Step 2 - Themes and Activities

Family Learning Festival activities have a theme running throughout the whole event. This starts with the type of activities on offer, to the promotional activity, right through to the evaluation techniques. Past FLF Award Winners have found that a strong theme can help toward a successful event. This year FLF has the theme of Creativity, which you can use to base your event around, from earth to space you can get as creative as you want! For more ideas for your event visit our A-Z of activities.

If you decide to come up with your own idea make sure that you link it to your target audience is. To ensure that your event gets your target audience through your doors and keeps them involved be aware of:

• If possible, ask your target audience what they are interested in beforehand and involve one or more people from your target audience in your planning group.
• On the day keep everyone involved. Don’t let adults sit back or take over. Get all family members thinking, talking and having fun.
• What will people learn? If you run a face painting session make it a fun learning activity! You could look at makeup through the ages or a science lesson on the skin, for example.
• Incorporate a crowd puller. Some activities always prove to be popular such as football sessions, circus skills or car boot sales. These can be used to attract people, who may then go on to try a new FL activity.
• Take your event to your audience. This could include shopping centres, sports halls or the high street. People prefer to take part in events where they feel comfortable and which are ‘everyday’ venues. Outreach programmes are a good way to start a relationship that could have them stepping through the doors of your venue at a later point.

For more information download your online planning guide.