RNW post-mortem

[Netty]

I’m thinking it would be good to have everybody’s conclusions about real nappy week in one place so that next year we can look at this and see what did and didn’t work rather than sifting through all the posts.

So if you had any part in RNW (organising or observing) your feedback would be most appreciated.

What worked?
What didn’t work?
What would you have/do next time that you didn’t this time?


From my own observations:

Advertising (including posters, invites etc):
- Get in early (especially if it’s in the holidays again)
- Make it really clear who you are and what you are promoting and what you are doing.
- Talk to and e-mail each media person within a day, early in the week.
- Displays can work well (notes on that below)
- Personal invitations work better

Displays:
- Make sure it’s in a sheltered spot (for the sake of your display, your sanity and to actually get some interest)
- Places with lots of shops (and preferably one big one) in a small area work well (malls, shopping complexes)
- Make sure you book well in advance (a year is good)
- I think having “nappy display” on the front of the table would have helped (to give people courage to look without fear of being sold to or to not try and buy the demo kit nappies)
- “Have you seen modern cloth nappies?” was a good line – it invited them to look even if they had no reason to be interested.
- Have cards with the TNN website to give people
- Have a page about nappy styles to give people

“Expo”
- Book your venue well in advance
- Talk individually to potential stall holders well in advance

DIY stand
This is what I had and everything got interest or was useful:
- sewing nappies on site (gave me something to do as well)
- sewn nappies (basic, licensed print and nappies to match clothes gets interest)
- A snap press.
- fabric and notion samples
- two pages of brief fabric descriptions to take away
- Patterns and instructions
- GreenBeans cards (Sarah - we had some in the Demo kit)
- Supplier lists
- Costing lists

What I would do next time is have nappies at several stages of completion to show people how to do a particular step they are interested in (had one static part completed one, but want to keep it that way).


Sorry about the novel – I hope I haven’t said too much (especially too much obvious stuff)

[mandli]

Hmmm... we in Wellington didn't get organised and did nothing! Timing was bad as you mention in your other post, there was so much on around that time...

[karmiec]

RNW Auckland Expo

What I saw in the first hour absolutely rocked! I would like to follow up with retailers and volunteers for specific ideas for improvement but we all need a little break first!!

We had lots of shoppers, plenty of space. Great retailers!!


Things I would liek to work on for next years expo:

Venue with more road frontage and signs! (somone must be able to make us a big wooden sandwich board!! If not I'll be brushing up my building skills over summer!)

I heard back from the Waitakere District health board on the Friday that we could take in flyers but it was too late So I would really like to get flyers/invites done earlier! preferably going out two months in advance... I think there is a really fine line between too early and people forget and too late and people cant change their plans.

Having retailers book and pay earlier so that we could use the money!! Unfortunately money was late coming in it was only in the last week that we could have spent money and then we didn't have time IYWKIM (think flyers, postage etc) If we are doing it earlier I think it would cool to go national in our invites to retailers...

Following from this I would say advertising money. Now that we know how well we can do hopefully we can look at doing something a little bigger next year, and budget for more advertising! I sent emails to budgetting services, LLL, plunkets, well child providers, LMC's, antenatal classes) but I would love to get into the newspapers (even if we had to take out an advert)

Baby-feeding space, play-space (childrens and dads) and baby-changing facilities are all things I would want to look at improving/expanding.

No link from the expo to other TNN events - should have had nappacino invites ready for those who were interested.


The rest of RNW?

No big public nappacino I think we need to book a venue in advance (something like chipmunks or a child-friendly cafe) rather than trying to organise it on the forum closer to the time... it just didn't happen.




Wanna know my idea for next year?
A training/seminar on cloth in childcare. Maybe working with Ministry for the Environment or ARC / local councils to do some sort of cloth-friendly certification? Could also be done with ECE training centres, nanny schools etc...[/b]

[mermaid13]

i wish we had asked people where they heard about us, so we knew where to concentrate for next year

[sb]

Great thread, most of my comments relate to Auckland, but may have some relevance here too.

I agree, the expo rocked, so any learnings are about making a more polished event for next year.

I thought we should do a survey of the retailers and a debrief of the volunteers.

I'm curious to know if the retailers reasons for exhibiting, making sales, making contacts, or just to support Real Nappy Week? I don't expect them to post here, cause I'm sure its commercially sensitive.

