Residents First, Story First: Designing Regenerative, Community-Rooted Festivals (Webinar) hosted by RTO4

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    Online via Zoom

    Event Information

    RTO4 is excited to launch Festival Lab; Skills & Strategies, a new, free webinar series geared toward Event Organizers. Festival Lab is a lunchtime webinar series where your peers share how they have tackled specific challenges—everything from volunteer burnout and demand-based ticketing to managing extreme summer heat.

    If you are short on time but looking for tactical solutions, Festival Lab is built for you. Each one-hour session features two rapid-fire case studies from Ontario festivals. No theory—just what worked, what didn’t, and what you can try next.

    Each session crosses multiple topic areas, including marketing, risk management, and sustainability.


    Session 1: March 4, 2026 – Residents First, Story First: Designing Regenerative, Community-Rooted Festivals                                                                                                                                                 
    Speakers: Cheryl Prashker of the Celtic Roots Festival and Jeff Stewart of Elora’s Longest Barbecue

    Join this one-hour session to learn:

    • How they build festivals that rely on and reinvest in local communities
    • What “regenerative” really looks like in small-town contexts—from billeting to legacy branding
    • How a compelling local story can power media, partnerships, and long-term sustainability

     

    Fee
    Free
    Event Host
    Regional Tourism Organization 4 (RTO4)
    Event Contact
    Marie Zimmerman
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