RRC Archives

In response to Charlie....

Advertising was above average. I saw promos on all the major websites, which was a step up for sure. Also, the posters were attention getting.

The Keen footwear promotion was great. I know several people who bought items they wouldn't have normally bought because they knew some or all of the money went to the PMRP.

Food was the best dinner I've had at a festival. Incredible. How about a redbull sponsored mixed drink bar.... but without alcohol? New River calls it the "No Booze Bar", and its always a big hit. How about a Miguels Midnight Pies Delivery for when the dancin is goin down? Breakfast was good as well. No complaints.

Shuttles or Designated Drivers back to Miguels might be a nice addition for sure...

Ahh, sorry about that. By promotions I meant promoting and advertising the event, a bit earlier and to a wider audience. Our sponsors totally rocked the house with their promotions. I'm wearing a new pair of Keen shoes right now.

Food talk we are having is in terms of food on site all weekend in addition to the kickass Bourbon and Toulouse we have on Saturday.

All very good ideas people, thanks a ton!

Where were the donation boxes?

I only saw one and I don't remember where. At the other festivals that I have been to there were donation boxes at every booth and the sponsors were promoting donations. Nobody wants to be hounded for their money all night but if its done in the right manner people will get out their wallet, I know I have.

The cost was too high. You don't get any money from the people that don't come. I also talked to many people that didn't come because of the price to get in the door.

flip wrote:Where were the donation boxes?

I only saw one and I don't remember where. At the other festivals that I have been to there were donation boxes at every booth and the sponsors were promoting donations. Nobody wants to be hounded for their money all night but if its done in the right manner people will get out their wallet, I know I have.

The cost was too high. You don't get any money from the people that don't come. I also talked to many people that didn't come because of the price to get in the door.

what would you (all of you not just flip) say is a fair price for the event?

would it be better if it was a package deal? for example say $xx for the weekend gets you 2 nights camping, 2 nights festivities, dinner sat, breakfast sun - maybe a tshirt and/or schwag bag? or is it better to say it's $xx for fri, $sxx for sat, $xx for dinner, $xx for t-shirt like we did it this year?

and a big THANK YOU to everyone who donated, volunteered, and attended! and thanks to all who are submitting feedback on www.rrgcc.org - i know it will help to make these events better and better

At first thought, I think a package deal would work best... sort of.

Friday night, free with the package. $5 without... $10 at most (includes camping). Something chill... movie, slideshow, etc... BYOB. You won't lose money on the camping price because most people won't be camping... and those who do will be camping again (and paying) tomorrow.

Saturday should be the real party... with several options. The package price gets you a tshirt, schwag bag, dinner, dessert, beer, breakfast, camping, and maybe a discounted price on clinics and free entry to comps. Just throwing out a number, but maybe $75 or so.

The lower price just gets you admission and camping.... maybe $15 tops.

Local residents should get in free. Just good neighborin'.


Until you have to cap off the number of people, you'll need a cheap option. Once it outgrows any venue... then you can charge alot and cap it off.

I think it's going to be hard to get people to pay more than $15 dollars to get in the door unless you find a way to seriously sweeten the pot and make $27 seem like a steal. I realize the venue increased overhead from previous years and that's why admission was so high, but hopefully by cutting back expenses in other areas and finding ways to better utilize the site it can be used again next year. It is a really nice venue and has a lot of untapped potential.

i know it's the easy excuse to use but.. this year was very much a learning year. this was the first time we've had to shell out major monies for a venue and also the first time we've had expectations be quite so large and the major bit of the responsibility be on our shoulders alone. not to mention a few "perfect storms" that kept a few of us from being as on top of things as we could have been.

the cost - yes, this year it was pricey. it was somewhat out of fear, somewhat out of the unknown, and somewhat out of expectations.

fear - with the costs and time, i know i for one was concerned about covering costs. not a ton.. but it was definitely in my head.. i'd be physically ill if i were to be telling you know that we made only a couple grand on the whole thing. we don't have all the numbers yet but i do know that's not the case
unknown - we've never had the initial costs we had this year. we weren't sure what sort of margins we'd have. also, we were a bit late on pulling the trigger.. so we weren't sure of the attendance. prior to last year, rocktoberfest was a relatively small thing.. now.. well, now it's a brave new world.
expectations - we really had to knock this one out of the park. i think we can walk away from this one feeling good about it, that we set a solid precedent for years to come. now that we have some ideas and some baselines, we can adjust accordingly.

with respect to lower prices, we did eventually pull the prices down after the main events had all taken place.

it's hard to really discuss a fixed price scale right now as we're not fifty-one weeks out from the next event and can't be sure about sponsors, venue, weather, participations, and plenty of other unknown unknowns. what is good discussion is the all-inclusive vs. a la carte.. personally, i'm starting to think that people, despite themselves, want more choices. careful what you wish for, though
http://tinyurl.com/3fd39a
(i really do by into his thinking and the results of the studies.. people can get stymied by choice. when you get some time, check this one out:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 3950043200)

as for attendance - saturday night there were around 600 or so people. it was definitely hard to tell, though, since it's a very large venue. but think of it this way - we had 500 orange wrist bands.. and ran out. we bought food for 600.. and ran out.

one thing we definitely didn't anticipate was the popularity of the dyno comp.. it kinda stole the show from a bunch of bands and vendors. it was a late addition.. and excellent one, to be sure.. but it's definitely going to be taken into account for next year.

personal thoughts - i'd like some of the ideas going around about getting shirts with admission. food is awesome.. but maybe something different for different's sake, maybe moe's burritos..? i think maybe trimming a band or two might be good.. concentrate the event more and maybe focus people some. cost-wise, it didn't affect us much this year. the bands were amazing in that they were extremely charitable.. and, as charles mentioned, more people from all walks of life. that'll come through a number of changes, namely getting the word out more and sooner.

there's a lot to work on for sure and that's why we need to hear more. just wanted to give my perspective as well. and to let people know that we have an awesome template now.. it's only going to get better from here.

..sorry.. it's late, i'm tired, and i haven't slept well for weeks. that's what i've got for now. please get us that feedback:
http://rrgcc.org/rocktoberfest/a-great-time-for-all/

thanks

Corporate Whore wrote: we bought food for 600.. and ran out.

only 300 people probably ate but climbers seem to be on the phelpsian diet

If you haven't already, please enter your suggestions on the rrgcc.org site so we have a record of them.

Ideas so far, from the many conversations I've had, just to give you an idea of where I think we'll take things next year.....

fest price - all inclusive, every day (shirt/food/camping)
day pass - you get entry that day, everything else a la cart (including camping)
food trailers onsite all weekend - like they have at HP40.

Tentative plans will be a film and one band per night, so they get more sets and are not rushed. Plus, it is a ton of work going through those set changes. If you have any other ideas of what you'd like to see as far as entertainment goes, let us know. We will be promoting outside the normal climbing community too, so expect to see a bunch of strangers next year.

As Paul mentioned, most of these issues we knew about going into the event, but we all have day jobs in addition to planning this gig and we knew there were just things we didn't have the time or resource to pull off.

We learned a bunch, we made some cash, nobody died, we set expectations for the yearly event and mostly we just have to tweak things instead of mitigate total disasters (thankfully). Be patient with us and know that next year will be better.

The bands were nice, but I would have liked to see more movies.


I don't think the cost was to much. We went into it being happy to be getting something back for donating our money. Considering we get to climb for free in the PMRP it isn't that much.