It would be great to have exhibitors from across the country.

We didn't end up with a breastfeeding/feeding/nappy changing/quiet space. There were a few chairs by the video, but it wasn't very zen.

I think not having a set demo time worked, it was quite casual and the volunteers were knowledgeable.

We need to invest in a banner to go in the venue to promote tnn and to brand the expo as a tnn event.

i wish we had asked people where they heard about us, so we knew where to concentrate for next year

I asked people and K8ylou asked heaps of people too. The article in the central leader, antenatal classes, the mention on 1ZB, and someone mentioned the Littlies magazine, were the ones I heard.

I was speaking to someone who arrived just before 10am because they thought the expo would be like the Parent and Child show, y'know with heaps of queuing and crowds! Maybe we thats what we need to aspire to next year

Hopefully next year we can pull off a big public nappicino.

[flea]

I put some comments in the other Auckland RNW thread but a couple of thoughts from me.

Basic handout sheet with each system type and maybe a space to jot notes as they go around exhibitors - most had info overload and i wrote a couple of wee notes on a few peoples flyers.

Maybe for the finding out about the expo thingy - how about a competition.
Name
Address
how they found out about the expo
maybe a quick question about MCN's (maybe something like how much washing powder is recommended for washing mcns)
Would you be in more information from? (list of exhibitors with a tick box thingy)

Maybe exhibitors could donate a prize and just have a few small ones - it might be enough to make them switch (I know that I won a spot prize at the 07 expo and it definitely helped me with the mcn love and got me addicted to the DB nappy that I won )

[FluffyMail]

I'm curious to know if the retailers reasons for exhibiting, making sales, making contacts, or just to support Real Nappy Week? I don't expect them to post here, cause I'm sure its commercially sensitive.

I am certainly more in it for spreading the word, not so much for the sales. I was quite surprised this year that we got quite a few sales in comparison with last year.

I would be quite happy to donate to a prize draw.

I had thought about doing a giveaway bag, with a handout sheet on all the types of MCN's and bits a pieces but didn't quite get organised enough. Maybe this is something that could be given out at the doorway. All the retailers could contribute to it? Flyers for other businesses in NZ could also be placed in the giveaway bags .... balloons for the kiddies with Real Nappy Week on them

Overall, I was really impressed with the Auckland one!!!

[Kaz]

Expo here in Christchurch did OK.

Not as many people as in previous years around 100 would be my best guess.

Need to get on top of advertising and get people to ACTUALLY print off and stick up the poster.

Had a couple of TV interviews for local TV, which was nice. Don't know how many people saw them though

Organising committee needed to have met more frequently as RNW came too quickly and we were very disorganised.

Need to find a way of getting new volunteers, it would be great to have a few new faces involved.

Want to try something different next year, possibly a sewing class, a nappy gala/ fun day

Would like to find a new co-ordinator person (not me) 'cos I'm a little bit tired of being in charge.

Can we look at having RNW the same week as Australia as it is better? weather and it's not in the school holidays.

[Middy]

Here are my musings about the Christchurch event. If it's irrelevant or useless, ignore it, because I've never been to one before this year, and don't really know much about how they have been done in the past or why things are done certain ways. I'm trying to think about what I would have appreciated seeing as a MCN virgin, embarking on the scary world of cloth...

* Lyttelton was tricky. It was a decent trek across town for most people, and I only knew where to find it because I 'Smaps'ed it before I left home. I didn't see any signage around town.
- Would somewhere central with heavy foot traffic, such as the Arts Centre, be an option? Might be pricey, but would capture public interest.

* Maybe the first stall should be an 'intro to general cloth' table. Examples of each type, pros / cons etc. A few leaflets to take away about environmental impacts, maybe? I would have found it more useful as a newbie than being hit by the first retailer off the block IYKWIM.

* LOVE the idea of DIY actually showing nappies being made. Also a full range of patterns from TNN to look at and ask questions about. Fabric samples and sales would do well too, not just in packs. Would be cool to get people to sign up in advance and make their own pocket like they did somewhere (West Coast? Awesome, wherever it was!)

* A washing table, devoted entirely to how to look after MCNs. Stripping, liners, eco options etc. Basically proving it's not hard.

I guess I'll be keenish to help next year, depending on whether I'm back at work or not, and how life is with 2 under 18 months