Event Summary
Calling all parents across Australia and New Zealand who love to carry their babies in slings or carriers! This is your time to show the world the freedom that babywearing offers and to celebrate the joys of being connected both to your baby and to your community.
The concept is simple. Host a local babywearing celebration together with your friends and have the opportunity to win lots of great prizes, including $1500 (AUD) worth of cash grants to donate to your nominated baby or family-focused community project, charity or group.
This year marks the inaugural celebration of Australia and New Zealand Babywearing Week which runs parallel with International Babywearing Week from 6th to 12th October. ERGObaby is the platinum sponsor of International Babywearing Week.
All Australia and New Zealand Babywearing Week celebrations will therefore occur within these dates. The international theme is ‘Safe Babywearing – Enjoy the Benefits’
Host a Babywearing Celebration
A babywearing celebration is easy to organise and completely flexible to suit your availability and environment. It may be as simple or as creative as you like. The only criterion is that all participants will either carry their babies in a safe sling or carrier or want to find out how to do so. Celebration ideas might include – hosting a local mother’s group babywearing picnic or morning tea – drawing together active parents for a babywearing yoga class or beach walk – choreographing a babywearing dance or sling fashion parade. Experienced babywearers may also host sling and carrier demonstrations and share safe babywearing tips at a local playgroup for example. The ideas are endless. Put your thinking caps on, invite your friends for there are lots of prizes to be won!
Community Grants and Participant Prizes
Anyone who participates in the celebrations literally wins! The more you get involved, the greater your chance to win. Firstly, a $1000 grant will be awarded to the event that succeeds in attracting the greatest number of participants. The event’s host will subsequently present the grant to their nominated community beneficiary.
Secondly, a ‘People’s Choice Award’ will be presented for the most creative concept. This award includes a $500 community grant to support the event’s nominated charity or project and will be determined by Facebook fan votes. In these ways, babywearing not only supports your own child but supports families in your community too.
To recognize the sterling efforts of the two winning event’s hosts, the latest ERGObaby Performance Carrier (valued at $199 AUD) will be awarded. There will also be three more ERGObaby Performance Carriers to give away to other event hosts as selected by Babes in Arms, initiators of Australia and New Zealand Babywearing Week. Other babywearing prizes will be announced over the week via the Babes in Arms blog and then on Facebook.
Discount Vouchers for All
All registered participants of Australia and New Zealand Babywearing Week events will be rewarded for their involvement. Each participant will receive a discount voucher applicable across the entire ERGObaby range at www.BabesInArms.com.au . The value of the voucher will proportionately increase as the number of people participating in the same single event increases.
It is therefore in every participant’s interest to spread the news to encourage as many as people to attend their chosen event, thereby giving themselves and fellow participants the greatest opportunity to reach the maximum discount coupon.
The discount coupons are tiered as follows:
1 – 14 participants = $10 discount coupon*
15 – 24 participants = $15 discount coupon*
25 – 49 participants = $20 discount coupon*
50+ participants = $25 discount coupon*
*discount applies to orders over $40.
The discount voucher code will be emailed to each participant subsequent to the babywearing event.
Simple Steps to Enter
Got an idea for a babywearing celebration and like to enter? Great, it’s very simple!
- Please visit ‘Australia and New Zealand Babywearing Week’ on Facebook and join the group by hitting ‘like’.
- Click on the ‘Discussions’ tab in the top menu bar.
- Click ‘Start New Topic’ button – top right hand side.
- In the ‘Topic’ bar, firstly enter your state followed by the event’s suburb/location and finally the name of your celebration – please use a hyphen to separate all 3 pieces of information.
For example: NSW – Sydney CBD – Circular Quay Babywearing Walk
This format will make it easy for people to identify which events are local and therefore possible to join.
- In the ‘Post’ bar, enter the following details (simply copy and paste the following list and fill in):
Host Name:
Nominated Community Project, Charity or Group:
Event Date:
Event Time:
Event description: not mandatory but helpful for people to know – if you have a exciting and unique idea, we respect your right to ‘save your thunder’ till the event!
Other Info: list as necessary
Unique Facebook ‘Event’ Weblink: not mandatory but effective in attracting more people (see notes below ‘Hints on How to Generate a Crowd’)
- Publish your event by hitting ‘Post New Topic’
You are now officially up and running! Get planning and inviting…
Join the ‘I Love Babywearing’ Club
To generate momentum on Facebook for the celebrations, we have created a bold red graphic icon that simply says ‘I LOVE Babywearing’. This icon is posted below and is free to be copied by all participants. We encourage everyone to use this icon as their Facebook profile picture (and even your Twitter account etc) leading up to and during Australian and New Zealand Babywearing Week. This will create a swell of interest and curiosity and hopefully encourage more people to participate.
Hints on How to Generate a BIG Crowd!
Harness the power and magnitude of Social Media to quickly broadcast your babywearing event details. Simply create a unique Facebook ‘Event’ page, it’s easy and free! From this ‘Event’ page, you can now invite all your Facebook friends along to your event and communicate directly with people intending to join you. You can ask your friends and your friend’s friends to pass on the invite, which quickly multiples your audience reach exponentially.
To set up a unique ‘Event’ page on Facebook, simply follow these easy steps:
- Login to your Facebook page
- Ensure that you are on the “home” tab
- Click “Events” on the left hand side
- Click “+Create an event” at the top of the page then follow the prompts
In addition to your Facebook ‘Event’ page, you may feel your creative gem of an idea may be worthy of media attention. To generate media interest about your babywearing celebration, write a succinct press release by following the helpful advice HERE . There are also tips on distributing media releases to both the Australian and New Zealand media HERE .
Wishing you all the best!
Thanks for your interest in participating in Australia and New Zealand Babywearing Week. I hope you and your baby enjoy raising the profile of babywearing and advocating its benefits amongst your friends and wider community. It’s the best way to carry our nation’s future!
Best wishes to you and your family,
Anita Lincolne-Lomax
Babywearing specialist and dedicated mum to Tilli, Jontae and baby Aviya
Terms and Conditions
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Open to residents of Australia and New Zealand over the age of 18
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Distributors, their staff or relations are not eligible to enter. (Please note, a ‘distributor’ is a company or individual that imports and sells products wholesale to stores and other resellers.)
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The safe use of baby slings and carriers during any event is essential. Please review the Safe Babywearing tips and the dangers associated with ‘bag style’ slings via our Blog (insert hyperlink).
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Each host is responsible for complying with any relevant by-laws or government regulations in regards to the gathering of people in public areas.
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Event title cannot contain any product brand name(s)
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The ‘I Love Babywearing’ icon cannot be used by distributors of other products
Disclaimers
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The views expressed by individual event hosts or participants are not necessarily those held by Babes in Arms, initiators of Australia and New Zealand Babywearing Week Celebrations.
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