Australian Festival Industry Conference postponed to November

With various states in lockdown and the possibility of a slow return to ‘normality’, the Australian Festival Industry Conference (AFIC) has been postponed amid new lockdowns in Victoria and New South Wales.

Originally planned to go down in September, the new dates for the conference are Wednesday, November 10 to Friday 12.

The conference remains at Sea World Resort on the Gold Coast, with Jane Gazzo being tapped to replace fellow media personality and Recovery co-host Dylan Lewis as host of the event.

Additionally, H2 Insurance Solutions has come onboard as AFIC’s strategic partner.

The company’s managing director Jason Holmes has also the event’s speaker’s line-up, and will deliver an address on event insurance.

“Our country is unfortunately experiencing a number of significant COVID-19 outbreaks and it’s a major blow to our industry at a time when business confidence was just beginning to return to normal,” says AFIC founder and event director Carlina Ericson.

“In the last few weeks we’ve seen a number of postponements, such as Vivid Sydney and Mundi Mundi Bash, and further event cancellations such as the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix and Byron Writers Festival, for example.

“I fully appreciate that everyone is doing it tough during this very difficult time and I want to give everyone a fair opportunity to attend what’s shaping up to be the most important industry event of the year.”

Ericson suggests that with ticket holders coming from Queensland, NSW, ACT, Victoria and South Australia, it made more sense to delay the event rather than cancel it.

“With the vaccine rollout expected to kick into overdrive in the coming months, I hope that by November everyone will be feeling much more confident about their own events occurring in the near future as well as being comfortable with travelling for business” she suggests.

AFIC 2021 will run across 2.5 days and covers the following topics:

• (Keynote) How the pandemic has changed us
• (Keynote) Future opportunities in virtual reality
• (Panel Discussion) COVID-19 site planning & safety for festivals
• (Panel Discussion) The future of streaming, content-on-demand & broadcast
• Byron Bay Bluesfest: the true cost of cancellation
• Approaches to festival regulation in NSW – a PhD Study
• The future of festivals is inclusive (with a follow-up workshop: building an accessibility plan)
• Igniting your festival’s creative program
• Leadership in a crisis
• Launching a major event organisation during COVID-19
• Managing your festival’s revenue streams (with a follow up workshop: grant writing 101)

To view the full program and to book tickets, go here.