Event #2 - The Aussie Barbie

My second event since starting at Focus Birmingham was the Aussie Barbie on saturday.

The concept of the event...an outdoor BBQ with indoor activities, in Birmingham as close to Australia Day (26th Jan) as poss. Well, I'm pleased with the actual running of the event, but we simply didn't have enough people there. Understandable I guess, a BBQ in winter in the UK, where as I thought it was quirky some people might thing crazy.

As pointed out, people tell me it's a learning curve. Well, that might be true, but I'm 30 this year and been doing fundraising for 5 years now. I know that's not that long, but seriously, you'd have thought I'd have learnt a bit more by now.

Perhaps I need to re-address the quirkyness of my event ideas. When I first started here at Focus I had a list of about 10 ideas, none of them were particular 'regular' events. Am I being too specialist? Creating events that I might like doesn't mean there are people like me out there.

I need to make my budget of about £8000 by the end of March. Yep, that's less than 2 months away now. Without being defeatist I can't see any way of me making that much money by doing regular events, and besides, I've learnt that a good event is promoted early on, not 4 weeks before it.

But it doesn't mean I can sit pretty for February, I have to bring in some money, so I'm looking at a Guitar Hero or Rock Band fundraiser, a dance night, either Strictly or Salsa esque, or even a Memphis Belle type theme night. With a bit of a man power I could maybe do all 3, but I don't know, it'll be a push.

I also wondered over the weekend whether I'm sending mixed messages via Twitter, and this blog to be honest. I started on Twitter purely for personal purposes, an opportunity to engage with people I don't know and perhaps will never meet, yet still have enthralling conversations with.

But as I learnt more of Twitter, I learnt that it's an excellent marketing tool. And as I tweet about me, how can I not tweet about my work. We do have a Twitter account for work, but I don't control it. And if I did it would be purely events based. Perhaps I feel that without marketing events personally myself I won't be able to get people along. But then on a daily basis that is me. For work I have to sell myself and the charity to get people on events. See, it's very confusing.

I'll publish more Aussie Barbie photos in the week I hope.

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