Behind the Scenes In October and November

Tourism Signage Committee

This Committee has met for the second time, the purpose of the group is to review and improve all Tourism Signage throughout SYR.

An audit on all Blue and white and brown and white tourism signage will be undertaken in the New Year by SYR and any outdated signs removed. Vic Roads tourist Signage Guidelines Booklet has been issued to us and all new signage planned will be in accordance to these guidelines. This will no doubt be a long process but one that SYR is taking very seriously.

If anyone knows of any outdated or unnecessary signs in their area can you please let us know by contacting us at business@villagesofmtdandenong.com.au and we will make note and pass on information to SYR.

Village Entry Signs

The new SYR Village Entry signs are well on their way, final designs are now being approved at SYR. Villages has been asked to nominate where the signs should be placed, existing positions are preferred as no Vicroads permits will need to be applied for but where necessary we will suggest new positions. Villages Executive has planned a drive along Mt Dandenong Tourist Rd in December to mark out what we think are the right spots. If anyone has any ideas on where these signs should or shouldn’t be please contact us at business@villagesofmtdandenong.com.au and we will take note of your comments.

Village Offer Cards

Delivery of the Village Offer Card Stands will be complete next week to those that agreed to carry them in their business. We apologise for the delay in getting these out but they have been quite time consuming to put together and a little thing called Spring Fest got in the way!

We have some stands left over if any members who maybe didn't respond previously would like to offer their customers or guests some excellent discount offers and specials at local businesses. Just email marketing@villagesofmtdandenong.com.au and let us know.

New Memberships

In the New Year the Villages will be accepting new members for the July 10 - June 12 year. This gives you 6 months free exposure on the website and all the other member benefits such as inclusion on the Villages Map in July 2011. Keep an eye out for the membership forms on your email in the New Year.

Late Night Xmas Trading

Late Night Xmas Trading in the Villages is on again this year with businesses opening Thursday nights 9th, 16th and 23rd December until 8pm. Press advertising is going ahead with a 10x6 ad running this coming week in both the Trader Mail and Free Press Leader promoting the night shopping and giving readers some gift ideas. This will be followed in both papers by reminders each week. It will also be advertised on our website and with banners around the Mountain.

Jon in and open your business until 8pm on those nights and spread some festive cheer.

Villages Website Update

The Villages website continues to increase in traffic with 8,500 visits since it went live, 5,500 of which were absolute unique visitors. The page views highlights the importance of event themes with Spring Fest topping the list of most accessed pages. This is followed by the Calendar of events, Thing to Do and See, Accommodation, Eating and Drinking and Shopping. Other pages then follow on from there.

With our next phase of promotion going into planning with press and radio advertising, it is more important than ever for members to make sure they have entered their business onto the website and keep it up to date with your current offers and specials. All promotion will be driving traffic to the website as our key marketng tool so make sure people can find your business.

Spring Fest Wrap Up

Spring Fest is over for another year and despite some terrible weather and the two football grand finals, people still made the effort to come up to the Villages and attend the events, lectures and open gardens on offer. This week we were pleased to hand over cheques to the CFA totalling $4,223 which were raised for them during Spring Fest.

Thank you to the committee, advertisers and everyone who gave their time and expertise to the events, it wouldn't happen without you.
Being able to bundle a variety of events that run over a period of time under one umbrella such as Spring Fest is important to the region. It gives us sustained exposure over a whole season and increases visitation on an ongoing basis. It also gives us a great medium by which to push traffic to the Vllages website with all the wonderful businesses on there.
In the New Year we will be discussing the future of Spring Fest and invite anyone who is able to bring their time and expertise to the table to let us know. There are plenty of excellent ideas that we would like to implement but they take peoples commitment to give their time to make them happen. If your business is in a particular sector that you would like to have promoted then we ask you to think about taking on that segment as a project for the next Spring Fest.

Please email events@villagesofmtdandenong.com.au to receive notification of the initial meeting in the New Year.

Spring Fest Launch

Thursday night the 9th September at Sky High saw the launch of Spring Fest.

Wes Fleming, who volunteered his time to speak at the Launch, was entertaining and his story about why they participate in the London Chelsea Flower Show was amazing. The images he showed of the team building this years Gold winning Australian Garden were nothing short of spectactular and we thank Wes for his time and being such a great speaker.

Jeremy Francis was signing copies of his book 'Cloudehill - A Year in the Garden' and Lyrebird Linens, Mallalieu by Coach House and Tiara Black Pearls closed the night with a fabulous Spring Fashion Show. The effort and time that went into the organising the Show was amazing as you can see from the preparation picture and we thank Carolyn, Kathy and Winnie for their time and effort and also the lovely goody bags for people to take home.

It was a great fun event and we thank the staff at Sky High who were so accommodating to some very unusual requests as we were setting up for the night!