Christmas Fairs, Markets and Shows

Spent the last couple of hours searching for shows, fairs, markets and places to sell our Trails in the run up to Christmas. If anyone knows of any that are coming up, I'd love to hear about them. Meantime, look out for where we are going to be by checking our Fairs and Shows page on www.treasuretrails.co.uk/trails/herefordshire/shows/

Castle Lodge Hotel

Last night we went to the Grand Opening of the Castle Lodge Hotel in Ross on Wye which has been taken over recently by Helen, Steve and Georgina. We were made very welcome and enjoyed meeting up with the mayor and his wife Sue as well as Jane from Visit Herefordshire and the proprietor of a gift shop in Ross called Crows Nest. The hotel has a fab sounding seafood restaurant and I noticed lobster on the menu - looks like a great place to go for a special occasion!

Helen invited us after seeing us talking at the Tourist Information Centre in Ross last March and has kindly taken a stock of our leaflets to display in the hotel foyer - hopefully the word continues to spread and the leaflets attract new customers.

Busy Busy

Its not that we aren't doing anything to report, its just that we are so busy the blog keeps falling off the end of the To Do List!

The Prince's Trust event that is taking place in November is keeping us the most busy as well as a few bits and pieces of Trail Trouble here and there.... seems there might be an issue in the Hay on Wye Trail and last night we checked on the Ledbury Trail and need to sort out a couple new clues for there as a plaque has disappeared and the Talbot Hotel is covered in scaffolding and the clue is missing off the front of the hotel.

Meantime, we are looking forward to next Monday's Pershore Plum Festival and hope its a sunny day. Sales of the Mystery of the Missing Plum Tart aren't as buoyant as we'd hoped but nevertheless some of them have sold which is great news.

Now, must get on as I've got a newsletter to write and get out to all our customers before the bank holiday weekend!

Treasure Trails on the Telly !

One of our colleagues has got Treasure Trails on the TV.... this Friday on BBC1 Northern Ireland at 8:30pm or on Sunday evening at 10:30pm. The programme is called Northern Exposure and features Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker and his fiancée - businesswoman and model Danielle Bux - who this summer have been visiting Northern Ireland to uncover hidden gems and give you great ideas for something to do or someplace to visit. One of their great ideas is doing the Treasure Trails Murder Mystery in Armagh. Its fab to have a celebrity endorse the product and well done to Allan in Northern Ireland. We've set our tape ready!

Keeping Up with Stuff

There is so much to do when running a small business that sometimes its hard to figure out the priorities!

Currently on the list of things to do are:-

Following up with retailers and B and Bs who stock our Trails to see if they need more stock as we go through the summer holidays
Following up with Broadfield Court to see if they have made a decision about going with a bespoke Trail
Creating and preparing for the big Prince's Trust Event we are running in November - have a wonderful Super Hero created - here he is - working name Mega Sight.
Selling direct through All Saints Church and then the Herefordshire Country Show over the last couple of weeks (which is why there has been no blog)!
Preparing for the next set of shows coming up
Listing schools to contact to find out if they are holding Christmas Fairs that we can sell at
Sorting out Trail Trouble in Hereford East - a sign has been broken off, and Trail Trouble in Bromyard - a shop has closed down!
Writing and emailing out another newsletter for customers which I want to get out before the bank holiday
Following up on leads picked up at the shows (including setting up a meeting if possible with the events manager at The Blind College.
and last but not least
Writing interesting blog entries!

Phew - worn out, think I'll have another cup of tea!

Rain Rain Go Away

Can't believe its still raining. Luckily this week we are selling Trails from the South Chapel of All Saints Church in Hereford High Town and are under cover - its not that warm, but at least its dry!

Sold a few yesterday and picked up an order for a Personalised Trail - someone's hen do in three weeks time, so we need to get cracking on making it just right for them. They are going to plant some of the clues and use some of the established Hereford Murder Mystery clues, so it should end up as a really nice mix of clues and challenges for the six girls that are going to work out who murdered Dr Love!

The new leaflets are working well and we've decided to blow the budget on a new banner as well - which hopefully will arrive in time for the Pershore Plum Festival event on 31st August. The Mystery of the Missing Plum Tart - the Trail we wrote especially for the Pershore Plum Fair - is selling well and we are starting to get answers into the prize draw. The prize is an evening meal for two at the Angel Inn in Pershore High Street - lucky winner!

This weekend we are at the Herefordshire Country Fair - so do drop by and say hi! In fact, if you come and see us as a result of this blog and quote the web address, then we'll give you an exceptional deal on a Trail of your choice from the Worcestershire and Herefordshire catalogue.

The Prince's Trust Super Hero Challenge

Met up with our man from the Prince's Trust today and agreed the theme for the event due to happen on Sunday, 1st November in Worcester. Theme is Super Heroes - so we are calling the event, The Prince's Trust Super Heroes Challenge! Website is set up now - have a look www.treasuretrails.co.uk/trails/worcestershire/theprincestrust/ and we are working on getting the artwork sorted out for the leaflets, the registration form and of course the Challenge Booklet itself.

Its all very exciting and we are so pleased to be involved in driving it through to a successful conclusion. 10,000 leaflets will be printed publicising the event and to enable people to register to be part of the event, they have to go to our website and give us their email address - more people to send our newsletters to!

We have another meeting on 8th August and hope to have the artwork ready by then and at least one of the activity zones finalised and looking like the finished product.

Got to keep in mind of course we are holding the event in November and it just might rain on it..... but there again, if we were doing it in July we'd have to bear the weather in mind too!!!