Offering a new event to all of you can be a little stressful – especially when it’s a little out of the ordinary. I had this feeling over the last few weeks struggling on whether to add our new Hands-On Camping and Hiking Demo.
I wanted this event to signal the kick-off to our best hiking and camping season in Acadiana – November through May.
My idea was to give folks a chance to lie in some tents, try out some trekking poles, and basically get their hands on a bunch of new gear. I just wasn’t sure it was enough of a fun event to really draw people out – so I held off for almost a month.
Right before this email went out, I had to make a decision. Rachel, Amy, Becky and I had a brainstorming session on it and we decided we needed a couple of things to make it really great:
1) Food
2) A fun event like a film, speaker or community event
That’s when my mind went back to another event I’ve wanted to bring to P&P for a while but never got the nerve up to do: Host a storytelling slam. This is an event where regular folks take turns telling a short story about something that happened to them in the wilderness. We pick a winner from an audience poll for a prize at the end of the night. And combine it with a community potluck supper.
BINGO!!! It all came together. We moved the Hands On Camping Demo to the afternoon, and followed it up with our new Storytelling Slam idea. Talk about doubling down!!! Instead of offering one event that we’re not sure is going to work – we’ll combine two of them on the same day. Somehow there seemed like there was a logic to that.
After a few days to think about it, I do think there actually is a logic to it. We envision this to be an afternoon to get the outdoor community together, look at some new gear for 2013, get end-of-year prices on 2012 gear, enjoy a potluck, and stay to hear 12 great stories of the outdoors from local folks!
We hope you’ll save the date.
Sounds great! Thanks for doing all these events and keeping us excited about the great outdoors!
Of course!! No problem