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Post by Cib on Jun 4, 2009 19:05:51 GMT -7
I really liked what happened last friday at the end there. The trying on of armor and stuff was really good. And a lot of people would be in to that. That kind of thing could totally work as for Renaissance Fair-esk environment.
Lots to think about...
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Post by David of Doell on Jun 5, 2009 15:58:50 GMT -7
Do you mean Monday? When I was there? That was a lot of fun actually. It was nice just talking and discussing armour. I'm glad I can stay the whole time now. I just got an idea and maybe it could relate to promo. I'm not sure how viable this is but I'm thinking out loud for a moment. Maybe we could have a little time after practice for working on weapons/armour. Then we can sit and talk while working on things or just hang out. One problem is equipment. It would be a "bring your own equipment" kind of thing but if we did any leather stuff I'd share my tools. I say "Bring your own equipment" so that there is no pressure on you for example, to provide that because you don't need more things to worry about. It would be a great place to bounce ideas off eachother and get eachother motivated. Another downside is the set up time compared to actual working time. So I guess this is also an idea for an Armour Day, a spin off of the weapon making day. My posts always turn into novels...
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Post by Cib on Jun 16, 2009 9:03:16 GMT -7
We have discussed a hang out time afterwards, and even gone to Star Bucks a few times. Defiantly a good way to promote realm growth is through relationships. I know several USA realms have credited Coffee shop hang outs after practice with creating growth and lower turnover.
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Post by Cib on Jun 16, 2009 9:17:34 GMT -7
We have identified 2 posable cultures of Airdrie, Families and Recreational Sports. Here are some of our ideas for summer recruitment.
Families -I think we should hold and "open house", like the mini-ren fair idea only a one time thing to see how it goes. Get as many people out as we can and show off our armor, garb, weapons and whatever else we can think of. Have a few mini turny and small battles for show.
Recreational Sports -Create a "Gold Member" rank of sorts, and create a "starter kit" ($10 tabard & $10 Sword). -Have some more training at practices. -Create some tabards (2 colors) to act as pinneys, and differentiate teams, and make things look more "sports like/official".
Other -Sandwich Board
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gafiltafish
Militia/Mercenary
I got a mean arm
Posts: 85
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Post by gafiltafish on Jun 16, 2009 9:56:28 GMT -7
Things I've done include demoing at conventions and at movie openings for things like Lord of the Rings type movies. Role Models and a few others. You'd be suprised how many people come from those sort of things.
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Post by David of Doell on Jun 16, 2009 16:45:02 GMT -7
I think it's also a good idea to write a list of friends to invite to a practice. I was talking to a friend the other day and I was surprised that he was intersted, he didn't seem like the type who would try Belegarth. I have another friend who is in fencing classes and I'm sure he would come try it out. I'm going to try and get some friends to come out with me on Mondays.
I brought my foam swords to Calgary to try with this new friend I met at a martial arts seminar. He's really good I think he's willing to check it out. I see now that there are going to be regular Calgary practices so I'll tell him to go to that. I learned a lot from fighting with him. We were actually on a secluded path practicing and two guys walked by and sounded interested but I didn't say anything. If I had a card or something to hand out I would probably do it.
I thought of something called a park tour where you could have a mini-demo-practice at several different parks/areas during a day or over the course of a few weeks. You go there to get people's attention and hand out info cards and invite them to a practice. You could do it in really busy areas if you felt really comfortable. The sandwich sign would be an asset for this type of recruiting. If you had a sign that said "Come try foam sword fighting!" it would allow you to be more approachable than if people didn't know if you were open to other people joining you.
Telling your friends seems to be one of the most effective ways to getting new members. I'm guessing you have already told all your friends about Belegarth Cib since you've been doing things for a while.
Here's another recruiting idea: why not try something a little more aggressive. You could try approaching people in parks as group of two and maybe not wearing garb. Carry a few blue swords and ask people if they would be interested in trying fighting with foam swords.
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Post by Moginheden on Jun 18, 2009 8:19:51 GMT -7
When I asked my friends to join me and directed them to our website they got turned off by the "LARP feel" especialy on the event and Calgary websites. It was recomended to me to promote it more as a sport rather than roleplay.
I like the idea of demos all over the city, (I'm actualy building a sandwitch board with a holder for cards people can take.)
The walking up to people, (especaily un-garbed) sounds like a bad idea to me. It's crossing the line from a fun activity they want to join into "why is this guy bugging me?" territory
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Post by Cib on Jun 18, 2009 9:15:42 GMT -7
When I asked my friends to join me and directed them to our website they got turned off by the "LARP feel" especialy on the event and Calgary websites. It was recomended to me to promote it more as a sport rather than roleplay. The question is how? What is the "sport" look? We have never really played up the LARP aspect much I didn't think. However, promoting as a sport is one of the reasons we are wondering about a "sing up", it is familiar to people, particularly sports people. Sports are serious, they want to take things seriously, no fee and no sign up is hard to take seriously. It is a theory anyway.
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Post by David of Doell on Jun 18, 2009 17:54:21 GMT -7
Maybe the garb is what makes it LARP like but you can't sacrifice that. Try probing those guys for what specifically turned them off. I just found another idea on Geddon.org: www.geddon.org/index.php/ParadeTo be in a parade. Talk about publicity! That would get your message out there. I forget what time of year the parades usually happen. It would require a lot of people to fight AND hand out cards. If you could pull it off I'm sure it would help immensely.
