One Movement for Music 2011 event deferred

The 2011 One Movement for Music event due to be staged in Perth in October has been deferred, pending a review of the event's structure.
Eventscorp Executive Director David van Ooran said the goal of everyone involved in the event was to have One Movement back with a revamped format in 2012, stating "Eventscorp views One Movement as an evolving event that will take several years to develop and reach its full potential.
"Many of the leading music industry festivals around the world took a while to establish.
"Take the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference in Austin, Texas as an example. It started off with 700 attendees, and now in its 25th year it attracts thousands of conference delegates, the music industry's major players and hundreds of bands and acts that play on 80 stages throughout the city."
One Movement is part of a longer term strategy for Tourism WA to foster international events that are anchored in, and owned, by the State. It provides diversity to WA's events calendar and creates community vibrancy.
Van Ooran added "what has become clear after two years is that, despite modifications being made in the second year, the Festival component of One Movement held on The Esplanade isn't working. The music industry Conference, Fringe and Showcase elements are achieving positives outcomes, but the Festival is incurring losses for the event organisers that cannot be sustained."
The Directors of One Movement Pty Ltd projected the event would run at a loss in the first few years as it was being established, but not of the scale that has occurred.
van Ooran said the event was successful in bringing national and international bands, delegates and international music industry decision makers to Perth.
The 2010 MUSEXPO Asia Pacific Music, Media and Technology Conference attracted 796 delegates and speakers from 12 countries. More than 100 acts and 600 artists from 15 countries performed, either at the Festival or at the Showcase venues in the city.
Eventscorp supported the 2009 and 2010 One Movement events with $1.58 million funding in total. Research carried out on the inaugural event in 2009 showed a return on investment to the State of $2.30 for every $1 spent.
"In just two years, One Movement has established a good reputation among music industry decision makers. And even though Festival ticket sales were lower than expected, a readers' poll in The West Australian entertainment lift-out The Wire listed One Movement as the number one gig for Perth in 2010," van Ooran continued.
"That tells us there is an appetite in Perth for an event like One Movement."
Eventscorp is encouraged that One Movement Pty Ltd and the Western Australian Music Industry Association (WAM) are holding discussions as to how they can work together on the proposed new model for the 2012 event.