Organising a non-conventional literary event… One step at a time.
It has been an incredible couple of weeks. Normally I can barely process a thought until the beginning of February, and this year, I haven’t had a moment to slowly gather momentum – rather, it has been a case of ‘bam start now as you mean to finish!’
International Read to Me! Day is held every year on March 19th. This means for 2017 it falls on a Sunday. For me personally, this is bliss, as I couldn’t think of anything I would prefer to do than to read… to anyone, but it does present a whole host of issues for participant such as schools.
When it comes to organising an event for this year, in my home ‘village’ of Toowoomba, I couldn’t go past what may be considered a city icon – the big red chair owned by Carleton Upholstery. It is difficult to realise how big the chair is without a person in the photo, but it is three metres in height! I have always wanted to ‘do’ something combining books and this chair, especially with the thought of adding reading champions to the mix… Mmm.
The owners were more than happy to entertain the idea of the chair being used for an internationally shared event, even though I could barely confirm what that event actually entailed, but they were dubious as to how I would move the chair around the city. It was too big / too heavy / surely it would be too expensive to move? I laughed and told them that whenever I hear a response like that, it just makes me more determined to work out a solution. I simply asked how they would move the chair… ‘Tow truck love’ was the reply.
Next job – a google ‘tow truck’ , creating my next task – a phone call to Soweby’s Towing. I explained who I was, what I wanted to do, how I wanted to do it, and what I needed to make it happen. ‘Would you like to be involved?’ We had agreed on email as a means of communication and in merely moments – ‘We would love to help’ and they offered to drop of the chair at the venue and pick it up and return it on the following Monday, as their contribution to the day! I could have guessed the business already embraced their community – when you see images like this:
Popping into the local shopping centre was the next job on the list. After all, I now needed to secure a venue for this amazing chair, somewhere accessible to this amazing towing service! As I walked into the centre management reception, I was smiling at the thought that sometimes thing fall into place because they should! The Experience Marketing Executive just happened to finish a meeting and was available so we had a chance to meet straight away. The result: one centre court available for Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th, as their contribution to the day.
For the moment, that is enough for today – but please, keep up with our news and adventures https://www.facebook.com/InternationalReadToMeDay/