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Post by Cib on Jun 18, 2009 20:15:18 GMT -7
I would love to, but numerous problems surround it. I usually have to organize something for it to happen and I tend to be away for every Airdrie parade, Airdrie parades cost $100+ to enter and you need liability insurance. Still, I would love to do one some day!
Parades in Airdrie I can think of are The Santa Clause parade and the Canada Day parade.
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Post by Moginheden on Jun 19, 2009 8:07:16 GMT -7
Here's my chat logs with one of my friends, I don't think I described it right to him, but hopefully this will give a feel of one recruiting problem: Moginheden: Hey you aorund? Moginheden: Wondering if you'd be interesed in this: www.belegarth.ca I'm involved with setting up the event Moginheden: trying to get people Moginheden: www.belegarth.ca/Event/Home.htmlFriend: im here, lemme check the link Friend: ahh LARPing? Moginheden: sortof Moginheden: no magic Friend: sorry man, LARPing isn't quite my thing Friend: now medieval events are fine, but with real weapons and armor would more interest me Friend: but i already have a lot on my plate Moginheden: that's closer to what belegarthis Moginheden: we use foam weapons but the rules are almost identical to the SCA Moginheden: if you get hit in a limb it's gone, there are no hit points or healing or that stuff Friend: sorry man,it's not something taht interests me. but thanks for asking anyways Moginheden: wondering your opinion Moginheden: albertabelegarth.googlepages.com/2round.jpgFriend: it's a pretty good basic poster. certainly gets the point accross i think Moginheden: you specificaly thought LARP when you saw the website I sent you a month or so ago, when you look at this poster do you think LARP or something that might be fun? Friend: well i think LARP, but it visually describes some of it Friend: enough to give an initial idea of what it's about Moginheden: k, I'm trying to promote more of a mainstream sport feel Moginheden: trying to distance us from the idiotic lightniing bolt guy Friend: lol Friend: well then i recommend emphasizing on rules, standards and refereeing on the website
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Post by Cib on Jun 19, 2009 8:40:35 GMT -7
Moginheden: k, I'm trying to promote more of a mainstream sport feel Moginheden: trying to distance us from the idiotic lightniing bolt guy Friend: lol Friend: well then i recommend emphasizing on rules, standards and refereeing on the website Interesting idea. Makes sense. I would also like to get some shots of guys in good garb facing of in a roped of ring (with flags on the ropes), a Martial, and with spectators in mundane cloths with cameras watching. Ok, So here is a question. What says "Sport" to you when you visit these web sites? Or does anything? Site 1Site 2Site 3Site 4Site 5
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Post by David of Doell on Jun 19, 2009 16:21:40 GMT -7
At the top of those pages I see the logos of all the teams. Maybe play up some inter-realm competition between Calgary, Red Deer and Airdrie to add some sport rivalry.
On the paint ball page I see: 1. A video trying to catch your interest:"Sonny's got a plan! See how it pans out against a tank."(it makes me want to watch their video, which keeps me on their site longer, which is good. 2. New players info 3. News and info box
When I click on new player info I see: 1. A bunch of links to beginner's guides 2. FAQ "What gun should I buy?" and "what should I wear?" (for you it would be more like "what weapon should I use?") -You could put together articles based off threads in the Belegarth forum about that
Stats are one thing my sports friend is really into. When I look in the sports section of the paper I see pages and pages of numbers. If you wanted to go that route you could have official games as opposed to casual games where actual stats of some kind are recored. This would allow new players to see their improvement over time as well. If you really wanted to shead the lightning bolt label on the very first page you could have someone's picture with the words "Magic is for pansies! Full contact mayhem only!" or "No role play here" Something along those lines to really set yourself apart from the lighting bolt guy. Add a slogan of some sort.
A page where everyone's "card" is displayed with a pic in full garb and info about their character. Maybe add some stats to brag about. "Longest time in the Death Pit: 1 minute" "longest javelin kill" "most deaths in one game" Awards like you'd get at the end of a James Bond Goldeneye game on N64.
If I went to a video game website they would have a page displaying all the weapons in the game and uses/drawbacks of each.
No offense but I do see lots of spelling errors on your website. I'm pretty good at spelling and I'd be happy to edit things for you.
How about a promo video of your own highlighting the fact that you have nothing to do with lighting bolts. Do a sports style trailer of Belegarth or something.
"Friend: well then i recommend emphasizing on rules, standards and refereeing on the website"
Emphasize the big international organization you are apart of with standards and rules.
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Post by Moginheden on Jun 19, 2009 18:18:51 GMT -7
The biggest thing I notice between most sports and us is teams. Most sports have very specific teams with uniforms that match the rest of your team. In Belegarth, especially here, we all look unique, not a member of a team.
If we could get tabards that match it would help a ton. Of course it depends on what game we are playing if the tabards make sense, and these would likely be realm tabards, not owned by any one person as they would be swapped out depending on teams.
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Post by Moginheden on Jun 19, 2009 18:20:54 GMT -7
I do agree with David's post though.
As for the websites I've pointed out a few mistakes, but it seems to take a while to fix.... and the Calgary site hasn't been fixed yet.
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