Camberwell South Primary School

Camberwell South Primary School first used TryBooking for a fete and now uses it for concerts, sports registrations, and other events.

Background

Since 1925, Camberwell South Primary School has been an integral part of the local community and currently enjoys an enrollment of almost 500 students. Every second year the school runs a very financially successful fair with an attendance of 2,500 - 3,000 people from the school and surrounding community. Fair highlights include children's rides, show bags, stalls, an animal farm, and entertainers.

In the past ride wristbands and show bags were pre-sold through the classroom and office. In 2008 Anne Lewis, explored pre-selling this merchandise online. "Most people are used to doing business online these days and TryBooking makes it possible for every school to receive online payments without investing in expensive programs," said Anne. 

For previous fairs, volunteers and administrative staff had to manually create lists of students who purchased ride wristbands and show bags. There was a lot of work ensuring that the lists were constantly updated, accurate and financially reconciled.

The change

Anne Lewis, Camberwell South Primary School Fair Convenor, says:"Our principal was interested to know how TryBooking would work. She wanted to see if we could use it for our concerts, sport registrations, and other events. So we decided to pre-sell some of our Spring Fair merchandise online".

In the Fair's promotional material parents were directed to purchase merchandise online. "We had very few comments from parents, which is a good thing. If there were any problems we would have heard about it. Everyone just seemed to accept this as a normal way to do business, so it must have been a positive experience for them," said Anne.

From a logistics and administrative perspective, the move to online booking accomplished Camberwell South's goals.

"We greatly reduced the administrative work associated with this event. We easily printed a complete list of names and teachers simply crossed them off and handed out the wristbands at school. If we use TryBooking for all our events and money collection, most of the fundraising administrative paperwork will be eliminated. This is incredibly positive for Principals and fundraising coordinators," said Anne.

Anne related that Camberwell South's Principal, Brigid O'Keefe was impressed by the reduction in time, labour and stress now that the office staff didn't have to manage ticket sales. 

"Our Principal was very happy with the results and all of our expenses were covered before the fair even started".

The results

"From now on we'll only sell online for this and for as many events as possible."

The ultimate goal was achieved: TryBooking proved a successful test for future Camberwell South events.

"Online is the way we need to conduct our business, it's what we're all use to now for paying bills, looking for information and buying tickets. TryBooking is a great option. We can sell books, any merchandise, collect registrations and fees. It is low cost and does everything we need," said Anne.

"From now on we'll only sell online for this and for as many events as possible."

Anne Lewis
Convenor
Camberwell South Primary School Fair