Tried and tested ideas for events
When creating your event think about who you want to reach with the information.
New mums? How about a stall at a mum and baby group? Manual workers? Try
getting a local factory on board and set up an information day on-site.
A local community? Contact the local town hall or community centre to see
if you can set up an event there.
Whoever you're targeting, think about where they are on a day-to-day basis
and make it easy for them to get to you and your information and help. Have
a look at the ideas below and see if you can think of any others.
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Stalls
Lots of you will be setting up stalls and displays for No Smoking Day - here are a few tips:
Location - whether outdoors or indoors, choose a spot where there will be plenty of passers-by, close to other "attractions" if possible so that people can approach you easily. If you're outdoors, try to provide a bit of overhead shelter for the public as well as staff in case of rain - no-one will want to hang around if they are getting drenched!
Preparation - order posters and merchandise well in advance, decide
what you want the stall to look like and make any extra props you need (Cecilia
Farren has brilliant ideas below). Pack staple guns, scissors, drawing pins,
velcro tabs, sticky tape and anything else you need to set up.
Cecilia's Presentation - Making the Theme Come Alive.ppt (9,446K)
Cecilia's Presentation - Making the Theme Come Alive.pdf (6,633K)
Staffing - make sure there are enough of you to cover the stand at all times; you may be busiest at lunchtime so don't let everyone disappear to the nearest café! You may be doing CO monitoring, taking contact details for referrals, handing out goodies and listening to people's stories all at the same time.
Get noticed - you want to be visible from a distance, so try to have display boards or a wall where you can put up posters and banners, and wear No Smoking Day t-shirts, baseball caps and organiser badges. Our huge umbrellas are great even if it isn't raining! Someone in a Big Cig costume will always draw attention and make people laugh.
Leaflets - who will you be talking to? We have two printed multi-lingual leaflets as well as English, Welsh/English and Gaelic. The credit-card size leaflets are handy for people to keep in a wallet.
Goodies and giveaways - everyone likes a free gift, so use our great range of promotional products to tempt visitors over your way and send them off with a fun/useful reminder about stopping smoking. Everything has the No Smoking Day web address and several have national helpline numbers - but they don't carry the actual date of the Day, so you can go on using them through the year … Don't put everything out at the start, though, or you may not have anything left after an hour! Try to engage with each person who comes up and offer an appropriate freebie - so for someone who's trying to cut down or quit, a stress cube or a tangle puzzle could be just the thing to help cope with cravings, while a saving calculator wheel or a money box might motivate a smoker to try stopping and start saving. Balloons to give away will attract young children, and their parents/carers might be very pleased with a nursery thermometer or a car window shade. Pens and pencils, bookmarks and stickers make low-cost giveaways for almost anyone. Have a look at our whole range; we're sure you'll find something for everyone!
Finally, the 2010 theme can very easily be linked to a huge number of great songs – how about a soundtrack including classics like Back on the chain gang, I want to break free, Chain of fools, Chain reaction? You’d need a Performing Rights Society permit if you are in premises that are not already licensed – call PRS Customer Acquisitions on 0800 068 4828. Rock on!
Workplace activities
No Smoking Day is a perfect opportunity to introduce a workplace smoking campaign or policy. At its simplest you can put up posters and give out literature in the places where smokers can easily pick up information.
Other ideas include workplace competitions with No Smoking Day merchandise as prizes, email health notes and putting merchandise into payslips.
Helping employees stop smoking can reduce staff absences and increase productivity.
Have a look at the workplace guide for
more details of running a workplace campaign.
Pharmacies
Pharmacists
often get involved with No Smoking Day and are usually very keen to work
with organisers to promote the day.
Pharmacists can provide a great deal of support for smokers who often find it easier to return to them for support rather than trying to remake appointments with their GP.
Window displays are a top attention grabber so get creative and go wild! You could also try carbon monoxide testing in store or do progress checking with quitters.
Our pharmacy dispensing bags (see right) are really popular; you'll find them again in our shop. Ask pharmacists to use these in the run-up to No Smoking Day to promote the date and the help available.
We have a guide for pharmacists and pharmacy assistants on taking part in No Smoking Day here.
Leisure centres
Leisure
centres are often eager to promote the benefits of exercise and giving up
smoking. Many will have space in their reception for a No Smoking Day stall,
or for leaflets on giving up.
See if you can get staff to wear No
Smoking Day T-shirts (see right) for the week. You could also ask about
free day-passes for smokers who are giving up.
Shopping centres
There is huge scope for activities in shopping centres. Some people have used No Smoking Day to launch smokefree policies, others have organised road show type events with keep fit demonstrations, look-a-likes to give out information, healthy food displays and cigarette exchanges.
You could simply just have a stall to pass out information
to passers by.
Maternity campaigns
Link
with your local maternity unit to promote No Smoking Day. Give out No Smoking
Day baby nursery thermometers
to parents of babies born on the Day. How about making sure that every new
family have a car window shade to protect their newborn?
You could even get involved in the build up to No Smoking Day by helping
expectant mothers get ready to stop. Have a look at our guide
for midwives here.
Pubs and clubs
With pubs and clubs now smokefree, you have lots of opportunities to target smokers fed up of going outside and looking for help and support to quit smoking.
Get pubs to use No Smoking Day beer mats, and put some leaflets on the bar. Other popular activities include bar quizzes, and getting the staff to wear No Smoking Day T-shirts.
Clubs could hold No Smoking Day nights, discounting entry to people who
have low carbon monoxide readings.
The Fire Service
Cigarettes and other smoking related merchandise are the biggest cause of house fires in the UK. Get your local fire service to bring a fire appliance to your event for photo calls and distribute No Smoking Day information to the public.
The Fire and Rescue Service is a campaign partner for No Smoking Day and can help you contact your local station.
Local celebrities
High profile celebrities can be hard to get hold of, but you can always approach some local personalities. Why not contact your local paper to find out who lives in your area?
Local TV and radio presenters can be a great way to spread the message and get people along to your event, especially if they are willing to compere it.
Local MPs and your local mayor are also good for generating public and media interest and often keen to support good causes in their area ...
If you have a local town crier they too can draw attention to your No Smoking
Day event. Look-a-likes can often be found through local agents in the phone
book and create a good interest grabber.