Friday, October 9, 2009

Promotion blues

I don't know how I ended up being a promoter because I'm really quite shy and retiring.  But somehow I'm running around promoting two events at one time.  The first one is an evening I'm putting on with a couple of friends, one of whom is a psychic channeler.  For more than 20 years I've worked with Jane as she offers people individual channeled sessions with their spirit guides.  It's been low key work as clients come via word of mouth and we only make a small number of appointments usually in the fall and winter.  But somehow this year we've decided to put on a major event where Jane will channel for a larger group. We've booked an auditorium at the university and invited people to come to a big group session we're calling Dialogue with Spirit Guides.  We booked a 300 seat auditorium and we've printed tickets and posters and handbills, put a small announcement in a weekly paper and I've written and sent out a press release.



But I'm beginning to think we may have overestimated the interest in such an event because as of today we've sold just over 50 tickets.  There are still two weeks to go and we're kind of out of ideas (and budget) about how to promote this event.  At this point I'm reduced to stapling little notices on telephone poles and crossing my fingers.

The other event is sponsored by the dog owners organization I'm involved with.  We're bringing in a dog expert to give a talk one night and two workshops the following day.  She's not well known here in Victoria so we're working to get some excitement going about this event as well.  I'm not so worried about this one because it doesn't happen until the end of November and we're easily able to identify our target audience--because they walk around attached to dogs by leashes.


But the Dialogue with Spirit Guides is an unknown. Jane thinks we'll sell out and I admire her trust.  Me, I'm not so sure.  Guess I'll just have to keep running around with my notices and my stapler, try not to worry -- and see what happens.  

4 comments:

  1. That will set your well rested nerves on end! I hope both events do well.

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  2. A first-time event is a journey into the unknown. In my world of seniors' events they rarely buy their tickets more than a week in advance for anything. It does leave you feeling out on a limb but we've only had one cancellation. Jane may be absolutely right to be confident. Can you get any radio - or even local TV - air-time? A local newspaper photo op can boost the profile, too. Good luck! I find the promotion game difficult, too.

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  3. You will do great! Promotion is hard, though - Ugh, I hate doing it and have to do it with the novel - so hard!

    Good Luck! :)

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  4. Thanks for your supportive comments. I'm feeling a bit more relaxed about this now. It will be what it will be.

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