|
Barron Attends Community Festivals
Workshop
Susan H. Barron, Director of High School
Relations and Event Planning at Northeast Alabama Community
College, joined with colleagues from throughout the states of
Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee and Florida for the
eighth annual Community Festivals Best Practices Workshop held
February 29 at Birmingham’s Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum.
The day-long event, hosted by the Auburn
Technical Assistance Center (ATAC), featured a panel of
nationally recognized festival and event-planning experts.
Sessions included strategies and tactics for attracting
attendance and promoting an event; obtaining no-cost event
publicity; working with limited budgets and resources; adequate
liability protection; securing support and volunteerism; and
financial management strategies; as well as other topics.
Speakers for the Birmingham event
included: Lee Sentell, director of the Alabama Bureau of Tourism
and Travel; L. Wright Tilley, president and chief executive
officer with the Macon, Georgia International Cherry Blossom
Festival; and Vicki Morese of the Alabama Mountain Lakes
Association and the Chamber of Commerce Association of Alabama.
“Community festivals are estimated
nationally to be more than $25 billion economic engines,
attracting a combined attendance of more than 405 million people
to them every year,” said ATAC Director Henry Burdg. “However,
the details involved with organizing and conducting a community
festival can be daunting. Our workshop is designed to provide
both the experienced veteran and the new comer to community
festival organization with new insights into the best festival
practices used by event planners nationally.”
ATAC also hosted a sister event in January at Auburn University.
“We think that festivals, concerts, and
special events are very important educationally and culturally
to our students and our community,” stated Dr. David Campbell,
NACC President. “In addition to being our Director of High
School Relations, Ms. Barron is our event planner. She does an
outstanding job in both capacities.”
Included among the events held annually at
NACC are the Alabama Band’s Songwriters Showcase, the Latino
Festival, a performance by the Alabama Ballet, a Christmas
pageant, and this year a new Music on the Mountain Festival.
Additionally, the college is well-known for its outstanding
theatre productions and concerts by its Jazz music, Choral
music, and Encore groups . The English and Fine Arts Division
also conducts an authors’ series, bringing nationally known
writers to the campus.
 For
more information about events at NACC, call Susan Barron at
638-4418 or 228-6001, ext. 248, or e-mail
barrons@nacc.edu.
Discussing plans for upcoming
events at Northeast are (left to right): Dr. Joseph Burke, Vice
President/Dean of Instruction at NACC; Susan Barron, Director of
High School Relations and Event Planner; and Andrea Wheeler,
Assistant to the President/High School Recruiter. |
