Introducing Geocacheing to the general public.

[Bundyrumandcoke]

I am after a bit of advice, being a newbie.

I have the opportunity to do a bit of promoting of the sport to the general public this sunday. The 4wd club I am secretary of is putting on a display at the local markets, and seeing as this is where I learn't of cacheing, I reckon I can swing a bit of a piggyback ride on our display to promote it. I will basically promote it as another activity we use our 4wd's for, similar to fishing, outback touring, competitions. Now the question, Is there some sort of format that such promotion should follow, or do you just wing it? There isnt enough people involved locally, AFAIK to organise a seperate event. I was thinking of taking my GPS, a Cache that I want to place on the day, and some printouts of caches and logs in the area, as well as others I have already done. Possibly my laptop as well, with the website loaded and working offline.

Ideas, suggestions, advice anyone? I would rather not do it than do it badly.

Cheers
David

[Spruce Mooses]

I am a bit of a believer in erring on the side of caution when promoting geocaching. The last thing you want is 50 people going after every local cache in 2 days, leaving massive cache highways etc.

On the other hand, if you have Geocaching on your list of things you do with the 4x4 club, and someone asks you what it's all about, then you can give them some info and explain what it's all about, in the process letting them know about how to keep a cache site secret and environmentally friendly. You can also let them know about responsible cache placement and finding so you will end up with quality caches in your area!

So basically, have info on hand, but hand it out to those who ask. It helps keep some mystery to the game.

[Spruce Mooses]

I have a brochure i picked up from a guy in the states, I could copy a few and send them up to you if you like. it's got some great info on it!

[zactyl]

I was interviewed by the local ABC Radio for a Geocaching story recently, and had similar questions! Have a look at the Media Coverage page on the Wiki: http://wiki.geocaching.com.au/wiki/Media_coverage
Read the newspaper articles, listen to the radio interviews, you should get a bit of an idea on how to answer questions. The main ones seem to be:
What is it?
How does it work?
Why do you do it?

Emphasise that it's not just about the cache, the idea is to "Show Someone Somewhere Special" and caches should be in places of interest, that people might not know about, be it a beautiful park or view, or a place with a story/history. The ABC Radio guy I took caching remarked that he didn't know the park was there, noted the BBQs and said he'd come back with his family!

Be sure to pronounce it "Geocayshing" and don't even mention some call it "Geocashing", it just confuses people

Please take the opportunity to promote geocaching.com.au and the Geocaching Australia Forum. If you could show them Google Earth with the Geocaching Australia Network Feed displaying all the caches, I'm sure you'd get a few converts!

Good luck! I'm sure you'll do great!

(And from minizactyl, "SIMPSONS!" )

[CraigRat]

If you are planning to introduce people to geocaching, its proably better to set up 1 or 2 non-published caches in that area specifically for that event, and point interested people towards GCA and GC. I'd be VERY careful about revealing the locations of local caches to people on the day... it only take 1 bad egg to stuff things up.

A print out of some of the news articles on the wiki might make for interesting introductory media for people too.

I was listening to a podcast at www.podcacher.com where they introduced teachers to geocaching by letting them have a go and the reactions of some of the people was interesting, some really loved it!...

Good luck!

[pickupfamily]

I was listening to a podcast at www.podcache.com ...

I am pretty sure that should be www.podcacher.com. Highly recommended if you don't mind the Americanisms!

[TeamAstro]

I was listening to a podcast at www.podcache.com ...

I am pretty sure that should be www.podcacher.com. Highly recommended if you don't mind the Americanisms!

Yep, Astro listens to podcacher too.

see page 1 of the SA forum "Anybody want to talk about geocaching" for a short summary of what I said on the radio.

And Yes, we d0n't want 100000 locals finding the caches in 2 days!!!

Link to the SA forum for summary (post right near bottom):
http://forum.geocaching.com.au/viewtopi ... sc&start=0

clear skies,
Astro

[Bundyrumandcoke]

Oh, how I wish, we could get 100000 people through the gates to the markets, thinkof the exposure for the 4wd club. Unfortunately, thats pie in the sky stuff.

No, in reality, the markets would probably be lucky to get 5000 people through the gate, (small country town markets in CQ) and if I get maybe 1% interest then thats maybe 50 people. Remember, this isnt going to be emblazoned as the primary interest point at our display, just a smallish sideline. I hear what you are all saying regarding over exposure of local caches, (There arn't too many) and from some of the ones I have found in the last couple of months, its all to obvious that it happens to some of them. I didnt have any intention of releasing actual cache location information, just generalisations. Heck, i dont want my own caches muggled.
I will check the links above for info. Thanks for the info already, more is appreciated. Cheers
David

[Rabbitto]

Points to ponder - Here is a true story on this topic that recently happened on our caches. It took a while to piece all this together but after a lot of emails, here is what transpired.

1. There is a respectable group that uses GPSrÂ’s as part of their sport. I am not going to name their sport or any detail that will highlight who this is as that is not the point of this story.

2. One of their group had heard of geocaching but never been. He had looked up the co-ordinates of two of our caches which were nearby. In the late afternoon, and
after a completing a day at their sport, he mentioned this to the group.

3. They were all very excited about this and around fifteen of them set out, not really sure of what they were supposed to be looking for.

4. They reached the first cache. I am unsure as to how this came about but I believe in ignorance either removed, left entirely exposed or destroyed it.

5. They reached the second cache which was a multi, which again they did not understand what a multi was. The first point was in a large privately owned tourist attraction. (There is nothing to do at this point but to count one item which can be seen without even entering the premises) Note: The owner is aware of this count.

6. Fifteen or so inexperienced people who did not know what they were supposed to be doing descended on the attraction and started to look for a non-existent cache. They entered private areas, dismantled and destroyed garden beds and generally created havoc. The owner saw this and threw them all out.

7. It took a lot of talking through the owners son (also a geocacher) to resolve this. The owner of the establishment is still happy to see WP1 in the tourist attraction and agrees that this is a one off bad experience due to thoughtless people representative of neither their sport or ours.

There are a number of circumstances that caused this to occur and I will leave discussion of this to the forum but in a nutshell –

Large Mob + Inexperience = Bad
Large Mob + Inexperience + Beverages = Disaster

[Bundyrumandcoke]

Ok, Well as it turned out, it didnt get promoted very much, if at all. I did have a cache there with me, that I was going to put out on Sunday, which did happen, see "Kareoke Kalliope Kapers" at this point still unpublished, but the day was more about 4wding. A couple of the club members did ask questions in general, but that was about it.

Cheers
David