SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--On September 17th, at the inaugural Salt Lake City Event Makers Summit, influential event makers from around the Wasatch Front gathered together to discuss a missing opportunity for event makers and civic leaders to work together to improve the economy. SpinGo hosted the event at Church & State in downtown Salt Lake City.
“Events can serve as a vehicle for economic development,” stated Jeff Whiteley, founder of Excellence in the Community, a nonprofit dedicated to giving local artists better performing opportunities. “We need to start looking at Utah’s artistic resources as a vehicle for economic and civic development. Look at the Cedar City’s Shakespeare Festival, for example. The community turns high quality art into economic development. We can do that in Salt Lake City, too.”
During the breakout session, event makers from the SLC Arts Council, Downtown Alliance, The Utah Symphony and Opera, and more discussed the gap between hosting quality events and getting state and city leaders to participate in promoting events to visitors. “I wish someone at the convention center would have made the Big Band Swing Dance known to us conventioneers,” suggested Diana McGarry, a conventioneer visiting from Dallas to Jeff Whiteley. Conventions bring in thousands of visitors each year, providing the state with opportunities to increase spending from tourists.
Taylor Harris, General Manager of the Food Truck League, argues that event makers need to improve their own marketing to attract more crowds. “Too often, we focus on the features of our events, forgetting to give the bigger reason why people should attend. They should attend because it’s the best date night or because it’s a break from the kids.”
“We hosted the Salt Lake City Event Makers Summit to find out the current state of events in Utah,” said Kreg Peeler, CEO of SpinGo. “We wanted to network and see where event planners are doing well, but also find areas of opportunity we can take advantage of to improve events and the economy.”
About SpinGo
Founded in 2012 by Kreg and Amanda Peeler, SpinGo is an event promotion and discovery platform that gets the word out about events. With a national network of more than 1,100 media websites and independent mobile apps, SpinGo increases event attendance around the nation. Investors include EPIC Ventures and Prelude.
