Manchester Festival and Event Management Masterclass

The internationally acclaimed Festival and Event Management Masterclass is making a first visit to Manchester.  This highly respected workshop is designed for those involved in planning, managing, or supporting festivals and events. Presented by Paul Gudgin, former Director of the Edinburgh Fringe, this Masterclass has been delivered in 26 countries worldwide, attracting thousands of delegates. It has received outstanding feedback, with participants praising the valuable industry insight, fresh creative ideas, and—above all—the inspiration they gained from the course.

The cost of the Masterclass is £275 if booked by 9 March or £350 if purchased after 9 March.  The cost will be reduced to £220 if more than one person from your organisation attends

Who Attends?
One of the strengths of the Masterclass is the really broad range of participants it attracts. Here is just a small selection of the 2,000+ organizations who have attended the Masterclass

Music Festivals: L’Off Festival de Jazz de Montréal, Sweden Rock, Savonlinna Opera Festival, Dublin City Soul Festival, Uppsala Guitar Festival

Film Festivals and organizations: Banff Mountain Film Festival, Film Stockholm, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Film Training Manitoba

Tourism and Placemaking: Tourism Calgary, Estonian Tourist Board, Regina Downtown, Events Tasmania, Göteborg & Co, Almere City Marketing

Municipalities: City of Edmonton, Stad Brugge, Provincie Overijssel, City of Espoo, Alpine Shire Council, Belfast City Council, Adelaide Hills Council

Dance and Theatre Festivals:  Bard on the Beach, Oslo International Dance Festival, Warsaw Salsa Festival, Oulu Dance Centre, Cafe Theater Festival

Book Festivals: Quebec Writers Federation, LitFest Alberta, Oslo Litteraturhuset, Sask Book Awards, Dubai, Emirates Festival of Literature

Family Events: Horsens Children’s Theatre Festival, BUFF Malmö Film Festival, Surrey International Children’s Festival

Food and Drink Events: Vancouver International Wine Festival, Taste of Antwerp, Bendigo Food Truck Festival,  Taste of Tasmania

Museums and Galleries: Estonian National Museum, Art Gallery of Burlington, South Australian Museum,

Venues and Cultural centres: Banff Centre, Harbourfront Centre Toronto, Arts House – Singapore, Jersey Arts Centre, Venues Canberra

Other participants: Copenhagan Photography Festival, Calgary Stampede, Stockholm Pride, Dutch Design Week, Kaunus European Capital of Culture 2022, Adelaide Fringe, Geelong Regional Libraries, Just For Laughs, Arts Council Malta, Sing Ireland, University of Antwerp, Utrechts Museumkwartier

A more comprehensive list of organisations who have attended is available at www.festivalmanagers.com

What You’ll Gain

Expert knowledge from a renown festival and event expert
Practical strategies to improve your event’s success
Inspiration to innovate and grow
Connections with like-minded professionals

The fee includes 2 days tuition, tea and coffee breaks plus lunch on both days and access to post course online resources.

Day 1

Developing Great Festivals and Events
This session draws inspiration from successful festivals, events and destinations, looking at what we can learn from their approach, models and creative programming. It also looks forward to consider how AI can help develop festivals and events

People and Partnerships
Looks at how effective festival organisations manage their teams and staff, their relationships with stakeholders and collaborations with partners.

Programming
The key to the success of any festival is the strength and imagination of the programme. This session explores a number of successful programming strategies.

Sponsorship and Fundraising
This session considers how best to approach sponsors and explores other ways to generate valuable income.

Festivals, Tourism and Placemaking
This session considers the relationship between festivals, their towns and cities and explores how they can play a crucial role in raising the profile of a destination.

Day 2

Festival Marketing
This session examines a number of successful marketing approaches adopted by leading festivals

Venues and Festival Infrastructure
This session considers how to make the most of the venues available to your festival and developing the infrastructure required to run events successfully. The session also looks at how events can work towards making themselves more sustainable.

Working with the Media
Every festival needs a good relationship with the media and this session considers how best to achieve this aim.

Festivals – Impact and Evaluation
This session considers how festivals should look to maximise and evaluate their impact economically, socially and culturally.

The Masterclass is presented in English

Secure Your Spot

Early Bird Price: £275 if booked before 9 March
Regular Price: £350 if booked after 9 March
Group Discount: £220 per person for organizations sending more than one delegate

We can accept card payments or we can send you an invoice for payment by bank transfer or cheque.

Cancellation Policy

10 days or more before the course start date –  Full refund will be given

2 – 9 days before the course start date – 50% refund will be given

Less than 2 days before the course start date – 25% refund will be given

FEEDBACK

This is just a small selection of the exceptional feedback the Masterclass has received.

The course was a vitamin injection in how to manage a festival and also how to evolve it. In short: The ultimate crash course in festival management! City of Sodertalje

You`re sharing so much practical knowledge and brilliant examples, I got one A-HA moment after another. LOTS of useful ideas (and energy!) to bring back home. Hilmarfestivalen, Norway

I can honestly say that for me this was a great experience to learn from a true industry professional and get insights from events that attract people from all over the world. Paul was surely interested in providing us with as much knowledge as possible, the right amount of fun and plenty of inspiration to get us all going on with our projects. Film Cloud

I had the most wonderful experience. It’s great to go to a course that gives you tangible and useful information that you can go away and implement yourself. I highly recommend this Masterclass! Feast Festival

The course was well planned and insightful. Paul has loads of experience, is confident in himself, yet informal and easy to talk with, and great at involving the participants. I would recommend the course both for learning and motivational purposes.  Nordland Music Festival

The breadth of the course content was astounding, and sprinkled with creative brainstorming sessions that had me coming away with tons of great ideas to apply to our Festival. Saskatoon Festival of Trees

Amazing ideas to not only reinvent my events, but also reinvent our town. Rural City of Wangaratta