At a meeting held in Adelaide recently, the general consensus was that numbers were low, and it was hard to get people to enter several shows,

The South Australian, Southern Country Shows Association decided to award exhibitors a point score for each time they entered a show or multiple shows placed either first or second. We are pleased to say that we have doubled numbers attending the awards evening which is very exciting.

At the recent South Australian, Southern Country Shows Association Presentation Night for the winners of the 2022 Aggregate Point Awards, we were absolutely delighted when our RSVP’s for the evening totaled 94, when attendance was usually around 40. In actual fact, with awards available for 23 sections, the total number of guests and officials who attended the evening was over 100.  

When organising the evening we decided to also award 2nd and 3rd place and finalist certificates, in an effort to encourage others to exhibit in several shows and it appears this strategy was the cause of the interest in the event. Juniors were delighted to receive trophies and/or certificates and adults were equally excited with many saying afterwards that it was lovely that they were receiving acknowledgement for all the work they did in preparing exhibits, some having done this for many years.

We’re now looking at keeping the momentum we’ve built going by refining the process further this year.