Search on for festival chief

The search is on for a new chief of the Queenstown Winter Festival, who will also be tasked with boosting the resort's status as an events destination.

Festival owner-operator Destination Queenstown announced yesterday it had expanded the role of festival director and was seeking to fill the position of "festival and events manager".

The successful candidate would be responsible for the 10-day event's business management, budgeting, reporting, strategic development, sponsorship, marketing and media.

The new recruit would also liaise with and assist Government strategy group Major Events New Zealand and potential event organisers and sponsors. Keeping the community updated with activities and representing the resort at a national level of event development, alongside the Shaping Our Future forum, would also be part of the brief.

DQ chief executive Tony Everitt said members were delighted the 37-year-old institution had reached a new level in the past few years under previous director Simon Green's leadership. He saw the new role as an "evolution and enhancement".

An economic impact assessment last year reported the estimated 45,000 visitors to the annual festival spent almost $58 million in the Wakatipu.

Revellers next year would not notice a difference, other than a continuation of the trend towards a bigger and better festival, Mr Everitt said.

"As DQ noted in our business plan, back in April, and based on feedback from our members over the last months and years, we have undertaken to take some initial steps in the space of promoting Queenstown as an events destination.

"There's been a lot of discussion that's gone into that, consultation with members, and really this is starting to operationalise that."

DQ began advertising this week for the full-time position.

The salary would be worked through with the candidate, who would be based in the festival office with the rest of the team.

"We're hoping to have the new role filled and the 2012 festival team confirmed at the earliest opportunity to enable preparations for Winter Festival 2012 to continue to proceed apace," Mr Everitt said.

Mr Green yesterday said he could not apply for the new role as it was a salaried appointment with DQ and it needed to be independent of anyone with commercial event interests. He was hired for the festival as a contractor and operated his own event management company, The Main Event.

"The festival and events manager would be appointed, then we're working through a process in terms of an event delivery team ... [and] I would still have a role in that capacity.

"I obviously still have a big heart for the festival; it gets in your blood."