Hold Your Babe, Nurture Your Community.

1. Welcome

Welcome! This year marks the second national celebration of Australia and New Zealand Babywearing Week, which will run in parallel with International Babywearing Week from 10 – 16 October 2011. The theme this year is ‘A World of Possibilities’.

Babes in Arms, babywearing specialists and founders of Australia and New Zealand Babywearing Week, has initiated this focused opportunity to:

• · raise awareness about the benefits of babywearing
• · demonstrate how modern parents can enjoy peaceful and active post-baby lifestyles by adopting the ancient wisdom of baby slings and carriers
• seed and support local babywearing communities so that they may in turn continue to spread the ‘babywearing word’ post-celebration.

We are pleased to announce that ERGObaby® is again the platinum sponsor of Australia and New Zealand Babywearing Week.

2. Event Summary

We are 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. Babywearing parents across Australia and New Zealand will be inviting their local communities to celebrate the benefits of babywearing by hosting a babywearing event. Each event will be in the running to win up to $2000AUD worth of cash grants to donate to the event’s own nominated community project, or not-for-profit organisation. Each babywearing event coordinator and fellow participants will have the opportunity to win lots of great prizes too!

3. How to Host a Babywearing Celebration

A babywearing celebration is easy to organise and completely flexible to suit your availability and local 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 to demonstrate this year’s theme ‘A World Of Possibilities’ may include: hosting a local babywearing picnic or morning tea – drawing together active parents for a babywearing yoga class or beach walk – choreographing a babywearing dance for a Flash Mob in your local shopping mall. 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!

4. WIN up to $2000 – Community Cash Grants

We are offering 3 major community grants this year totaling $2000 AUD. The grants will be awarded as follows:

4.1  ‘Biggest Baby Wearing Group’ Award – $1000

The babywearing event that succeeds in attracting the greatest number of adult participants will receive a community grant of $1000 AUD grant to award to their nominated not-for-profit community beneficiary.

4.2  ‘People’s Choice’ Award – $500

Secondly, a ‘People’s Choice’ Award will be presented for the most creative concept and will be determined by Facebook fan votes. This award includes a $500 AUD community grant to support the event’s nominated charity.

4.3  ‘Media Attention’ Award – $500

This year sees the introduction of the new ‘Media Attention’ Award for those who are successful in gaining the media’s attention to cover their babywearing event. We have made this super easy by producing ‘Media Release Templates’ for Event Coordinators to simply fill in with their local event details ready for submission to the local media – newspapers, radio, TV and community newsletters. This award will be judged by Babes in Arms and the winning group will receive a $500 AUD community grant to support the event’s nominated charity.

5. WIN ERGObaby Carriers – Coordinator and Participant Prizes

5.1  Event Coordinator Prizes

To recognize the sterling efforts of the winning event’s coordinators (maximum of two coordinators per event), the latest ERGObaby Performance Carrier (valued at $199 AUD) will be awarded to the coordinators of the three winning events above.

5.2  ERGObaby Group Hug

The group that gathers the most number of ERGObaby wearers and photographs them altogether will win the ‘ERGObaby Group Hug’ and be awarded FREE Teething Pads and a Standard Front Pouch to match their carrier (total value $53.95 RRP).

6. How to Register your Babywearing Event

Got an idea for a babywearing celebration and like to enter? Great, it’s very simple!

• Please visit the following three Facebook pages and hit ‘LIKE’:

1. Babes in Arms
2. ERGObaby Australia and New Zealand
3. ‘Australia and New Zealand Babywearing Week’

In ‘Australian and New Zealand Babywearing Week‘ Facebook page:

-        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 where events are being held and therefore which ones they can possibly 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 an 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 BIG Crowd’)

-        Publish your event by hitting ‘Post New Topic’

Your event is now officially up and running! Now you can start planning the details and inviting people by spreading the word! (Please see notes below ‘Hints on How to Generate a BIG Crowd’)

7. Hints on How to Generate a BIG Crowd!

Harness the power and magnitude of ‘word of mouth’ advertising to quickly broadcast your babywearing event details – mums are particularly amazing at this both via Social Media channels and real-time catch-ups. Here are four simple ideas to get you started…

7.1  Update your Facebook Profile Picture – 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 saved above and is free to be copied by all participants. We encourage everyone to use this icon as their Facebook profile picture 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.

7.2  Create a ‘Facebook Event’

Creating a unique Facebook ‘Event’ page is easy and free! To set up a unique ‘Event’ page on Facebook, simply follow these easy steps:

• Place your cursor into the “Events” box on the right-hand column of your home page and a form field will open.
• Enter the Name, date, location and time of your Event.
• After you add a time and place, your event will be created.
• By selecting the add details link, you can add more detailed information.
• Once complete, select ‘Create Event’ and get promoting!

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.

7.3  Community Notice Boards – Use our ‘Event Flyer’ Templates

To assist each event coordinator(s), we have created ‘Babywearing Event Flyer Template’ – simply download the template by clicking the above weblink, save the document,  insert your details, print off flyers and post them up around your local community where parents tend to meet and congregate.

