How to plan a charity dragon boat racing event!
Planning a charity dragon boat racing event may be daunting, and you might not know where to start. Well do not fear! Our ‘How to plan a Charity Dragon Boat Event’ guide is here!
Take a look at the below 7 steps which outline what is involved. Each step of the planning process will be accompanied by our support, so contact us today if you’d like more information. We have prepared and delivered 100’s of dragon boat racing events so you are in safe hands!
1. Idea…
Great, you’ve got the idea to organise a Dragon Boat Racing event to raise funds for charity – we like your style! What next? Well, make sure you have a think about what you want your event to look like. How long? Half day or full day? How many teams do you hope to recruit? What day/date will it be held? Will it be a large regatta with food stalls etc or more of a private event for the teams that sign up? These are all questions we will ask you when quoting for your event to make sure we know what you want, so try to get an idea of what you’d like.BUT don’t worry if you aren’t sure yet either. We can of course recommend what we think will work best for you and talk you through how everything works! Which brings me on to step 2…
2. Supplier – NewWave Events…
Contact us! We are here to help and take care of the dragon boat racing for you. We just need to know what you want for your event and we can advise on how it will work and get an accurate quote drawn up for you. We will then start planning for your dragon boat racing event to make sure it exceeds your expectations!
Why choose us you ask? Well, we genuinely care about the work we do and have passion in pride in the events that we deliver. We would not offer an event that we wouldn’t want to attend ourselves. We also have top quality event kit, medals, boats and more. Most of all, our team really are amazing at what they do! We are a super friendly bunch that work hard and do so with the upmost professionalism.
We will help you with all of the following steps too. After organising our own festivals and running events across the UK year on year, we definitely know a thing or two about how to do it successfully and what needs to be considered in the planning process. We work with our clients throughout the whole process to ensure a fabulous event is produced.
3. Venue…
Have you got a venue in mind? We do dragon boat racing at hundreds of venue’s across the UK, but the ideal venue should include the following;
- A length of relatively straight water at least 200m in length and at least 1m deep.
- Suitable areas to get boats on the water, and crews loaded in and out. Pontoons are the ideal, but we can also do beached loading and even bring in floating pontoons if needed.
- Suitable access for our vans and boat trailers on site.
- Water should be relatively still – tidal waters are not ideal
- Suitable land space for teams and spectators to watch, as well as space for our event control gazebo and safety areas.
If you don’t have a venue in mind, we can suggest one nearby to your area or help you look at some options by arranging some site visits to let you know if they are suitable!
4. Promotion and Recruitment of Teams…
As the event organiser, it will be primarily your role to promote the event in your area and to recruit the teams. You will have the full support of NewWave Events when doing this, and we will provide you with relevant photos and videos to use for your promotional material. We also have some template’s that we can share with you to use for it all. We will share your event on our social media too and it will feature on our online charity events calendar for anyone who is looking for an event near them to attend/participate in!
5. Other things to consider…
Some other important details that you may want to consider for your dragon boat racing event include the following;
- Toilets – are they on site or will they need to be hired in?
- Waste – we provide some bins for our areas, but larger events may need more and could even require a skip or waste removal team.
- Food stalls and refreshments – most event attendees expect something to be available at large events!
- More activities – we also supply different corporate activities like inflatables, clay shooting and traditional side stalls – visit NewWave Events for more ideas.
- Marquees/Infrastructure – just in case the weather doesn’t hold out or even just some simple tables and chairs may be needed.
- Prizes – NewWave Events can provide medals, trophies and bubbly, but feel free to bring along some of your own prizes for the day!
We can take care of all of these areas too, we just need to know what you’re looking for!
6. Final Preparations…
Once you have all of your teams signed up, plans in place and everything pretty much ready to go, there are just a few final things that need to be done!…
- The crew managers information pack will need to be sent to all crew managers by you, after receiving it from NewWave Events.
- A list of team names should also be sent to us the week before so that we can create the race schedule and final event paperwork.
- Any information needed will be sent to you from us and vice versa. We will be in regular communication with you throughout the whole planning process as we know how important this is!
- We will be here to help with any questions or concerns you may have 🙂
7. On the Day…
On the day of the event, we encourage our clients to relax and enjoy the dragon boat racing!
We will take care of everything from crews signing in, to safety briefings and results. We encourage our charity/rotary clients to be part of the awards ceremony, but you can really be as involved as you wish.
Our team will be available if you need anything at all on the day too, no matter how big or small.
We look forward to hearing from you and we can’t wait to start planning your charity dragon boat racing event!!
