The group has been put together at the behest of borough council leader David Tutt in the wake of this year's disastrous loss-making show.
It is made up of representatives of the business and tourism community and will work independently of the co
uncil, but report to Cllr Tutt.
The chairman is Chamber of Commerce president Steve Clark who said this week, "The concept is simple — a group of like-minded local business people from a wide variety of backgrounds will be getting together at the request of council leader David Tutt to assemble a list of ideas to improve and fund Airbourne."
Mr Clark's team includes PR and marketing men Ray Groves and Tim Cobb and hotelier Abid Gulzar.
He added, "I think most people want Airbourne to remain on the calendar but the charging mechanism, if there is one at all, needs to be looked at. How can the town make income derived from this event meet the significant outlay?
"As chairman I am looking for ideas for the team to debate — the more creative the better. Thoughts can cover the event as a whole, a small part of the existing event or indeed complementary additions to it.
"I am not looking to debate whether the event should continue or indeed looking to recruit volunteers for the think-tank. Nor will the group be taking responsibility for organising the event in the future — it is purely a consultative body.
"The time for recriminations is over and I am not one for dwelling in the past. As a town we need to look forward to next year's Airbourne and beyond, and therefore I am delighted to be offered the opportunity to chair this initiative."
The borough fenced off a large section of the seafront and introduced a £5 viewing charge for this year's event in a bid to make the show break even. But the plan backfired disastrously, leaving the council with a £360,000 hole in its budget.
The council is determined to keep the show — Eastbourne's biggest visitor event by far — but in difficult financial times needs to find a way of preventing it from becoming a major burden on council tax payers.
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