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Wellie, good luck with your organisation, just thought I'd add two comments about our local organisation as they might be useful to ponder... (I enter but am not on the organising side...):
a) the local Gardener's Association here organise two shows a year, the main village show in early September (with all the sort of categories you've mentioned) and a fairly simple Spring Flower one (mainly daffs) in a couple of weeks time. The Spring Flower one (can send you the schedule if of interest) is kept very simple, you simply turn up at the village hall at 7 p.m. with your exhibits and put them on the appropriate numbered table (some are in your own container, some in an association holder, as specified on the schedule). All exhibits are numbered and everyone attending votes for their favourite in each category and that's how the "winner" of each category is determined. No prizes, you get a card First, Second Third, that's it. I suppose you could vote for yourself but it's only a fun thing so people do spot and vote for the "best". I'll try to put a photo on from last year... The important thing is to get lots of entries....
b) the Village Show is a much more serious event with judges etc (they used to have prize money but it became rather insignificant so now is only on the children's sections....) But the point I wanted to pass on here was an organisational one which might be of interest... A few years ago you had to register your intended entries before the day of the Show but that was found to be off-putting and the number of entries started to reduce quite drastically so the organisers changed the system so now you simply mount your exhibits on the morning of the show which is then closed for a few hours for judging and then opens up mid-afternoon... No prizes as such but there are several cups and shields for different categories (and I have won one just once, duh! that's my lot to date...). But what I wanted to add was when they did away with the the pre-registration they introduced a very simple and quick alternative method.... When you arrive to mount your stuff you give your name and are given 10 numbered tickets ("cloakroom tickets") and you simply put one under each of your entries.... You can go back and get another 10 tickets as many times as you need (and some enthusiasts might be doing veg, fruit, photographs, jams, breads, wine, knitting...! ) That makes the process so much easier and works (more or less!
) flawlessly. On the attached photo (tomato sections) you can see the cloakroom tickets... Simples! Once prizes determined the name of the person is put on the certificate, all other entries remain anonymous. The simple system has increased the number of entries significantly.
a) the local Gardener's Association here organise two shows a year, the main village show in early September (with all the sort of categories you've mentioned) and a fairly simple Spring Flower one (mainly daffs) in a couple of weeks time. The Spring Flower one (can send you the schedule if of interest) is kept very simple, you simply turn up at the village hall at 7 p.m. with your exhibits and put them on the appropriate numbered table (some are in your own container, some in an association holder, as specified on the schedule). All exhibits are numbered and everyone attending votes for their favourite in each category and that's how the "winner" of each category is determined. No prizes, you get a card First, Second Third, that's it. I suppose you could vote for yourself but it's only a fun thing so people do spot and vote for the "best". I'll try to put a photo on from last year... The important thing is to get lots of entries....
b) the Village Show is a much more serious event with judges etc (they used to have prize money but it became rather insignificant so now is only on the children's sections....) But the point I wanted to pass on here was an organisational one which might be of interest... A few years ago you had to register your intended entries before the day of the Show but that was found to be off-putting and the number of entries started to reduce quite drastically so the organisers changed the system so now you simply mount your exhibits on the morning of the show which is then closed for a few hours for judging and then opens up mid-afternoon... No prizes as such but there are several cups and shields for different categories (and I have won one just once, duh! that's my lot to date...). But what I wanted to add was when they did away with the the pre-registration they introduced a very simple and quick alternative method.... When you arrive to mount your stuff you give your name and are given 10 numbered tickets ("cloakroom tickets") and you simply put one under each of your entries.... You can go back and get another 10 tickets as many times as you need (and some enthusiasts might be doing veg, fruit, photographs, jams, breads, wine, knitting...! ) That makes the process so much easier and works (more or less!
) flawlessly. On the attached photo (tomato sections) you can see the cloakroom tickets... Simples! Once prizes determined the name of the person is put on the certificate, all other entries remain anonymous. The simple system has increased the number of entries significantly.
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