Date: Nov 13, 2020
This research is being conducted in six waves over the course of the next year. This is a community resource that is FREE to access and results from the third wave of research are now available.
Findings for Alberta organizations from Wave 3 results include:
- Community attitudes on comfort are becoming entrenched.
- Risk tolerance provides a richer understanding of how Albertans will approach engagement.
- Right now audiences indicate they need to hear experiences will be safe and fun.
- Capitalize on desire for shared experiences but with a focus on innovation and intimacy.
- The intersection of cohorts, shared experiences, and risk tolerance means audiences will engage, but appear to be doing so with their cohorts in mind - "will this put my friends/family at risk?".
What are the implications for Alberta organizations?
- Comfort with conditions and other people has dampened willingness to actually engage in their usual activities. It is likely this variable is an additional barrier impacting final consideration of participating in activities.
- The benefits you offer and the messaging you broadcast must overcome that broader interpretation of risk. Whereas risk used to be overcome simply by appealing to the motivations of the individual, now we will have to assuage safety/health concerns that impact the people around the individual (i.e. safety measures are not just for you; they are for those around you.)
- Knowing who you can reach, what to offer them and what to say will be critical as organizations plan how to engage audiences in the coming months.
- Right now audiences indicate they need to hear the experiences they will have are safe and fun. This is critical for building confidence and organizations need to reinforce those dual messages of safety/comfort with enjoyment. The weight of each type of message will vary depending on how risk tolerant the audience is.
- Audiences need to hear they will be able to have the desired shared experiences but that the experience is safe (for them and their cohort). To balance those needs of social, safety, and fun, organizations will need to develop and continuously reinvent (often many times over) the types of small group offerings that deliver this.
- Opportunities exist for organizations in the experience economy to engage Albertans by balancing the notion of cohorts with shared experiences. Show them how to engage with their entire cohort or at least show the activity will not put their cohort at risk.
Download the reports:
You can subscribe to receive notifications when the new reports are available by visiting stone-olafson.com.
About the project
The Alberta Foundation for the Arts is pleased to be a funding partner in this collaboration with Stone-Olafson and other community leaders to develop a long-term research investigation and evaluate how current conditions will reshape Albertans’ attitudes and behaviours towards social and group activities, across a variety of sectors. The purpose of this work is to give leaders of community sports, recreation, arts and culture, professional sports, active living, heritage, tourism or hospitality sectors relevant facts about local audiences that they will need to bring life back to our communities.
The initiative is being funded by:
