The City of Greater Bendigo has completed a key phase of the Bendigo Writers Festival review. This phase included:

• Online survey on the City's Let's Talk website, received 852 responses
• Independently facilitated roundtable discussion with six local stakeholders identified who have had significant involvement in past festivals and Mayor Cr Andrea Metcalf and Cr Damien Hurrell
• Direct engagement with publishers and other literary stakeholders

Feedback from both the survey and the roundtable reflected on:

Chief Executive Officer Andrew Cooney thanked everyone for participating in the review to date.

“This has been an important process for the City to undertake following this year’s reduced Festival. We value the time and energy people have put into completing the survey, responding to requests for feedback or attending the roundtable discussion,” Mr Cooney said.

Staff will review the data and emerging themes and present a report and recommendation on how we move forward at the December Council meeting. We will update the community again after this meeting.