Have-a-goes / Corporate Entertainment

[grimsby archer]

I wish to pick the brains of those of you who regularly do haveagoes or corporate entertainment.

When I say have-a-goes I'm talking about inviting groups of people (scouts, women's institute etc) to a taster session in archery, as opposed to a country fair 6 arrows for £2 setup.

I'm looking for ideas to make the have-a-goes that we do, more interesting.

Progress so far:
We started with simply teaching them a basic shot and just let them shoot at targets for an hour (fully supervised of course), but attention of some participants seemed to wane after a bit.
We introduced balloons as something different to shoot at after they get the basic idea of the bow and arrow.
Recently, we introduced ending with a little competition. Divide the group into 3 teams (member of staff as leader of each team) and count the number of hit or golds. This gives the team a great opportunity to camp it up "my teams better than your team" pantomime style, and great opportunities for gratuitous cheating.
Thought about some demos, trick shots and the like after watching youtube, but I'm not sure that people really want to watch the staff shooting eggs off posts etc

Anyone else got any good ideas how to entertain a dozen business executives, or boyscouts? Tried and tested successes prefered, but wild off the top of the head rubbish also gratefully received

[cuddles]

Originally Posted by grimsby archer

I wish to pick the brains of those of you who regularly do haveagoes or corporate entertainment.

When I say have-a-goes I'm talking about inviting groups of people (scouts, women's institute etc) to a taster session in archery, as opposed to a country fair 6 arrows for £2 setup.

I'm looking for ideas to make the have-a-goes that we do, more interesting.

Progress so far:
We started with simply teaching them a basic shot and just let them shoot at targets for an hour (fully supervised of course), but attention of some participants seemed to wane after a bit.
We introduced balloons as something different to shoot at after they get the basic idea of the bow and arrow.
Recently, we introduced ending with a little competition. Divide the group into 3 teams (member of staff as leader of each team) and count the number of hit or golds. This gives the team a great opportunity to camp it up "my teams better than your team" pantomime style, and great opportunities for gratuitous cheating.
Thought about some demos, trick shots and the like after watching youtube, but I'm not sure that people really want to watch the staff shooting eggs off posts etc

Anyone else got any good ideas how to entertain a dozen business executives, or boyscouts? Tried and tested successes prefered, but wild off the top of the head rubbish also gratefully received

Have you tried letting them shoot at animal faces

[bkupris]

If you have not done so already download the rules for Have a Go sessions off the GNAS website just to make sure you don't do anything that might negate your insurance.

[NoobArcher]

you could always design some of your own stuff to shoot at and allocate points for whats hit.....we do this in our fun shoots. for example, draw or print off a picture of some wine and cheese....and allocate points or minus points for what you hit, such as +10 for the label, +5 for the wine, -10 for the cheese. Or, you could try printing up faces of people you don;t like, maybe simon cowell or gordon brown and have epople shoot at those!

[phillc]

We do quite a few of these it depends on what group we have the choices that seem to work we do have a lot of people to help with these events

instruction one to one point of aim and safety for all events about 3/4 to 1 hour


1) A short distance usually 1 dozen round to rank them then a head to head (popular with corporate and stag / hen groups)Let those knocked out carry on shooting until the finals then all watch and shout for each other

2) Shooting shorter distance round full size face and give medals for top three male female and juniors ( all round works with most groups not as competitive as 1)

3) Animal faces targets at random distances (as 2 but we check with the group first as some have an issue with shooting at animal faces )

we have a short break for tea and biscuits unless the group want more food laid on (bbq cake etc)

at the end of the session we do a few ends of a fairly short clout which everybody loves

We did one a couple of weeks ago for twenty people with food and they paid £300 for five hours which would be a lot of 3 arrow have a go's we staffed it with eight on the field and three in the kitchen and got eight enquirys for local club contacts over Devon and Cornwall Area

I have seen Exeter company of archers do a hit the castle shot at the end or their outdoor sessions (plastic foam painted and nailed to the ground )


also try getting a flou flou arrow into a bucket or short range clout with flou flou arrows

[munchkin]

unfortunately scouts can't shoot at any representation of animals etc. they have to get permission from parents (IIRC). my last club is based around the scout movement and we weren't allowed to shoot at animal faces, only roundels.
try the larger size darchery faces. most adults will have a general idea about the rules, even if it is about hitting the bull rather than getting triples and doubles!

[Furface]

We also use our 3d Peccary which is usually popular. However, one recent attendee could not bring herself to shoot at it. She had had difficulty with the Turkey faces, but a 3d pig she could not cope with. Until, suddenly, she said "It's a drug dealer" - and got three "kill" arrows.

[TimS]

While we don't do corporate days etc - the following idea, which we used at our last New Year's Day Shoot, may be applicable.

Cinema's receive a continous supply of promotional 'standies' (various sizes of cardboard constructions promoting the films) which often have characters within various three dimensional constructions.

They are quite sturdy, stop arrows fairly well and can easily be fixed in place with a couple of posts and some string or gaffer tape.

Mark up the various areas or objects with scores, let the competitors view the targets close up to select their point of aim and away you go.

The cinemas only throw them away after use so are often happy for you to take them away once the film is off the screen.

[grimsby archer]

Thanks for the responses so far.

I liked the idea of the short clout, until bkupris's reminder about the gnas have a go code of practise which states that targets must be no more that 10 yards from the shooting line etc. That would make it a very short clout!

We did try animal faces and even 3d (not sure how this goes with the gnas code of practise - targets resting on the ground at the same angle as recommended in the gnas rules of shooting) but fell foul of the groups and or individuals who were morally averse to shooting at animals and people.

Perhaps its time GNAS published a code of practise for corporate entertainment as it seems to vary considerably from the "spirit" of the gymkhana "have a go" described in the gnas code of practise (6 arrows for £2) Most of us rely on these types of events as a source of income to support our clubs

[ThePinkOne]

Originally Posted by grimsby archer

I wish to pick the brains of those of you who regularly do haveagoes or corporate entertainment.

When I say have-a-goes I'm talking about inviting groups of people (scouts, women's institute etc) to a taster session in archery, as opposed to a country fair 6 arrows for £2 setup.

I'm looking for ideas to make the have-a-goes that we do, more interesting.

Progress so far:
We started with simply teaching them a basic shot and just let them shoot at targets for an hour (fully supervised of course), but attention of some participants seemed to wane after a bit.
We introduced balloons as something different to shoot at after they get the basic idea of the bow and arrow.
Recently, we introduced ending with a little competition. Divide the group into 3 teams (member of staff as leader of each team) and count the number of hit or golds. This gives the team a great opportunity to camp it up "my teams better than your team" pantomime style, and great opportunities for gratuitous cheating.
Thought about some demos, trick shots and the like after watching youtube, but I'm not sure that people really want to watch the staff shooting eggs off posts etc

Anyone else got any good ideas how to entertain a dozen business executives, or boyscouts? Tried and tested successes prefered, but wild off the top of the head rubbish also gratefully received

Darts match can be good for the younger ones.

OK, for something slightly different. I know a guy who has some lengths of welded plateway (think railway track but L-shaped) that he fits togather, then has a 3-D boar on a little carriage which is pulled across the ground using a rope system- a moving target which can go either direction- but moves in front of a net so no issues with range layout etc.

Another idea is a mini field course- some shots to be taken kneeling down, some from stood on a chair etc (works OK in a hall), use standard field spots and different distances. Three or four makes for a good little comp.

I would say tho if you do anything a bit oddball may be worth checking your insurer is happy with the safety arrangements.

P.