Masses of Thurston County, Washington fairgoers flooded through the exhibit hall hosting an Exhibit for the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, first bypassing IYRP displays, but then cleverly "hooked" by an innovative method to stop viewers in their tracks and engage them in important IYRP learning goals.
For hours, even days, the team dismayed at being passed over by fair attendees, with hoards quickly dodging the IYRP display and evading invitations to thoughtful discussion about our global grasslands. Then in a bold strike of luck, the team snuck a page from the carnival playbook. They designed a quick, catchy question set that culminated in the potential for a prize...they should have known, it is the stuff of Fair Exhibitor Guide 101.
Their questions? What is your Favor Grassland Product”, and two others. These were compatible for the team, much in need of a quick interception phrase like: “Do you want to answer a question and win a sticker?” It stopped people, started a substantive Q&A (there are three prompts), and led into an opportunity to direct people to the bigger exhibit.
The team also organized a wool bracelet making workshop, hosted a noisy hapa zome session where attendees smashed wildflowers into muslin, and handed out stickers and posters.
Overall we had pretty good success, says "Annie Salafsky", dazzling evaluation coordinator, who managed to rope in 14 evaluation forms from unsuspecting fair attendees, happy in their new possession of stickers and knowledge of jobs, animals, and products rendered by our amazing rangelands.
