Attracting a crowd

The committee is nearly there – your big event is coming together – but how will you attract a crowd? Here are some cost-effective ways to promote your fete, trivia night or gala event.

Crowd Pulling together a large community event takes a huge amount of work, so you want lots of people to come. While your P&C has proven ways to inform parents at the school, getting the word out to the general public can be trickier.

Here are our tried and tested ideas, and some important regulations to note!

Social media

Even if your P&C does not have a social media page, it is the perfect tool for spreading the word. Simply ask parents at your school to share news of your event to their personal social media feeds!

You’ll need something easy to share, and an attractive graphic containing the essential event details is ideal. You can easily create somethign attractive for free services using Canva or Easil, or combine free images (eg from Unsplash or Pixabay) with text using an App like Wordswag or Over. (Or see these tools for great visuals.)

Once you have your image, the school might email it to all families and ask them to consider sharing it. Personally ask people you know or who are involved with the event to share the image on social media. Just 10 or 20 people can have huge reach.

There are also Facebook groups where you can post about your event to a broad audience if you join, such as ‘Canberra Notice Board Group’, ‘Garage Sales Canberra’, ‘Canberra Buy/Sell/freebies and Notice Board’, ‘Canberra and ACT Region Buy Swap Sell and Giveaway’. Pages with large followings, such as ‘Canberra Mums’ may also share your event if you ask nicely. 'My Gungahlin' is happy to promote P&C events happening in that end of town.

If your P&C runs a social media feed, build up to the event over time with a series of posts. Ask people – friends, P&C members, people running stalls at the fair – to share your posts.

Flyers and posters – everywhere!

With a bit of foresight your Social Media graphic might also be a flyer for your event, or at least the beginning of one. Tools like Canva or processing programs come with ready-made flyer templates which can look great if there’s not a volunteer graphic-designer in your community. Talk to your school about printing these on the school photocopiers (black and white is much more in line with school budgets) or get them printed in large numbers at Officeworks or a print shop.

It will ensure a crowd and create a community feel if you can deliver flyers to local letter boxes. Several companies will deliver for a surprisingly low fee, or divide your suburb into smaller areas and ask parents to take a patch to deliver to. WrongSign

Alternatively, talk to businesses that do regular mail-outs and ask if they will include your flyer. Research shows that customers respond to companies that support community causes, so make sure the businesses you contact know this.

If you’re making a flyer, why not also print it out as some A3 size as posters? Put them up on local noticeboards at shopping centres, community centres, clubs and gyms. Local shops may be happy to display your poster if you ask.

Also arrange for your flyer/poster to have a whole page of the school newsletter with a note asking parents to print it out and pin it on noticeboards at their own office, gym etc. That will multiply your message further!

Road-side signs

Your school’s large street sign is the obvious place to start and most principals are happy to include P&C messages. To reach more motorists, you’ll need more signs. Several Canberra printing and sign-writing companies print to flute-board to make the signs we’re all familiar with along roadsides. Think carefully about the following before you order.

Keep it simple. The sign must be readable as people drive past. That means simple fonts, large lettering and few words. ‘Roma School Fair Saturday 8-2’ might be all you need. Artwork can be nice but make sure the main details visitors will need are big and bold. Be careful with colour – it’s more expensive and nothing is easier to read than simple black and white.

Think long term. If your event is likely to be annual, consider omitting the date and instead write ‘this Saturday’ and then erect them six days before the event. Alternatively, design them with the intention of pasting next year’s date over the current one. You’ll need a few layers of paper to properly block out the old date when the sign is backlit. A sheet of clear contact over the whole lot keeps them looking good and the rain out.

Get someone else to pay for it! Many P&Cs have been able to strike up partnerships with their local real-estate agents. Agents regularly print signage and may be willing to pay for yours in exchange for adding their branding.

Once you have your signs, attach one or two garden stakes. Zip-ties work well, or use screws with large washers to stop the fixtures tearing through the flute board. Work out where to place them. Marking this on a map will make it easier to divide up the job between a couple of people, and easier to collect afterwards.

Following the rules!

The ACT Government has a Code of Practice relating to Movable Signs (see the Transport Canberra and City Services website). It is an offence not to comply and city rangers can confiscate wrongly-placed signs. Schools and community groups may display a maximum of 20 movable signs for up to two weeks before the event. Signs may be an A-frame or the more familiar board mounted on stakes and must not exceed 900mm x 1200mm, including the frame/stakes. Include your P&C name as small print for identification. Your P&C must have public liability insurance of at least $10 million to place road-side signs (which is easily covered by Council’s P&C insurance package).

Signs must not be placed anywhere where they obstruct the path of pedestrians. They must be at least 1.2m from the road curb, and cannot be placed:

on roundabouts
within 20 metres of traffic lights or the corner of an intersection
on residential nature strips
attached to bridges, trees, streets signs, light poles and so on – they must be free standing
within special ‘Designated Areas’ (without permission from the National Capital Authority) that is, the Parliamentary Triangle and Canberra’s ‘main avenues and approaches’ including Adelaide Avenue, Monaro Highway, Limestone Avenue – there is an extensive list in the Code of Practice.

Think about where motorists in your area queue or pass daily, but make sure that you know and follow the rules for sign placement (see right). Be sure to collect your signs shortly after the event and store them for next time.

Making it news-worthy

If you event is linked to something newsworthy, the local newspaper might be interested in a story. An occasion linked to a significant school birthday, with a unique offering or guest, or a world-record attempt, for example, might get them interested. You’ll need to contact the paper a couple of weeks in advance for the story to get to readers before your event.

Online and On-air

You can list your event for free on the ActewAGL community switch which local radio stations use for community announcements. Gumtree also has a section for community events and fairs which are well worth using. Please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. your favourite Canberra notice board or free advertising avenue!

This article appeared in ParentACTion Magazine, Term 2, 2018. Updated 2022.