Australian Festival Industry Conference Postpones to November

The Australian Festival Industry Conference (AFIC) has postponed its 2021 conference to Wednesday 10 – Friday 12 November.

AFIC, which is to be held at Sea World Resort on the Gold Coast was originally scheduled to take place across 1 – 3 September 2021.

Due to the recent national covid-19 crisis which has forced a number of states into various lockdowns, the event’s organiser has made the difficult decision to push back the conference to later in the year.

“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!”

“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,” says Ms Ericson.

The 2021 conference will run across 2.5 days at Sea World Resort and includes:

• A number of keynote and informative presentations from 15 industry-leading personnel
• Two panel discussions
• Two evening networking events
• Workshops
• Trade show
• Gold Coast familiarisation tour of local event venues

H2 Insurance Solutions have come on board as AFIC’s strategic partner, with their Managing Director, Jason Holmes, joining the existing line-up of speakers to talk on the hot topic of event insurance. Plus, Jane Gazzo replaces Dylan Lewis as AFIC’s MC. 

AFIC 2021 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)

“Already we have people registered to attend from Queensland, New South Wales, ACT, Victoria and South Australia, which is exciting to see, so it’s going to be a fabulous event!”

“I want to thank each any every person that has been involved in the event’s postponement – all partners, suppliers, speakers and ticket holders have been exceptionally understanding and I look forward to welcoming everyone later in the year!” says Ms Ericson.

Tickets are on sale now and close at 5:00pm (AEST), Sunday 7 November 2021. Group discounts are available.

To view the full program and to book tickets, visit: www.australianfestivalconference.com.au