New Years Day

Happy New Year to Everyone

This article is a review of 2017 by Liz Clark and Ian Timothy

LizianEvents enjoyed an eventful 2017. In January we were running the Market Rasen and Nottingham – Trowell Shows and by April Newark and Lincoln became additions to the calendar. The change of portfolio of events required us to close the doors on the Market Rasen show. You can be sure that after six years of promoting this show; we were sad to say good-bye. Although, we could not run an event so close to Lincoln as this would be of little benefit to Community Members. The reasoning is that we would attract the same visitors to each venue and therefore the footfall for the shows would suffer. To encourage healthy visitor attendance the adage ‘Less is more’ is one Liz and I embellish.

Allow me to remind you of the sequence of events: Annie Webster approached us early in April and asked if we would consider becoming custodians of Moonlit Pathways Events. Annie was candid with the reason for her choice: –

“I have enjoyed my time with the events. But frankly, there is too much work involved for one person. I have watched your progress with LizianEvents and feel you’ll look after my shows to the best possible advantage”.

We reviewed the venues and decided to work with the pair closest to our home base in Nottingham: They are Lincoln and Newark. With only six weeks from scratch to organise our first Lincoln Show, nobody could argue the task would be a ‘tall order’. Potential exhibitors were contacted, and the enthusiasm for the new venture was and still is impressive. The first weekend enjoyed reasonable success, of more importance, both exhibitors and visitors gave Liz and I every reason to feel we would make the shows prosper.

Although the ideas we discussed over the last few years could not be implemented at short notice, we now know there is time to use them in the future. Lincolnshire Showground’s ‘Epic Centre’ and Newark Showground’s ‘Cedric Ford Pavilion’ provide the required facilities for us to expand visitor interaction and enjoyment.

Community Members

Ideas Become Realities

Lizian Crystals exhibited at events for over fifteen years. We enjoyed considerable success with Angie Jury’s, Annie Webster’s and Eric Henderson’s events. Looking through my journals, I read we suffered few losses and made good profits over these formative years. Liz and I noticed that over the years most events followed a similar formula and visitor numbers were falling. Our analysis is this: with higher amounts of exhibitors and falling footfall, changes are required, or the shows will not be worth attending.

Travelling to and from the venues provided many hours to discuss how we would take LizianEvents Shows forward. Here are some of the ideas we considered and decided to actualise:-

Manifesto

Liz and I formulated the manifesto in May and the objective if not set in stone, it is imprinted in the essence and ethos of LizianEvents. I’m pleased others have followed this lead, it sounds like a super plan, however, to make the idea breath it requires thousands of hours of endeavour. Everything we write about and the dedication to the foundational principals can be found in The LizianEvents News – LizianEvents Website and our Social Media presence. The approach is holistic, and there is no bias toward one area. Most important is the daily dedication to the objective of providing ‘The Community’ with avenues of promotion and success. Let’s consider the assets used to pursue this objective.

Community

The number one consideration is to unify the ‘exhibitors’ and build a community. As organisers, we saw the opportunity given to us by Annie as a fuse to be lit with new ideas. We were not alone in experiencing bias towards ‘certain’ exhibitors.

Fairness

The imbalance and ‘concessions’ given to exhibitors had caused (and still does) much agitation. A feeling this is key to the door of success was considered. During May and June, I wrote in-depth articles revealing our intention to level the playing field. Everyone would pay the same stand fees relative to their genre, and we would allocate specific numbers of stalls to each show. By capping the number of stalls within each genre, we enhance the probability of Community Members clearing overheads and showing a profit.

Clarity

Everyone attending ‘LizianEvents Well Being Shows’ is left with no misunderstandings of our ethos. Of course, we encountered cynics who commented we were ‘over the top’ with ideas and details of our plans. The reality is; the majority of people have embellished our ethos and enjoy the camaraderie of community. I know for sure everyone involved with LizianEvents knows we listen and act on comments which are beneficial to long-term success. Because Liz and I accept we work for LizianEvents nothing is taken personally. This differential is significant; there is no ego involved in the success of the organisation. This success is discovered in The Community, not in the infrastructure.

Community Members

Rules

To this end, twenty-two rules evolved to guide ourselves, Community Members and Visitors to the ethos of the organisation. People do read, accept and enforce the statutes: Referring to our Google Analytic page statistics: we find the ‘Information page’ is viewed once in every seven visits. It is interesting that people stay on this page for an average of eight minutes. Therefore we can be confident the strategy of a defined structure is accepted by and beneficial to the community.

