Did you see me posting/emailing about the Metrogaine in Blaxland and the Festival of Rogaining in Capertee last year? I’m a statistician and I have no formal training in publicity… Perhaps you’d like to give this a go for an event of your choice as well?
Below I outline what I did and how I found the experience. The biggest pro? You help build our sport and you still get to do the event because you haven’t seen the map or the course!
We’re always looking for extra volunteers in this space to spread the load 😊 Email volunteer@nswrogaining.org to assist.
So, what did I do for each event?
- Drafted the event page with the events team (coordinator and setter).
They are focused on the location, securing a Hash House, setting the entry fees, and much more. I simply set out the page and filled in everything that I could and then asked them to “fill in the red bits” (shared document on Google Drive). Easy 😊 - Posted the event on Facebook and created a Facebook event.
Who doesn’t love hearing about an upcoming event? It’s an easy job that gets you likes on Facebook. Especially when you are given cute photos of a dog wearing a compass to post. - Drafted an email to go out to all email subscribers.
I just had to point out key information and include one photo (that I got from the Events team and sentences I took from the event webpage). - Drafted a small blurb for the newsletter.
This was just taking a few sentences from the events webpage that had already been written.
- Posted regularly about the event on Facebook (about every 2 weeks)
I sent the course setters a few questions to answer (what do you think participants will enjoy best?) and used this as content. I also used photos from vetting and hanging controls. I did have to learn how to remove the location information from photos before posting on Facebook – turns out that’s easy too (and a useful life skill). - Approached community groups
For the Metrogaine, I wrote to local running and bushwalking clubs to tell them about the event, I put flyers in the local running shop, and I wrote a blurb for the local newspaper. For the Festival of Rogaining, I wrote to bushwalking clubs across NSW to promote the event (we have a list of contact details you can use). All these approaches needed to happen at least 2 months in advance so there was time for clubs to tell their members about the event.
How did I find the experience?
The events team is so glad to have someone taking care of ensuring posts go up on Facebook, etc. that they constantly shower you in thanks. And it’s nice to get likes on Facebook too 😉 Occasionally you have to remind them to send you photos, and other info, but that just means sending a friendly reminder with a deadline.
And, what was the best bit of doing the publicity role for an event?
I still got to do the event as it doesn’t require seeing the map! Note, I only did the Capertee event. I didn’t do the Metrogaine as I chose to also vet the course.
Are you keen to give publicising an event a go? Please email volunteer@nswrogaining.org and let us know your event of choice or we can assign you an event to publicise.
We’ve got a document with tips, tricks and example wording that’ll guide you through the process. We can assign you a mentor, if you like too 😊