Festival Director

Sue Clarke

Sue Clarke has almost 10 years experience in event management, and comes from Southland. She has managed a range of events and projects including the Otago and Southland Ballance Farm Environment Awards, the Southland Equestrian and Indoor Arena Trust and the Southland Santa Parade.

Festival Chairman Mike Harte said the 2008 event was extremely successful and the Committee were delighted with the experience and expertise that Sue brought to the event. “She has excellent leadership skills and together with event management experience with a range of different stakeholders has the ability to develop strong relationships with funding partners.

“The 2008 Festival was an incredibly popular and successful event, and we are currently formating and planning the 2010 Festival - keep watching this space,” he said.

Sue relished her role as Director of the 2008 Festival and is excitied about what 2010 may offer.

“I love creating a diverse programme that encompasses the whole community. The subject matter needs to be informative and exciting - let's attempt to communicate to all levels of society in a fun yet learning environment.” she said. Sue believes the Festival can broaden out its activities beyond the Festival Week date and the recent launch of the Meet-a-Metre project is testimony to this.

"The primary goal is a successful International Science Festival, and now there is scope for our organisation to reach a New Zealand wide school audience which is an opportunity never explored before ” she said.