How to run a freshers' week stall - what Cardiff Student Minds learnt

Stuck for ideas on how to attract volunteers at the freshers' fair? We interviewed Cardiff Student Minds about their experience running a stall, asked about their successes, and found out what could have made the event even better.

So, Cardiff, what was on the stall?

We held 4 stalls; 1 at Cardiff Met, 1 at Cardiff University Cathays Campus, 1 at Cardiff University Heath Campus and 1 at Cardiff's volunteering fayre. We gave out keyrings, pens, information booklets and business cards. We had a fancy dress photo booth, and a '#look after your mate' sign to use in photos. We also ran a prize draw - everyone who liked our Facebook page, followed us on Twitter and signed up to our mailing list was entered into a draw to win some prizes!

Did you get a lot of sign-ups?

During Fresher's week we have had 193 students sign up to our mailing list, over 70 new Facebook likes and over 30 new Twitter followers. We have also had a lot of interest from students who are keen to help out with our events and campaigns, so we have set up a Cardiff volunteers Facebook group which has almost 50 students in. Our Facebook photo album '#lookafteryourmate snaps' reached 481 people and had 378 post clicks.

What do you think went well?

We found that taking photos with the #look after your mate sign worked extremely well, as students having their photo taken asked what it was all about, so it was a good way of starting a conversation about the campaign.

Having some freebies to give out was also successful, as it was a good way to get students interested in our stall, and talking to our volunteers about what Student Minds is all about.

What do you think could have made it better?

We found that the fancy dress aspect of the photo booth didn't work very well, so in the end we just took pictures with the #lookafteryourmate sign. Also, we started taking the mailing list by hand, but we quickly realised it was difficult to read some students' handwriting, so in later stalls we then used a laptop.

Any pictures of the event?

Yes!

    

We hope this has inspired you with ideas for future Student Minds events! Remember, if you want to tell us about an event you've run, you can fill in our internal feedback form through the internal section of the website.