In This Issue
Bridging Cultures, Bringing Dollars
TEXpansion: New report tracks High Plains’ growth
Road race drives visitors to West Texas
Rodeo leader grabs event by the horns
Partnering for Impact:
City hotel taxes boost event
budgets
Web Exclusive
Lamb Leads the Charge
Local Government
Steps for Success
Bucky Lamb
Bucky Lamb, general manager of the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo, says the success of any community event depends on the teamwork of staff, volunteers, corporate partners, media and community and elected officials. He gives the following advice for ensuring a successful event:
Increase awareness and participation. Reach out to the community’s diverse groups and offer each group an opportunity to get involved.
Conduct public surveys, evaluate perceptions, host focus groups, ask for help.
When attempting to grow an event, establish clearly defined parameters and evolve in a controlled fashion.
Be prepared for success. When attendance surges, ensure the public has a positive experience.
Rodeo Austin organizer dreams big, takes event to new heights.
When Bucky Lamb joined the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo as general manager and CEO in 2000, the Austin-based event served eight Texas counties and was struggling financially.
Fast-forward to 2008. The event’s scholarship program serves students in each of Texas’ 254 counties and awarded more than $1.4 million in scholarships in 2008. Its rodeo purse exceeds $338,000 — a 132 percent jump in eight years. Fair and rodeo attendance in 2008 exceeded 300,000, with rodeo ticket sales spilling over the $1.5 million mark. The Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo — also called Rodeo Austin — generates an estimated economic impact of more than $45 million.
Lamb was hired with several charges: improve the financial standing of the organization, increase the level of youth giving, expand the livestock show statewide and elevate the stature of the fair and rodeo. His goal was to make it Austin’s top nonprofit organization and one of America’s leading fairs and rodeos.
“I began by establishing a mission statement . . . ‘Promoting Youth Education – Preserving Western Heritage,’” Lamb says. “During my first month in Austin, I challenged our volunteers to stop thinking small and stop asking why? I challenged them to start dreaming, start thinking big and start asking why not?”
Lamb’s mission took hold. He attributes the event’s success to its 12 full-time employees, thousands of volunteers and sponsors and the cooperation of state, county and city leaders. Since 2000, the fair’s volunteer base has more than doubled to 2,500.
“This has been an absolute team effort,” he says. “It’s been about us and the entire community pulling together. Leaders have worked with the organization to increase awareness, improve facilities and plan for the future.”
Since its scholarship program began in 1983, Rodeo Austin has donated more than $3.5 million in scholarships — 56 percent of which has been within the last eight years.
“I love knowing that I am helping thousands of young Texans fulfill their dreams,” says Lamb.TR
For more information about Rodeo Austin, visit www.RodeoAustin.com.
For resources on promoting events in your community, visit the Comptroller’s Local Government Assistance and Economic Development Division at (800) 531-5441, ext. 3-4679, or visit www.TexasAhead.org.