Event objectives and background to the project

The first Deddington Festival, Oxfordshire, took place in 2003 and has continued to grow in size and stature ever since. Established in 2005 as a registered charity, the principal aim of the festival is to offer musical, artistic and cultural experiences and opportunities to the community with a principal focus on children and their schools. The festival relies entirely on the good will and contribution of some 100 ‘friends’ or local residents and businesses.

In order to reach the younger audience, two new events were added to the festival programme this year on 5th July:
- Deddington Fun and Deddington Rocks; a family fun day and an evening of live music held in the centre of the village market place.

Coincidentally, Oxfordshire-based event business Corporate Innovations (CI), conducted a poll to gauge employee opinion regarding the company CSR activity. Unsurprisingly all employees wanted to put something back into their local community, in particular the younger generation. It made sense to try and link this local activity back to the key skills of the employees – namely event production and management – so when approached by the Deddington Festival to get involved the choice was obvious as well as popular.

Description of the event

The FUN and ROCKS events were organised and hosted by Corporate Innovations on Saturday 5th July 2008. The market square was chosen for its central location as it provides an ideal ‘natural’ theatre.

Deddington FUN

FUN provided a classic town festival atmosphere and included food stalls, live music and dance performances, a children’s fashion show, face painting, bouncy castle, a kids disco, balloon modelling and a range of games and activities for the whole family. 

Deddington ROCKS

By 7pm the market square had transformed into a music venue. Corporate Innovations built a 50 ft open-air concert stage to host three bands hot from the stages of the Glastonbury Festival; The Fontaines, The Sirens Call and Cantaloop which had previously supported the likes of The Fun Lovin’ Criminals, De La Soul and The Blockheads.

When the CI employees decided to manage FUN and ROCKS they were very aware that time and money was a concern. David Watt, managing director of Corporate Innovations, provided the team with a starting budget of £7,000 in order to produce a high quality music event. Any additional costs would have to be paid for through acquisition of sponsorship deals, sourced and managed by the CI team. The more sponsorship they could raise the better the events would be.

The company met internally and with the Deddington committee to decide on the responsibilities and objectives. Not only did this include the event management, staffing and coordination, the CI team provided their expertise in the marketing and promotions arena by creating a festival logo and identity, sourcing local sponsorship, designing and producing the festival programme, selling advertising space, providing supporting PR, designing a festival website and producing branded banners and fencing. All of the event preparation was provided both in allocated company time as well as personal time.

Points of difference or examples of best practice

The objective of the CI involvement in the Deddington Festival was to try and provide as much support as possible with a limited budget while maintaining the reputation of the business as a first-class provider of incentives and events. The team pulled all the strings they could with their suppliers and encouraged other local business, friends and family to provide their support. Over thirty local sponsors were brought on board enabling the team to provide additional features to the festival such as a central event marquee, a bigger and better stage set, more marketing and advertising, a festival programme and a website.

All of the necessary procedures were followed as though CI was managing a client event – from risk assessments to logistical schedules – no stone was left unturned. All relevant council permissions were sourced and granted as well as health and safety procedures followed; vital to the successful running of a public event.

At the same time as maintaining their current client base with a ‘normal service’ the CI team were determined to put in the extra hours and effort necessary to make the festival event the best yet.

Assessment of outcome with supporting data or evaluation results

Due to a considerable amount of generosity, goodwill and local sponsorship generated by the local committee members and the Corporate Innovations team, over £45,000 was contributed to the Deddington Festival charitable cause.

Not only did the FUN and ROCKS events entice 5,000 visitors to the Deddington Market Square on a rainy summers day, it made an invaluable contribution to the objective of the festival which was to provide enjoyable and educational activities for the community and its children.

For Corporate Innovations, not only did the activity promote morale and confidence within the business, the addition of FUN and ROCKS to the festival calendar is being looked upon as a 3-5 year project by the CI team.

Jemma Peers, event manager at Corporate Innovations said:

“The response from everyone was so positive and the support we received from others in the local community was quite overwhelming. I really felt that we were making a difference to the community.”

Hugh O’Donnell, chairman of the Deddington Festival, commented: “We have undoubtedly had the best festival ever and have received so much positive feedback from local residents. We would not be able to provide such a fantastic event without the likes of Corporate Innovations and their excellent event team and relentless enthusiasm.”

Management included:

• Pre-event management and supplier/act sourcing
• Council and police liaison, risk assessment and health and safety procedures
• Staffing
• Ticketing
• Staging
• Lighting
• Sound
• Food and beverage provision

Event marketing included:

• Development of a festival logo and identity
• Website design and build
• Sponsorship
• Media sales
• Advertising
• Programme design and production
• PR and promotions/competitions