Minerama Fossicking, Gem & Jewellery Show

[rosemart]

Here is a photo from the emerald mine at Emmaville gemfest last year. It is basically picking through a large tailings pile.  Picks, shovels, sieves, hammers, forks were the common tools.  The largest emeralds we found and saw from other people's finds would be about the thickness of a toothpick and about 10mm long.  We found tin crystals, fluorite and other minerals as well.  Well worth a visit.

http://aussielapidaryforum.com/forum/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=8323





Edited by admin to add the photo to thread.

[Rej]

Thanks rosemart, that pic gives a good idea of what to expect. We'd be happy to find a green toothpick! Plus the other minerals are different than the other trips and variety is nice. We'll probably book one of the sapphire creeks on the Friday.

And yes Leah, we plan to check out the show on Saturday and will definitely look into educational opportunities, thanks. He'll at least get a cool show n' tell from the days missed ;-)

[Lord_Thunda]

Hi Rej,
I ran the gemfest trip last year to the emerald mine & have been there since. As Martin said, it is a large mullock heap fossickers can find gems. Mainly beryl, emerald, tin crystals, fluorite, quartz can be found by finding a nice spot & moving larger rocks until you get to the gravel underneath. Every rock you move check carefully as you just never know. Personally, I dont use any tools just my hands & eyes.You do find small gems but the greens of the beryls & emeralds do stand out.
The family fun day is great for new fossickers as it gives them an easier time to build confidence. Once you have been a few times it maybe beneficial to venture out to "wild gems". 
What area are you situated? Would be interesting to see why you hadnt had the brochure sent without Andrew & Leah's help.
There are trips on Thurs, Fri & Sat with Sunday used for dealers / tailgaters so better idea to fossick when you can.

[Rej]

What area are you situated? Would be interesting to see why you hadnt had the brochure sent without Andrew & Leah's help.

I'm in Brisbane, but don't belong to any associations or clubs. So apart from randomly mailing brochures, I don't see how I would received one...

Thanks for the info on the site. The little one really enjoys this kind of site where, and I quote, "his little eyes give him an advantage over us old people"

Are you running the emerald trip for Minerama?

[Aussie Sapphire]

Would be interesting to see why you hadnt had the brochure sent without Andrew & Leah's help.

Pretty simple - not everyone is a member of a lapidary club or aware of this particular event. If you are not within the existing publicity network, it would be very easy to not realise this event is on.  In an effort to help publicise Minerama to a wider audience, we include a brochure in all of our parcels going out of the warehouse. Many will be too far away or have insufficient time to plan a trip but occasionally, we get a win with a new visitor who might not have attended otherwise. The committee do a pretty good job of getting the word out there but it is impossible to reach everyone with the resources they have available.

Cheers
Leah

[Aussie Sapphire]

The little one really enjoys this kind of site where, and I quote, "his little eyes give him an advantage over us old people"

In my experience, kids are fantastic at specking.  Their eyes really are sharper and will often pick up good stuff that the oldies have missed.

Cheers
Leah

[Lord_Thunda]

I do understand the difficulties of advertising local events to a wider audience. I have found Social Media & word of mouth to be highly advantageous where TV, radio & other media is impossible due to funding restraints. We all appreciate the efforts you do Leah by sending out brochures.
Obviously, not belonging to a Lapidary Club, makes it even harder to know when Gem Festivals occur. Forums & FB sites specific to gems / crystals etc help spread the word. These days of ever increasing technology brings the world much closer as evidenced by the vast number of people from overseas on here.
I will be a fossicker this year Rej. It will be nice to catch up tho & I am very easy to find.  [size=78%] [/size]

[Gemster]

No one up here knows where Glen Innes is.... And that they have Minerama... And Field Trips. So maybe a bit of Advertising further afield may help too

  Gemster....

[GLEN VIC]

Where is up here Gemster?

