One charitable event.
Six awesome committee members.
Fifty-three local therapists & well-being business owners.
Over two hundred people counted walking through the doors.
This may sound like a movie trailer. We don’t mind. We (the committee and I) are so proud of our achievements for our first ever Enfield Wellbeing Showcase. And, for the money we raised for local charities!
After nine months of planning, managing a team of awesome women, collaborating for positive community development would be a cinch. You would think.
Except for the odd rookie mistake (or five) on the day.
- Count your foot fall
Yes, there is photographic evidence of the queue growing at 10:48 am.
Volunteers couldn’t jot down numbers for the first hour. So many people came in; we’ll never know the true numbers. I am certain though we welcomed well over the two hundred local residents counted from hour two.
But, there was that small matter of our wonderful volunteers being overwhelmed with the crowd that had gathered waiting for the doors to open to the public.
Who would’ve thought… we hadn’t!
- Know your dates
When there is only one available day in the diary to book a big event, you kind of have to roll with it.
For us, our second rookie ‘mistook’ was knowing that a humungous three-day yoga event was happening, over the same weekend, as our first-time ever event. Only a short ten-minute drive away.
We went ahead anyway.
Only to learn on the day that another ten-minute drive away in the opposite direction was a vegan-fest. Yet, over 200 local residents crossed our threshold.
Not too shabby for the new kids on the block!
- Know your attendees
We really thought we were local…
Considering the two bigger well-established events were on the go, we still thought only local people would be coming to our event. With that kind of thinking, we made our third rookie-mistake: not putting postcodes on our flyers and website!
Turns out people came to our Showcase from as far afield as Watford and St Albans. Not to mention one of our exhibitors was from California, USA.
In the words of Homer Simpson, ‘doh’!
- Know who you are working with
They say never work with children and animals. This became increasingly evident when the raffle was being drawn. In adding to the ‘cute factor’, one of our child raffle-number-pickers kept putting the tickets back in the box.
One of the tickets was eaten and a few drawn tickets went home in sweet-and-lint-lined munchkin pockets.
We still got all the prizes out, eventually!
- Know what to accept
One of the biggest rookie mistakes we all made: Accepting praise.
Whilst we knew the event would be successful, (we wouldn’t have donated our time freely if it wasn’t). We hadn’t realised the extent to which it would be praised. None of us were ready for that.
Seven days after the event, emails, calls and personal tales all revel in the amazing day we made. I still get a tear in my eye.
Will we be doing this again in 2017?
You bet!
Here’s to seeing you at the 2017 Enfield Wellbeing Showcase (version 2.0) improved and ready to make more magic.
Oh, and we’ll all be a little wiser too!
Cheryl-lya is a Soul Adventurer, helping women around the globe plan, launch and grow successful and sustainable businesses. She runs workshops alongside one-to-one coaching. To contact her: Book a call, or visit her website soulscompass.net and schedule a free Virtual Cuppa. Say ‘hello’ or share your joys via email: hello@soulscompass.net