Cultural Plan 2013-2016 final.pdf - Coffs Harbour City Council ...

As adopted by Council on 28 February 2013
7. Building capability
7.1. Information, communication and promotion
“If you don’t know it exists, you don’t know it exists and you don’t go looking for
it.”
The biggest issue confronting anyone interested in cultural activities in Coffs Harbour is the
absence of a good, comprehensive and predictably available source of information about
events, activities, courses and places of interest. This is important not only to direct people
to the right places for the activities that they are interested in, but also because of the way a
prominent expression of the cultural life of Coffs Harbour shapes the way that the community
sees itself. There are some gaps in the cultural life of Coffs Harbour, but those limitations are
amplified by the lack of easily accessible information about the activities which are available.
Poor information and marketing impact on attendances at events and enrollments in
programs. In turn, this situation makes it difficult to argue for better equipment and or more
facilities when those available now are not fully utilised.
In community consultation, promotion and marketing of cultural activities and resources in
the Coffs Coast region was widely considered inadequate, with a consequent low awareness
of cultural activities, services and resources in our region. The terms which community
members tended to use were “fractured” and “fragmented”.
There are in fact a large number of events, festivals, theatrical performances, workshops
and arts courses offered in Coffs Harbour. Many of these are promoted in a way which only
reaches their existing, often long-established, audiences. This limits the opportunities for
audience development even amongst people who already have a demonstrated interest in
culture. New residents and visitors to the region would, have a very difficult job in finding
these activities, and many would conclude that the type of activity which they are interested
in does not exist in the municipality.
Poor information also means that those events and activities already happening may not
reach their full potential audiences and fail to achieve their targets in terms of ticket sales
and attendances.
These problems are not unique to Coffs Harbour and indeed poor information will be found
in many towns and cities. Building good information resources could, however, give Coffs
Harbour an advantage to the benefit of residents and visitors alike.
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