Posts Tagged ‘contest’

2nd Annual Gingerbread House Event

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

2nd Annual Gingerbread House Event Poster

Once again I am in charge of media relations for The Gingerbread House Event and I just sent out our first official professional press release to nearly 30 media outlets in Kelowna. Just in case I missed any or if you don’t catch this information on one of those mediums, here is all the info and how you can find out more about this marvellous event. (PS I must confess that I didn’t write this myself, my wonderful husband did the wonderful write-up :)

2nd Annual
Gingerbread House Event
Bringing Gingerbread to Life
In Support of the Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs

PRESS RELEASE

Kelowna is Bringing Gingerbread to Life in Support of the
Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs

Kelowna, BC – The 2nd Annual Gingerbread House Event would like to invite the public to a family fun day at the Parkinson Recreation Centre on November 27th, 2011. The event is in support of the Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs Cool Moves Program. The Cool Moves program promotes healthy eating and physical activity for kids. As a result of participating in games and activities of this program, participants will also gain cooperation and team building skills as well as confidence and feelings of belonging.

Gingerbread House Event logo

The core goals of the event are:

  • Create a family friendly event and atmosphere that promotes fun
  • Provide funds and food to the community through the Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs
  • Ensure that anyone can participate regardless of their financial situation

The Event has three categories to provide different challenges for different people: Open, Packaged Kit and Chef Category. The Open Category allows entrants to build their house at home and bring it to the event. The Packaged Kit is where each entrant receives and builds a packaged gingerbread house kit right at the event. It’s an excellent option for the family to come for a fun event during the day.

Family Packaged Kit Category

Family Packaged Kit Category Photo by Ivy Mills

The Chef category allows cooks and chefs to enter their creation in a bragging rights competition.

Chef Category Delta Grand 2010 Entry

Chef Category Photo by Ivy Mills

Registration in the Gingerbread House Event is available now at www.gingerbreadevent.com. Registration is $20, $25, or $30 depending on category and age. Rules and registration forms are available at our website.

Dozens of entries and hundreds of public viewers are expected at the event. The Gingerbread House Event awards over $1000 in cash and prizes. A public choice award will be presented this year to the most popular entry as chosen by the viewers.

Want to see the houses without building your own gingerbread house? No problem, the gingerbread houses are available for public viewing from 3-6pm. Viewing is $2/adult, $1/child or free with a non-perishable food donation to the Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs Christmas Hampers.

Gingerbread House Event handbill Come enjoy this Family Event Nov 27, 2011 at Parkinson Rec Centre

Note to potential sponsors: There are still sponsorship opportunities available. You can get involved by: Becoming a Major Sponsor ($350+), sponsoring a Packaged Kit for those unable to afford the entry fee ($25), renting an 8’ table to display or sell your products/services ($50), or donate items for the raffle.

About The Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs: The Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs is a leading provider of programs to children and youth that support the healthy physical, educational and social development for over 6,000 young people and families each year throughout the Okanagan valley. Each centre creates a safe, supportive environment where children and youth experience new opportunities, overcome barriers, build positive relationships and develop confidence and skills for life. Our programs focus on an individual’s strengths and capabilities, and all programs embrace the principles of equality and inclusion. They help young people grow healthy, happy and safely from birth to adulthood, and are a resource and support for parents throughout their family’s involvement with us.

About the Red Hot Chili Paddlers Dragon Boat Team: The Red Hot Chili Paddlers are a co-ed recreational dragon boat team with the Kelowna Dragon Boat Club. The team is comprised of fun loving, active, outgoing paddlers from their 20’s to their 60’s from many walks of life who share one goal: To Have Fun! In 2010 the Red Hot Chili Paddlers undertook the planning and production of the 1st annual Gingerbread House Event with a vision of creating a premier event, a Kelowna family tradition, and an annual fundraiser to support the Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs, and the local community.

Red Hot Chili Paddlers Dragon Boat Team

Presented by the Red Hot Chili Paddlers Dragon Boat Team
www.gingerbreadevent.com

Clinton Dixson, Chairman 250.575.3906

Link to press release on PRLOG:
http://www.prlog.org/11691789

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gingerbreadEvent
Twitter: @gingerKelowna

Fun for the Whole Family

Thursday, November 11th, 2010

Last weekend I was at the 2010 Grad and Wedding Expo at Rotary Centre for the Arts in Kelowna, BC. There were hundreds of booths and a big fashion show, but the most memorable and fun part of the show were the interactive booths by Voth Photography and Okanagan Digital Media Productions. (Oh and I also loved the booth by Cupcasions where we got to try two kinds of cupcakes. Yum!)



Okanagan Digital Media Productions
and Okanagan Photo Booths are owned by videographer/editor/producer John Thiessen. To attract a crowd to his display, he brought a portable photo booth with him to the show. It worked! Moms, daughters, brides, grooms, best friends, all were lining up to take photos in his photo booth. I didn’t even realize how much fun it would be until I was given our photos. They are so cool. This was definitely a highlight of the show.

The brilliant part about his marketing plan is that every single person who visited his booth and got their pictures taken went home with photo-strips with his website and phone number on them! I’m sure I’m not the only one who looked up his website and posted my photo-strip on facebook.

I’m especially pleased to announce that an Okanagan Photo Booth is going to be at the public viewing of our Gingerbread House Building Competition at Parkinson Rec Centre in Kelowna, BC from 5-7pm on Sunday, November 21st! John is donating the booth and his time to our event. This will be so much fun for the whole family! Be sure to come on out to see the Gingerbread Houses and to get your pictures taken in the photo booth. For a small (optional) donation of your choice you can get your pictures taken and you get to take home the photo-strip! Partial proceeds will be donated to the Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs.

okanaganphotobooths.com


The other booth at the trade show which ties for the most fun, in my opinion, was Voth Photography. Sean and Melissa are a husband and wife photography team based out of Penticton. They do professional photo shoots from the Okanagan Valley to Vancouver. In their booth they had a basket of props and a big art deco backdrop to take people’s pictures for a facebook contest. They also had black on white signs which you could hold up for effect which said things such as “Where’s the cake?”, “Wedding Crasher” or “Off the Market”.

The brilliant part about their marketing plan is that their facebook contest not only gains them lots of exposure from contestants sharing and tagging the photos, but it also generates likes on their facebook fan page from the contestants and their friends. Expanding your network is a key strategy in any marketing plan but especially important with social media.

Contestants are likely to promote this contest not only on facebook, but on their blogs too as I’m doing here…

The prize for the facebook contest is not one but TWO photo sessions. I would LOVE to win this. It would be so much fun! If you are on facebook and you would like to help me win all you have to do is go to the Voth Photography Facebook Fan Page, “like” their page and then tag yourself in our photo. Please let me know if you do these steps so that I can keep track of our ‘votes’. Thank you! :)

Click this picture to see my photo on the fan page:

Voth Photography


Have you ever had a booth at a trade show or art fair? What have you done to gain exposure at your booth?

If you’d like to read a story about what I did to draw attention to my booth at the Sun Peaks Arts and Culture Festival last winter, you might be interested in these blog posts:

“Attracting People with Watercolour Magic”
“Unveiling the Magic of Watercolour”