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Event planning is often a slippery slope. You start with something simple and end up with a three ring circus!

The simpler you keep things, the more affordable and accessible it will be, and the more time your visitors will have to enjoy your community. As soon as you go public, you’ll hear tons of suggestions and it’s up to you what fits your Infusion - so take a moment to consider how adding that one extra thing to your plan will add complexity (and stress) before you jump into it:

• Serving food: This is costly and requires early pre-payment and a confirmed headcount in order to know how much food to order and options for dietary requirements. It involves garbage if you’re offering food outdoors, which might require paying for park cleanup or recruiting volunteers to help pick up afterwards. Providing food not made in a commercial kitchen requires proof of certain training in most Canadian provinces, proof of which may be a requirement for booking a picnic or park space in your area.
  • Potential solution: Highlight local restaurants they can eat at before or after the main event of your infusion (for us this was The ‘Family Photo’)

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Nanaimo’s group of food trucks regularly offer food in the park that we held the Infusion “family photo” in. By keeping them in the loop, they had the info they needed to host a food truck festival the first day of the Infusion weekend in the same park - which led to a fun first day opportunity to hang out in the park.

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• Tickets/payment: Taking money or requiring tickets from visitors not only creates expectations that visitors attend (see There’s Only One Rule), it creates expectations that ticketholders access more “value added” than just visiting your great community already offers. Keeping things free also eliminates the need for a venue that controls and checks tickets and managing the ticket proceeds.
  • Our Red Lanyards provided a visible signal for locals and businesses to show them some love without any tickets needed. They were easy to find for most and easy to make.
• Discounts for your visitors: This was one of the most common suggestions we heard from locals - “you should get local businesses to offer a discount for the Americans!” This event was partly to bring them business and not make them foot the bill. Canada’s unfavourable US exchange rate already offered American visitors a good discount. Soliciting discounts also brings expectations of “return on investment” or ROI for local businesses which is hard to track with an unscheduled, grassroots movement like this.
• Entertainment: Offering more programming or entertainment keeps people away from the sights and businesses that make your town great! It also requires a lot of additional planning and cost that can weigh down an event like this - even if the entertainment is volunteered by locals. Every act must be insured and properly set up.
• Volunteers: Free help is amazing, but often requires management and training on a timeline without much time for it. Consider connecting with community organizations that may already have volunteers who could help with things like table set up or checking the park for garbage afterwards.

The Infusion Approach:

1. Make space for your community to show off! Watch for local groups and individuals who already do a great job doing cool stuff for your community so no matter how the day goes, they’ll win out. Make room for them to do their thing and do your best to coordinate so that the Infusion visitors can enjoy it. Some groups that provided excellent experiences adjacent to the Nanaimo Infusions: Nanaimo’s food truck group, a large farmers market in a neighbouring town hosted a “makers market” in the park. Upstanding citizens offered a welcome table, downtown maps, and The ‘Adopt-a-Visitor’ Program in real life.
2. Promote the heck out of it. Make sure your visitors know how many awesome things the community is putting on that they can check out, whether a food truck festival or an open-air concert. Friends from local LGBTQIA+ groups hosted drop in meetups in a craft brewery across the street, a couple hours after the The ‘Family Photo’ making it super convenient and likely to succeed regardless of visitor turnout.

Évitez la complexité

L’organisation d’un événement peut rapidement devenir un engrenage. On commence avec quelque chose de simple… et on finit avec un véritable cirque à trois pistes !

Plus vous gardez les choses simples, plus l’événement sera abordable et accessible, et plus vos visiteurs auront le temps de profiter de votre communauté. Dès que vous rendez votre projet public, vous recevrez énormément de suggestions. C’est à vous de décider ce qui convient à votre Infusion — alors prenez un moment pour réfléchir à la façon dont l’ajout d’un seul élément supplémentaire augmentera la complexité (et le stress) avant de vous lancer :

• Servir de la nourriture : Cela coûte cher et nécessite des paiements anticipés ainsi qu’un nombre confirmé de participants afin de savoir combien de nourriture commander et quelles options prévoir pour les restrictions alimentaires. Cela implique aussi la gestion des déchets si vous servez des repas à l’extérieur, ce qui peut nécessiter des frais de nettoyage ou le recrutement de bénévoles pour ramasser après l’événement. Dans plusieurs provinces canadiennes, offrir de la nourriture qui n’est pas préparée dans une cuisine commerciale exige également des preuves de formation spécifiques, parfois nécessaires pour réserver un parc ou un espace public.
  • Solution possible : mettre en valeur les restaurants locaux où les visiteurs pourront manger avant ou après l’activité principale de votre Infusion (pour nous, c’était The ‘Family Photo’ ).

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À Nanaimo, le regroupement de camions de cuisine de rue offre régulièrement de la nourriture dans le parc où nous avons tenu la The ‘Family Photo’ de l’Infusion. En les gardant informés, ils avaient toutes les informations nécessaires pour organiser un festival de food trucks le premier jour du week-end de l’Infusion dans ce même parc — ce qui a créé une belle occasion de se retrouver et de socialiser dès la première journée.

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• Billets et paiements : Demander de l’argent ou exiger des billets crée non seulement une attente de participation de la part des visiteurs (voir Il n’y a qu’une seule règle), mais aussi l’attente d’obtenir une valeur ajoutée au-delà de ce que votre communauté offre déjà naturellement. Garder l’événement gratuit élimine aussi le besoin d’un lieu contrôlant les accès, de la gestion des billets et de l’administration des revenus.
  • Nos Red Lanyards servaient de signal visuel pour que les commerces et les citoyens puissent démontrer leur accueil aux visiteurs, sans nécessiter de billets. Ils étaient faciles à fabriquer et à repérer.