Music, Drinks, and Fun Raise Money for MS
On April 15, the Toronto based social media company pinkBEAR Creative Social Media hosted the NO BS for MS event. Employee of pinkBEAR Rachel Martin said the event was “a third party fundraiser for The MS Society of Canada.” The year old company held the event in a local bar, “filled it with good people, great music, raffles, and a silent auction,” Martin said. They were able to raise a total of $2341 for MS research.
Budding Company Uses Social Media for a Good Cause
By promoting the fundraiser through social media, Martin said that they were able to contact baseball legend Roberto Alomar. “Hall of Fame Baseball legend Roberto Alomar donated a signed 1-100 baseball bat from his personal collection…all from simply tweeting him! Definitely a once in a life time experience!” Martin explained. They used Twitter and Facebook to spread the word about the event and press releases to the local media. Using social media proved useful in “selling tickets, raising awareness as well as acquiring silent auction items,” said Martin.
Quality over Quantity!
Even the band that performed the night of the event was supportive of the cause, Martin said, “The bands themselves even donated right out of their own pockets.” Martin advises anyone planning such an event to ask for help. “Lots of people are willing to pitch in if they believe in what your doing. Also, quality over quantity. For everything!” she added.
Martin ordered the Rock Concert Pink Event Ticket a perfect fit for the pinkBEAR company. Martin said they were on very strict budget and the tickets “turned out fantastic [and] we actually used them as raffle tickets as well. It turned out perfectly and I couldn’t have been happier with the product.”
Babeebloomz: First Family Expo a Success
The first bi-annual Babeebloomz Family Expo went off without a hitch on April 14. Director of Babeebloomz Debbie Fazio explained that the expo is a “showcase event connecting families to its local retailers, resources, and professionals, offering free childcare, free demos, free swag bags, free speakers, free kids concert, free mommy spa, and so much more.”
Tickets to Help Kids
In addition to connecting families to their local resources, the expo raised money for the Sickkids Foundation. The Sickkids Foundation is a not-for-profit children’s charity that benefits The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Fazio said that they didn’t quite reach the goal they had set out to reach but for this being their first event, “we were very happy with the outcome.”
Fazio ordered the Design Your Own Ticket from Canada Ticket Printing, which featured a pregnant belly on the top portion of the ticket and space on the bottom portion where guests of the event could write their information down in order to participate in contests thrown during the expo.
News of the first expo (with hopefully many more to come) was spread through Twitter, Facebook, local newspapers and TV channels as well as postcards sent in the area. The tickets that Fazio ordered through CanadaTicketPrinting.com were used for VIP access and each of the exhibitors of the event were given 10 tickets to distribute at will. Fazio explained that “these VIP tickets were the only tickets linked to a free vacation getaway draw.” She added that the advance selling of the tickets was not as successful as the at the door sales on the day of the show. “We found that most families paid at the door,” Fazio said.
Expo Extras, The Future
The expo featured demonstrations for the guests. “Infant Massage, Baby Sleep Clinic and Independent Me clinics and children’s concert seemed to attract the most families,” Fazio explained.
Purchasing the VIP tickets from Canada Ticket Printing ensured that there were plenty of people interested in a free vacation that was raffled off during the expo. Fazio said it “ensured us hundreds of attendees. Attendees is what makes exhibitors happy!”
Now that the word is out about the amazing features of the Babeebloomz Family Expo offers, hopefully future shows will be even more successful.
Students Dress Up for a Good Cause, Charity Fashion Show a Success
A night of food, fashion and fun held by students at Malvern Collegiate Institute led to record funds raised for a local charity. Student Bronte Martin co-directed the annual charity fashion show put on by Malvern students. Clothing and food were donated by local businesses for the event as well as “a full team of 20 hair stylists and makeup artists as well as a house DJ (DJ Melanie Sutherland) donating their time and efforts into the two-night event,” Martin said.
The fashion show was held on April 26 and 27 in order to raise money for the local Toronto charity The Red Door Family Shelter, “which is an organization that helps provide shelter for battered women and individuals affected by homelessness,” Martin explained. The event was attended by “over 150 student models, art directors, choreographers, designers and stage crew” and over 600 students over the two nights, Martin said.
