Record Numbers for a Newcastle Club event.
It was National Orienteering Day yesterday and Newcastle Club officials were ecstatic with the response to their “free for first-timers”, promotion at Glendale. In fact the response was so good and so unexpected that map stocks were quickly exhausted with club officials scrambling to print more. (Thanks to Geoff Todkill for returning home to do so).
Newcastle as one of the largest clubs in NSW, (probably only challenged by Garingal), regularly enjoys good attendances at it’s club events but estimates indicate that these figures were supplemented by at least an extra 30% yesterday, with total numbers representing a local club event attendance record.
A few elements aligned to produce such a good showing.
Firstly, the “Brush Creek” map was selected for this day as it had been identified as a good performer in terms of participant numbers due to its central location on the border between Newcastle and Lake Macquarie. While the area is close to urban locales, it still offers good quality “bush orienteering” experience, something we wished to present to the newcomer.
Secondly, through the week a few “small” pieces of publicity were aired in local newsprint and radio, with the “what to do” entry in the Newcastle Herald’s “Weekender” supplement seemingly the major contributor.
Lastly, the weather gods played their part by producing what was a spectacularly beautiful day.
General consensus amongst the finishing first-timers was that they enjoyed it, some so much so that they completed a second course, and that “yes they would come back”. One encouraging sign is that many were families looking for an activity they could do together so we are hopeful of a reasonable conversion level. We wait and see.
Thanks to Denis Lyons for his course setting and organisation. Thanks also to the (too many to list) Newcastle members that helped out on what turned out to be a very busy day.
Results