COME & TRY – WHAT’S YOUR PLAN FOR THIS YEAR?

October is Bowls Queensland’s ‘Come & Try’ month and we’re encouraging every club across

the state to participate this year and pick a day to host their own ‘Come & Try’ event.

We want every bowler to think about how they will help run and advertise their club’s event to ensure it is as successful as possible. Clubs need to take the initiative and engage with ‘Come & Try’ month to help grow the lawn bowls community and allow more people the opportunity to enjoy the sport.

Bowls Queensland will be on hand to provide clubs with assistance in the form of individual promotional material for clubs, which will include letter drop flyers, large A4 flyers as well as online promotion on the Bowls Queensland Facebook page.

Running a great ‘Come & Try’ event will help boost your club’s reputation in the community as a fun and inviting place for locals to visit for a friendly drink, meal or game of bowls. While we encourage every club to use their original ideas for their event, we’ve outlined some basic things to consider when planning your club’s event below:

The day to choose

If your club is choosing to run an event during the week, schedule it during after work hours to cater to workers, children and families. You could tie this in with a night your club’s restaurant is open as this can raise some extra revenue.

Weekends are usually the choice for clubs to run such events, but it’s important to remember that Saturday is traditionally a day for the sport and can limit the number of participants. If you were looking at a Saturday, it would be important to hold this late afternoon/ evening. Sundays traditionally work best to hold an open day and maximise your participants. Days we recommend are Tuesday through to Thursday after 4 pm, Saturday after 2 pm and anytime on Sundays.

How to advertise

For a day like this to be successful, it’s very important to advertise the event in your community. The following ways are best to advertise your event.

• Social Media (Facebook)- through posts, shares and paid boosts for your club page advertising the upcoming event.
• Local Radio and newspaper
• Club Website
• Club’s social membership database
• Local community and council websites
• Community groups and sports clubs.
• Letterbox drop
• Advertisement in local shop fronts.

  Ask your members to bring their family, friends or work colleagues along to try bowls, plus advertise the day inside your club- TV screens, during raffles and with flyers on tables and bars.