TORONTO CARIBBEAN FESTIVAL
CHALLENGE:
The festival has been experiencing financial challenges due to the operating costs of the Grand Parade including the high production costs as well as the subsidies paid to Mas Bands and other third parties. Additionally, the Festival faced difficulty in capturing a range of revenue streams. The festival has been struggling with creating a financially viable event that has the potential to continue to grow and connect with the next generation.
STRATEGIC DESIGN PROJECT PLAN:
The objective was to collaborate with stakeholders and key actors to define the problems and co-create implementable solutions.
RESEARCH:
We used a mixed-methods research approach to assess the current state of the Toronto Caribbean Festival. This included semi-structured one-on-one interviews with executives, attendees, and participants of the festival and secondary research on open resources such as articles, videos, and event reports.
The interviews gave us a better understanding of the Festival context and the unmet needs of segmented customers. Secondary research and talks with industry experts allowed us to learn more about Caribbean festivals and the challenges of organizing such big events.
PHASE 1: DEFINE
To better understand the people, processes, and resources that affect the success of the festival and to reflect the current business model of the Toronto Caribbean Festival we developed:
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Stakeholders and Actors Map
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Business Context Diagram
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Flourishing Business Canvas
PHASE 2: DISCOVER
A specific customer segment of young adult carnival attendees was explored based on the decision of increasing engagement with the ‘next generation’.
The Value Proposition Canvas aims to provide an iterative platform to search for what customers want and generate relevant value propositions accordingly.
When redesigning the value proposition, the objective was to relieve extreme issues and pains that matter most to the customers.
PHASE 3: DESIGN
We generated concepts to improve the festival experience and presented these concepts via Idea Cards. The idea cards provided a brief description of the concept, the insights that the idea is grounded, and near, medium, and long-term features and implications.
To make sure that solutions are practical, all ideas are refined to ensure they are Desirable, Feasible, and Viable.
