Setting up a nappucino?! Help!

[Flamesparrow]

I really wanna do one - we never seem to have any round here.

But I have no idea what I'm doing (what with never having been to one), and I'm scared of people so the rl talking bit scares me. I have the passion though and what with people wanting to be there it should be easy enough to do the talking.

But I need to know what happens etc... help from anyone who has a) been to one, or b) run one!

no idea what one is but I'm intrigued

hi flame, how are you doing?

I'm good Spending all my time trying to get the shop off the ground (well, not now, now i'm staying with cantsleepwontsleep)

Nappucino is like a nappy coffee morning.

How's Gecko? Got a name?

I have run quite a few Flamesparrow - it depends on what kind of atmosphere you want to create really. You could go all out and hire a big hall, refreshments, have stands, talks etc or you could have it round your house, invite people along and chat about nappies informally. The latter is probably the better place to start and then you will have a group of people with a common interest. Also - you are at home and will probably feel more confident to chat. Maybe start with some of your friends who use cloth or friends who are thinking about using cloth and their friends...and so on. Bt do think carefully about how many people you can have in your house!

You could ask your local real nappy network to come along or borrow some nappies off them that you don't already have.

You could advertise your nappucino either through posters or by letting your local health visitors/midwives know and them passing the info onto mums/mums to be.

You could use the coffee morning to set up regular meetings or to make things bigger with the support of others.

If you are thinking about setting up a cloth nappy business then it may be worth inviting along other local stockists for a chat too.

Good luck!

I know that the school where DD does preschool has a small building they let out for things, and I was thinking there would be easy as a drop in kind of morning (my house looks like hell ), but the publicising will be the hardest bit.

I like the idea of local stockists - there is a great baby shop that has some cloth who would advertise even if they didn't take part i think.

School would also chuck a bit in the newsletter.

I'm not sure if I can get organised in time for rnw

Hi Flame,

Re promotion, I would go to your local branch of the National Childbirth Trust. They're often up for promoting real nappies, and would probably email their members to raise interest for you.

You can drop leaflets at the maternity ward - maybe they'll give them out in their ante natal classes and to mums leaving the hospital?

You can download leaflets and posters from the Real Nappy Leaflet website. You can have a local design firm add your details to them and the details of the NCO.

Your local nursery shop's a good bet, especially if you show their brands!

If you're too scared to talk, set out a "stall" and have people come and touchyfeely rather than a talk style NCO. Then you can chat one on one to people which will be much easier. It can be nerve racking to start with, but remember everyone feels nervous when they start out doing this. You have the real passion for these products, and you really know your stuff, so you will be absolutely fine.

Is there anyone who can help you? You don't want to be doing refreshments while talking about nappies, so having someone pour the tea would be great.

I've organised plenty such events, big and small, so you know where I am if you want to chat or ask questions.

Best of luck!

Emma

Thankyou lots (especially the nice things about me ).

I will go armed with that information and let you know where I end up!!!

We used to do a baby-fayre style one but it was very hard work and I never used to bring my own kids! We're going for a less formal sit-around-and-chat one this RNW. Coffee and cakes, raffle, nappies and info on display, local agents can man their own tables for free, friend who does toddler singing and storytelling will do a little session, nappy jumble sale using stuff donated from local nappy laundry and via local Freecycle.

I've done a few at the local Starbucks.