Inclusive and accessible events

While every organiser should ensure their event is a safe and welcoming space for everyone who attends, it is important to think about the benefits that an event can bring to the wider community and how it can impact the wellbeing of all those who attend in the broadest sense.  

Examples of this could be bringing communities together, improving physical, mental, and social health, community cohesion, and pride in place. 

Being able to measure these effects has become increasingly important as local and regional authority support for events has grown.

eventIMPACTS provide more information on developing and measuring your social and community impacts.

Community participation

Involving people from the community in the organisation of an event and encouraging them to attend is a great way to give a sense of ownership. It can offer an outlet for creativity and an opportunity to try something new and meet new people.  

You can do this through accurately identifying your community stakeholders and ensuring you understand their respective needs and communicate with them effectively. You could consider hosting community consultation sessions, providing regular and consistent updates, engaging with the local community council(s), having open and responsive communication channels and co-design opportunities.

Place and civic pride

Events often become synonymous with their setting, particularly when they have been held there over many years. That means that how people see an event can strongly influence how they see the place in which it is held. This is true both for how visitors feel about an area as well as how the local residents feel about their community as a place to live and work. The aim is to support their sense of pride in where they are from.  

Making equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) a core part of your planning process can lead to a better event experience for everyone and can also help to attract a more diverse audience. Promoting EDI is an important social impact objective for events, particularly during planning and operation of the event, but also in terms of helping to drive positive long-term change.  

Priorities for your event include supporting the attendance, participation and general inclusion of under-represented groups. It is also important to ensure physical accessibility for disabled attendees both in and around the venue as well as ensuring inclusive and accessible options are available for their journeys to and from the event.   

There can be a range of barriers for audiences to attend events including: 

• affordability 
• feelings of exclusion or ‘not being invited’ 
• actual or perceived lack of facilities or information about event venue or site
• mobility issues in and around the event site 
• transport options to the event

Event organisers should also be aware of, and support, their audience’s potential neurodiversity, mental health and wellbeing needs, for example by providing designated quiet spaces at events or slow/relaxed sessions at programmed events.  

The Contribution of Events to Scotland’s Wellbeing 

This report from 2021 provides more information on how events contribute to Scotland’s wellbeing and how to measure this effectively. Wavehill were commissioned to deliver this report by VisitScotland on behalf of the Events Industry Advisory Group.  

Read the Contribution of Events to Scotland’s Wellbeing report.

Scotland’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation 

This strategy provides useful context and information on the relevance of wellbeing to Scotland’s economy. It sets out the priorities as well as the actions needed to maximise the opportunities of the next decade to achieve our vision of a wellbeing economy. It was developed by Scottish Government. 

Read Scotland’s National Strategy for Economic Transformation.