The Shire of North Rock delivers a broad range of events to its residents to support the wellbeing and prosperity of its community. The shire understands the value and impact of arts and culture, and the important role of cultural development in helping to achieve social, economic, environmental and wellbeing objectives for the community. The Shire boasts a large and diverse events program that incorporates community, arts and culture.
The Shire of North Rock events program comprises:
Art Gallery
Artist in Residence Workshops
Concert Series
Night Markets
Street Party
The following report identifies community responses and benchmarks for council events to identify outcomes, benefits and learnings.
The Shire of North Rock engaged Culture Counts to conduct an evaluation of events and programs, as well as to assess the economic impact. The evaluation was conducted by surveying members of the general public. Surveys were delivered through intercept interviews organised by Culture Counts and distributed by The Shire of North Rock. In partnership with Culture Counts, surveys were designed and developed to evaluate the strategic goals and outcomes of the Shire of North Rock.
1,206 responses were collected from public attendees via intercept interviews.
Each survey contained a range of ‘dimension’ questions, asking stakeholders about their experience of the event. These dimensions have been developed and tested in collaboration with industry, practitioners and academics to measure the impact and value of arts and cultural events and activities.
Appropriate dimensions were chosen based on their alignment with the shire's strategic objectives.
| Domain | Dimension | Dimension statement |
|---|---|---|
| Community | Belonging | It helped me feel part of the community |
| Place | It made me feel proud of my local area | |
| Cultural | Celebration | It celebrated my own cultural heritage |
| Insight | It helped me gain new insight or knowledge | |
| Economic | Diversity | It engaged people from different backgrounds |
| Qualities | Content | It reflected a broad and inclusive range of voices |
| Local Impact | It's important that it's happening here | |
| Rigour | It was well thought through and put together | |
| Social | Access | It gave me the opportunity to access activities I would otherwise not have access to |
| Safe | It made me feel safe and welcome |
Dimensions are assessed on a Likert scale, in which respondents move a slider to a point that indicates whether they agree or disagree with the dimension statement. An example of a dimension question in the Culture Counts survey tool is presented below.
The current Shire strategic community plan is focused on four key areas of service. Based on this Shire strategy, Culture Counts worked with the Shire to align appropriate outcome metrics to the different strategic areas. The following visualisation lists those key areas and their overall goal.
An accompanying table highlights which dimensions are aligned to which strategic area, for the purpose of monitoring and evaluation. It aligns each dimension with the associated outcome domain and the reference number in the strategic plan.
| Reference | Strategy Area | Dimension | Domain |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | Good Governance | Local Impact | Qualities |
| 1.1 | Rigour | Qualities | |
| 1.2 | Access | Social | |
| 2.1 | Celebrate Difference | Diversity | Economic |
| 2.1 | Celebration | Cultural | |
| 2.2 | Insight | Cultural | |
| 3.1 | Connect the Community | Safe | Social |
| 3.1 | Belonging | Community | |
| 3.2 | Content | Qualities | |
| 3.3 | Place | Community | |
| 4.1 | Community Growth | Diversity | Economic |
| 4.2 | Access | Social |
Survey respondents were asked to provide their age, gender and identity. This data identifies the demographic sample of people who responded to the survey and took part in the event. It enables data to be matched to the wider population and responses to be filtered to understand differences in demographics.
The following charts show the proportion of survey responses captured for each of the age, gender and identity demographic questions.
The largest proportion of respondents were aged 60+ (43%). This was followed by those aged 50-59 (16%), 20-29 (16%), 30-39 (12%) and 40-49 (11%). Those aged under 20 made up 3% of the aggregate sample.
Those aged 60+ were the largest group of respondents for all events, including comprising 50% of the Concert Series sample. The Night Markets sample was the only cohort where most respondents were under 50, including 24% aged 20-29, 13% aged 30-39 and 15% aged 40-49.
The majority of respondents were female, comprising 56% of the aggregate sample. 37% were male, 5% non-binary and 2% preferred not to say.
