Infometrics has made available to clients a user friendly tool for measuring the economic impact of events such as festivals, sporting events and concerts. The Events Calculator is part of the Toolkit section of our online regional economic profiles.

There is plenty of mystery around the methodology of measuring the economic impact of events on regional economies. It pays economists to maintain this mystery as it maintains their stranglehold on a lucrative source of revenue. In reality most impact analysis uses a fairly simple framework. Infometrics has placed its comprehensive framework into a user friendly Events Calculator which puts the ability to measure the economic impact of events into your hands.

The tool can help councils and economic development agencies assess applications for funding of events by event organisers, based on assumptions of expected attendance and expenditure.  The user inputs relevant assumptions surrounding the event, eg types of visitors, total spend, spending patterns and the tool then generates a PDF report of the economic impact of the event.

After the event councils can re-estimate the economic impact of the event based on actual attendance data and evaluate the return of their financial support for the event.   Data on the total spend and spending patterns of visitors can be obtained via post-event surveys, from third parties or via a package of event expenditure data that Infometrics has negotiated with Marketview. The data is packaged in a standard format for easy inputting into the tool and is priced reasonably.

Subscribers to the Infometrics Regional Economic Profiles already have access to this tool in the Toolkit section of the profiles. Infometrics is committed to expanding the range of tools in the Toolkit to help clients answer the what-if questions about their local economies. If you would like further information about the Events Calculator or the Regional Economic Profiles please contact Andrew Whiteford at andreww@infometrics.co.nz or on (04) 474-2143.