Selling Tickets, Raising Money
Martin said the event was a great success, raising $3,700 for The Red Door Family Shelter. The success could be attributed to selling the “tickets one week in advance, allowing for students, parents, and members of the community to get an ‘advanced price’ of $5.” Martin said that “up until the day of the first show night, advanced tickets sold like crazy, and the only ones left were available at the door for $10. Donations were also able to be made at the intermission bake sale, T-shirt sales as well as at the door itself.”
Martin ordered the Toronto General Admission Ticket with Stub (White) and thought the “personalized tickets really stood out and legitimized our event. Our audience members were also able to keep their ticket stub and receive 15% off at Menchies Beaches after the show, so these tickets really played a large role in our show.” His advice to students or anyone else planning such a large event is to start early. “We needed all of the time we could get, and this is why Malvern’s Night Out was as big as it was. You can never have too much time to organize an event for charity,” Martin said.
Spreading the Word and the Grand Finale
In order to spread the word about Malvern’s Night Out, Martin and his co-director “relied on our Twitter and Facebook pages to spread the word. Since most of our audience members were students, this was easily the most effective way to get across to our target group of people. From there, posters and newspaper articles were implemented as well, raising awareness about our huge event, as well as the important cause we were supporting.”
Not only was the event a huge success in regards to the money raised for The Red Door Family Shelter, but for the students who put so much hard work into the event. Martin’s greatest moment from the event was “at the very end on the finale night during curtain call. Over 150 of us ran on stage and applauded the scenes when they bowed. There was confetti and lots of excitement, so that was definitely a highlight. This was also a sigh of relief because my co-director and I knew we did our best, and the reaction we were receiving was exactly what he had hoped for.”
$1000 Yearly Award from Canada Ticket Printing
With a long history of supporting rural communities and excellence in computer studies, TicketPrinting is pleased to announce the creation of the Canada Ticket Printing Computer Science Annual Award, a $1000 scholarship. This award will be offered every year to a student attending the University of Alberta who hails from a small town of less than 5000 people.
Lance Trebesch, the CEO of Canada Ticket Printing, and Dr. Mike MacGregor, the University’s Computer Science Department Chair, believe that science and engineering education are important for Canada’s economic growth, and supporting students from rural communities will help increase Canada’s competitiveness in the global arena.
by admin on April 29, 2012
Taking the Next Step: A Formal Dance Ticket for Commerce Graduates
Summer is approaching and that means that graduation season is upon us: the moment when adults make the important jump from a life of academia to the working world. This momentous change is something to celebrate and that is what the students of McMaster University did.
The DeGroote Commerce Society is an organization of the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University. One of the co-chairs of the Commerce Society, Alicia Gatto, explained that the Commerce Society “represents its membership in University, faculty, and community affairs as well provides various value adding academic, social, and degree enhancing experiences for its members.”
The Commerce Society held a Commerce Graduation Formal on March 24 for this semester’s graduates. And after weeks of cramming for exams and endless stress, a night of food, drinks, and dancing was much needed. Gatto said that the night was a huge success and for her the best part was “seeing everyone having a good time that night. The dinner was delicious and the DJ was awesome.” There was also a photographer for the night, which Gatto said was “fun for everyone.”
Gatto said the Commerce Society used Facebook as well as posters all over campus in order to get graduates interested in the night of dinner and dancing. And they used the lobby of the business school, where everyone would see the table selling the tickets, which were ordered from CanadaTicketPrinting.com.
Gatto ordered the Black Tie Gala VIP Pass and said that “everyone loved the ticket design. It was perfect to lie out as extra promotion when people bought tickets.” She loved that the passes matched the theme of the event, but thought the passes were a bit large to fit in people’s wallets without having to fold the pass a few times.
Gatto advises any other student organizations planning events for graduation to “Stay organized! Keep a checklist of everything that needs to get and when it needs to be done by.”
Good advice for students to take with them as they step into their new roles as professional men and women. From everyone at CanadaTicketPrinting.com, Good Luck!
by admin on April 23, 2012
Giving your supporters what they want
How can you, the intelligent, raffle organiser make the most of your supporters’ desires? By asking them what they want before you print your Raffle Tickets!
