THOSE who appreciate irony will no doubt have enjoyed a wry smile after reading page 10 of last Friday's Inverness Courier.

On the top half of the page, the leader column chided the organisers of Highland 2007 for missing an opportunity to stage "three or four nationally important headline events" during this, the year Scotland celebrates Highland culture.

Directly underneath was the latest in a series of large display adverts to promote upcoming events supported by Highland 2007.

The range of these events illustrates, better than any words of mine ever could, what Highland 2007 is all about — the Nairn Book and Arts Festival, an important design exhibition in Rosemarkie, a mountain bike challenge in Lochaber, open air concerts and a national sporting event for people with disabilities in Inverness, and a touring celebration of Sorley Maclean's poetry.

It is this diversity, offering accessible, high-quality cultural experiences to locals and visitors, which is rightly at the core of Highland 2007. And remember, that was just a small sample of some of the things happening week-to-week in communities all over the Highlands and Islands.

Across the region and beyond, people have been working together over the past three years to create events and projects that will showcase the best of our culture. Everyone has had the opportunity to contribute to the celebrations and grants have been available to community groups and organisations.

High-profile events are an important element. But it is just as important that these are complemented by hundreds of events which may be smaller in scale but make an impact, encouraging all of us to celebrate this fantastic part of Scotland to the utmost.

It is not only about events, however. Highland 2007 will leave a physical legacy in the form of capital investments — such as the redevelopment of Eden Court Theatre, Culloden Battlefield and Visitor Centre, and FÀS at Sabhal Mor Ostaig, along with many smaller community projects.

I am encouraged to see the Courier's acknowledgement that The Highland 2007 launch and LifeScan Monster Street Party — enjoyed by around 20,000 spectators — met the 'wow' factor expected as part of the celebrations.

This event was designed to showcase Inverness and the Highlands to best effect and to support our aim of fostering a great sense of pride in the city.

Another event aiming to draw an international audience to Inverness and the Highlands is InvernessFest, a new summer festival at the height of the tourist season to show off the best of our traditional and contemporary culture.

InvernessFest 2007 includes an international Military Tattoo, the World Championships of the Highland Games circuit, the European Pipe Band Championships, a new Festival Club in Falcon Square and an eclectic fringe programme throughout the city. This Highland 2007 event will feature global superstar Sir Elton John and his band, and adverts and posters the length of the UK have focused on this.

To meet the desire to stage a new annual festival to show off our region's biggest asset — our environment — and combining an extensive range of the best ways to enjoy being outdoors in the Highlands and Islands with a line up of comedy, debate, world class music and film, The Outsider at Rothiemurchus from 22nd to 24th June will be truly unique.

Another event bringing our best assets to the attention of 40,000 spectators and millions of television viewers around the world is the UCI Mountain Biking World Championship and Trials coming to the "outdoor capital" of the UK in September with support from Highland 2007. Fort William offers some of the best and most scenic mountain biking tracks anywhere on the globe, providing the opportunity to watch the most talented mountain bikers hurtling down exhilarating trails.

The economic benefits of the 80 — or more — other major events supported by Highland 2007 with the allocation of awards of up to £25,000 are huge. Each event attracts its own audience to the Highlands and Islands and affords us the opportunity to 'wow' them while they are here. If we all do that job effectively these visitors will return, hopefully with others in tow, or at least they will spread the message that this is a great place to visit — thus creating an army of promotional ambassadors.

At the same time, each event will attract its own individual brand of media attention. Some will be national and some will be industry-specific.

In combination the message will filter through a network of media outlets, promoting the region to a broader audience base than could ever be achieved by simply relying on positive news coverage alone.

This year, events such as the Celtic Film and TV Festival, the Fort William Mountain Festival, the O'Neill Highland Open, Shetland Folk Festival, the Adventure Racing World Championships, Four Nations Football Tournament, the TRYathlon, RockNess and goNorth have already delivered on both of these aims and have been highly successful in attracting audiences and media coverage.

The fireworks opener for Highland 2007 received rave reviews. Northern Exposures

Our focus has not been solely on a programme of larger events. Over 500 community events form the backbone of the celebrations and the young people of the Highland Council area within each of the 29 community school groups have also been involved through developing their own individual Highland Promise — An Gealladh Mòr.

Everyone involved with designing a Highland 2007 event for their community has contributed to an enormous harnessing of talent, passion and expertise.

Highland 2007 may have been born out of a centralised bid to become the European Capital of Culture in 2008, but the proposal to hold a year long celebration of Highland culture recognised from the outset the positive role to be played by the people of the Highlands and Islands themselves.

The result of this approach has been to extend the quality and range of the overall programme and the community events offer some of the most exciting and fascinating attributes.

In particular, this is one of the features that will distinguish the Highland 2007 celebrations from every other 'festival' in the UK.

By including our young people in the programming through the allocation of funding to support The Highland Promise, we have endeavoured to expand the cultural horizons and opportunities available to them.

While this will be a one-off set of experiences in 2007, the agencies involved will use the outcomes to shape policy decisions affecting young people for the future.

So have we missed an opportunity?

We have high-profile events, nationally important events, headline acts, concerts and festivals covering a diverse range of cultural interests and attracting a similarly wide range of audiences and media attention.

We have community events that appeal to locals and visitors and which differentiate our programme from any other.

Our schools have tailored programmes of activity which they chose themselves and reflect the cultural interests of the young people in their area.

And we will have the physical reminders in the improvements made to our cultural facilities across the region.

Highland 2007 is a unique project that will ultimately be judged on whether it leaves a lasting impression of increased levels of activity, and of pride and confidence in our communities.

It combines the collective efforts of the public sector, private business partners, national agencies and a very large proportion of people living in the Highlands and Islands.

All have a shared objective — to use this platform to promote the region as a great place to live and to visit and to foster a cultural legacy for future generations. This is an opportunity for us all to maximise the potential benefit to the area.

* Do you think Highland 2007 has been a success so far? Go to 'The Big Vote' to have your say.

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