Opinions are like...(pt. 1)

I've had some very constructive, as well as very negative feedback about Vegetarian Restaurant Week, all of which has been very helpful, and not, as negative feedback without proposed solutions are a waste of time and serve no one.

My ego wants to give me a big pat on the back for pulling this off in under two months, with little money (roughly $300), and little experience in planning events, let alone events of this nature. So I did.

One person, who will remain anonymous, felt that the event wasn't publicized properly, that I had more sponsors and giveaways than people who attended the kick-off reception, that the kick-off reception wasn't organized properly, that veggie and Animal Rights org speakers should have been in attendance and featured, and other comments that were more of an 'if it were me, I would have...' rather than seeing the situation for what it really was.

Another person remarked that the deals weren't 'special enough', and couldn't see the value of a “vegetarian” restaurant week.

I didn't offer too much to these two in the way of defense, because my Aries nature doesn't really allow for it. But I think the restaurants, the sponsors, and you readers deserve to know why and what I am doing this for.

Without releasing myself from too much accountability for what I did or didn’t do, I will admit that I almost didn’t think I was going to have a restaurant week, because very few restaurants signed up in the beginning. On the day of the kick-off, my driver was 2 hours late, the volunteers were an hour late, requests came through at the last minute which meant I had to leave the restaurant (returning after the event started), and some of my much needed help fell through.

As with anything you want to go well, anything that can and will go wrong usually does.

The plus side of it all is that local press picked up the event, which is what I wanted/needed. I managed to get unsolicited help from a company who became a media sponsor and had a great band approach me to perform, and they did.

People who had never tried vegan food showed up to the kick-off reception and even I met an interesting fellow who makes abstract sculptures that are edible, and completely vegan (I thought you were going to call me???).

Maybe I didn’t notify enough people to come out; maybe the threat of rain that evening kept everyone in. Perhaps few people liked the restaurant I chose for the reception. Perhaps I should have checked to see if there were other things happening that evening that may have conflicted with my event. And maybe, just maybe, no one came because I didn’t have the name recognition to warrant attention for this kind of event.

I may never know all the reasons.

So, with my lessons learned, next year will be formatted a little differently. I hope that next year, the restaurants won’t have to pay to participate; that people will have thought this idea to be so great that they’ll approach me with ideas on making it bigger and better.

And maybe, just maybe, I’ll have a reserve on hand so that I can pay someone to help me pull this together. (raffle, anyone?)

But we’ll see.

I’m looking forward to you telling me with your wallets and your feedback if Brooklyn deserves a 2nd Annual Vegetarian Restaurant Week.

And I really, really, want (need) to unload these giveaways. But since the "giving away" comes with a catch I promised the sponsors I'd stick to, you'll have to comply.

And I know you want to.