming part of a decision-making team environment
for regional events has helped educate other event planners on what ARTA can offer.
“I don’t get ‘So what does ARTA do?’ anymore,” says Shelley.
Shelley’s own special event for the seven months to March 2010 is the birth of her first child. She’ll be on
maternity leave but her job will be in safe, experienced hands until she returns.
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