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 would be its best yet and the Committee was excited at the experience and expertise that Sue would bring to the event. “She brings excellent leadership skills, along with event management experience with a range of different stakeholders and the ability to develop strong relationships with funding partners. “The 2006 Festival was an incredibly popular and successful event, but we think 2008 has the potential to be even bigger,” he said.

Sue is keen to get on with the job. “I love a challenge, I love the subject matter and I’m a lateral thinker,” she said. Sue believes the Festival can broaden out its activities beyond the Festival Week dates. “The primary goal is a successful 2008 International Science Festival, but there is scope for our organisation to both provide other science-related events during the year and increase our membership further,” she said.