I think I'm washing my hair that day

I saw this billboard ad today on my way to a meeting:

 

I've got a bit of a thing about the overuse of the word "Event".  It usually means that the last thing the event in question will resemble is any kind of event.  It tends to be a word that is used when you're really not sure what the point of your event is.  So you call it an event.

I can be guilty of having a go at Local Authorities without real justification at times, but I have to say the inner taxpayer is feeling a bit annoyed that some of the cash earmarked for my part of Leeds has gone on such an unremarkable piece of marketing, if you can call it marketing.  Are local people really going to think "Hey, we're free on Saturday, let's go to that Voluntary Organisations Market Place Event."

I hope it's an eventful event.   I'm busy that day in any event, so I'll probably never find out.  

Comments

[Martin Cooper]

Lol. Reminds me of the comedian Daniel Kitson's routine about the lack of subtext in the film Top Gun (character who plays by his own rules is called "Maverick", character who is stand-offish and emotionally cold is "Iceman" etc).
Surely they could use the trusty acronym at least- VOMP event?

[Chris]

That's brilliant. A work of satirical genius.

[John]

Think I saw the same one on my way to a meeting today, it left me wondering a) why I hadn't heard about this before and b)how did I find out more. Of course there was no way to see more than the headline as i drove past it. So I agree a totally missed oportunity, or should that be that LCC should go on the marketing course run by that interesting consultant who promotes social businesses 8-)

[Rob Greenland]

Thanks for the comments. You're right John, I'm sure they'd benefit from my marketing workshop!

It's all a bit of fun but as always there's a serious point behind all of this.

I don't blame the person who wrote the ad, but I do point the finger at the system which comes up with things like this. Somewhere there will be a strategy, probably well thought through and with good intentions, which has a line in it about raising awareness of local third sector organisations amongst local people.

At an away day the idea for the event was probably hatched, and it was then added to the long to-do list of a member of staff. They cobbled something together, it then got stuck in the workings of the Council for a while, and eventually an ad was hastily put together when everyone realised that there was only 4 weeks til the event.

It might go really well, I hope it does. On the other hand no-one might turn up other than the people from the third sector organisations, who'll spend the afternoon chatting to eachother. Not much will change for the better, but a report will be presented to local councillors to say that this particular line in the strategy has been successfully achieved. It will have been judged so successful that it will become an annual event.

In all the talk of public sector cuts it's this kind of stuff that needs to be looked at more closely.

[Robert Ashton]

Maybe there needs to be a 'voluntary organisations event mark', similar to that currently being waved about for social enterprise.

People will surely only attend such an event if confident they'll not encounter:
- crap instant coffee and cheap biscuits
- embarassing demonstrations of how not to support 'service users'
- patronising tin-shakers 'doing their bit' . . . .
- low paid/low imagination vol sector 'support workers' whose sole skill is the ability to creatively translate failure into positive funding outcomes on their paperwork

When will people realise that it's what you do, not what you are that matters.

[David Floyd]

Well, the important thing is that at least 50% of the costs of the coffee must be funded through trading activities and no more 50% of profits generated through selling it should be distributed to shareholders.

As long as you've got that sorted, it doesn't really matter what the coffee tastes like or even if anyone drinks it.