[Aussie Sapphire]

So maybe a bit of Advertising further afield may help too

From my experience, it is impossible to advertise to a level that people are happy with.  When we were involved, we would run tv advertising and then get people in the actual broadcast area complain that no advertising had been done.  If we ran them on channel 9, they would complain that they only ever watch channel 7 and therefore the advertising campaign was poorly run.  We would do mass mailout to clubs but not everyone is in a club.

It is just a fact of life that some people are not really interested in anything outside their backyard so not everyone is going to know where Glen Innes is and why they should visit. And those people are not necessarily going to be interested in visiting a gem show or a Celtic Festival or whatever.  Other types of people are keen to get out and explore all that Australia has to offer including our own backyard in New England.

All we can do is support existing efforts by helping to spread the word where we can.  I know that the committee probably does a lot of stuff that people on here are not aware of particularly in social media marketing and this will be reaching quite a few new people.  But any extra stuff we can do will help and Aussie Sapphire is happy to assist where we can. 

As sponsors and administrators of ALF, we are also happy to provide an extra forum for gem show publicity for ALL similar events - a few organisers will take up this opportunity but we find that most dont even bother to list their event let alone promote it.  So in comparison to other events, really Minerama does a fair bit more than most.

Cheers
Leah

[Aussie Sapphire]

I might add that the worst examples of people who were impossible to please re advertising were some Traders and Stallholders. Usually the visitors were very grateful for what had been arranged and happy to be part of a great event.  But some of those who benefited most directly from the event (ie. by making money from customers sourced for them at a venue provided for them at minimal cost) were the loudest to complain.  They would do NOTHING to help promote the event (and therefore improve their own profits) but just turn up expecting the world and doing very little to help make it a success. 


This is the main reason why we can no longer be a part of the organising committee and why we have a fair amount of sympathy for those on the current committee who are doing their best to keep this event going.  It is a difficult job. They are never going to please everyone but can only do the best they can.  The visitors who come to Minerama 2017 will have a great time - I am sure of that.


cheers
Leah

[MrSydney]

I agree,

Wider advertising would cost money for little result beyond taking advantage of community radio and good will from local papers.  Really it is more effective to reach out to clubs to remind their members and the various forums and facebook fossicking groups.  Anyone half interested in fossicking finds those with a google search and if they are serious it will hopefully be suggested to them or they will see it.

My dad has always been involved with a lot of charity events in Tamworth for Lions club etc and community radio etc often have a free announcements section.  Also if you write a short article and provide a couple of photo's most local papers eg Northern Daily Leader - will run an article or two for free!  So get more day trippers / interest from the more local region for whom day trips are viable (and will mention to friend further afield).  This could be really good with getting it out there about the new UNE educational display etc.  Basically you can get a fair bit of value without spending much money with a bit of organisation.  You could possibly even get something in the Sydney / Brisbane paper on that basis but being larger it will by a bit of luck for anyone to see it (but if it was printed for free and it was the same article as sent to other papers then what have you got to lose!).

[MrSydney]

And yes - kids are awesome speckers!  My 6 and 8 year olds have eagle eyes!  Maybe something about being closer to the ground and having new good eyes!

[Topsieve]

Hi guys. I have posted the Minerama website link in a few fossicking / Prospecting Facebook groups that I am a member of. These posts have had numerous likes and have been shared. It's getting the message to a big target audience (especially as one group is Northern NSW) and spreading the word with no cost involved. I know for our business we run Facebook competitions to help spread our message. If people like and share the post they go into a draw to win something. Might be worth thinking about.

[Gemster]

Im on the Gold Coast Peter... Lismore Show has an advert that runs in the Gold Coast papers a few weeks before.... Everyone I tell about Minerama, Gemfest and other Shows know nothing about these events... And when I tell them, they want info so they can go.. You could always send me some Flyers so I can drop them off to some Shops around here ... They are asking if I can do this cause they are "in the dark"... More promotion is the Word im hearing up here.... I know of 3 groups of people who are making the effort to go to Minerama... Only cause I told them about it... Im also promoting this event on other Forums im on and They didn't know about it either...


   Gemster....