Female respondents comprised the majority of the Concert Series, Night Markets and Artist in Residence Workshops samples, whilst half of Street Party respondents identified as male (50%). 11% of those surveyed as part of the Concert Series identify as non-binary.
Over half of the aggregate sample identified as LGBTQIA+ (56%). 40% of respondents were born overseas, 32% identify as a person with a disability, 30% use a language other than English at home and 27% identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. 35% of the sample didn't identify with any of the 'Identity' options provided, and 46% preferred not to say.
Those who identified as born overseas comprised at least half of the Art Gallery (59%), Street Party (53%) and Artist in Residence Workshops (50%) events. Respondents who identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander made up 47% of Art Gallery respondents and 38% of the Street Party sample. Those who use a language other than English comprised larger proportions of respondents in the Night Markets (54%), Artist in Residence Workshops (50%) and Concert Series (44%) samples.
Respondents who identified as LGBTQIA+ comprised at least 38% of all samples, including the Night Markets (67%), Street Party (64%) and Concert Series (54%) events. Those who identified as a person with a disability comprised 59% of Concert Series respondents but 0% of the Night Markets sample, suggesting there may be a need for improving accessibility to this event.
Survey respondents were asked to provide their current living location and postcode. This data identifies the demographic sample of people who responded to the survey and took part in the event. It enables data to be matched to the wider population and responses to be filtered to understand differences in demographics.
The following charts show the proportion of survey responses captured for respondents' identified living location and top postcode results.
Respondents travelled from all over to attend North Rock Council events. Those who lived in the local council area were the largest cohort in the aggregate sample (24%). This was followed by those who lived interstate (23%), overseas (19%), regionally (19%) and in the metropolitan area (15%).
Over half of respondents for the Artist in Residence Workshops (63%), Night Markets (56%) and Concert Series (55%) lived either interstate or overseas. More than two-thirds of Street Party respondents lived locally, either in the local council area (35%) or metropolitan area (33%).
The most commonly cited postcode was for Bourkegin and surrounds (17%). This was followed by Pieyeppa and surrounds (15%), Mount Rimbus and surrounds (15%), Ldukia Hill and surrounds (13%) and Toomno Creek and surrounds (12%).
Respondents were asked to indicate whether this was their first time attending a Shire of North Rock event. Responses can be seen distributed on the chart below.
The majority of respondents (61%) indicated that they had attended a North Rock Council event in previous years, with the remaining 39% being first-time attendees.
Street Party had the largest proportion of returnees (78%), whilst over half of respondents at the Artist in Residence Workshops (56%) were first-time attendees.
Survey respondents moved a slider to indicate whether they agreed or disagreed with the included dimension statements in relation to the event. The first tab chart contains the response data for 'public' responses, showing the average result for each dimension.
The second tab shows the interquartile range of responses for each dimension. These ranges represent the middle 50% of responses, which are areas on the slider where most responses typically fell. Accompanying this range is the median result for each dimension (i.e. the most common response). Smaller ranges indicate similarity in agreement between respondents, whereas larger ranges indicate a wider spread of responses.
The Culture Counts platform provides various methods to capture survey responses at a minimal marginal cost. Achieving larger samples enables organisations to be more confident about the average results and that opinions of the survey respondents are representative of all attendees. The accompanying margin of error chart shows the expected differences for the associated dimension results calculated at a 95% confidence level.
'Local Impact' (85/100), 'Safe' (83/100) and 'Rigour' (82/100) received the highest average levels of overall agreement, indicating that respondents were most likely to agree that it was important the event was happening in the local area, that it made them feel safe and welcome and that it was well thought through and put together.
'Place' and 'Celebration' had the largest interquartile ranges, indicating that responses were most varied when the sample was asked if the event made them feel proud of their local area and if it celebrated their own cultural heritage.
At a 95% confidence level, the margin of error for dimensions ranged from 1.9% to 5%. This means that we can be 95% confident that if we surveyed the entire visitor population, the average outcome for 'Local Impact' would fall within 1.9% of the average generated by the sample.
