Sunday, September 11, 2011

Geofest fun

Upon returning from Geofest, I decided to take a nap. That nap time turned into a full night's sleep (at least 8-12 hours, give or take an hour to get up and go to the restroom or readjust my position). I think part of the sleep time was being tired from not sleeping well Friday night and partly due to depression (depressed at how the event went for me).

As events go, this was definitely not one of my better ones but it's all good. Bookmarks were put in several folks' hands and some new contacts were made. No sales this go round. I did something different yesterday - just because I didn't feel like sitting in the room and not having something to do. One of the vendors in the room had a presentation right before lunch, and since it was an area of interest to me and my books in particular, I decided to go sit in on the workshop. I enjoyed it very much and actually walked away with some useful information for my upcoming presentation for teachers at the SCISA teachers' conference in November. The presenter is also a teacher and uses "foldables" in her class all the time. I'm taking the foldable idea and using it as part of my presentation to teachers.

After lunch, I sat in another workshop, put on by sisters, both of whom are teachers, called Fun With Geography - and it was really about keeping the classroom interactive when it comes to geography. Things like "Mystery Cruise" and 20 Questions and "Where Am I?" were introduced and attendees actually participated in the activities.

I'm thinking I need some new signage to show what I'm about but not really sure what it is I need. Sales need to really pick up dramatically for me to continue with the series. I am still hearing the same comments - "that's a great idea" and "wish someone had done something like this when I was growing up" and others on the same lines but they aren't buying books. I've lowered prices for in-person events and yet books aren't selling that well. At this point, I'm open to ideas from my readers to change up something, anything, that will really get folks interested in buying books for classrooms or schools. Any and all suggestions are welcome in the comments section. So what are some of the ideas you all have out there that I can try to implement and change things up a bit? - Mrs. E & the JGDS

1 comment:

Carol Baldwin said...

I don't have any specific geography ideas, but maybe you can take one of the ideas from the last issue of Talking Story and tweak it for one of your sessions. Hope that works for you! And sorry, I just drew for our winner and you weren't one of them. (I was hoping you would be-- you faithfully send your entry in!) Try again next time!

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