The 3rd installment of Brazos Valley Pulletpalooza is now over, and by all reasonable measures, it was a rousing success. We had ten coops on the tour this year – five from Bryan, and five from College Station and surrounding areas. Attendance ranged from just one or two folks at some of our furthest-out locations to almost fifty visitors at our central locations.
At a rough guess, about 2/3rds of our visitors were already chicken owners, either from surrounding areas (Calvert, Hearne, etc.) or were new chicken owners from Bryan and College Station and had not felt comfortable approaching us to be on the tour this year – newsflash for you folks in this category, we’re going to be inundating you with requests to join next year, so you may as well save yourself some time and energy by just agreeing to be hosts next year.
And speaking of next year, we discovered that we were receiving a lot of advertising via word-of-mouth this year; we will be doubling down on this kind of marketing effort next year, and will be pursuing some other possibilities, as well.
We have decided that the timing this year was just about perfect, so from now on, the Sunday before Thanksgiving will be our permanently scheduled date. After an embarrassing back-and-forth on the time, we have discovered that 1-5 pm is the best possible time of day to hold the event, as well. So, let there be no more confusion (particularly on our own part) about when the event is going to be.
4th Annual Brazos Valley Pulletpalooza: Sunday, November 24th, 2013 from 1-5 p.m.
A few key changes are in the works for next year:
Otherwise, we’re still just Big Myrtle’s place, and a bunch of other fine feathered friends and folk.
At a rough guess, about 2/3rds of our visitors were already chicken owners, either from surrounding areas (Calvert, Hearne, etc.) or were new chicken owners from Bryan and College Station and had not felt comfortable approaching us to be on the tour this year – newsflash for you folks in this category, we’re going to be inundating you with requests to join next year, so you may as well save yourself some time and energy by just agreeing to be hosts next year.
And speaking of next year, we discovered that we were receiving a lot of advertising via word-of-mouth this year; we will be doubling down on this kind of marketing effort next year, and will be pursuing some other possibilities, as well.
We have decided that the timing this year was just about perfect, so from now on, the Sunday before Thanksgiving will be our permanently scheduled date. After an embarrassing back-and-forth on the time, we have discovered that 1-5 pm is the best possible time of day to hold the event, as well. So, let there be no more confusion (particularly on our own part) about when the event is going to be.
4th Annual Brazos Valley Pulletpalooza: Sunday, November 24th, 2013 from 1-5 p.m.
A few key changes are in the works for next year:
- As soon as we get commitments from a family to host, we will also be giving them a sign-in roster, a handful of advertising flyers, and a very brief outline of expectations. We’re still all about talking to folk and being friendly, but we want to also make sure everybody is communicating with each other, too.
- We plan on having at least one meet-up of host families in the months preceding next year’s event. Most of us know each other – but not all of us do, and in future years, it will be even less likely that we will know each other (think 30+ coops on the tour – it is becoming a real possibility).
- This year for sure: bumper stickers and t-shirts.
- More intentional and widespread media efforts – we love KEOS, but we’d like to hit some of the other media outlets a little harder next time.
- Music? Refreshments? Standardized signage? Somehow get the San Diego Chicken involved? Any other ideas or suggestions will be entertained regardless of merit.
Otherwise, we’re still just Big Myrtle’s place, and a bunch of other fine feathered friends and folk.
