Now you can read about all the Worcestershire Trails in one go!

We've written a brief summary on all the Trails in the Worcestershire catalogue to make it easier to decide which one to do next! We know that lots of you are working your way through the catalogue!

www.treasuretrails.co.uk/worcestershire/TrailSummary.html

Facebook

Facebook is not as intuitive as Twitter, and we are still finding our feet with it business wise.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Treasure-Trails-Herefordshire-and-Worcestershire/162349793818592

Pleaes have a look and 'like' us (if you do!) and if you don't, please let us know why you don't...

Announcing Lots of New Trails

This is one for our regular Trailers - we have been busy in the first five months of this year writing new Trails for the catalogue and although three of them still need testing, two are up and running and out there for you to try!

Here's what we love about each of them and what we aren't so happy about :)

Kingsland Spy Mission
What we love about the Kingsland Trail is that it is written mostly in rhyme and although we are billing it as one of our easier Trails it still has all the elements of our normal Trails with clues written for all the family. What we aren't so sure about is whether Kingsland itself has enough to entertain the family once the Trail is done, but as we were originally commissioned by the local primary school to write it, it would be a shame not to share with everyone else. We are always happy to work with schools to help with fund raising as we did with this one, so do get in touch in you are on the PTA or are a teacher in a local school.

Beckford to Bredon Murder Mystery
What we love about this Trail is it really does explore parts of Worcestershire that lots and lots of you might not know exists. The small villages which are part of the Cotswolds are an absolute delight and must be seen if you are at all interested in the countryside. What we aren't so happy about is that we couldn't get the Trail to go up Bredon Hill itself in a sensible way, but we really hope that people take the opportunity whilst they are in the area to explore the hill itself. We are looking for retailers in the area who may be interested in stocking this Trail.

Ludlow Murder Mystery
The Trail is a delight for all lovers of Ludlow itself and who have been lured with the promise of local produce. The Trail starts and finishes in Castle Square where the market holds the key to many of the local producers and where Trailers can eat and drink some fab stuff. What we aren't so pleased about it, is although we have written it, it is in fact in Shropshire not in Herefordshire or Worcestershire, so when we finally get a licensee to take on Treasure Trails Shropshire, we will lose the Trail to them! If you know someone who might be interested in talking to us about the opportunity in Shropshire, do let us know.

Brecon Murder Mystery
What a surprise Brecon turned out to be. A really interesting town with a wonderful walk along the canal and the opportunity to see some brilliant views and much of historic interest. However, like Ludlow, it is out of our region and we will have to hand it to a new Powys licensee when we get one. Know anyone who wants a fun business to run who lives in Powys?

Inkberrow Murder Mystery
What we love about this new Trail is the opportunity it gives Trailers to explore three really interesting and pretty villages in the east of Worcestershire. What we are not so sure about is whether we should have started it in Astwood Bank, Feckenham or Inkberrow! Try it and let us know what you think!

Broadway

Earlier this week we (David and Amanda, who manage the Worcestershire region of Treasure Trails) spent the day in Broadway - one of a number of Cotswolds Villages. We had a really good day reviewing the Broadway Trail and meeting up with possible stockists and business owners. The outcomes of the day mean that we hope to get a great stockist signed up before the tourist season starts and possibly one or two businesses agreeing to sponsor a clue on the Broadway Spy Trail. Decisions will be taken over the next week, so if any retail outlets are interested in getting involved in the soon to be relaunched Broadway Spy Trail, get in touch as soon as possible.

We learnt lots about Broadway that we didn't already know including that an iron gate has significance when it looks really boring (see the picture) and that the next Broadway Arts Festival will take place in 2012! We found out that the Swings and Things have disappeared and been replaced with a super duper Activity Park which the locals are very proud of and had a really good lunch at one of the local pubs!

Some fab shops tried to tempt us into them and all in all we remembered what a truly lovely place Broadway is!

Do go there soon!

Treasure Trails Annual Conference

We had a great few days in Norwich a couple of weeks ago at the annual Treasure Trails conference. We travelled up on the Wednesday and met up with friends old and new from the Treasure Trails family - the conference proper didn't start until Thursday, but as we had to go from one side of the country to the other, it made sense to travel the day before. That evening, we had dinner at Yellows - Delia Smith's diner at the Norwich football ground. I was expecting a gourmet dinner at diner prices.... but I was disappointed. The menu was burgers and the like and I had chose a Cincinnati Chilli with 5 sides...... as I am writing this blog, I am struggling to remember the sides! I think one was red onion and one was sour cream, but not sure now and can't remember what the others were. I also ordered a side of homemade coleslaw which was £2.50 and delicious - the only thing on the whole plate that I really enjoyed, pity it was only a tablespoon full.

Anyway, onto the next day - we had a delicious breakfast and then I drove 4 of the others into town to do a specially written Norwich Treasure Trail. The five of us (some more experienced Trailers than others) set off with high hopes for a great exploring experience. I had never been to Norwich before, and of course doing a Trail is a fabulous way to see the sights! The Trail was fun and we found out lots of stuff about Norwich - we each had our booklet which was good because we chatted about some of the clues and how good they were and talked about different ways to use a plaque to write a good clue and I was able to write notes into my Trail booklet to bring home and crib from! The photo is of my fellow Trail detectives debating the merits of the clue on the post box!

After the Trail, we sat and had a coffee together before heading back to the hotel for the lunch and the start of the conference. Interestingly, the bill came to 12.31 which is less than the average Trail family spends whilst doing their Trail but every little helps with local economy.

Back at the hotel, we were ready to hear the words of wisdom from Steve, the MD of Treasure Trails and his HQ team. I won't reveal all the plans here, but suffice to say there are lots of new products coming up including the recently launched Personalised Trails and the soon to be launched Techno Trails - both of which are very exciting and will without a doubt enhance the Treasure Trails customers' experiences.

Dinner Thursday night was in the hotel and we sat on a table with our lovely Treasure Trails neighbours - Rachel and Stephen from TT Gloucestershire, Claire and Paul from TT Warwickshire and West Midlands and Sue and Ivan from TT Staffordshire.... we are so lucky with our TT neighbours and are really looking forward to the day when we have TT Shropshire, TT Powys and TT South Wales in position.

Friday after a full day of presentations and workshops, we retired again to the bar and then followed up with the Gala Dinner....and a chance for some traditional TT games and quizzes! We learnt some interesting stuff about HQ staff as well as people on our table.... we had a bungy jumper, a kite fanatic, a broken elbow story, a claim to fame by being live on the Richard and Judy Show and some other very tall tales indeed.

Roll on next year's conference... but in the meantime, we have an April date for our second regional meeting - this time in Warwickshire.

One more to go

We have one more show to do before the end of the year and that should be a really lovely one as the setting is fab and the atmosphere will be soooo festive. The show is in Hereford Cathedral and is part of their Carols for Christmas Shoppers initiative. It starts at 10.00 on Saturday morning, 18th December and goes onto 2.00pm.

Happy Christmas!

Sales

Today we had Tony Armstrong of BMD Global with us in his capacity as Director of Licensees for Treasure Trails. Tony has a wealth of experience of sales training and creating strategy for businesses and we were hoping to learn from him. And I am delighted to report that we achieved our objective!

So watch out all your retailers out there.... I have a renewed focus and energy and want to get our Trails out to our local retailers! If you are a retailer reading this and want to be one of the first to stock.... get in touch!!