Let's have Earth Day, but not tell Anyone

Mark Twain knew how to stir up his audience

Has anyone heard about the Earth Day event going on at Hartford's Riverfront Plaza next Sunday, April 27th?  Someone sent me an email about it last week.  I'm glad they gave me a personal heads up, but that isn't going to do much to bring in attendees.  It was also confusing to me that an environmental event in Hartford hadn't reached out to Bike Walk Connecticut, CT Rides, or CT Transit - especially if one of the themes is sustainable transportation.  For example, Bike Walk Connecticut is planning for the May Bike to Work events right now.  I'm personally involved in the Wednesday, May 14th event in East Hartford.  East Hartford is going all "big tent" and calling it a Bike and Walk to Work Breakfast.

It drives me bonkers how poorly many events are publicized in Hartford.  It doesn't have to be that way, and it's not that difficult to do an adequate job.  If you're going to spend the time organizing the actual content of an event, please put aside the time (and a little budget) for the outreach and publicity.  There are so many amazing events and shows in Hartford that have an imperceptible audience.  If a show is lacking publicity and attendance suffers, you're doing a disservice to yourself as the organizer.  It hurts a lot (I know) when you spend days and weeks planning an event, and then only a handful of attendees show up.

This past Saturday I stopped by Charter Oak Cultural Center for live ukulele and dance as part of the severely under publicized  Hartford New Music Festival.  There were maybe six people in the entire auditorium.  I made it a point to attend after catching one mention of the event via FaceBook.  Deborah Goffe was performing, and I hadn't seen her dance yet. Deborah and Kevin Hufnagel put on a splendid performance for the intimate audience.  I didn't know a ukulele could do that, and Deborah accompanied with much strength and grace.  There is another concert next weekend, and you should follow the link to get more information.

Such that we don't continue this pattern of well performed, but under attended shows I'd like to offer some basic tips.  Remember.  I am not an event planning professional.  This is common sense.  You have it.  Use it.  And you don't have to be the organizer to make these things happen.  Bit players and volunteers working with an event can help to bring the outreach and publicity home.  If you don't see it happening, it probably isn't - and that is your cue to chip in.

• When picking the date and time for your event spend at least 15 minutes thinking about conflicts and your target audience.  Google the date to make sure there aren't other events that would draw your same crowd.  Consider which nights and times seem to work for events like the one you're planning.  For example, don't schedule the same day and time as the Wadsworth First Thursday or RAW Creative Cocktail Hour if you are targeting Hartford's arts crowd.
• Plan your event far enough in advance that you have time to announce the date and do appropriate publicity.  I like to target having enough detail wrapped up at least a month in advance for small events.  For big stuff you might need 3-4 months, and really big stuff with major sponsors I would recommend almost a full year in advance to catch their funding cycles.
• Do the cheap and easy stuff first.  Facebook event.  Post it to the various local media outlets.  CTnow.com.  Hartford.com.  LetsGoArts.  RealHartford.org. Write your own blog post.  Put links to the event page or FB event on your page and other related FB groups that you belong to.  Ask your friends to share the link.  Ask folks that have said they are going to attend to share the link.  
• If you know of organizations that have a similar mission or individuals that have a lot of connections.  Send them an email with the event blurb and link.  Ask them to share the information via their email list, blog, or Facebook.  Reach out beyond your immediate circle of contacts.
• Posters.  Yeah.  Posters are nice, but they take time and money.  First make sure you get the electronic posters up on blog posts and FB Events.  If you have the time and money, spread printed posters around at locations and businesses where folks will see them and the event will be reinforced. 
• Hit them.  And hit them again.  Unless they are Superfans, you need to touch them multiple times before they pull the trigger and buy a ticket or put the event on their calendar.  Just because you sent out that link on FB once doesn't mean that folks are going to magically show up.  It only takes a couple minutes to re-invite, send out event reminders, and update that FB event page with a teaser update.  
• Sell discounted tickets ahead of time.  If you're coordinating a larger event, pre-sale tickets will guarantee a bit of income to offset expenses while also increasing buzz.  You can ask those that purchased tickets ahead to spread the word to friends, and they are now part of the publicity network.  

