Hi Ali
I've run a number of massive education events including the British Science Festival Young People's Programme in Newcastle and Big Bang North East. In the first year of Big Bang we had a frustrating number of no shows and the following two things turned it around.
1. We introduced booking T&C which included a cancellation charge which ramped up in the run up to the event (ie. no charge more than a month in advance, £10/pupil if they cancel the day before or don't show up). Teachers had to sign a form/tick a box agreeing to this. Some people will argue this is hard to enforce and I agree, the point is we never had to.
2. The reason we never had to enforce it is because of a tandem communications strategy. They key is to stay in regular contact with the school, drip-feeding reminders and information e.g. before the cancellation fee kicks in send a reminder to book transport or information about travel/parking, a couple of weeks later send them information on risk assessment, then send them pre-visit activities or a taster of what they'll be doing...you get the idea. We sometimes even sent something blatantly giving them the opportunity to bow out gracefully (ie. it's your last chance to rearrange before you get charged).
Good luck!
Sarah
Dr Sarah McLusky
Project Manager, Life of Breath
Durham University
-----Original Message-----
From: psci-com: on public engagement with science [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ali Floyd
Sent: 27 September 2016 16:57
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [PSCI-COM] Schools booking then not showing up to events
Hi all,
We've been having a wee challenge at National Museums Scotland and I wonder if anyone has similar issues or cunning solutions.
We've been running new, free programming thanks to Wellcome and HLF funding, but particularly with high schools a lot of people are booking spaces then cancelling last minute or just not showing up on the day. It's particularly acute with S5 and S6 pupils (age 15-17, doing higher/advanced higher, last 2 years of school here, roughly equivalent to A-levels) as they change their courses a lot early in the term, so we're looking at shifting things a bit later next year. The other obvious solution is to charge a small fee, but we're worried it'd exclude a lot of the pupils we really want to reach - for example, we had a great school from a relatively deprived area of Glasgow in the other day where the pupils each paid £20 from their own pockets for transport, so this doesn't sit well with me.
Is anyone else struggling with this? Any thoughts? Grateful for suggestions/ideas/etc...
Cheers,
Ali
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