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Montgomery events coordinator summarizes 2024 outreach, seeks sponsors and equipment for 2025
Summary
Stephanie Johnson presented a recap of six 2024 events and an event wish list for 2025, reporting rough attendance estimates and plans to pursue sponsorships and modest equipment purchases to improve marketing and operations.
Stephanie Johnson, the city’s events coordinator, gave the EDC a recap of the six events held in 2024 and laid out a wish list and sponsorship strategy for 2025.
Johnson told the board she estimates total attendance across the six events in 2024 at roughly “6 to 10000 participants” and said staff are compiling drone imagery that will help provide better counts. For individual events she reported the Lone Star Street Dance drew an estimated 1,000 attendees, Light Up the Park drew about 200 despite rainy conditions, and the snow party has grown to an estimated several thousand attendees. She said the Christmas parade likely drew more than 1,000 participants in the crowd.
Sponsorships and branding Johnson said she is pursuing sponsorships and proposed bundling events under title-sponsorship packages (she gave $10,000 as an example price for a bundled “Christmas in Montgomery” title sponsor) so the city can offer consistent sponsor benefits across events. She also recommended branding and marketing purchases—retractable banners, table covers, permanent pole identification for pole-decorator contests, and a modest events “kit” (tools, rope, hot-glue guns, signage) to improve presentation and logistics.
Budgeting and operations Johnson told the EDC she was conservative with spending in 2024 and leveraged community partners, including Home Depot, which loaned large decorative items. She said the events account is structured as a pooled events budget and that unused funds from one event roll into the events pot for future use. For the March Mardi Gras proposal presented earlier, she advised organizers to put full yearly budgets together in January if they intend to run multiple events in a year.
Requests and next steps Board members asked for the events wish list and cost estimates to be provided in writing; Johnson said she has a tabbed binder with scope-of-work details and per-event budgets. Staff said they will review the listed miscellaneous purchases against event-line items and advise whether items can be purchased from the events fund or need to return to the EDC for approval.
Ending Johnson said she will continue building marketing channels, pursue sponsors and work with staff to formalize the 2025 calendar and budgets so recurring events can be budgeted and contracted in advance.