Website Information

In the first two weeks of January, the website LizianEvents.com will be loaded with information about the year ahead. The usual Community Member Profiles and videos will be linked to everyone on the show listings.

‘The LizianEvents News’

The plan is to unify ‘The Community’ and this ‘The LizianEvents News’ is central to the connection. You are reading a platform built for the prosperity of ‘The Community’. This site is a source of information which will become the biggest source of WellBeing information in the U.K, and if you think LizianEvents are stopping here, you’ll be mistaken.

Consider the Potential of ‘The News’

After reading this article test the potential of The LizianEvents News: Go to the ‘Search Box’ at the top of every page. Type in a search word: for example type in ‘Meditation’ see what happens. Now you can see the potential of this daily news. Now type ‘Simon’ into the search box. With 2000 visitors per week at this time the potential is incredible. Anyone who is part of ‘The Community’ will prosper and heighten their profile by writing and offering submissions to the pages. Within two years ‘The News’ viewing figures will grow to astronomical numbers. Both Community and shows will benefit from this LizianEvents asset.

Community Members

Forum

While ‘take up’ to ‘Forums’ is now accepted as ‘slow’, we should not dismiss the fact that visitors do read the threads. I know for sure that members who are writing posts are being seen by visitors. And they are benefiting from their interaction on the Forum. It does not take much time to reply to a thread, and the reply is there forever. Anyone could read your response and contribution, and this can lead to bookings and purchases.

Classified Advertisements

People are making sales from the Classifieds on this site. Remember there are no commissions and the site is safe from internet predators. Spammers have no hope on this site, the filters are the best we can buy, so if you have an article to sell or a service to provide. List it on the ‘News’.

Activating the Ideas

The principals of the manifesto are the words: Community – Fairness – Clarity – Rules. It is now time to activate the ideas and ethos. We must not waiver from the tasks which will produce shows our visitors will remember as spectacular events. The infrastructure of LizianEvents News, LizianEvents website and our media channels (Video and Podcasts) will ensure visitor awareness of our Community Members and the yearly calendar.

2018 Opportunities

There will be new openings for Community Members to use to their advantage. One will be an ongoing financial opportunity; the other will become a superb promotional asset. Both are unique to LizianEvents; there are no other organisations which have offered these assets to their ‘exhibitors’. Every reader should take note of this and remember LizianEvents are lamplighters and innovators in the events promotion industry.

The Two Opportunities

One – Online Courses

LizianEvents will offer Community Members the opportunity to formulate online paid courses. For example, a member may have a special technique for hypnosis, another may wish to teach the art of Indian Head Massage, and another may like to teach vegetarian cooking. The demand for online courses is fantastic and LizianEvents will offer this facility to Community Members. The potential to earn from online classes cannot be ignored.

To my mind this will provide Community Members with an excellent second stream or primary income. From LizianEvents perspective we will earn extra revenue for our organisation, and of course we will receive the benefits of online promotion.

Two – Virtual Talks

During 2018 the opportunity to record half hour video presentations to be projected on a loop at the Show will be available. These video talks will also be available online and will be embedded in the Community Member’s profile. Video is accepted as the primary information media on the internet, and members who take advantage of this facility will gain internet visibility.

Twelve Months of Media Awareness

2018 will present many opportunities for members of our community. As organisers, we have a primary obligation to provide visitors with a compelling reason to visit the shows. Everything we can do to make them aware of Community Members will be utilised. I intend to build social media awareness to the extent we are at the highest possible search engine rankings. We will combine Community Member Profiles, LizianEvents News Articles, LizianEvents Website, Media (Video and Podcast Interviews) to attain an enviable reputation for promotional awareness.

Community Members

The next year will bring many more people into the shows. The depth and breadth of the events are expanding. The Lincolnshire Well Being Show promises to be the foundation of a spectacular future for all who are part of LizianEvents. We will not make any predictions; there is no interest in being ‘The Best’ or ‘Most Successful’. We have every intention of being recognised as an organisation built on the word integrity. We will establish our future by following the plans you have read in this article.

Look forward to your 2018 –  Be sure if you are a Visitor or Member of the LizianEvents Community you are part of a caring and generous group of extraordinary people.

Happy New Year

Liz Clark and Ian Timothy

This is a long and important article the next article will be published 4th of January 2018