I’m still recovering from our clubs event on Saturday. We were looking to promote bonsai to the public and seek new members but also give our current members a good day out. We sought funding from Belfast City Council and their Parks department. If you hold a stand alone event in one of their parks they will offer grants to fund this. We applied and were successful. We called the event ‘The Bonsai Experience 2015’

One of the aspects we hoped to address was getting young people into bonsai. We offered out 20 free children’s workshop places on the day for ages between 5 and 16 years. We added this to our promotion of the event and received bookings for half the places prior to Saturday. The rest of the places we filled in the first hour or so. Kids and parents alike just loved this! So did we 🙂 It was my favourite part of the day seeing young people absolutely engrossed in what they were being told and then transferring that to their own tree which they got to keep at the end.

I know other clubs have done a little of this around the world, I’ve seen it on the net but honestly, I feel that this should be good practice for any club looking to grow. Not easy to run, health and Safety is always a concern but kids remain under parental supervision throughout and I think the parents get as much out of it as the kids! We are lucky to have a school teacher on our committee who ran the sessions and as I have experience working with children in my own job, I was able to help out at busy times.

Worth noting that posters and flyers have a limited use in this era of social media. By far the most effective means of promoting an event these days is via Twitter and Facebook, especially if you are seeking new younger members!

All the photos from the event are on multiple posts on the club website www.nibonsai.co.uk  but just look at this selection below and tell me how it made you smile 🙂