Dimension statements can be categorised into their representative outcome domain. Outcome domains represent categorisations of dimensions based on their general area of focus. For example:
Community Outcomes represent dimensions about engagement in decision-making and facilitating connections between community groups, generating political efficacy and strengthening social institutions and their constituents.
Cultural Outcomes represent dimensions that reflect shared cultural values; things we care about and the ways we share them.
Economic Outcomes represent dimensions that seek to promote dynamic and resilient local economies that are required to sustain vibrant communities.
Social Outcomes represent dimensions that supports personal and social wellbeing for the creation of healthy, safe and inclusive communities.
Qualities are dimensions that connect individual experiences to the realisation of outcomes and the strength of their impact. They are subjective and personal assessments about experience, content or perception.
'Qualities' (90%) was the domain that received the highest level of agreement overall, based off strong results for 'Local Impact' (93%) and 'Rigour' (89%). All domains had at least 72% of respondents either agree or strongly agree, which is a good result.
The 'Cultural' domain received mixed results, with 78% of the sample either strongly agreeing (47%) or agreeing (31%) that the event helped them gain new insight or knowledge, whilst just over half of respondents (56%) strongly agreed or agreed that the event celebrated their own cultural heritage.
More information about outcome domains are available at https://culturaldevelopment.net.au/outcomes/
The Shire of North Rock's 5-Year Strategy contains objectives that align with four key themes. Dimension questions within Shire of North Rock events program surveys contributed to the assessment of objectives.
The second chart below shows the results for the four themes assessed. Each theme has its own tab containing a chart, with each chart showing the stacked level of agreement for component Dimensions that were used to assess the achievement of that objective.
Good Governance was the key area of service that received the highest overall levels of agreement, with 91% of respondents either strongly agreeing (67%) or agreeing (24%) with the associated dimension statements. All areas of service received high levels of overall agreement, Community Growth and Connect the Community both received 81%, while Celebrate Diversity received 72%.
Celebrate Diversity received the lowest overall level of agreement, this was comprised of the scores for Diversity (81%), Insight (78%) and Celebration (56%). It is worth noting that 'Celebration' was only asked to Art Gallery event respondents.
Respondents were asked about their overall experience of attending a Shire of North Rock event, with a choice of five options - Excellent, Good, Neutral, Poor and Terrible.
This chart shows the percentage of respondents that rated the events overall across these five options and the results per event.
The vast majority of the aggregate sample (93%) reported having either an excellent (60%) or good (33%) experience overall, which is a superb result. 2% of the sample had a neutral experience, 2% poor and 3% terrible.
Street Party had the largest overall proportion of respondents who had a positive experience (95%). Overall experience scores for all events were very high, Concert Series and Night Markets both received a score of 90%, Artist in Residence Workshops received 87% and Art Gallery 81%.
Respondents were asked whether they would recommend Shire of North Rock events to a friend or colleague. Respondents could choose a number from 0 to 10 from a menu, with 0 meaning 'not likely at all' and 10 meaning 'extremely likely'.
These results can be used to calculate a Net Promoter Score (NPS). NPS is a standardised metric that seeks to measure loyalty between an organisation and its audience. Respondents with a score of 9 or 10 are considered 'Promoters'. 'Detractors' are those who respond with a score of 0 to 6. Scores of 7 and 8 are considered 'Passives'.
NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of respondents who are Detractors from the percentage of customers who are Promoters. This means that an overall Net Promoter Score can range between -100 to +100.
This chart shows the proportion of respondents that would or would not recommend Shire of North Rock events, followed by the calculated NPS below.
71% of respondents rated Shire of North Rock events as either 9 or 10, indicating they would be classified as Promoters. 13% of respondents had passive results (7 or 8) and the remaining 16% would be considered detractors (scoring between 0-6).
A NPS that is positive (i.e. higher than zero) is felt to be good, and a NPS of 50+ is excellent. The Shire of North Rock events program's NPS of 55 is an excellent result and indicates that respondents are loyal towards Shire of North Rock events and are likely to recommend them to friends and colleagues.
