Margie and I, along with Stan, and with Jackie as Designated Driver, went to the Brew at the Zoo event at the Denver Zoo this evening.
Sadly — we were disappointed. It was not nearly as much fun as in past years.
The biggest problem was the number of people. The event was sold out (not sure about past years), and the crowds were pretty darned bad. The beer and food booths were scattered around a bit differently from past years, but they still ended up with some very bad choke points and with some excessively long lines.
Of course, problems of placement and long lines could be a function of the event being oversold. As could the fact that an appalling number of booths ran out of food and beer
Unlike past years, there was just beer — no token presence of wine or hard liquor. Nor was there coffee and cocoa as in the past, nor any dessert tables.
As a gage of the crowds, last year the Golden Toad booth had one grill, and lines of about 30 minutes for their yummy BBQ-sauced skewers. This year, they had three grills going, and the line was about an hour.
The Jason’s Deli booth, located toward the back by the Rhinos, was out of food and closed by the time we got there, about 40 minutes after the main opening. By the time we were considering heading out, we could only find two beer vendors still open, and both had closed by 9:30 (out of a 10 p.m. event).
Food places were stressed, too — though the potato bowls at Taste of the Wild were still going strong by the end of the evening.
Did the Zoo have a sudden bout of vendor no-shows? Did expected sponsors/participants not join up? Did companies scrimp on the supplies they brought with them? Or did the Zoo oversell the event? In any case, there were too many people there, one way or another.
It was kind of sadly disappointing, for an event that we’ve enjoyed several times. Enough so to make us consider whether we want to come back next year.
An additional consideration.
The event cost $45 for a member ticket. Of that, $20 is considered “services rendered” for tax purposes (i.e., Stan, you can deduct $25 from your taxes as a charitable contribution — let me know if you need the EIN).
Do I feel I got $20 in food and drink. Marginally. The complementary mugs are half-pints, and were generally filled about 2/3 of the way. I had six of those. That’s two pints. Over three hours. Plus a small dinner meal of food picked up from various booths.
It’s also (bear with me) wrong that I can remember *exactly* how many beer places I was served. This is the first year at BatZ when I didn’t come away pleasantly full and pleasantly intoxicated.
We joked on the way home that we really didn’t need a designated driver. Stan didn’t stay over, and I didn’t feel an obligation to take his keys from him.
So, no, not a good deal. I’m glad we were able to support the zoo, but I almost wish I’d just sent them a $25 check and spent the $20 on a better meal with better drink and fewer lines.
As someone who works on events like this all the time, please take a moment and let the Zoo know about your past enjoyment of the event and your complaints about this year. So often participants just go away mad (and aren’t given ample opportunities to voice their issues) and then the organization suffers. You’re reasonable enough people to make the distinction between the zoo and the event, but not everyone is.
No event is without issues, but this seems like a major change in event quality based on your descriptions. If I was in charge of this event, I’d want the chance to repair this issue with a repeated donor.
That’s the plan, but thanks for the reminder.
For the record, I did send an email the next day (to Member Services, asking to have it forwarded to the appropriate party; there was no other clear address at the web site), outlining my concerns above.
Have heard nothing back.
And … two months later …
More to follow.
Wow. That was a very sad survey. It took significantly more than 5 minutes. The questions were poorly framed and often redundant (I speak as the hubby of the Queen of Survey Monkey, so I know whereof I speak), and really none of them addressed my biggest concerns above, which was THE EVENT WAS OVERSOLD AND THEREFORE THE LINES WERE TOO LONG AND PLACES RAN OUT OF FOOD AND BEER.
Among the questions asked were what would be the best month to hold it (who cares), how important is the live entertainment (who cares), would a 4 oz sample cup be better than a mug (only if it has a loop you can carry it by and you can balance a food plate atop it), would we be interested in an after-party downtown (not if we were served sufficient food and drink at the event), would we rather be served a meal (hell no) or buy food at the event (also hell no).
I did note that answers that said I felt the event was of low value, and I wasn’t sure if I’d attend next year (after having attended in the 4-6 times range). Will that raise any concerns?
My final comments on how to improve the event (after critiquing the survey design and adding further explanation to my answers — which you should never have to do if your survey is designed properly):
I did get to submit my name and email address. I’ll let you know if I hear anything.
~snort~
So, based on the survey questions, the folks at the zoo seem to have recieved the following feed back in the past few months.
“We want music that we can dance to.”
“It was soooooo cold, and my girl-friend was very cold in her CFM top, could you move it to August so she can wear less?”
“Why don’t you have the same kind of 4oz glasses like the GABF?”
“As a business owner, I lost a lot of money searving Beer/Food at this event. If you want me to stay open past 9pm it would be better for all if we could charge each person $5 or so for each plate/4oz glass.”
“Dudes, you know what would be soooo cool? If we could move 10,000 drunk people to some night club Down Town for even more Food and Beer that we have to pay for.”
You know, this is the kind of thing that just blows my mind. I can’t imagine not responding to concerns of long time attendees of an event, and then sending out a survey that’s not really about how well you did, but where else might you make $$. Either you’re the only folks who had a problem with the event (which I doubt) or these folks se then event only as dollars in their pocket, not as an outreach for the Zoo.
Sad.
And ditto to what BD said.
Yeah. Those are the sorts of comments it sounds like someone heard and built the survey around. Poorly. Without review.
Bottom line: people go to Brew at the Zoo to taste lots of beers. The food is nice, but a relatively latecomer to the mix. But if you want a successful event (something that will raise money this year *and* next), you make sure the fundamentals are sound: Beer. Food. Get that rock solid, then move onto glass types or value-added-food or dance music.
“It’s the beer, stupid.”