When it comes to creating new festivals and events, key components which are crucial to the process can often get overlooked…including stakeholder and community engagement.
Ahead of our return to Boiler Room this weekend, we sat down with Jan, Senior Operations Manager at We Are OPS, to find out more about why these aspects are crucial to making your event a success.
Jan, congratulations on your new role. Can you tell us a bit more about it?
Thank you! I have just been promoted from Events Operations Manager to Senior Operations Manager.
I support the production team with all their operational needs, including everything from security, traffic and egress planning, to licensing and local authority liaison, as well as stakeholder and community engagement strategies. A huge variety really!
Stakeholder Management & Community Engagement are two aspects of events that many promoters might not consider. Can you tell us a bit more about this?
When it comes to festivals, people sometimes think we only work inside the steel shield, but this is far from the case…
Working in the OPS team, and often with our production agency The Fair, we take the time to consider a huge number of aspects in the surrounding community.
Stakeholder engagement is crucial for the success of any festival. Our team goes through a process called ‘Stakeholder Mapping’ – identifying key political stakeholders and building relationships with them. This includes residents, local groups, businesses, counsellors, committees and so on.
Using our existing skills, knowledge and experience with stakeholders, we are able to communicate vital information with a variety of groups – liaising with local authorities, hosting SAG meetings and walkarounds, providing necessary documentation, and developing sustainable relationships. In turn, this ensures an event mitigates impact on the local community and tries to engage them with the process as much as possible.
At We Are OPS, we also go out of our way to ensure exciting opportunities are made for the community to get involved…
What kind of opportunities are we talking about?
We regularly raise money for charities and involve with local businesses or young people with shows – enabling them to trade or showcase their art or music at festivals. While providing health & safety, operations and licensing services at Boiler Room’s first Burgess Park show in May, for example, we raised money for two charities – Southwark Pensioners Centre, which supports older people in the area, and Mentivity, which improves social and educational outcomes for young people. We also reached out to the team behind Mary’s Café, who provided food for crew on site.
I’ve also been connecting with local schools to offer mentoring schemes and Q & A nights which encourage young people to recognise the creative industries as a real career choice.
I think what makes us unique is that we really care about the area in which we are producing an event for a client – whether that be Lee Valley Showground, or Royal Chelsea Hospital Gardens. We use our position to do something positive.
Why is Stakeholder Engagement so vital – for the community and for clients?
While giving back to the community is a result in itself, doing so also provides results for the client and event itself. If locals are kept informed about plans and shown the value that an event can bring to the area, the community is more likely to embrace these events.
Using our position to raise money for local charities and empower local people will always be important, and it’s great that We Are OPS and The Fair provide us with the time to reach out to these charities and businesses, who are always so pleased with what we are able to offer.
Where have you enjoyed providing OPS services this summer?
We’ve already worked on a huge range of events this summer, from sports festivals such as Bournemouth 7s, to corporate events like RecFest UK, and wide range of music festivals. Not to mention placemaking events brought to life by our sister agency for a range of property developers and clients.
My personal highlight was working with the GALA team to safely deliver the first ever Rally in Southwark Park, which facilitated the return of Bermondsey Carnival. I used to go to the carnival growing up and I know how much it means to the community, so enabling it to return was really special.
Engaging with the community has only made me want to do more, which we will be doing this weekend at Boiler Room in Burgess Park!
