Question

Topic: Branding

Planning A Women's Retreat/destination Weekend

Posted by Anonymous on 10/7/2008 at 10:33 PM ET 500 Points
I work for a Main Street Program/Chamber of Commerce.

My project for next year is to plan a women's destination getaway weekend. We are in a beautiful area in Wisconsin. Known as the "Coulee" or "Driftless" region, it was never glaciated so there are amazing valleys, ridges, and coulees. This area is known for great organic farming, artists, and small-town rural charm. There are great shops, too! The town has just over 4,000 residents.

I'm looking for any ideas you have for branding. We're thinking about holding it in October 2009, and are in the very beginning stages of planning.

Any ideas you have are welcome. We need a name and theme, as well as ideas for activities. Advertising ideas would be great, too. The budget will be quite small so creative ideas

Basic ideas so far:
Welcome reception on Friday evening
Saturday: walk or yoga followed by breakout sessions throughout the day. Could include cooking demonstrations, Ms. Fixit at the hardware store, Investing for dummies, ect. These would utilize local businesses.
Saturday night: comedian, chick flick, or pool party, ect.
Sunday: Breakfast, then options for tours at local winery, Amish tours, shopping, ect.

Any ideas are welcome!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by kevin.shoesmith on 10/8/2008 at 10:04 AM Member
    The Basic Ideas you mentioned sound good so far. Here's an idea for a theme that could be carried throughout all of the activities:

    1. Celebrating WOMEN through the decades (utilizing the decades idea for different activities, i.e. decades costume party/contest for best decade costume, famous women from different decades that were chefs/artists, homemakers, etc. tying in with the local area and/or famous Wisconsin women from different decades.)

    Good luck. Sounds like a neat area to host a retreat.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 10/8/2008 at 10:07 AM Member
    What's the goal of the retreat? Is it to have people outside your region get to know your local businesses, or to have people inside your region "network"?

    Right now, your activities sound like they're more of the fun get-away, but wonder what the Chamber connection is.

    Also - a bit more about your demographics. How many women are you hoping to attract? What age range? What income level? Etc.
  • Posted by Mikee on 10/8/2008 at 11:11 AM Member
    Jay's right. We need some more information to be helpful. What is the goal of the retreat and who are you hoping to attract? Is this to give people certain information or just for networking purposes?

    Mike
  • Posted by kevin.shoesmith on 10/8/2008 at 5:40 PM Accepted
    How about a branding event around the popular "Desperate Housewives" tv series. Yours could be the Desperate Businesswomen using a theme along the lines of "The Women of Main Street." Then you could tie in all the local businesses, and some type of event where the participants set up displays of their own local Main Street businesses.

    Or ... "Weekend in the Wild" theme. Wild Wisconsin, Wild Business Ideas, etc.

    Just a thought.
  • Posted by tADman on 10/9/2008 at 6:49 PM Accepted
    So - we have a women's recreational retreat in a beautiful area of Wisconsin in October. As I see it, you are about providing a destination for FUN and highlighting all of the "local" opportunities for fun and escape from the regular workday activities.

    While they are professional women, they want to get away with family or girlfriends and enjoy their time not worrying about the rest of their week. The added bonus is a chance to experience everything the "Coulee" area has to offer.

    Some ideas:

    Get local businesses to provide products as gifts, but in order to be entered to win, you must attend events or businesses etc and get your "passport" stamped and then bring it to the big Saturday Night event. Drawing to be held Sat night or at a Sunday Brunch etc. This will promote attending different parts of the weekend and talking with or meeting local business owners activities.

    With this in mind - maybe you use a Tour Theme like Tour De Coulee - and provide stamps/stickers to local businesses to promote this on sacks, receipts and door decals before the event.

    Use the sticker motif (like retro suitcase stickers) for all of your signs and desginate each business partner as a different country or region. You probably have some natural designations such as cheese from Switzerland or Wine from France or Pub from England or Lace shop from Ireland etc.

    An easy promotion might be directmail the passport/postcard to all surrounding communities or make it an insert in the community newspapers and therefore everyone has a passport to bring with them and have stamped to enter. Make an optional mail-in sweepstakes for prizes for those that cannot attend but want more info from local businesses and CVB/Chamber/Main street group for area discounts.

    Some theme names. would help if we had the actual city name, but we'll take a stab at it and you can drop that in where designated.

    Travel The Coulee
    Weekend of adventure and relaxation for Women of Wisconsin

    Destination Coulee (insert city or region name)
    Travel the world in one city, one weekend, one great time

    Tour De Coulee (insert city or region name)

    Passport to Coulee (insert city or region name)

    Weekend Away
    Escape to a new world of wonder
    [Wisconsin Womens Weekends]

    (This might be something you start with sister cities in the region to sponsor annually and rotate between 3 or 4 cities each year and make it a tradition for women to plan and loo forward too)


    I'll keep thinking on this. Hope it helps point you in a direction.
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