Respondents were asked to provide their age and gender as part of the survey. This data enables results to be filtered to understand any differences that exist because of demography.
The following charts highlight a selection of results based on the gender that respondents identified with as well as by age cohort.
Those aged 50-59 provided the highest overall average, for 'Local Impact' (89/100). Respondents aged 20-29 provided the highest or equal highest average result for the 'Safe' (87/100), 'Access' (81/100) and 'Place' (81/100) dimensions, and the lowest or equal lowest average result for 'Insight' (68/100), 'Diversity' (72/100), 'Belonging (72/100) and 'Rigour' (76/100).
'Local Impact' (84-89/100), 'Belonging' (72-78/100) and 'Access' (75-81/100) received the most consistent results across age groups, suggesting that age may not be an important factor in how the sample responded to these dimensions. 'Celebration' (47-68/100) had the most varied responses indicating that age may have played a factor in whether the sample thought the event celebrated their own cultural heritage.
Male respondents, female respondents and those who identify as non-binary all provided the highest or equal highest score for four of the included dimensions. 'Celebration' had the most varied responses with 59/100 for male respondents, 63/100 for females and 68/100 for those who identify as non-binary. This suggests that gender identity may have played a factor in responses to this statement.
'Local Impact' (85-86/100) and 'Belonging' (73-74/100) received the most consistent results, indicating that gender may not have influenced whether respondents felt that the event was important for the local area and that it helped them feel part of the community.
The following chart highlights dimension results based on the program respondents had attended when they were surveyed. Comparison allows the Shire of North Rock to understand areas of improvement and excellence that may be event-dependent or program wide.
Artist in Residence Workshops received the highest or equal highest score for 'Belonging' (82/100), 'Diversity' (80/100) and 'Insight' (77/100), indicating that the program excelled in these areas. It also received the lowest overall score, for 'Rigour' (68/100) suggesting that respondents were least likely to agree that the event was well thought through and put together, and improvements could be made for subsequent stagings.
Street Party received a higher result for 'Safe' (87/100) when compared to all other events (80-83/100) suggesting that respondents were most likely to feel safe and welcome here. Night Markets similarly received a higher result for 'Access' (81/100) compared to all other events (76-77/100) demonstrating that Night Markets respondents were more likely to agree that the event gave them the opportunity to access activities they would otherwise not have access to.
'Place' received the most consistent results across all events (76-79/100) suggesting that respondents were likely to feel proud of their local area regardless of which event they attended. 'Rigour' (68-86/100) and 'Belonging' (70-82/100) had the most variation in results suggesting that responses to these dimensions were impacted by event.
Dimensions used in the evaluation were also measured in previous years. This consistent use of measurement allows organisers to benchmark their results and track progress in achieving strategic outcomes over time.
The following charts compare the results for previous years. The dimension averages chart compares the average result.
Seven out of ten comparable dimensions received higher on average results in the current year than in the previous years, led by 'Celebration' (+13/100) and 'Insight' (+10/100). 'Diversity' demonstrated the greatest variation in results (-5/100), indicating there may be room for attention and improvement in relation to engaging people from different backgrounds.
Participating local governments of the state network made benchmarks available from 39 community events hosted by local government authorities, that were evaluated by Culture Counts. Benchmarks give context to organisers so that they can understand the unique impact their work delivers and the outcomes that distinguish them from other offerings.
The below chart shows the average dimension results for this evaluation, compared to the interquartile range of average results from other local government events. Results that sit within the range are considered to be a ‘benchmark’ result because they represent the typical outcomes achieved in other evaluations. Any result that sits above this range is considered to be exceptional.
Six out of ten comparable dimensions fell within the state local government benchmark range for those dimensions, indicating that the outcomes related to 'Rigour', 'Local Impact', 'Access', 'Content', 'Diversity' and 'Belonging' are in line with past events by other local governments across the state.
