Episode 34 – Planning a Farm Open Day

EPISODE NOTES

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There are a lot of things to think through and plan if you are going to put on an Open Day. Here Steve Heatherington shares some of what he has learnt over 11 years of open days.

POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

  • Health and Safety – do your risk assessments and put things in place to keep visitors safe.
  • Insurance – you will need Public Liability insurance and keep within any restrictions they impose.
  • Security – house and workshops or stores

WELFARE

  • People – toilets, handwashing facilities; access for people with disabilities
  • Animal – as stress free as possible; no dogs

OFFERINGS

  • products
  • payments (cash or card)
  • selling animals – not easy to do on a farm open day; collect contact details and arrange for another time
  • refreshments – decide extent and price
  • demos
  • feeding the alpacas

MARKETING AND PROMOTION

  • social media (including paid adverts?)
  • signs to make you easy to find
  • banners and information signs

CONTINGENCIES

  • weather (too hot; too wet)
  • disasters and cancellation policy

PACKING UP

  • returning to normal
  • take signs down
  • feed yourself and the alpacas

LINKS

Eventbrite

Eventbrite – Discover Great Events or Create Your Own & Sell Tickets

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk

Card Processing — Accept Card Payments Anywhere | Square

Take card payments with Square and get fast deposits, low rates, simple to use point of sale software, dedicated support and powerful eCommerce tools.

https://squareup.com

Homepage - Open Farm Sunday

Homepage – Open Farm Sunday

Visit a farm Open my farm 1st time host farmer

https://farmsunday.org/

OPEN FARM SUNDAY INFO PACK – very good resource

https://farmsunday.org/uploads/homepage-slides/2019-LOFS-Information-Pack-FINAL.pdf

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