ILT Stadium Southland

4 5 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 4, ISSUE 9 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 4, ISSUE 9 I LT STADIUM SOUTHLAND Nigel Skelt (General Manager) and Josephine Shephard (Programmes and Events Manager) share ILT Stadium’s growth since we spoke with them last, in 2021. “The biggest influence for our recent growth has been our community’s needs in this post-COVID world,” Nigel begins. “We are becoming more multi-functional than ever before and have recently been focusing on creating our own events and activities program to suit our extremely diverse demographic. Of course, this has been a real challenge, but it has also presented us with an opportunity to brighten the lives of those in our community and stimulate our local economy in the time they need it the most. There have also been some challenges in building the confidence of attendees that an event or a game is actually going to take place- people are definitely reluctant to organise their attendance ahead of time. We’ve seen a change in mindset that is geared more towards a walk-up crowd.” Josephine adds, “So what our team has done VASTBILLBOARDS.CO.NZ At Vast, we strive to make digital billboard marketing accessible to a wider audience, without compromising on service, flexibility or the latest technology. Clients in NZ? We have got you covered. Visit our website to learn more, or get in touch. is created and recreated events that foster a sense of excitement and confidence in our community again, like Paint-n-Sip, Sing-n-Sip, Bloom workshops, dance classes, love local markets, inflatable courses… Smaller events that are really diverse and take advantage of the flexibility of our spaces. We want to engage the full range of our demographic, right from our youngest to our oldest, and everyone in between. For example, we have a group that uses our netball courts to play ‘walking netball’. We are certainly seeing people being more interested in just coming in to try something, rather than committing to a six- or eight-week social sport league. It’s really important that we roll with that and keep coming up with new things for them to try, and that we look at what they’ll want to engage with in the future. There’s a big expectation for us to remain at the forefront and continue to redesign and develop our spaces for the next big thing.” Being well-known as a multipurpose facility