The results for 'Safe' and 'Insight' were above the benchmark range, indicating that the Shire of North Rock's events have excelled in making respondents feel safe and welcome and helping them gain new insight or knowledge. 'Place' and 'Celebration' fell below the benchmark range suggesting that there is room for improvement in these areas.
The following charts detail the influence of Shire of North Rock events on attendees' decision to visit the local area as well as how they heard about events or activities in the area.
60% of respondents stated that the event was either the only reason (24%) or very important (36%) in their decision to visit the Shire of North Rock area. 13% said it was less important and 28% said the event had no impact on their decision.
Respondents were most likely to hear about Shire of North Rock events or news via non-online means, including community newspaper (20%), radio (18%), posters (16%) and TV (5%). Other popular methods of discovery included Instagram (16%), email (13%) and Facebook (12%).
Respondents were asked to leave any additional feedback about their experience at Shire of North Rock events. This feedback has been classified into positive, neutral, or negative categories, with the percentage of feedback sentiment types presented in the following chart.
Feedback helps organisations understand where the value of visitor experiences lies and how they can be improved and strengthened in the future. A selection of comments have been highlighted underneath.
Visiting the night market is a highlight of my week. The variety of food and products available is amazing, and it's a great place to hang out with friends and family.
I look forward to the concert series every year. The performances are always high-energy and entertaining, and the atmosphere is fantastic.
Kudos to the art gallery for their excellent accessibility features. The accessible restrooms, audio guides, and tactile exhibits made my visit so much more enjoyable.
We just moved to the local area and loved the street party. Can't wait to discover more local events!
I absolutely loved the artist-in-residence workshop. The hands-on guidance and creative environment provided by the artist were exceptional. It was a fantastic opportunity to learn and grow as an artist.
I loved the workshop but felt everything was a little disorganised.
I didn’t know it was on, just heard the music and came to check it out.
Need more bathrooms, there's always such a queue.
I had high expectations for the concert series, but it fell short. The set times were not well managed, causing long delays between acts. Additionally, the seating arrangements were confusing and poorly planned.
There is rubbish everywhere after these council things, they should tell people to clean up after themselves.
I had a frustrating experience at the art gallery. The staff were unhelpful and seemed disinterested in assisting visitors. Additionally, the ticket prices were too high for the quality of the exhibits on display.
Spending questions ask survey respondents about how much they spent in the local area on items like shopping, food and beverage etc. as part of their attendance at the event. Respondents are asked to exclude accommodation or other travel expenses as these are separated as part of the economic impact calculations.
Respondents are also asked what they would have done otherwise if it was not for their attendance at the event. This question is used to determine 'additionality', which is the percentage of spending that could be considered to be additional, or could genuinely be attributed to the event. It is statistically defined as one minus the percentage of deadweight (1 - dw%), where deadweight is the economic outcome that would have happened in the absence of an activity.
The following charts show the visitor spending and additionality results used in the economic impact analysis, as well as what spending types respondents reported.
74% of the sample reported spending less than $60 per person at the event and in the local area, with the largest proportions of respondents spending between $10-$20 (28%) and $50-60 (16%) per person.
After outliers were removed, the average visit spend per person was determined as $41.50. A weighting is applied to spend results within the economic impact analysis depending on where respondents come from, and therefore this average result may differ from the weighted average. When both results are very close, it is understood to be a rigorous result.
52% of respondents reported spending money on shopping and 40% spent money on food either before or after attending the event. Smaller proportions of respondents spent money on parking (5%) and accommodation (3%).
47% of respondents would have done something else in the local area if they had not attended the event and 30% would have done something not in the local area.
Survey respondents were asked additional questions about their spending and reasons for visiting. This data is used to determine the economic impact of the event on tourism-related spending.
Tourism additionality asks respondents how much influence the event had on their decision to visit the Shire of North Rock area. For tourists who indicated the event was their primary reason for visiting the area 100% of their trip spend is attributable to the event, whereas tourists who were unaware of the event before visiting indicate that the event was responsible for 0% of their trip spend.
