Rotorua World Mountain Bike Champs – Taking an Event into the Community

• Rotorua District Council supports the bid for the World Champs
• The events strategy – it is what you do with the events that counts
• Bringing the event out of the box
• The World Mountain Bike Champs and the Bike Festival (and the undie races)
• Beyond the event – what has come out of it?
• Good practice lessons

Introduction

This case study looks at how a one-off international event can be used to build lasting community participation in sport and recreation. The case is Rotorua District Council’s (RDC) role in bringing the World Mountain Bike Championships (WMBC) to Rotorua in 2006. RDC co-ordinated the bid for the championships and used the event to increase participation in mountain biking and use of the city’s forest park at Whakarewarewa.

The key to the success has been:

• Bike NZ and RDC running a community Bike Festival in tandem with the world champs to broaden the appeal of the event and expose more people to mountain biking
• building momentum around mountain biking, with other racing events  prior to and after the world champs
• RDC focusing on expanding public use of an existing facility – Whakarewarewa’s forest trails.

Updated | 17 Jun 2008.

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