Promoting a classic bike show?Read our top tips on how to increase the impact, appeal and response to your motorcycle festival, autojumble, or run.
Classic Bike
▲ Getting a motorcycling celebrity to support and endorse your classic bike show can't do you any harm at all. Sammy Miller, pictured here at the Woolwich Arsenal riding the legendary AJS Porcupine on the 40th Anniversary of the AMC factory closure, is definitely on the "A" list. www.sammymiller.co.uk 
▲ Colin Seeley pictured on that same Porcupine (main image) taken from Sammy Miller's classic bike collection. Putting chassis builder Colin in the frame won't do you any harm either, and Colin is both a gentleman and a professional and knows how to deliver the goods time and time again.
▲ Two Sump girls on a Trumpet at the Ace:
Now that's what we call a real photo opportunity. www.ace-cafe-london.com
Genuine Sump T-shirt:
Original - Preferred £14.99 plus P&P [for details, click here]
| Classic bike shows, autojumbles, club runs or festivals can be an organisational nightmare. Our experience is that many, if not most, promoters fall down at the basics and fail to press the crucial buttons that help ensure good attendance and useful feedback from the press. If you're running a show, or are even thinking of running one, take a look at our guide detailing how to flex your marketing muscle. It won't take long, and just might help clue you in on some areas that most organisers—even the professionals—get badly wrong. 1. Advance show notice Sounds obvious, but at Sump we frequently receive only a few days notification of a classic bike show, autojumble, or bike run. In the mainstream motorcycle press, we also frequently see very limited notification of an event. Classic bike magazines usually need a couple of months lead-in time to process a press release or show date. Trying to squeeze your dates in close to the publishing deadline is risky.  Motorcycle websites update much faster (in days or hours), but you still really need to think at least a month ahead. Ideally, think in terms of three months. Or longer.
If you're placing ads in magazines, the same rules apply. Get in early if you want the most favourable spots. People usually need plenty of reminders. If you want your event to flower, seed it early and water carefully. Don't forget to contact your local press. If you can't afford an advert, at least send a press release. Not sure what that is? Well you're not alone. Just write a simple statement of the facts surrounding your classic bike festival or event: Name, Date, Time, Location,
Theme, Organiser. And make it newsworthy. Spin it a little. If your guest biking celebrity is a local man, use that as an anchor for the story: TT Winner to Open Local
Classic Bike Show Give an editor a headline or a soundbite. Better still, send a photo with the press release. Make it easy for the editor to convert your words to print. And consider your local TV and radio station. Thirty seconds on the airwaves can help put money in the bank for next year's outing. [for part two of this feature, click here] |
| 
Don't forget Public Liability Insurance
If you're organising a motorcycle show, autojumble, or similar event, you need Public Liability Insurance. You can run from this, but you can't hide. If something goes wrong on the day, and if you're found to be partly or entirely culpable, you could find yourself deep in financial trouble. And if sued successfully, you could lose pretty much everything you own.
It isn't just insurance against personal injury to one of your visitors that you have to worry about. It's insurance against damage to the motorcycles, or cars, or sundry equipment (tools, race gear, stalls, tents, etc). Basically, it comes down to "duty of care" and is covered under the law of tort which is concerned with civil disputes. The bottom line is that if it can be shown in Court that a promotor/organiser has breached his or her duty of care, then a plaintiff can expect a settlement against the respondent. To cover your losses, you need that Public Liability Insurance.
So is Public Liability Insurance a legal requirement?
No. It isn't. But you're quite probably a mug, and/or a daring gambler if you don't take steps to protect yourself. The world is full of companies offering "NO WIN, NO FEE" compensation claims. They're generally hungry, greedy and persistent. And they'll come after you for the most spurious claims.
How much does Public Liability Insurance cost?
That's a tricky one because it depends upon the nature of your motorcycle show or gathering. But you can figure it out for yourself that a race meeting is likely to incur higher premiums than, say, an autojumble. Of course, if you've got a Wall of Death at your event, and if someone comes to grief, both the promoter and the Wall of Death organiser could find themselves in Court arguing it out. And both parties would be wise to have Public Liability Insurance. Also, the cost of insurance premiums depends upon how much cover you want. A £1 million policy would naturally cost significantly more than a £250,000 policy. The time of year will make a difference, and probably so will the location of the event.
But generally speaking, you could be paying anything from £250 to £1,000 for a one day or weekend get together. And that's money that's gone. Spent. If your event goes well and no one gets hurt, you don't get your money back. Yes, that should be obvious, but it bears mentioning. Employee/volunteer
liability cover
If you throw in a classic motorcycle parade or some demo racing, you may find that your proposal needs further analysis and referral. And you might also be asked if you require employee/volunteer liability cover to protect yourself from claims made by staff, which you should opt for. But generally, the biggest factors are how many visitors you expect, and what level of cover you want. We were recently quoted £291 for a one day autojumble catering for around 3,000 visitors (March 2015 price).
How do I find a suitable insurance company?
This, as ever, comes down to ringing around and/or checking the internet. The thing with pretty much all insurance companies is that they're as short as they're long. In other words, they're all hopeless and useless, and they're all wonderful. But as with your general classic motorcycle insurance, you just have to give them the facts as honestly as possible and jump through the required hoops. It can usually be settled in a single phone call. The insurance premiums, generally, are actually pretty low, and that underlines the fact that motorcycle meets are mercifully pretty safe places to be. Your biggest risk is probably a classic biker dying from old age or boredom. There's not much you can do about the former. But just make sure you address the latter point if you want to make some money and build a new fixture on the classic bike calendar.
|