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Tiki Central / General Tiki / How are you promoting Tiki?

Post #721118 by Dr. Coruba on Fri, Jun 27, 2014 10:55 AM

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As someone who is trying to keep a Tiki torch burning in the Washington, DC area (see Tiki Thirstday in Other Events), I'm giving this thread a bump. For two years (2006-2008) this was a fairly active thread, it is a good topic and worth a revisit.

I'm curious as to what others are doing, or have recently done.
Tiki Thirstday, in my case, is a weekly Tiki social night out that we have at a restaurant in the DC area. It started with a few regulars who often socialize together over Tiki drinks and rum, sometimes at restaurants, sometimes at our homes. Like so many here, we grumble about Trader Vic's' that have closed, and why aren't there more Tiki bars. Four months ago we decided to do something local and see if we could gather the local people we knew were still active (those who go to the big national events), the locals who used to be active, and people with no idea about Tiki, MCM or Poly Pop.

We started with a dozen people to organize, and we decided to give it a roll. All of us would try to go as often as possible so that when we did start posting on Tiki sites and Facebook, people coming to check it out would always find a least a some Tikiphiles there to socialize with. Our kickoff on March 20th was great, we had 36 people make it. As you can image the numbers ebb and flow each week. On the low side it is in the mid-teens, on the high side well over 30. Last night we had our 15th Tiki Thirstday and we had our largest turnout yet, 39 "merry souls." Our overall average for the last 15 weeks is now 26. And since May 29th we've had over 150 (total attendance not unique visitors).

None of this is meant to be bragging. Why I'm posting is to share that it is worth giving a try. It may not be "build it and they will come," but it could be "if you and your friends keep showing up, others will too." Don't underestimate the interest that a dozen or so people in Tiki shirts will generate. Almost every week at Tiki Thirstday I get asked by people over in the adjoining dining room "what is Tiki?" And the best thing is, a surprising number of those who ask end up joining us the next week or the week after.