Steven Beazley, president and C.E.O. of the O.C. Fair & Event Center, began his 33-year career with the fair organization at 12 years old, as a sweeper at the end of the daily parade. In the decade since he's worked for the organization full time, he's overseen the O.C. Super Fair's ascent from 34th to 13th largest fair in North America, with an expected 2009 attendance of 1.1 million. This year's fair runs from July 10 through August 9—a week longer than in the past year. It will also include a new big-scale exhibit and 3-D movie called Al's Brain in conjunction with Weird Al Yankovic.
Why add a week to the fair?
We always look at our attendance numbers. The philosophy we work under is that everybody wants to be where everybody else is unless everybody’s there. The only way to take some pressure off crowds and decrease lines was to add some dates. It’s very difficult for a general-admission event to be called sold out. But the quality of experience goes down beyond a certain point. When a line gets 15 people long, you know something’s got to be done about that.
That sounds like a good problem to have.
It’s a problem based on our successes. We’re very happy to be grappling with things like that. The county is still growing by about 1.5 percent a year. We need to be mindful to accommodate that growth by giving people good experiences at the fair and keep them coming back. We're always focusing on growing at the same rate as the county.
The key to [our significant growth] is listening to the community and really meeting the needs of what their interests are. What do they want to see? When you’re really listening is when you start attracting the most people.
What was the idea behind the Weird Al exhibit?
When the fair performs at its highest level, it’s because we are educating while we entertain. So we try to predicate everything on that. We’re not a school, so we don’t have a curriculum, but we do try to value lifelong learning in people. So we started conceiving the idea [for the exhibit] in 2005. The fair had already had a very successful relationship with Al coming to play concerts here. Every time he played, he would sell out. So we thought, how can we take the concert experience to the next level? The attraction was much more accessible to people [than a one-off concert]. About 18 months ago, we started the actual production. It’s been about four years in the making and has cost $2.5 million [to execute].
How will you measure the success of such a costly exhibit, and how do you measure the fair's overall success?
Al’s Brain was designed to go on the road and travel. When it’s finished in Orange County, it will go up to the Western Washington State Fair. One metric we will use will be, "will other fairs and festivals across America lease this out?" We’re also surveying people before and after they go into the attraction to see if the attraction met their expectations and increased their knowledge. And the third metric is the percentage of capacity for each show.
What is your biggest challenge for this event?
Making sure each customer feels comforted and cared for. It’s always our challenge—we’re never finished with that. Everything [fairgoers want]—from a place to sit in the shade to their favorite ride—is here. We’re always surveying the customers to make sure our product is relevant to them. We have an extensive customer-satisfaction survey, we have a place where people can talk about the fair online, and also we engage focus groups throughout the year to give us feedback. We’re always paying attention to the customer.
How has the economy affected the fair?
We introduced a season pass with a lot of added value this year. For $30, an adult can buy the pass and get in every day of the fair—and there is $400 of additional value on the card too. [The pass includes daily access to the fair for its 23 days, express lane entry, Al's Brain attraction entry, and other discounts and coupons.] What we’re doing this year that is addressing the economy is that we are providing value, and then we provide a little more. Our pre-sale numbers show that people are responding to that. In a tough economy, people still need to get out. And people don’t give up their traditions easily. About eight of 10 people who attend the fair are returnees. Through our surveys, the average person comes to the year almost four out of every five years—so that’s a really good return rate. Especially since in Southern California, there’s so much competition for summer recreation.
Which partnerships are most valuable to the event's success?
In terms of the economy, this has been a tough year for sponsorships. We have some real tried-and-true sponsors who have stuck with us. For instance, Ralphs supermarket is a real big sponsor for us, and we even sell a discount ticket at their stores, so that’s been a particularly helpful partnership.
How did you choose the vendors for this event?
We bid out all the vendor contracts. We usually bid them out as long-term contracts, so we have some vendors who are with us for several years before needing to bid again. We have some pretty sturdy relationships in terms of production values at the fair.
What will you be doing during the actual event?
First of all, during the opening hour, I’ll be with the rest of the staff at the front of the fair welcoming people, because the first hour is free, including free parking, so we get about 25,000 people there. We open the gates and flood the fair—it really gets the energy of the fair off to a great start.
Beyond that, as the C.E.O., it’s public relations and community relations. I tell the story of the fair. There’s an operations team that runs the event while I really make sure that people—press folks, C.E.O.s from other fairs around the nation, local dignitaries or officials—understand the total story of what we're all about.