A weighted exponential scale of attribution is applied to calculate an overall trip additionality figure in the economic impact calculations (i.e. 100%, 50%, 25%, 5%, 0%).
Respondents were also asked to identify their primary reason for travel. Response options for this question were sourced from Tourism Research Australia for benchmarking purposes.
79% of respondents who lived regionally said that the event was either the main reason or contributing factor for their visit, or that they changed or extended their original plans due to the event. 50% of interstate respondents also said that the event was either the main reason or a contributing factor in their decision, and 20% of overseas respondents said that the event was the main reason influencing their decision to travel to the Shire North Rock area. This outstanding result demonstrates the reach of Shire of North Rock events.
Survey respondents were asked to estimate how much they had spent as part of their visit, the level of influence on their decision to visit, as well as indicate what they would have done if they had not visited. Combining this data with attendance figures allows an overall impact figure to be generated.
The economic impact is determined by three main factors:
Visits/Attendance: The number of people spending money (converted to the number of nights for accommodation and longer trips).
Spend: Spending in the local economy. Includes spend as part of a visit, spend on accommodation for those staying overnight and other trip-related spending for those staying multiple nights. Excludes spending on tickets or other items that would be captured through organisation expenditure (i.e. to avoid double-counting).
Additionality: The percentage of spending that would not have occurred otherwise.
To calculate the economic impact on the local area, only additional visitation is included. From those visits, only expenditure that would not have otherwise occurred is considered. In this case, the economic impact is from attendees who would have otherwise stayed at home, gone to work, or those who would have done something else outside the local area.
The tables below detail a breakdown of visitation by additionality (i.e. new visits to the area because of the event), visitor expenditure (if they came and stayed in the area because of the event and any other spending they did), and total economic output.
| ORIGIN | VISITORS | EVENT SPEND | ADDITIONALITY | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local Council Area | 2,308 | $29.98 | 55% | $38,050 |
| Metropolitan Area | 1,442 | $40.29 | 77% | $44,743 |
| Regional | 1,827 | $40.56 | 81% | $60,019 |
| Interstate | 2,211 | $43.45 | 41% | $39,396 |
| Overseas | 1,827 | $55.56 | 17% | $17,255 |
| TOTAL | 9,615 | $41.50 | 53% | $199,463 |
| ORIGIN | NIGHTS | ACCOM SPEND/NIGHT | TRIP SPEND/NIGHT | ADDITIONALITY | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local Council Area | - | - | - | - | $0 |
| Metropolitan Area | 69 | $70.01 | - | 12% | $577 |
| Regional | 462 | $93.60 | $33.10 | 16% | $9,370 |
| Interstate | 1,429 | $110.54 | $113.15 | 23% | $73,499 |
| Overseas | 3,897 | $116.21 | $115.55 | 5% | $45,162 |
| TOTAL | 5,857 | $112.50 | $107.10 | 10% | $128,608 |
| DIRECT IMPACT | MULTIPLIED IMPACT | |
|---|---|---|
| Total Nights Generated | 606 | |
| Attendee Spending | $362,632 | $1,055,566 |
| Event | $199,463 | $590,410 |
| Accommodation | $66,465 | $182,778 |
| Trip | $62,143 | $181,458 |
| Organiser Expenditure | $130,500 | $348,435 |
| Total Impact | $458,571 | $1,303,081 |
Event expenditure scaled by an output multiplier of 2.96, the national Food and Beverage multiplier (2.96).
Accommodation expenditure scaled by an output multiplier of 2.75, the national Accommodation multiplier.
Trip expenditure scaled by an output multiplier of 2.92, representing an average of national Retail and, Food and Beverage multipliers (2.88 and 2.96 respectively).
Organisation expenditure scaled by an output multiplier of 2.67, the National Heritage, Creative and Performing Arts multiplier.
This report has been prepared by Culture Counts for demonstration purposes.
We respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognise the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, and to Elders past and present.
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