Newark Well Being Event
Cedric Ford Pavilion
Newark Show Ground
Newark
NG24 2NY
16 & 17 September
Ian Timothy – Photo by J.S
The reaction to our Major Announcement is spectacular. We knew it would be well received, although we could not have anticipated the fantastic response and enthusiasm for the project. The new look 2018 shows are sure to attract new visitors and rekindle interest in those who may feel the old MBS Events have become stale.
We are at the base camp of the climb; the summit is within view. We have prepared for the ascent, and the way to the objective is planned. I take this opportunity to reflect on the comments we have received and answer important questions asked. I asked D.S. if he would conduct an interview with me in Nottingham. The remit was that he would ask questions which visitors and members of the community would find interesting. I provided D.S with a resume of our progress, and he conducted the interview based on this information.
I recorded the extended interview with D.S, and this is an abridged resume of the recording. For those who are interested, the full recording will be available as an MP3 Download later in the month.
D.S ’How do you review other organisers work?’
Answer: ‘I do not, there is no viewpoint, people do as they wish. Exhibitors choose who they stand with; I would not waste my time looking at other peoples work. In the early days, I did so; some ideas were ok, other’s are not, I’m sure this is reciprocal. Do not forget; I’ve exhibited at M.B.S shows for fifteen years. The original Rasen Show was five years ago. Remember, it is not difficult to organise an event. What ‘s hard is organising a different event.’
D.S. ‘Can you talk about your objective?’
Answer: ‘We choose to focus on Nottingham, Newark, and Lincoln. The venues are booked into 2020. The constant effort to awareness will fulfill our objective. Which is 130 community members attending the Lincoln Show. All of them unified to attract a verified numbers of visitors. The Newark Show will have a target of eighty community, and the Nottingham Show is thirty-two community members and will always be on our calendar. There is NO interest in going further from our home base.’
D.S. Surely you are setting limitations with this policy?
Answer: This requires explanation because much of our plan has defined limitations: Organising an event is not a difficult task. Anyone can fill a venue with ‘exhibitors, ’ and the profit margins make the proposition very tempting. For example, we could rent a venue for 2 thousand. All we need are 20 exhibitors at 100 pounds a table to break even. Put 100 exhibitors in the same location at 120, and we would make over eight thousand for a weekend’s work from the accumulated stall price. Plus the visitor’s entrance fee, well work it out, it’s a highly lucrative proposition. The connotation of this equation is obvious. It produces the issue of a saturation of shows. And the exhibitors will focus on a ‘successful’ event as evidence there is life in ‘every’ event. This is not, how we wish to be seen by our community or visitors. Therefore, we will keep our shows to two prestige venues and one small. Our intention is for the events to have an enviable reputation for attendance and commitment to the community. Therefore, the choice is prestigious venues. This presents a major factor to consider. If the overhead is 10K for a venue, you best make sure the show is a winner. And this is where we are with Lincoln. We must combine ‘prestige’ and the highest standard of the community members for the show to work; a combination which is essential to this event. There are many new ideas ready to be unveiled. However, we’ll wait until 2018, before cutting the ribbon on the plans.
D.S. ‘It is evident you put an enormous amount of effort into the promotion of your exhibitors.’
Answer: ‘Firstly, we do not have ‘exhibitors,’ we have a ‘community, ’ and we focus on the prosperity of our community. I’ll answer your question further. Liz and I push the limits of what is available on social media. We also are working on an extensive and wide ranging Forum. For this to make an impact, the community and visitors will have to participate. Getting people to interact takes time and effort. The difficulty is making people aware of the project. It is not hard work; it is time-consuming. Although from our standpoint we enjoy the process. For example, I am currently learning about software coding and WordPress site production. Many years of photographic, video and audio work is paying high dividends and will become a major part of our promotional armory. Liz looks after the administration, paperwork, and FaceBook. By the way: Liz agrees with me, this is not hard or difficult work, it is time-consuming, we both love the process. Learning and experimentation are part of our psyche. We look for new and better ways to promote the events and the community every day. This ‘Events News’ is part evidence of this commitment.’
D.S. ‘What is your motivation?’
Answer: ‘I have never seen anyone succeed in the long term when the priority is money. My motivation is aligned with Liz’s, which is to develop a robust platform which can be utilised by people who wish to become community members. Anyone who is sceptical with our insistence on the community ethos has NO future in our plan. To expand, if our foundation were some deception, it will, in the long term, fail. The reason I talk openly about our plans and ethos is that it provides evidence of integrity, There are no ‘gray’ areas, the objective is prestigious and well-attended shows, at which our community can prosper. The success of the project is sufficient motivation. Ultimately, we foresee the ability to demonstrate the success of the plan as our long term future. When we can do this (demonstrate the capacity to promote a community), we can provide further opportunities to our community. Now, I realise the meaning of this comment ‘s hard to grasp, it is for the listener to work out what I mean.
D.S. ‘Will you appraise the last four months of LizianEvents progress?’
Answer: ‘Ok, from a standing start we had to focus on the Lincoln Show. From scratch to the show we had less than seven weeks to the Saturday morning door opening. In fact, the show had had little promotion from January to May. Many people had spread and encouraged the rumour the show was NOT going to happen. So we were in double trouble. One was the vacuum of promotion, and two, the gossip and doubts which shadowed the event. We had a substantial e-mailing list. When this was verified, it dropped from 14700 to 7800. As you know, email-out regimes will only be opened by 10% of recipients. Our address is new to recipients, so many more were not opened. In fact, the probability is thousands of the emails are still sitting junk folders. We surpassed accepted statistics, and the first mailout resulted in 13% being opened, although, many unsubscribed. 13% of 7800 works out at about 900 reads. Now, as this covers a wide area of the U.K., what was the possible uptake from the email-out who attended the event? Well, we collected 258 emails at the Lincoln event, and only seven were in the database. The snail mail cost was £750, and the tickets presented from this mail-out was nine! Nine visitors from a £900 (750 + 150 printing) total cost promotion, in other words, one hundred pounds per visitor. The hurdles have been high and many. Liz and I are being relentless in our promotion of the Newark event. And the uptake from the emails has become encouraging. Incidentally, we pruned the old exhibitor list, and it now stands at ninety-seven, and ninety-one percent of these are opened, every time we mail out. There are more potential community members than allotted spaces available. Newark will probably have fifty-five community members attending. We could fill the full allocation of sixty-five. However, we must keep the numbers balanced. Too many members selling the same product, or offering the same service, will dilute their potential to cover costs. It is essential to follow the ethos; the bottom line is our community’s success.’
Many Thanks to D.S. for his commitment and the valuable time extended for this interview to come to fruition.
This article is written from the most important parts of the interview. I may return to other aspects at another time. During the interview, I was questioned about progress and how I sense we are viewed by those who are close to us. To answer this I use Steven Blake’s testimonial.