To raise awareness for your event and to help spread the word, venture out into your local community put up flyers up on the notice boards of the following suggested venues:

• Local Maternity Hospital and/or Birth Centre
• Maternal Child Health Centre (Tresillian Nurse)
• Birth Education Centres
• Playgroups and Mother’s Groups
• Pre/Post Natal Yoga and/or Health Centres
• Gymbaroo / Kindergym centres
• Local library (children’s notice board)
• Local Food Co-ops

….and any other area you think parents will see it!

7.4  Gaining Media Attention – it is easier than you think!
In addition to your Facebook ‘Event’ page, you may feel your event may be worthy of media attention.  To generate free media interest about your local babywearing celebration and to be in the running to win the ‘Media Attention’ Prize, simply download our ‘Press Release Template’  , enter your details and then publish your release by following the helpful advice HERE.

There are further tips on distributing media releases to both the Australian and New Zealand media HERE .

Thank you

Thanks for your interest in participating in Australia and New Zealand Babywearing Week 2011. 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, Aviya and baby no.4 (due early October)

Terms and Conditions

·        Our competitions are open only to Australian and New Zealand residents aged 18 and over.

·        Product 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.)

·        ERGObaby Stockists wishing to create an event must create an event name separate to their business name.

·        All entrants must “like” the following three Facebook pages:

Australian + NZ Babywearing Week

ERGObaby Australia and New Zealand

Babes in Arms

·        Late registrations will not be processed.

·        Community Grant beneficiaries must be not-for-profit organisations or community based groups. Community Grant winners must be available for interview post-ANZBW and must provide a short report indicating how the grant was used to benefit the local community no later than 3 months post grant receipt.

·        The winning entry for the ‘Biggest Babywearing Group’ award will be counted and verified by a selection panel based on the entrant’s completion of the following requirements: a) all participants have completed the registration form b) all registered participants appear in a photo where the participants can be counted and c) where only adults are counted. The judges’ decisions are final and no correspondence will be entered into.

·        The winning entry for the ‘Media Attention’ award will be chosen by a selection panel based on the entrant’s creativity and skill in promoting their event. The judges’ decisions are final and no correspondence will be entered into.

·        The winning entry for the ‘People’s Choice’ Award will be the event that receives the most Facebook ‘likes’ for a submitted photo on the ANZBW Facebook Page.

·        A maximum of two event coordinators are permitted per babywearing event.

·        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.

·        Each host is responsible for complying with any relevant by-laws or government regulations in regards to the gathering of people in public areas.

·        A Babywearing Event title cannot contain any product brand name(s).

·        Babes in Arms reserves the right to change the dates of the promotion if required.  Also, if there are compelling technical or administrative reasons which we cannot control, Babes in Arms can cancel or modify the promotion. Notice of any changes to the promotion will be given at blog.babesinarms.com.au

·        Winners will be notified by email and their names will be published on the Babes in Arms blog

·        Babes in Arms reserves the right to select an alternate winner if BIA’s determines in its sole discretion that the winner/s do not adequately satisfy these terms and conditions.

·        Babes in Arms and their promotional partners are not responsible for any loss or damage in relation to the prize once it has been awarded.

·        All entries become the property of Babes in Arms. Once submitted, your entry will not be returned to you. In return for entering the competition you grant Babes in Arms a worldwide, non-exclusive, irrevocable licence in perpetuity to reproduce, publish, adapt, communicate and broadcast all or part of your entry in any media for the purposes of this competition and inclusion in Babes in Arms branded products and marketing materials.

·        Babes in Arms will use the personal information contained in your entry to conduct the promotion, and award the prize. If you win a prize, Babes in Arms can use your name to credit you for your entry and for marketing purposes.

Disclaimers

• 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.

Would you like to gather community participation for your babywearing event? Or simply get some limelight by inviting the local press to your babywearing event? We have developed a quick and easy way to help attract press attention – simply download the Press Release template that we have written and fill-in your relevant details. Once complete, just email the Press Release to your local newspaper or radio station and follow up with a phone call to confirm receipt! And hey presto…media contacts are likely to start buzzing!

We have even made it easy to find your local newspaper contacts. Please visit this website - and tab thru to your relevant state or territory. Every newspaper is listed region by region and it also has a town search plus an A-Z (by paper name).

Use the attached Press Release template here: Babywearing Week Press Release Template

Remember – Press Releases should be sent ASAP and followed up to ensure that the story has been assigned to a journalist.

Are  you preparing to host a Babywearing event for the annual Australia and New Zealand Babywearing Week?

To raise awareness for your event and to help spread the word you could venture out into your local community and spread the word about your event by putting flyers up at the following suggested venues:

1.    Local Maternity Hospital and/or Birth Centre

2.    Maternal Child Health Centre (Tresillian Nurse)

3.    Playgroups and Mother’s Groups

4.    Pre/Post Natal Yoga and/or Health Centres

5.    Gymbaroo / Kindergym centres

6.    Light pole near popular local playground

7.    Local library (children’s notice board)

8.    Local Food Co-ops

and any other area you think parents will see it.

To make it really easy for event hosts to spread the word, we have designed a template poster that people can simply:

-       download

-       add the relevant event details

-       print off appropriate quantities

-       post around their local communities

It’s right here for download: Babywearing Event Flyer Template – 2011