Festival audiences boost Sydney businesses

A new guide and seminar aims to help local businesses tap into Sydney’s booming festival scene, with expert advice on getting the most out of Sydney’s major events crowds.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the new guide and seminar are part of the City of Sydney’s work to introduce local businesses to new audiences and growth opportunities, explaining “Sydney is one of the world’s great event capitals. Our major events, like New Year’s Eve and Mardi Gras, entice millions of visitors and inject hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy.

“We’re working with our small business operators to help them benefit from these major events and the influx of visitors they draw into the city.”

The City of Sydney-produced brochure, Major events in Sydney – How to maximise business opportunities, provides businesses with an event calendar detailing the breadth of events in the city, offers suggestions for business activations and provides examples of how other small business owners have successfully worked with events.

The seminar, Play hard: how businesses can exploit Sydney’s festivals, is being held at the city’s Customs House today.

Adam Lowe, Project Director of Vivid Sydney, will offer insight on how businesses can tap into Vivid, which attracts 2.3 million people to the city over 23 nights. Stephen Gilby, creative director of Sydney Chinese New Year, will discuss how businesses can leverage Sydney’s popular Lunar New Year celebrations.

A panel of small business owners will also share how they’ve successfully created business opportunities through Vivid Sydney, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival and Sydney Chinese New Year.

Imogen Hayes, Marketing Manager of Handpicked Wines, says aligning the newly-opened cellar door in Chippendale with local events proved a cost-effective tool for attracting customers and building brand buzz.

Hayes, who received the Young Business Executive award in the 2016 NSW Business Chamber Awards, explained “simple ideas like creating fun cocktails inspired by Sydney Chinese New Year and Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras have been popular with our customers and helped us create shareable content, which is key for hospitality businesses.”

“We’ve also joined forces with other local businesses such as creative agencies, galleries and business chambers and that has allowed us to support local artists and maximise our audience reach.”

Dr Frank Farrelly, principal dentist at Darlinghurst Dental, says the practice used Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and local events to engage with the community and foster good will.

Dr Farrelly explained “the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. For a dental clinic to get involved with events like Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras allowed us to connect with locals and give something back to the community.

“It was about building our reputation and creating brand awareness rather than making sales. That approach resonated with our clients and the community.”

The City of Sydney offers a range of free marketing and event information, including the whatson.sydney website, a free event marketing platform with two million page visits a year, the What’s On weekly e-newsletter is sent to more than 37,000 subscribers, and social media channels, and has around 500,000 followers across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

The free City Thought Leaders seminars featuring Sydney’s experts in their field are being held at Customs House on the last Wednesday of the month until November.

Click here to view Major events in Sydney – How to maximise business opportunities.

Lower image shows Darlinghurst Dental's link with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras . Courtesy of Darlinghurst Dental

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