In that spirit we offer the following tip: create a survey!
If you have the cash and a base that does not spend much time online, you can do this with a paper survey mailed with a stamped envelope. Otherwise, save time and money by using one of myriad online quiz-making applications. Then ask your customers exactly what you need to know:
- What prizes do you want?
- What are your hobbies?
- How much money would you consider spending on raffle tickets?
- How many prizes would you expect?
- When should we hold the prize draw?
- How many fundraisers should we hold every year?
Most people like answering quizzes and surveys on the Internet. It creates stronger ties to organization, and shows that you see your donors as individuals, not just financial amounts, and that you are interested in their opinions and feedback.
Of course, your prize draw will be far more successful if you sell Raffle Tickets for things people want, at prices they can afford, at times and in places convenient to them for purchasing Raffle Tickets!
Want to improve your next fundraising prize draw? Don’t ask my opinion! Ask the opinions of those to whom you hope to sell Raffle Tickets! Seek our your supporters, determine what they want, and enjoy more success by giving it to them.
by admin on April 22, 2012
Stud
ents Display Caribbean Heritage to Help University Fundraiser for Victims of Earthquake
Students at the University of Toronto-Mississauga held their 2nd Annual Mr. and Mrs. CC Pageant on March 21. The pageant was sponsored by the Caribbean Connections organization, which focuses on “providing students of all ethnicities with knowledge and culture of the Caribbean heritage. We are not only designed for Caribbean students, we accept all students,” said President of the organization Stacy Williams.
The pageant allowed students to showcase their countries of birth and their talents in order to raise money for the victims of the devastating earthquake in Haiti two years ago. Williams said they were able to raise $800.
In order to spread word across campus about the event and who the money would be going to help, Caribbean Connections gave each of the 8 contestants 10 tickets, ordered from CanadaTicketPrinting.com, as well as displays campus wide that sold tickets as well. Williams said, “We made promotion videos, posters and flyers to help promote the event. We also used social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.”
The highlight of the whole event for Williams was the before. “The best part of the event was preparing the contestants and rehearsing. This is because the executive team and the contestants became very close… we became a small family where we would get together and check up on one another or help each other with school,” Williams said.
Williams advises other students planning similar events that, “Time is key. Rushing and doing last minute things is extremely difficult and stressful.”
Williams ordered the Nightclub Blue Event Ticket for the pageant and believed that they “enhanced our event because it provided us with eye catching tickets rather than bland ones,” Williams said. She was happy that they were able to imprint all of their information onto the ticket without extra costs and that they arrived speedily. “It made it possible for us to start selling tickets at a reasonable time,” she said.
While the students of UTM were able to have a great night celebrating their heritage and talents, it was never far from their minds who they were helping.
by admin on April 17, 2012
Event of the Week: Annual Curling Competition A Success
Every four years the world gets to enjoy the winter sport popular in Canada and Scotland, curling. Instead of waiting four years though, The Alberta Oilmen’s Bonspiel Association holds an annual competition, keeping the sport alive in non-Olympic years.
According to the Official Olympic website, curling is played by teams of four players on a rectangular sheet of ice, mostly played indoors, where the teams strive to get their 44-pound (19.96kg) granite stones across the ice into the target across the ice.
On March 21, the AOBA held a registration event for the 80 teams that participated in this year’s 61st annual bonspiel, according to Rodney Butcher, director of the AOBA. The tickets he ordered from CanadaTicketPrinting.com, “were to provide registration participants with a free beer and provide advertising for the sponsors,” Butcher said.
Butcher ordered tickets that featured the logos, websites and names of the two sponsors for the bonspiel, and were used to exchange for a free beer provided that night by the sponsors. “The sponsors liked the ticket setup and have indicated they want to do the same next year,” Butcher said.
Butcher appreciated being able upload the sponsor’s logos to the Design Your Own Ticket that he ordered. “I was impressed at how easy it was to design our event ticket so as to meet our needs,” he said.
