We have laid the ground work for you, to do something spectacular ...
When you view the Photo Gallery of past events (see menu to right), you may think that those of us in the photos who've organized health & healing events in our locales are special.
But we are Tai Chi or Qigong enthusiasts, teachers, or group members just like you!
World Tai Chi & Qigong Day has gotten this global event onto official event calendars, and official Health Event calendars worldwide.
So, when you approach local government, media, or other institutions . . . they'll see the event you are talking about on their calendars. This can be a BIG help.
For, some WTCQD organizers have collaborated with local, state, and national government branches to sponsor or publicize their events . . . while some events are promoted solely by the organizing groups.
Other organizers have collaborated with health institutions, hospitals, and government health offices when creating their WTCQD events.
GETTING FOLKS TO
YOUR EVENT! Here, you'll see the tools we used to get people to our WTCQD events, and to get the media attention that has enabled our events to educate millions about Tai Chi and Qigong's benefits and how to find local teachers worldwide.
BUT, since we did all this, many doors have opened wide to enable you to have booster rockets to do your local organizing of WTCQD events:
* Email
* Meetup.com
* Facebook
* Twitter
* Blogger
* LinkedIn,
etc. etc.
"Kudos to you Bill [&WorldTaiChiDay.org] And all those involved to make this event happen! Such a wonderful experience! Half if the participants in my group where new or returning students that had been away for awhile! Live streaming social media marketing advertising played a big part in that!"
We do free Tai Chi and Qigong presentations throughout the year at hospitals, book stores, health food stores, churches, etc. etc. and we COLLECT EMAIL ADDRESSES of attendees, and are constantly growing our email list, so that we can contact them leading up to WTCQD several times over the weeks approaching our event, to urge them to come and to also spread the word. You can share our FREE WTCQD email newsletters with your group to educate them on breaking medical research and to get them excited about being part of WTCQD with your group. Simply click the "forward" button when you get our email newsletters, and paste in your email list emails in the "send" box.
MEETUP.COM
For a minimal fee, you can have up to 3 Meetup groups on Meetup.com. Here in Kansas City, we started "Kansas City / Johnson County Tai Chi Meetup"; "KC/JC Meditation Meetup"; "KC/JC Traditional Chinese Medicine Meetup." Which we announce Meetup dates for WTCQD each year, and also whenever we have new TC/QG class sessions beginning.
By doing this, anyone in your city or area who is interesed in "Tai Chi," for example, will find your Meetup group when they search Meetup.com, and your members will grow over time.
FACEBOOK/TWITTER/SOCIAL MEDIA
If you haven't yet, start a Facebook, etc. page for your school or group, and also one for example "World Tai Chi & Qigong Day Philadelphia" if you teach in Philly. Overtime, your members and FB Friends will grow, and you'll have a growing network to get to your events, and also to help you spread the word.
"World Tai Chi and Qigong Day, takes place [the last Saturday of April] . . . To learn more, find instruction on the basics or discover a class in your area, go online to worldtaichiday.org."
-- USA Weekend
"Maybe we should have World Tai Chi and Qigong Day every week."
-- International Herald Tribune
COMMUNITY ORGANIZING KIT:
You MUST change dates on
below kit to this year's date
-WTCQD is always the last Saturday of April each year.
[You can connect with T'ai Chi Studios in your area, to create a bigger event through cooperaton, by encouraging other groups to participate.]
World T'ai Chi Day handles only national/international media & organizing. YOUR LOCAL organizing is up to you. These kits will enable you to create a very powerful local event if you begin using them today. We will assist you in any way we can.
COLLECT EMAIL ADDRESSES CONSTANTLY!
Tai Chi or Qigong teachers, WTCQD organizers, constantly collect email addresses anytime you do an event in your area. Build your list so that you can notify them each time a new class session begins, or for the next WTCQD event.
Click on the Free Banner, Poster, Flyer/Leaflet artwork in the menu to your right to get pdf's of Posters/Flyers so your local group can put up posters at bookstores, coffee shops, natural health clinics, libraries, healthfood stores, etc. Your group, or students if you teach, can begin passing out flyers, placing them in the physician's office, etc. to get the word out about your coming WTCQD event.
Start a Tai Chi or Qigong Meetup in your area, visit www.meetup.com to learn how.