That's all I've got for now.  Please get better at publicity Hartford-ites.  We've got so much going on and it's a shame not to tell folks.  Hartford does "Have It", so let's not be shy about spreading the word.  Mark Twain knew how important publicity was, and we do too.

Note:  This post has very little to do with bikes.  Well aside from my event organizing associated with bike-type events.  I'm creating a new blog called - In Hartford We're All Famous Together.  I'll use that blog venue for posting non-bike related musings on Hartford. 

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Second trip up Mount Hartford

I used to be part of the Hartford Landfill Post-Closure Citizens' Advisory Group. Because of that, I rode my bike up the landfill once. Well, I am now part of an elite group of people who have done it twice.

It's sad that only man-made structures offer nice views in Hartford, but what can you do? I don't want all the trees cut down.

It is looking like the site may never be open to recreation or public use, but it's nice to see that they're filling it with solar panels.

Better cell phone camera than last time I went up.

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Why wait?

On vacation this last week in Southern Florida I did a good bit of cycling and some canoeing, along with a requisite amount of walking about.  Part of the trip was spent at the home of a friend's grandmother North Port.  The home was located in a 55+ planned community located adjacent to a state highway.  Within the confines of the community there was a surprising amount of walking and cycling.  The three wheeled cargo trikes appeared to be a local favorite.  I wondered, "Why wait?"  Were these friendly folks, retired in Florida, just now discovering the joys of non-motorized transportation and recreation?

Did the relations with their elderly neighbors magically improve in the 55+ community due to some new found font of inner friendliness, or was the addition of more personable transportation somehow involved?  Why is a very reasonable 15mph the speed limit in their planned community, but I've never seen anything below 25mph in the ubiquitous suburban sprawl-scape?  Would these valued elders have been better off in a mixed age, densely developed, urban area with ample park lands rather than a dead end neighborhood of their peers?  I left the experience with a sprinkling of first hand experience of what had previously been a confusing and foreign concept to me.  I came to understand some of the benefits that come with these packaged communities, but at the same time didn't see why those benefits weren't already possible in a redeveloped urban or smart growth community. 

But now back to my titular concept - Why Wait?  We know what we want - livable, bikeable, and walkable communities.  Communities where we know our neighbors and have lots of social and cultural opportunities.  It makes sense both individually, and globally, to change ours lifestyles to better fit this vision.  So why do hordes of humanity wait until their silver years to gain a sense of community and take the opportunity to get some exercise and fresh air as part of their commute?  Does getting to know your neighbor take on new importance when the time left to do so is increasingly evident?  This boggles my mind.  Leaving me with a headache and a sense of futility for the future of this green Earth.  It doesn't help that I just watched A Fierce Green Fire at Real Art Ways, a thorough documentary that I highly recommend.  For some reason environmental and social justice movies tend to leave me feeling negative and crummy about where the world is heading.

Florida as a state is a hodge podge of improvements aimed at Complete Streets, but struggling to overcome the challenges of a very sprawling development model.  Florida is the shining capitol of soulless strip mall development and curve linear suburbs built on drained swamp land.  I seem to recall being excited about the bike lanes that are standard on new Florida state highways when I was an undergraduate at Florida State University, but now I recognize the limitations.  When a roadway has 3-4 lanes of traffic in each direction traveling at 45-55mph and there are high speed entrance and exit ramps, a bike lane seems a bit silly.  Better than nothing, but not something that will draw the masses out of their reinforced assault vehicles.  On a tangential note, I've noticed that many areas in Florida do have solid bus transit systems.  Perhaps this is resultant of a retired community that needs this amenity to get around, pulling busing out of the just for poor folks stigma.

Along this vein, why wait to register for the Connecticut Bike Walk Summit that is rapidly approaching on April 27th?  This is the same day as Salem's DeTour de Connecticut, but I doubt the attendees would overlap much (although I happen to have a tough decision to make).  Instead of wallowing in fatalistic visions of our car-centric, globally weird future we can take the opportunity to do something about it.  There are short term, local, and personal benefits to a more bikeable and walkable Connecticut.  Why wait?

  

 

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