2.4 People & Partnerships

Many festivals and events are known to start on the basis of ‘relationships & goodwill’ between a dedicated group of people. I have also read that successful events have solid partnerships and strong links with loyal supporters. In the case of the Singapore Biennale 2008, there were several partners involved in the event which included venue partners such as Raffles City Shopping Centre and the Singapore flyer, exhibition partner such as PICO, freight partner and community partner. They also have a number of sponsors and supporters from both companies sector and the government. Thus, the event was successful in making use partners to attract resources for the event and also make use of the various supporters to place the position of the event on a higher level.

Relationship building is also critical to the wider residential community since this was also their target market and the event carried this relationship building by having community partner such as PASSION and Education and Outreach Partners such as National Library Board and Republic Polytechnic. They also included an Art and Education Outreach Programme for young children such as having a Kids’ Biennale and also having a volunteer programme whereby volunteers will help out in the daily operations and the frontline of the event. In order to further reach out to the community, they also had scheduled tours to cater to the different dialect groups in Singapore. Thus, they have done well in relationship marketing and management.