cdness
2006 - Present
How to Start a Frag Swap Event in Your Area
When sitting in front of your tank, have you ever thought it would be great to have more corals? Have you ever decided to go through every LFS in town to find that new and exciting coral only to arrive back at home, empty handed? Do you navigate through coral vendor websites staring for hours looking at beautiful corals, but hesitate to purchase since you cannot see them in person to see if they really are that color? Where can all of these issues be solved in one place, a Frag Swap of course! But what do you do if there are no Swaps in your area? Well that’s an easy question, just start one, but is it as easy as just starting one? Well yes and no, but in this article you will find information to help you start one while avoiding some of the common mistakes of first time events.
First you will need to do a little research about your target market to determine your expected attendance. If you have a reef club in the area, find out how many active members are in the club. Also if there are other events like this in the surrounding area, contact them and see if they can give you any attendance counts. Use these numbers as well as the population count of your city to come up with a good range of expected attendance. This range of attendance will determine many things along the planning process.
Next you will need a location. There are official event centers, community rooms, hotel conference rooms, and even buildings that may be for rent. Each will come with its ups and downs, but you will need to consider them when making choices. Being its a first time event, it is very difficult to round up donations or venture capital to get the event off the ground. With this being said, you will need to consider the affordability of the space. Some places will have a table and chair charge while others will have it included in the overall rent charge. Consider the layout of the space and draw up a scale layout how the tables will fit. Make sure the location is in an easily accessible area of your city and has good access to parking, food, and hotels. Just remember starting small is ok, just don’t start too small as the vendors will need to make enough money to want to come back.
Alongside the location, the event will also need a date. This can take lots of research to pick the right date. Find out if there are other reef related events going on during your proposed date. Many vendors have a schedule of events they try to hit every year. They are not going to be easily convinced to drop a much more established event for a new one so make sure there are no conflicts. Also consider local events on that date as they may draw some of your target market away to the other event. Mother Nature will also need to be considered to make sure you are not planning an event during a time where your area has inclement weather. Vendors as well as attendees get discouraged at the sign of bad weather and it can cause the event to fail if it is bad enough. Sometimes though if there are no vendor conflicts with a date, you may just have to roll the dice with Mother Nature and see who comes out on top.
Marketing the event will be very important in more ways than one. Be ready to develop materials directed toward different audiences for the event to draw them in and make the event a success. The first part of marketing is in the event’s name. If you decide to call it ___ Frag Swap be ready for many people to ask you “What is a frag?â€. Consider something like ___ Frag Swap and Marine Aquarium Expo. This tells the people who are less familiar with the reefer jargon what is going on at the event. This is just the tip of the iceberg though as you will still need to market to vendors, target market, and media in order for the event to be a success.
Part 2 Continued in the Next Post........
When sitting in front of your tank, have you ever thought it would be great to have more corals? Have you ever decided to go through every LFS in town to find that new and exciting coral only to arrive back at home, empty handed? Do you navigate through coral vendor websites staring for hours looking at beautiful corals, but hesitate to purchase since you cannot see them in person to see if they really are that color? Where can all of these issues be solved in one place, a Frag Swap of course! But what do you do if there are no Swaps in your area? Well that’s an easy question, just start one, but is it as easy as just starting one? Well yes and no, but in this article you will find information to help you start one while avoiding some of the common mistakes of first time events.
First you will need to do a little research about your target market to determine your expected attendance. If you have a reef club in the area, find out how many active members are in the club. Also if there are other events like this in the surrounding area, contact them and see if they can give you any attendance counts. Use these numbers as well as the population count of your city to come up with a good range of expected attendance. This range of attendance will determine many things along the planning process.
Next you will need a location. There are official event centers, community rooms, hotel conference rooms, and even buildings that may be for rent. Each will come with its ups and downs, but you will need to consider them when making choices. Being its a first time event, it is very difficult to round up donations or venture capital to get the event off the ground. With this being said, you will need to consider the affordability of the space. Some places will have a table and chair charge while others will have it included in the overall rent charge. Consider the layout of the space and draw up a scale layout how the tables will fit. Make sure the location is in an easily accessible area of your city and has good access to parking, food, and hotels. Just remember starting small is ok, just don’t start too small as the vendors will need to make enough money to want to come back.
Alongside the location, the event will also need a date. This can take lots of research to pick the right date. Find out if there are other reef related events going on during your proposed date. Many vendors have a schedule of events they try to hit every year. They are not going to be easily convinced to drop a much more established event for a new one so make sure there are no conflicts. Also consider local events on that date as they may draw some of your target market away to the other event. Mother Nature will also need to be considered to make sure you are not planning an event during a time where your area has inclement weather. Vendors as well as attendees get discouraged at the sign of bad weather and it can cause the event to fail if it is bad enough. Sometimes though if there are no vendor conflicts with a date, you may just have to roll the dice with Mother Nature and see who comes out on top.
Marketing the event will be very important in more ways than one. Be ready to develop materials directed toward different audiences for the event to draw them in and make the event a success. The first part of marketing is in the event’s name. If you decide to call it ___ Frag Swap be ready for many people to ask you “What is a frag?â€. Consider something like ___ Frag Swap and Marine Aquarium Expo. This tells the people who are less familiar with the reefer jargon what is going on at the event. This is just the tip of the iceberg though as you will still need to market to vendors, target market, and media in order for the event to be a success.
Part 2 Continued in the Next Post........
However with a first year attendance at 250 - 300 people there sure are die hard reefers in the area.