Start a Facebook, Google Plus, and Twitter page for your local classes, and stay in touch with them by forwarding WTCQD's free weekly email newsletter links to them.
If you don't have a Facebook page for your local group or school yet, you can view this one by WTCQD Founder, Bill Douglas, he created for his local classes, in order to get some ideas on how yours might look. http://www.facebook.com/KansasCityJohnsonCountyKsTaiChi
You will get much more attention and activity on your Facebook or Twitter account for your local group, school or classes if you have a constant supply of information for your visitors and friends to read. WorldTaiChiDay.org provides you with a constant supply of breaking Tai Chi and Qigong news, medical research, etc. Each of our Newsletters supplies convenient Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, links to make it easy to post a link to our newsletters on your account page as posts or tweets from your account.
Our Official Newsletters also supply Video and Photo Archives of past WTCQD events, and keep readers informed of the global developments, so your readers and visitors, or students if you teach, can feel part of the global wave of Qi each year and get excited about helping you to organize and outreach to build your event as a community rather than all by yourself.
You can get your Facebook or Twitter account started off with a flurry of activity and valuable Tai Chi and Qigong information by posting links to any one of the Archived Newsletters from WorldTaiChiDay.org.
For postal mailings, post cards should be used rather than letters. Post cards are cheaper, and people are more likely to read post cards. Post cards should be sent to your membership, and to whatever targeted mailing lists you can acquire (i.e. related organizations, such as yoga or meditation). The focus of the world event is "health". Most people are now learning about TÕai Chi & QiGong for health reasons. If you focus on martial arts you will severely limit interest in your event. A suggested post card follows:
[In the US an inch of blank space is advisable on bottom of the card's address side.]
Scroll down (left) for more Kit Contents. . .
KIT CONTENTS CONT'D:
BACK OF CARD (not the stamp and address side):
- BE SURE to change dates to CURRENT YEAR'S EVENT DATE !
FRONT OF CARD(The stamp and address side):
NOTE: These postcards are great advertising for your organization as well, so you can place them in book stores, art & nature shops, use your imagination. BUT BECAUSE YOU ARE OFFERING "FREE" EVENTS, and not charging, these become a perk for shops customers, and in fact some places will stuff them in shopping bags, or leave them on the counter for customers to pick up. Organizing FREE events opens many doors the other advertising will not. For example all the print, radio, and television media will list your events on their COMMUNITY EVENTS CALENDARS, because they are not-for-profit. This is covered in Media Organizing Kits.
The World T'ai Chi Day Event, should be held in a prominent public place, but yet relaxing and comfortable for participants, like a Central Park Area near the heart of the City. It should be easily accessible to the Media and Public, but pleasant. For example, here in Kansas City last year, we held it on the lawn of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, which is near our rather famous Plaza Area in Midtown. We received enormous media attention, including internationally by CNN, and our class sizes have mushroomed since then, and the community is healthier for it.
Organizing with the City Government or a Prominent Institution such as an art museum will also add credibility and noteriety to your event. The more people (or energy, Qi) that is behind the event, the more powerful and fruitful it will be. So be inclusive. You will probably have to explain to many people what T'ai Chi is, so they wonÕt think people will be breaking bricks or injuring themselves or others. THIS EVENT IS ABOUT EDUCATING THE PUBLIC THAT T'AI CHI IS HEALTHFUL AND SAFE. So, begin with the organizing of it, becoming that public education tool. We want people to feel comfortable with T'ai Chi, not afraid of it's mysterious qualities. This event is meant to illuminate, educate, and improve the health of the community, by making our classes grow exponentially. The money we make can then be used to stage even greater events in the future. When we win, the community wins. Isn't this GREAT!
To get the most media, you need a lot of people, so the free workshops, not only get the media to help promote it as a FREE Public Event of interest to their reader/or viewership, but it will help you get a bigger group out on Event Day. However, on the event day you must get the entire group to "loop" or repeat the beginning movements, so all can do T'ai Chi together, then advanced can perform the more lengthy postures later. Email me if this doesnÕt make sense.
Many WTCQD groups worldwide provide our Official WTCQD T-Shirts to their event participants and use them for fundraisers for their schools, or charitable organizations.
Learn more about Official T-Shirts from our official sponsor, in the menuat upper-right.
You and your local group
can help support our
global health &
healing efforts ...
