Mouth watering praise for Sample Festival as Community Engine congratulates winners of the Sample STAY IN TOUCH competition, who have just been announced.
Social Commerce website Community Engine stepped in to support Sample last month, ensuring the immensely popular festival could go ahead.
“We spoke to Remy about what would be the best way we could help” said Community Engine’s Dean Power. “Exhibitors are flat out serving on the day and don’t have time to get to know the people who come to their stall. So we created a system where patrons nominated the exhibitors they wanted to be kept in touch with”.
So as part of the partnership, Sample patrons were asked to text the number of their favourite stalls and describe, in just three words, their festival experience. Stallholders could focus on serving great food, knowing they were collecting contact details from their most passionate supporters. Best of all they now have the ability to follow up with those contacts using Community Engine’s simple web tools.
“Community Engine provided a lot of value for our stallholders with the STAY IN TOUCH competition” said Remy Tancred, organiser of Sample Festival. “They are a first class example of Northern Rivers community spirit, they are amazing”.
Community Engine was overwhelmed with responses from STAY IN TOUCH. The winner of the first prize, a weekend for two at The Byron at Byron Resort and Spa (winner of the Sample Golden Fork Award for the best $10 dish) went to an entry who described the event as “Delicious, nutritious, sampliscous”. Other winners received wine from Mezzanine Wines and dinner at The Point Restaurant in Ballina. Honourable Mentions included “Food, beer, atmosphere”, “Better than Sydney’s” and “Ingest, imbibe, inhale”.
Selling produce on the day is only a part of the festival picture, according to Remy Tancred. “Sample is about awareness of the food businesses and industry in our region” she said. “Overall the event exceeded even my expectations. We had buyers from major national retailers and the Producer of Master Chef present, we had Community Engine networking our stalls with patrons who visited from near and far”.
For the first time people who attended Sample Festival this year can stay in touch with any exhibitor to receive news and special offers by following them on Community Engine’s Sample Festival page: