IMPROVE EVENT PUBLICITY

Buster’s wrong.

After sleeping on this for a night, I recognized that the headline “Pretty Pathetic Participation” is wrong - I appear to be faulting the non-participants who are actually victims of a poor advance publicity effort – I should be pointing out that the paid (and if there were volunteer) organizers of this event appear to not have done their advance publicity work very well.  The proof is in the pudding – there were more sponsor type people behind the tables under the tent than there were people on the public sidewalk side.  Preaching to the converted is (very enjoyable but) not a test of one’s persuasiveness and not the way to produce  change.

I met 3 employees who were there from the RTA – I assume they were there on the RTA’s  payroll clock.  They were handing out free ride passes.   That made sense.  It does clearly make sense for the RTA to be a sponsor of No Car Day.   But was the RTA involved in the pre-event publicity?  Did anyone see any notices promoting the event on the buses or trains? 

There was a 10 wheel highway tractor pulling a stainless steel chemical tank trailer (with an RTA banner on the side of the tank) parked at the curb.   That was kinda weird. I wonder if the tractor trailer was paid for? 

There was a very loud DJ with speakers blarring out into the street. Who paid for the DJ guy?   What does loud R&R have to do with “No Car Day”.    I suggest lose the noise next time around.

Great Lakes brewery’s 15 passanger van was there.   Too early in the day for a frosty but GLB is pro-actively on the sustainable side of the table which puts them way ahead of Bud.  

There was a green-squirrel-dressed-clown-type-person jumping at the curb and waving to passing cars – some of which would honk.   I didn’t really get that green squirrel connection either.

There was a new bright red hybrid ride share car on display for no car day.  Though that is a bit of a non- sequitur,  Ryan McKenzie’s http://www.freetimes.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2937 [1]   hybrids and ride sharing are moving the environment in the right direction. 

David Beach of Eco City  did a quick cameo for a photo (See inset photo - I didn’t see a bike) http://www.ecocitycleveland.org/aboutus/pd_beach_profile.html [2]

What did make sense was Jim Sheehan’s riding to work to represent the Ohio City Bicycle Co-op http://ohiocitycycles.org/ [3] .    Kevin Cronin’s advance work  with  http://www.clevelandbikes.org/ [4]  made sense  and Kevin’s posting of the event on the calendar at   [5]http://www.realneo.us/ [5](which is why I was involved) made sense.  Having Earth Day Coalition   http://www.earthdaycoalition.org/ [6]  involved made sense having     The Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency    http://www.noaca.org/ [7]   involved (Noaca handed out the energy efficient 100watt fluorescent light bulbs  - cost from   http://www.bulbs.com/ [8]$1.82 each  -  http://www.bulbdirect.com/ [9] had second lowest price at $1.90.)

I’m not sure who was hosting the bagels and OJ. 

Clearly a lot of established organizations were involved, and everything went smoothly except for the fact that basically there was no public  attendance.  This actually can have the effect of discouraging the causes which are hoping for advancement.

I  recommend that future events,  if they are to be held, are publicized effectively enough to bring enough citizen involvement to justify the public and private funds and time committed.

What was the $ cost per contact made with the public at this event?  What was the overall taxpayer funded budget for this event? Whatever the budget the money did not have an effective return.   Any money available for messages about the environment needs to be spent wisely. 

There is another ride Friday, May 19, 2000 ending a Rocco’s.   See event here : http://www.clevelandbikes.org/ [4]