What is a possible one-day format that includes all 6 elements?
Event programme - Practical recommendations and tips
- Try to include all elements; Showcase, Inform, Interact, Experience, Include, and Entertain
- Make your programme short & sweet; better have 4 hours of excitement, rather than 9 hours of fragmentation or in-activity.
- Ensure that your volunteers are fully informed and engaged. Carefully select and train them yourself; they are crucial connectors and facilitators.
- Arrange that everybody can see and experience all programme elements, both in the morning and afternoon; not everybody may stay a whole day and might otherwise miss “the highlights”.
Sports elements - Practical recommendations and tips
- Invite the right sport stars and coaches. Make both aware that they need to be willing to actively involve with the event participants.
- Support them with volunteers that facilitate communication and motivate event participants to try the sports themselves.
- Use both sports that are known and unknown. Involve sports and athletes from a broad variety of background to show that everybody can do it.
- Make the sports understood by everybody; e.g. through brief explanation in the programme; information walls in front of the stands; moderators / volunteers on the sport, etc.
- Link the sports programme to the existing offer at the respective community level. Bring both a sport star and a local representative, who can follow up when the “star” leaves.
- Coordinate your sports programme with the entertainment programme; e.g. make sure that kids are busy with sports when the entertainment is rather interesting for older persons.
- Connect on-the-spot try-outs with concrete follow-up offers; e.g. an open training session one week later.
Prize competition - Practical recommendations and tips
- Engage your audience through a prize competition that makes them want to try the different sports and make contact with your exhibitors.
- Find attractive prizes for everybody. Get your sponsors and/or local shops involved with it.
- A good target group are kids; they mostly make parents getting involved, too. However, avoid making it a “kids only activity”.
- Make your exhibitors fully aware of the prize competition and their involvement in it.
- Prepare your volunteers to motivate and guide participants through the prize competition process.
- Link the prize competition to activities that happen after the event!
- E.g.: Let participants collect the last (or an additional) item to receive the (additional) prize only when the person is participating in a session at a local sports club.
- Include #BeActive elements into the prize competition; e.g. print the logo on T-Shirts, wrist-bands, balls, etc.
EWoS elements - Practical recommendations and tips
- Make locals feel the European spirit of the Event. Ensure that you exploit the EWoS and #BeActive elements.
- Make use of the (most recent) pre-developed, free EWoS communication material, click here.
- Use this Material not only in your Programme Leaflet, but on T-Shirts, Banners, Media Communication, etc.
- Link with the guidance section of the EWoS Handbook.
- Communicate the Event through the EWoS and #BeActive communication channels.
- Register your event with your National Coordinator.
Concept elements - Practical recommendations and tips
- Ensure that people understand that the Day is for Everybody.
- Raise interest and awareness by explaining all possibilities and elements of your Programme.
- Make everybody aware that the Day is part of a larger European campaign and that it does not stop when this Day is over.
Guest services - Practical recommendations and tips
- Invite targeted multipliers, media and sponsors.
- Provide them with a guided programme and tour.
- Make them try everything with fun.
- Explain all background.
- Raise awareness of local and national needs, and the (also their!) advantages of changes to the better.
- However, do not “beg” for their help, but offer your help! E.g. provide help to local politicians to approach more “voters” by helping them improving accessibility; help media to write better articles by supporting them to understand how to improve reporting about Paralympic sports; etc.
- Ensure to make photos and collect statements; ask them for the free use for after-event PR.