Planning an event

So you have a great idea now how do you put it into action? If you don’t have a venue then why not speak to your local library, theatre or community space. You could see other organisations in your area who are planning events through the site so it might be worth seeing if you can use their venue or partner up.

Think about what you are trying to achieve with your event. Do you want to showcase the work you have been doing in arts and health, do you want to give people a taster of an existing activity or are you trying out something new?

We would encourage all organisers to try and keep events as accessible as possible. We appreciate there may be costs to cover but most successful events have an accessible price point of £20 or under. If you run a course which costs a lot more to produce then could you try a short taster event?

We encourage you to get people to sign up to your event. This year we have added an option for you to ticket each event. Even if you want your event to be free or if you have an exhibition that takes place over the week, it is still really useful for you (and us!) to have an idea of who is interested and planning to attend

Marketing your event

One of the benefits of being part of our festival is that we will do as much as we can to get the word out there. You can use our branding and resources to give your event a consistent look and feel and we will be spending lots of time in sharing the festival and it’s events this year.

However, there are many things you can do to ensure that you get a good turnout.

• Print out flyers and posters and let everyone know what you are up to.
• Get your local media interested. We will be updating our media resource pack with tips on how to contact journalists and how to ensure they cover your event
• Social Media is your friend. Don’t spam but tell people about what you are up to. Offer advice and great content where you can. We will be updating our social media guidelines. Make sure you join the national conversation by using our resources and using and tracking activity
• Networking and partnerships, we can’t say this enough by making connections in your area is really the best way of getting to new audiences.
• If you or someone you have worked with have a good story to tell then this is by far the best way to show people what you do. Did you take up a creative activity because of an illness or a life changing experience. Do you work with anyone who likes to shout about what you do? This is gold for marketing an media interest

You can download the Creativity and Wellbeing Week logo here.

Evaluating

Make sure you build in evaluation to everything you do. It doesn’t have to be complicated but it is good for you (and us!) to find out if your events have impact.

You can ask people a very simple question during or after the event. Did they enjoy it?

Think about using technology. Take evaluation via a tablet or look into using mobile phone technology such as a polling app.

Follow up with a thank you, a chance to start an ongoing conversation and a very short survey.

Encourage and welcome constructive feedback. Give people the option to be anonymous and to write freely, it may be hard to hear but it is really useful (honestly!)

If you are hoping to continue or expand what you do during the week then evaluation is really important. It can be a way of attracting new partners, funders and participants. We all know that arts and culture are good for your health but you still need to prove that what you are doing is making an impact

Try to gain both qualitative and quantative feedback. It is fantastic knowing how many people came through the door but to know why they were there and what they thought of you is just as important

Top Tips

• Think about what you want from the event? Do you want to try something new, attract new participants or showcase what you do to a wider audience?
• Will you hold the event online or in-person? If you are in a healthcare setting, we know that many of you have carried on delivering face to face. If you want to reach bigger audiences and are not location-specific, digital may be the answer. However, you may want to scale things down and offer smaller groups the chance to take part outside. We have pulled together a guide to delivering safely during Covid.
• Do you need any support and advice in delivering online? Why not join our Digital Sandpit group, where you can practice and polish what you are doing in a peer to peer space?
• Once you have decided on your event, make sure you list it on our website. You will need to create a profile, but you can use this to tell us all about what you do year-round.
• Shout about what you are doing! You can use our digital badge and share your plans on your social media platforms and newsletter if you have one. We try to share as many events as possible on our channels, so the earlier, the better when it comes to submitting.
• The event must be open to all, free or at cost, take place between 17-23rd May and fall under the remit of creativity and wellbeing. We know this is a broad field, so we don’t have any strict criteria, but it should fit the festival aims.
• You can hold events wherever you are in the UK. We were thrilled in 2019 to have events from the Outer Hebrides down to the edge of Cornwall.

Great to be part of Creativity and Wellbeing Week again and fanstastic to see how the regions have taken it on board. We get loads of inspiration from all the events and seeing the part Qube is playing as part of the bigger picture