With a renewed focus on visitors to the Parkes Shire, Cathy Treasure and members of her team have been enjoying the work their new roles entail.
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Cathy herself has been in a new role for eleven months. As many would recall, she was the Elvis Festival director and had been since 2016.
She handed the baton over in December to Tiffany Steel, who was the festival's sponsorship and marketing coordinator, and who experienced her first Elvis Festival in April this year as director.
And Susan Marr is the new festival marketing and sponsorship officer.
Cathy is now the Parkes Shire Council's visitor economy and major events specialist, which means she's still involved in the festival but also in other major events in the shire.
Her role includes overseeing the running of the Henry Parkes Centre, assisting growing new events, bringing new events and event operators to Parkes and continuing to grow the Elvis Festival. She manages the Elvis, ABBA (this year), events and tourism teams.
"Parkes Shire Council identified a need to further grow the visitor economy and event portfolio to bring more people to Parkes," Cathy said.
Among some of the projects Cathy has been working on since stepping into the new role are big sporting events, such as the Hockey One game in Parkes on November 12, and Parkes Elvis Festival events and attractions such as the Wall of Fame and the replica gates of Elvis' famous Memphis home Graceland, with funding for its construction announced in March.
Cathy is working on new strategies to bring people into Parkes associated with the Newell Highway bypass at Parkes.
In partnership with the Parkes Chamber of Commerce, council is hosting a Destination Management Plan and Bypass Strategy consultation session on Tuesday, which aims to establish a shared vision, goals, strategies and actions to guide the growth of the Parkes visitor economy and proactively respond to the impacts of the Newell Highway bypass.
Cathy is also looking at bringing more community events to the town.
Tiffany, who is the daughter of Elvis Festival founders Bob and Anne Steel, was thrilled with the outcome of her first festival.
She only had a few months to prepare since the event had been moved from its usual January date because of Covid concerns.
"The festival was a huge success and we had similar numbers like in 2020," Tiffany said.
"And we had really positive feedback with the new layout [in the park] and more greenspace and shade."
Given Tiffany's history with the festival she said the new role still came as a bit of a shock.
"We have a solid team," she said.
"Even though there's three of us, it's still a big team effort with the volunteers and council workers and more."
And she's very excited for the 30th anniversary of the festival in 2023, having been one of the few hundred people who were there.
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Susan hails from the Northern Beaches in Sydney and began her role in August.
She has 20 years' experience in marketing and left the travel industry last year to enjoy a gap year.
When she saw the marketing job for the Parkes Elvis Festival come up and being an Elvis fan herself, she said "this is me".
"I'm really passionate about this industry, it's not just a job to me," Susan said.
"I've had a very warm welcome and I love the town.
"That was part of the appeal to the job that Parkes is a really friendly place, and that people speak so highly of Cathy, she does an amazing job.
"Susan's a seasoned Parkes Elvis Festival goer too, attending five festivals," Tiffany added.
Susan has a big sporting interest as well and particularly enjoys playing tennis and soccer, and going on walks.
Tiffany said she was excited to have someone with Susan's skillset on the team.
"And that she's an Elvis fan too is the icing on the cake," she said.
"We have a dynamic team working on the Elvis Festival.
"We love working together, Cathy and I have been together for three and a half years - we're like Batman and Robin, we have a good balance."
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Christine Little
I love sharing people's stories, particularly local stories that are special and important to the people of Parkes. If there is one thing I have learnt in my 10 years of community journalism, it's that stories are everywhere. All it takes is a good story teller to make it worth reading. Email: christine.little@parkeschampionpost.com.au
I love sharing people's stories, particularly local stories that are special and important to the people of Parkes. If there is one thing I have learnt in my 10 years of community journalism, it's that stories are everywhere. All it takes is a good story teller to make it worth reading. Email: christine.little@parkeschampionpost.com.au