As the registration night was a success, so was the bonspiel itself. Of the 80 teams participating, there were eight winning teams. Look to see who the winners will be March 2013, for the 62nd annual bonspiel. According to Butcher, “We appreciate the service provided to our association, and we intend to use CanadaTicketPrinting.com again and certainly for next year’s bonspiel.”
by admin on April 16, 2012
Event of the Week: UTM Environmental Alliance
On March 21, the University of Toronto Mississauga and the University of British Columbia held a joint videoconferencing Speaker Series. The UTM Environmental Alliance “is a network of student environmental organizations at the University of Toronto Mississauga,” said student Rohit Mehta. “We work together to create a strong environmental movement on campus, and to share ideas and resources with each other,” he explained.
The Speaker Series featured Bob Willard and Alanna Mitchell. “The series was intended to share important environmental issues with audiences at both the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia. Our goal was to raising awareness while using videoconferencing to reduce the need for speakers to fly across the country,” Mehta said.
According the The Natural Step Canada website, where Willard serves on the advisory board, he is “a leading expert…in proactively avoiding risks and capturing opportunities associated with environmental and social issues.” And Mitchell was “the science and environment reporter at the Globe and Mail for fourteen years, until she left daily journalism to devote herself to writing on science. In 2000, she was named the best environmental reporter in the world by the Reuters Foundation,” according to the Grantham Prize website, where she was the 2010 winner.
The highlight of the event and something Mehta will remember was “seeing the buzz and excitement around the speakers, and the provocative questions which participants asked following our events. It was a great way to collaborate between two universities to bring important environmental issues to the forefront.”
Mehta ordered the Purple Two-Tone General Admission Ticket and the Green Two-Tone General Admission Ticket, which feature similar themes in different colors, creating a cohesive look that tied the event together while allowing event organizers to create a distinction between the two speakers.
Mehta said that word of mouth, Facebook and the tickets he ordered from CanadaTicketPrinting.com helped to spread the word about the Speaker Series. The tickets were “the best strategy because attendees had tickets in hand with all event details, and felt important to be receiving a ticket,” he said.
The event was free, so Mehta and other students at both universities handed out the tickets to possible attendees and Mehta said this was a great method as both universities had great turn outs for the event. Mehta said, “[the tickets] allowed attendees to have something in-hand which they could use to remember event details, and their ticket was another reason to come to the event. These tickets really boosted our attendance, and our event would not have been so well-attended without the use of CanadaTicketPrinting.com’s tickets.”
Mehta advises anyone else planning an event to “start planning well in advance, promote big time using colourful posters, Facebook, and other marketing strategies. Give out event tickets, even if your event is free.”
by admin on April 9, 2012
Concert Ticket Place Cards for Weddings
CanadaTicketPrinting.com offers a lot more than just tickets for an event. For Candace and Sean Driscoll, CanadaTicketPrinting.com offered a unique way to advertise the band playing their wedding reception and mementos for their guests to keep long after the happy day.
Candace and Sean ordered the London General Admission Ticket, with a Beatles-inspired security image, as a way of letting the guests of their wedding know where they would sitting for the reception. They also ordered the London Poster to advertise the band. With its double decker bus image, along with Westminster Abbey and the Union Jack background, it was the perfect way show off their theme.
“Our guests loved the idea of using concert tickets for the name cards for out tables. It made it really neat that our entertainment was a live band so it made it feel like they were at a concert as well as our wedding,” said Candace. Candace and Sean wanted to have a real concert feel to their wedding and they as well as their guests felt that the posters and tickets purchased from CanadaTicketPrinting.com added to the experience.
“It was an amazing day and the posters and tickets we ordered were a huge hit with our guests. They loved them and thought they were a very unique idea,” Candace said.
Candace advises anyone else planning a wedding or another event, to “be as creative as you can and have fun with it.”
Candace said of the tickets, and her experience with CanadaTicketPrinting.com, “they looked amazing and the price was very reasonable. The shipping time was also very fast!”
With all the stress of planning a wedding, Candace and Sean’s experince with CanadaTicketPrinting.com was one less thing they had to worry about.
Music, Drinks, and Fun Raise Money for MS
