Top 10 Event Suggestions…

The Nomad and I were having coffee and a bagel at one of our local Tim Hortons. Believe it or not we like to go there to write. I find it less distracting then home! While I was there, an acquaintance stopped to say hello. He is the past chair of the Rotary portion of the Cobourg Waterfront Festival. Naturally our conversation turned to the Waterfront Festival and festivals in general. I told him about Ontario Visited and that Gary and I completed a personal event evaluation after visiting each event. He asked me if I had any suggestions on how to improve the Waterfront Festival of just festivals in general. I told him we would give him our top 10 suggestions! I want to share these suggestions with you in this blog. They are presented in no particular order of importance, but my biggest pet peeve is poor or no external or internal signage. That being said, the others suggestions will vary according to the type and size of the events being organized.

Here is my Top Improvement 10 list:

1. Good and well placed signage
2. Well designed and informative websites
3. Shuttle services when needed
4. Package delivery service
5. Services for seniors and the disabled
6. Clean and well placed washroom facilities
7. Shaded seating areas
8. Informative festival guides
9. Informed well trained volunteers
10. Good food at fair prices

“CONTACT US” (Part Two)

Continuing on this topic of “CONTACT US”, why don’t all website have an e-mail address? After they are using the internet, so someone must use e-mail. In this day and age, who wants write a letter and wait weeks for a reply? Or, who wants to make a telephone call, get an answering machine and then wait for a call back? I know I don’t! E-mail is such an effective and efficient way of communicating. The worst group for this lack of a contact e-mail is the fall fairs. As a group, they don’t seem to want to communicate through e-mail! At first I thought it might be because it was run by rural people who might have slow internet connections, but technology is zooming ahead in leaps and bounds, so I don’t think this is a factor. Beside more and more rural people are becoming very savvy when it comes to technology and communications. Gone are the days of party lines and outhouses, today its satellites and high definition TV.  So what is the answer then? I’m not sure. I am just telling you my observations as a person constantly looking at festival, event and attraction websites. If someone does have the answer, please let me know! In the meantime, if you are a festival or event organizer or you develop websites for them, make sure you include and easy to find “CONTACT US” page and that it includes a contact e-mail address!

“CONTACT US” (Part One)

Have you ever been on a website and found that you had a question or comment? I know I have. So, it always bugs me when the “CONTACT US” page is either non-existent or impossible to find! How can you have a website and I am talking about festivals, event and attractions, and not have a readily accessible “CONTACT” page. I will give you an example. I wanted to visit a Santa Claus parade. I went onto their website (very cute and hard to manipulate, but that is another blog) to find out more information about the parade. After reading the website I had a number of questions I wanted to ask. I started to look through the site to find their “CONTACT” page. NOTHING! I know where to look to find obscure “CONTACT” pages, but I could find nothing in this case. I even tried to send an e-mail to info@theirsite.ca but no luck. The message was sent back as undeliverable. So much for ingenuity! The organizing committee obviously did not want to communicate with its patrons! WHY you might ask! You would think that they would want feedback, suggestions. Wouldn’t they want to help people who had questions? You would think so, but not this event! The sad part is that they are not alone.

(Continued on Part Two)

Community Involvement… (Part Two)

Cobourg Waterfront Festival

This is really a number of festivals and events within a larger community festival. Four community groups have banned together to host one of Canada’s most successful Canada Day weekend festivals. The four groups involved are the Cobourg Lions Club, the Cobourg Rotary Club, the Northumberland Central Chamber of Commerce and the Town of Cobourg’s Canada Day committee. The effect of this coalition is that it attracts 70,000 odd visitors to Cobourg each July 1^st and raises 100’s of thousands of dollars that are invested back into the community.

Kleinburg Binder Twine Festival

Each fall the entire downtown business section closes its streets for 1 day to celebrate the fall harvest. The unique feature of this festival is that out-of-town vendors and local merchants co-exist for this one day! To walk down the main street and see the line of white tents flanked by colorfully presented retail stores shows the true meaning of community involvement and cooperation!

Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest

The K-W Oktoberfest is the ultimate example of a community coming together to celebrate its people and their heritage! I don’t think that there is any one or business that doesn’t have at least some involvement with the Oktoberfest festivities. During the event, I think residents of the whole community, Kitchener, Waterloo and all the surrounding hamlets and villages, put on their Alpine Hats and Lederhosen and have a great time with all the attractions!

“We are all richer (not monetarily) when community residents join together to celebrate their community and its heritage.”