Top Tips
- Make the what, when and where of your first meeting clear;
- Your stall should show who you are at a single glance;
- Approach people who wander past - get their attention and their email.
Chester University P&Pers at their Freshers Fair
Case study: Edinburgh
Edinburgh University P&P got in contact with the SU Freshers Week planning committee. This meant they could have an event during Freshers Week, which was publicised across the entire university. They ended up with 120 people at their event, many of whom continued coming to meetings and actions all year long.
Your perfect Freshers Fair spiel
- Tell them about P&P and find out what they’re interested in;
- Get their contact details;
- Tell them about your first meeting;
- Give them a flyer;
- Give them a petition or an action card to fill in;
- Show them other stuff on the stall.
Beforehand
The more you can get sorted over the summer, the better…
- Book your stall well in advance, or you might miss out.
- Look back at the last term/year and see what worked and what didn’t. Learn from both your successes and failures. You could have a debrief meeting at the end of each term.
- Have a flyer telling people who you are and when your first meeting is. You can download our customisable flyer or create your own — make sure it is bold and clear.
- Plan some events, actions, speakers and different types of meetings. Put these into a term card on your stall. Be realistic about your resources, think about what your group most needs and other groups you can work with e.g. if you need new members, plan for public events, or actions that will raise your profile.
- Organise a rota of people to help out. Freshers Fairs can be pretty tiring, so if you can reduce the shift length it will really help. Try to have two or three people on at any one time.
- Plan your stall.
Make your stall look good!
A single glance at the stall should make it obvious what you’re about.
- Put a P&P banner over your stall - you can print one off the website.
- Put up a poster with details of your first meeting.
- Have lots of colourful campaign materials.
- Put a cloth over your table, to make it look neater.
- Have photos of your group in action.
- Have lots of sign-up sheets and pens to collect people’s details. Send copies back to the P&P office so we can add people who ask to the e-supporter list.
- Have an action people can do like signing a postcard on the stall. This will draw people in.
- Give your display some height - use a display board, a clothes horse, some cork boards, or even a cardboard box.
- If at all possible get your hands on some freebies to give out (potentially in return for signing up).
On the day
- Always have at least two people on the stall. If you have extra people, someone can wander round with a big visual aid or some extra flyers to catch people’s attention.
- Can you drop a banner from somewhere in the hall?
- Be pro-active - approach people as they walk past! Work out a spiel for reeling people in.