A big thank you to everyone who joined us for the May 4th breakfast once again hosted by the very yummy Kansas City Cafe. Also a special thanks to the Grammy award rendition of "Happy Birthday"...it was an awesome start to the day!

We had the honor of learning more about the Children's Center for the Visually Impaired and the amazing work they do for our community. They are preparing to host their first ever Blind Date event this fall and plan to make it their fall marquee event on an annual basis. We were given the challenge to come up with innovative ideas to help grow awareness and make the event as interactive as possible. We were extra challenged as there is a very minimal budget available with no advertising budget allocated at this time. The group accepted the challenge with energy and came up with the following ideas. 

Event Ideas: 

• Incorporate textures where possible.
• Include "Speed dating in the dark" as part of the event
• Host a happy hour prior to the event that includes a speed dating component
• Host a blind auction

Content Ideas: 

• Podcasts
• Video teasers
• Videos and pictures showing Kansas City through the eyes of how the visually impaired see things - soft, hazy filters
• Create different key messages for different age groups
• Re-use all TV clips/mainstream media and push through social channels (including any TV interviews & newspaper articles)
• Incorporate braille as part of direct mail and email deployment
• Braille inforgraphic

Social Networks to Utilize:

• Youtube - brand it for the event
• Create a playlist on Spotify setting the tone for the event ..play featured musicians that may or may not be at the event
• Pinterest - Pin your table

Awareness tactics:

• Identify sponsors with large social networks and ask them to share the event details with their networks
• Charge premium ticket prices for picking the person who sits at your table, Sports icons, local celebraties, etc.
• Ask people to blacken their Twitter avatars with CCVI text on it in support of the event and cause
• Livestream the event to generate awareness for future events
• Audio only of celebrity voice on Facebook and followers have to guess who it is to win a free ticket
• Allocate 15% of the tables to be a lower ticket prices to attract younger audience, singles, friends night out
• Assign a hashtag for the event (#CCVI, #blinddateKC)
• Create blog posts on the CCVI site to be shared through social networks describing how the visually impaired use the web and social networks
• To gain an advertising budget consider a kickstarter project
• Ask a development company to create an application to encourage one to visualize, smell, etc to create a shared experience with visually impaired. 

Campaign Ideas:

• Provide a free workshop to businesses on how to optimize their web assets for the visually impaired. They would receive the free passes upon Blind Date event ticket purchase.
• Make it a contest for people to guess the KC locations in videos and/or sounds in podcasts that are viewed as if you are visually impaired.
• Make it a contest with hints on how the entertainer might be. Tie the cost of tickets to the number of clues provided..the more clues you need in order to guess the higher your ticket price. 
• Conduct a scavenger hunt to win a free table at the event
• Ask popular local chefs to host a lights out dinner and guests guess what they are eating; incorporate social component during dinner asking attendees to talk about their meals to their social networks in between courses
• Host a contest for the most interesting blind date story and give awards for most interesting, heartwarming, funny etc....conduct voting on Facebook
• Publish music links as a teaser campaign hinting at the special guest
• Use social for a "search for Stevie" or some other "six degree of Stevie" contest to attract Stevie Wonder to attend the event. 
• People can submit audio files prior to the event to decide who they want to sit with based on voice alone. Include celebraties to encourage participation.
• Win a chance for a ticket discount: participants guess what they are listening to and the answer is their discount code...i.e.: "I hear a Royal game" so the discount code would be Kauffman Stadium
• Create a CCVI week similar to the Restaurant week event
• Mystery puzzle contest 
  • Video teasers with incomplete clues and info
  • Start releasing information as puzzle pieces
  • The first to guess the puzzle wins free tickets

Thank you again for helping SMCKC help the Kansas City community! We look forward to seeing you at the next breakfast. 

Cheers,

Lisa

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