CHRISTMAS is coming early to Inglewood.
The Inglewood Chamber of Commerce is organising a Christmas in July on July 31.
The fundsraier will help produce a new Inglewood brochure.
The President of the Chamber of Commerce, Geoff Lyons, won’t be playing Santa but there will be plenty of surprises in store.
According to Geoff, the location of the fun-filled night is itself a closely-guarded secret that even he doesn’t know.
What Geoff and the organizing committee (shhh, that’s a secret as well) have been able to tell us is that the night will start off with eggnog and Christmas Carols at the Rosa Bella Nursery at 6.15pm.
Buses will be arranged to pick up guests from around the region and drop them at the Nursery in time for the festivities.
A secret town location
The buses will then ferry the guests to the secret out-of-town location for a sumptuous three-course Christmas dinner (all from local produce) with all the trimmings.
There’ll be entertainment, dancing, a raffle or two and even some mulled wine to finish off the evening.
Buses will then take guests back to the Nursery or back to the pick up/ drop off points.
Dress is “evening wear” (jacket and tie for gentlemen) with a special prize for the best dressed in a Christmas theme.
The cost is $60 per person for the night.
The Chamber of Commerce was established 18 months ago and after a settling in period, has more recently been occupied with convincing retailers and regional authorities that Inglewood needs to be better promoted.
So determined has the Chamber been that already a branding and marketing strategy has been presented to members as well as the Goondiwindi regional Council.
He said the overerdue strategy has been developed with the help of an independent study of a cross-section of local business owners and interested community members.
Catch the country spirit
As part of this, a new logo for the town has been accepted and stage one will see new billboard signs replacing the “olive” welcome signs on either side of town.
Not only will the new signs incorporate the new logo and slogan “Catch the Country Spirit” but they will also be placed further outside the town and, on the Warwick side, relocated to the “correct” side of the road for maximum visibility.
This initiative will provide travellers (the main target demographic for stage one), with more time and incentive to decide whether to stop in Inglewood. Other smaller but easily distinguishable Inglewood “branding” signs advertising the town will be established further down the highways to introduce and reinforce the notion of stopping in Inglewood.
Sense of community
According to Geoff, stage two of the strategy will be to produce a professional looking brochure that will promote the inherent spirit of the town and region (rather than any particular event or industry).
The strategy calls for the consistent branding in line with the slogan and this will be carried over to an eventual website (a domain name has already been reserved).
The brochure will be available in town but also at other local, regional and state tourist agencies and locations.
Although the Chamber and the GRC will support and contribute to the costs, more funds will be needed to complete these strategic stages.
And so, proceeds from the “Christmas in July” event will also help to cover the costs of production and printing.
Geoff says that the strategy calls for “a substantial brochure that will not just be a listing of businesses but rather one that promotes the values and sense of community of a small country town.
The aim is not only to increase the number of visitors stopping in the town but also eventually to encourage more growth in the town and region.
“Shops providing high-quality, old-fashioned, friendly service,” Geoff said.
“We then hope word will spread in a sort of viral marketing manner.”
“The Chamber of Commerce really wants to put Inglewood on the map.
“This is all just the start, of course, and catching the country spirit in Inglewood is one secret we don’t want to keep,” he said.
So why don’t you start to “Catch the Country Spirit” and come along to support the town for Christmas in July?
Tickets are on sale by calling any of the following numbers (and mentioning the secret password “Ho, Ho, Ho”): 46521-800, 0409-521-224 and 46521-190. All bookings and payments are to be made before 16 July so final numbers can be confirmed.
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