After Action Review - Trail Promotion at the Back Home Appalachian Music & Arts Festival in New Martinsville, West Virginia

After Action Review
Adventurer's Project manned table and backdrop at the Back Home Appalachian Music & Arts Festival 2018 in New Martinsville, West Virginia, USA.

At approximately 8am on Friday, June 29th, 2018, I arrived at the non-profit tent on the north side of the Wetzel County Museum/ Wetzel County Convention & Visitors Bureau.  This was the first manned event that these materials were used in.  The backdrop was assembled about a week ago at Wolf Run State Park.  Otherwise, the other materials were procured in June of 2018.  All in all, their cost was probably in the ball park of $300.  The felt for the backdrop probably accounted for a least a 1/3 of that.  Unfortunately, tracking their expense wasn't a priority.

During the festival, there may have been 8 people who approached the table over 2 days.  But in all fairness, the crowd in the street was anemic and by the ones in my sight, I can't say that the vendors had a good turn out either.  For what was supposed to be for 15k to 20k entries, there wasn't enough food and for what was there, some of them ran out of supplies in mid-event.

On the evening of Friday, 6/29, I approached one of the event organizers and asked to be moved somewhere else.  The public did not know that that the tent was for non-profits and they passed me by.  I was under the tent by myself, but I was told that there was going to be a children's area and games the next day.  So, I decided to remain under the non-profit tent roof because I was told that things should get better and then there was the issue of the back drop being tied to two benches with ratcheting roof straps.

On the next day, only one other non-profit set up under the tent.  The project probably had the majority of those 8 people inquire about it then.  At about 5pm, I made the decision to cancel the remainder of our event that day and the next.   I broke down our supplies and headed back to camp.

The things that went well:

1) talked to the CVB before the event

2) got the word out to our base in more than 35 days in advance

3) confirmed our spot with the CVB about a week prior to the event

4) I was very functional on both days

5) From what little interest that we had, American Discovery had the most.

6) The trail promotion for the North Country Trail in equality with the Buckeye went rather fluidly.  American Discovery went about as well as it could have considering that it doesn't have a panel on the backdrop dedicated to it.

Things that went wrong:

1) the back drop needs stabilization legs, particularly for outdoor venues.

2) 3 walls need to be designed for our tent.  Two of them should move out at an angle.  All three walls should have information pinned to them and that would increase what we can post by 200%

3) had I known better, I could have brought another table.  On that table, I could have brought my hiking gear and had a demonstration.

How we can do better:

1) We can schedule to have that demonstration during our trail promotion event at the festival.  We have ample PA equipment.

2) We can prop up that event with a lead hike, shuttle service, or both.

3) the chapter that comes out of the Adventurer's Project may have to determine if this is some kind of investment?  Not necessarily with money, but with time and energy.  This is on the basis of the uniqueness of this event.

4) our setup needs it's own LED lighting and battery

5) if my motorhome is still available, we could use my before proposed trail promotion setup in one of the city's parking lots.  For those of you who don't know, my motorhome is 24ft long.  And if a piece of fabric were as long and wide at it is, it could be fixed to the side of the motorhome to create a giant sign.  Also, it has it's own awning.

5) North Country's map was too small for the backdrop.  It was a copy of the one used in the National Park Service brochure and it was the same size.  It probably needs to be printed on a plotter (architectural printer).

6) We have a crew of 4 in Far SE Ohio right now.  2 of them and myself are from NE Ohio.  The other one lives in the west of our area and probably doesn't know much about the east?  It seems that my questioning of local officials needs to become more interrogative.

What If???

What if we could pay the royalties to some Hollywood production company to show one of the more recent hiking movies to the general public?  Or what if one of the 501(c)3's could get this for free?

In the future, if the Wetzel County CVB has the non-profit area in the same place, a large sign the size of one piece of ply or larger needs to be created for it.