Friday 29 April 2016

Location, Location, Ooo Look it has a Pool Table!

The first and biggest challenge of running this event was always going to be finding the right location. Although I think I underestimated how hard that was going to be!

My wish list is simple:

Central Location
One Large Hall
Smaller halls/rooms (optional)
Plenty of Parking
Tables (again can be hired so not 100% necessary)
Kitchen

So really that shouldn't be too hard should it? I mean a nice sized hall with a little smaller one and lots of parking.

Pfft, it is far from easy!

Here is the contradiction at the heart of my life "sits up to 200 people dining" ooo that sounds nice and big great, "has ample parking for 30 cars"

Ummm....now a simple look at the maths here would suggest that people would have to be seriously packing into those cars to get 200 people seated.

Or you find one with a really big car park *yay* and it's in Devon.... (why are all the good halls really far South or North????)

Now I'm prepared to compromise but parking and space are two big issues. Working on the assumption that most people travel alone you essentially need a parking space for every attendee. So if you want 50 people, there has to be space for 50 cars, or your are *poof* no good.

And then there's cost. Because you need to cover costs, so you need to sell enough tickets to cover cost, and you need to assume that you won't sell out. So say you need 50 people to cover costs, you need to have enough space for 75 or so.

Thing is even if people aren't showing, one can always sell more attendance tickets than live show spaces, they will still need to park! So basically my life is now spent on google maps inspecting car parking facilities.

I need help! I asked Brendon for help and his help was basically me telling him the location and him going "no". Helpful. Really helpful.

Unfortunately the one with a pool table is not in a suitable location (sorry to disappoint).

So back to the life of location searching, if you have a suggestion then please let me know!

O and I'll leave you with this, one of the halls I found had amazing diagrams of layouts, this here, this is what every live show hall searcher dreams of:



So a shout out to this location: http://www.npcommunitycentre.org/

Wednesday 27 April 2016

Why hello there :)

First of all I want to thank all of you for your input and suggestions. Every single one of them is appreciated and I am working my socks off to ensure that as many ideas as possible get incorporated into this event.

This event is designed to be a weekend of fun, showing and general model horse mayhem! We hope that if it is a success we can make it a yearly thing.

The aim is to make it about the hobby, we want every single one of you to get involved. Whether it is through volunteering to help with judging or stewarding the show, sharing your tips and tricks on a demonstration table or simply having a sales stall, this is your chance to enjoy and have fun with the hobby we all love.

We will of course be looking for all kinds of volunteers, prizes and general stuffs so keep checking back.

If you want to be involved in any way you just need to drop me an email: catriona@chestnutridge.co.uk

The location and date will be announced shortly, that is my first priority! Once we have secured that we will start to release information about every other element.

The aim is to release a new thing every week, so check back every Monday for more updates!

And remember if you want to get involved please just drop me an email, we are after everything from exclusive models, to helpers to raffle prize donations. Just email catriona@chestnutridge.co.uk

Thank you :) And ENJOY :D