A Case Study: Chinook Blast

Serving as producers and event managers, Bird Creatives just wrapped up Calgary’s signature winter festival Chinook Blast! For its third year, Chinook Blast brought together artists and performers representing a diverse array of cultures. Our festival delivered free concerts, eye-catching installations, interactive performances, markets, sporting events, and more! We were able to connect with locals and visitors alike, increasing traffic to our city centre, and supporting our local business scene.

With the completion of our event, one might wonder, how do we define and measure success? How might an organization or company measure success for their community event? What are the different metrics to look out for? No matter the size of your event, metrics for success are important factors to consider regarding event planning and event management.

YYC Princess in the Central Library

Photo by Neil Zeller.

Chinook Blast Art and Light Walk

Photo: Neil Zeller

Measuring the success of Chinook Blast

In order to consider how an event can measure success, we'll need to start with the goals of said event. For this, let’s take a deep dive into Chinook Blast.

Bird Creatives was in charge of producing Calgary's third annual winter festival along with our executive partners Tourism Calgary, the City of Calgary, Calgary Arts Development and Calgary Economic Development. As the first two editions of the event were unfortunately scaled down due to pandemic restrictions, Chinook Blast 2023 was the year when we were finally able to bring to life the original vision for the festival. 

While attendance and social media engagement were big metrics for success, especially for our third year, we knew early on during the planning phase that we didn't want Chinook Blast to be a "winter Stampede." We wanted the festival to be an entirely unique experience that platformed the diverse artistic community of Calgary. As such, a major metric for success was the number of new and diverse artists that we featured during the festival. This year's Chinook Blast saw the most Indigenous performers to date, representing communities from across and outside Alberta. This was possible with our new partnership with Four Winds Indigenous Showcase and Market. Through their facilitation, dozens of artists, vendors, and performers showcased their art and culture at this year’s festival, enriching the overall experience.

Light-up Chairs by Telus Spark and Speakerhead by Beakerhead

Photo: Neil Zeller

We've also been able to further maintain our relationships with other diverse organizations. Our partnership with The Asian Heritage Foundation led to the second Chinook Blast Asian Market, featuring vendors and performers representing dozens of Asian cultures. Our Pillar Festival Partner Ethnik Festivals also came back for the annual Ethnik Festival of Arts and Culture, a vibrant display of cultural performances from Afro-Canadian/Caribbean communities.

The inclusion of these partnerships speaks directly to the success of Chinook Blast. Throughout the planning, we have been able to solidify a strong relationship with Four Winds, the Asian Heritage Foundation, and Ethnik Festivals, along with other incredible organizations. Our partners have further written incredible testimonials for Chinook Blast, speaking on how the opportunity has uplifted marginalized voices in and around Calgary.

On the topic of testimonials, feedback is another important metric of success for Chinook Blast. Here, social media sentiment was one of our ways of tracking feedback. Using tools provided by Social Blade, and keeping track of comments and DMs across all social media platforms, we were able to monitor and maintain a very positive sentiment. Positive feedback also came from our performers and partners both through social media and through a feedback form we shared. While it’s important that the “main” events of Chinook Blast attracted and drew audiences, it’s also important that our partners received that same amount of attention. Maintaining a positive relationship with your partners including an open channel for feedback can go a long way toward the success of your event.

Finding metrics for your community event

As you can see, metrics for success extend further than mere attendance numbers (though attendance is very important). We assessed our goals using the vision of Chinook Blast that was first ideated by our executive partners. So how might your organization come up with metrics for success?

First, it’s important to clarify the goals of your community event. What is the event trying to achieve? What community do you want to connect with? Do you want the community to engage with you on social media? Are you going to collaborate with other organizations?

Struggling to think of goals? Ideating a vision for your event can help you define your goals. On this, here are some questions to consider. Is this event one-off or recurring? If recurring, how do you want your event to grow? If one-off, what is the lasting impact you hope to achieve? 

Here’s Chinook Blast’s vision as an example: “Chinook Blast is Calgary’s winter festival celebration that brings together partners from the arts, nonprofit, neighbourhood, tourism, and sports communities to create an inclusive event that showcases the best of our city.

Our vision is to create a heart-warming, must-visit, annual winter festival celebration in Calgary that advances existing cultural and sports offerings and fosters new winter experiences. We’re proud that Chinook Blast can bring some warmth to our winter city for all to enjoy!”

As you can see from this vision statement, collaboration, inclusivity, culture, sports, and unique experiences speak to major goals for our festival. We then used these goals to inform our metrics of success including the mentioned partnerships formed/maintained and feedback received.

Your vision statement of course does not need to be as detailed as Chinook Blast’s, but consider the impact that you wish to make with your community event and the communities you plan to get involved with. Once you have your vision, then you can start breaking down your goals. After that, the metrics for success should correspond with your goals.

Good luck with your event!

If you ever need help with your event planning or event management, we’re the pros! Don’t hesitate to reach out!

Chinook Blast partners

Photo: Neil Zeller