Need some new ideas to energize your dealer events? Here’s a round-up of ideas that work from a survey of your fellow Rural Lifestyle Dealer readers:

• Open house or customer appreciation events, with interesting add-ons, such as local vendors displaying items (boot shop) or activities for kids (bouncy houses)
• Children birthday parties, with safety focus
• Events coordinated with 4-H or FFA
• Fall and winter open houses to showcase chain saws, snow blowers and related equipment
• Holiday tie-ins, such as photos with Santa, Easter egg hunt
• How-to seminars
• Horse-owner workshops
• Hot dog days
• Husband-and-wife events
• Invitation-only events to reach specific audiences
• Special celebrations surrounding manufacturers’ birthdays or anniversaries
• Live radio broadcasts
• Multiple demo days targeted to different equipment
• Pancake and sausage breakfasts
• Pink equipment events to “fight against breast cancer”
• Safety clinics
• Barbecues, pig roasts
• Test drive events
• Women’s workshops