Celebrate Eastbourne’s Photography Talent

We’re constantly amazed here in the office at the fabulous photography our local snappers have been posting to our VisitEastbourne group on Flickr. So much so, that we just had to display some of it on VisitEastbourne.com for all you guys to see!

So for those of you with a keen eye, keep a look out each week as we add a new photo to our home page in the top rotating image graphic. Each photographer is credited in the image caption and we’ll be posting their names on our Facebook and Twitter pages each week.

This week it’s the turn of ActivEastbourne who snapped Eastbourne town centre during last year’s snow on 3 December. As we fast approach the anniversary and with today’s chill in the air, surely another festive dollop could be on the way soon.

The shot also appears as a portrait version in the new 2012 Eastbourne Holiday Guide and feels extra special as the snow appears completely untouched like a blank canvas – how rare once the Christmas shoppers get going – so well done to ActivEastbourne for capturing the town centre at such a serene moment.

There’s lots more fabulous snowy pics to see of Eastbourne and the South Downs, so do take a look if you get time, or share some of your own (please note that for us to publish them you need to enable downloading).

In the meantime I shall get practicing with my own camera and check out Channel 5’s re-run of How to Take Stunning Pictures (Tuesday’s 7.30pm) for some top tips.

Tracey
Promotions Manager

Why visit Eastbourne? The complete A to Z!

Well who would have thought an A to Z Challenge to come up with reasons to visit Eastbourne would prove so popular? We certainly hoped it would get fans talking on our facebook page and hoped that it would attract new fans too but the fantastic results have surpassed all expectations! More than 90 VisitEastbourne fans took part sharing over 630 suggestions of reasons to visit our sunny south coast destination - wow!

It's been a tough job whittling down the suggestions to come up with a definitive A to Z but we've finally done it. So, here it is, a Visit Eastbourne A to Z - compiled by our fans!

• A… has to be AIRBOURNE! - Submitted by Daniel Jarvis
• B… Balls – the tennis variety! - Submitted by BJ Events Ltd
• C… Chelsea (of the Little variety), Culture, Carefully Clipped and Cultivated gardens and lawns, Crocuses in the Spring at Hampden Park - Submitted by Bertie Bassett
• D… Definitely Devonshire Park - the loveliest place in the world! - Submitted by Mike Linane
• E… Extreme - Proof that Eastbourne is so much more than a place to retire to! - Submitted by Tonya Coletta
• F… Fort Fun in Eastbourne, the family fun park, which provides outdoor and indoor fun for kids of all ages with thrilling rides - Submitted by Jeanette Bull
• G… Grand Hotel, glorious views and sunshine, Gildredge Park - Submitted by Joan Norris
• H… Horizons! From the striking Victorian pier tops, the gleaming promenade lights, the glistening sea in the sunshine, to the hills and dips of the outstanding Seven Sisters cliffs and the summit of Beachy Head. Eastbourne boasts a beautiful horizon. - Submitted by George O’Meara
• I… Ice cream Fusciardi’s - Submitted by Joanne Lancaster
• J… Jogging along the seafront. Not that I do. - Submitted by Andy Baker
• K… Kids playground - lots to do - Submitted by Sam Sweiry
• L… Lighthouses...Beachy Head and Belle Tout, both beautiful - Submitted by Andrew T. Love
• Plus special mention to Langham Hotel who sponsored the competition.
• M… Musicals as we have some great West End shows that come to the Congress. Can't wait for Sister Act next year - Submitted by Jenny Horridge
• N… National Park - The South Downs! Heaven! - Submitted by Courtney Fables
• O…Open air concerts at Eastbourne Bandstand - Submitted by Eastbourne Bandstand
• P… Pretty Pier - Submitted by Denise Forrester Deary
• Q… Quidditch World Cup - filmed for Harry Potter on the Downs! :-) - Submitted by Shirley Moth
• R… Redoubt Fortress - Submitted by Graham Ridley
• S… Sunshine, sea and smiles :) - Submitted by Joanne Bradshaw
• T… T is for TONIC! George V1 used to bring his family (the late Queen Mother and their daughters, our present Queen Elizabeth and the late Princess Margaret) to Eastbourne for holidays in the healthy sea air, so Eastbourne has the Royal seal of approval! - Submitted by Pamela J Keeley
• U… Unmissable season of events from Magnificent Motors to Eastbourne Beer Fest - Submitted by Jayne Howard
• V… Visit Eastbourne - a very good way to keep in touch with the town be it visitor or resident - Submitted by Daphne Holmwood
• W… Wedding licence on the Bandstand - Submitted by Rosalind Ball
• X… Xxxx's on postcards to loved ones - Submitted by Sheila Walkom
• Y… It has to be YOGA!! Eastbourne has two wonderful yoga studios, Yoga-Life studio and Natural Fitness Centre with packed time tables for classes everyday. So check them out. - Submitted by Lucy Newport
• Z… ZILLIONS of reasons to visit Eastbourne, ZERO reasons to stay away. - Submitted by Tonya Coletta

A special award goes to Graham Huntley for thinking outside the box and amusing us with his witty suggestions like:

Christmas Markets in Eastbourne (oh sorry, that’s NOel)! – suggested for L

Yellow ball that seems permanently in the sky over Eastbourne - suggested for Y

And another special award to Carters for somehow managing to come up with a Carters related reason for every letter of the alphabet!

But the overall winner goes to Joanne Bradshaw for Sunshine, sea and smiles :) - we thought this summed up Eastbourne perfectly!

The challenge was intended to drive traffic and raise the profile of the VisitEastbourne facebook page. The number of new fans increased by 300% over the course of the challenge compared to the previous month, with feedback on wall posts up by 381%.

Thanks to everyone who took part!

Emma

Promotions and E-Marketing Officer

A busy end to the 2011 conference season in Eastbourne!

This weekend was the last of the busy season of conferences this year at the Devonshire Park Centre; however what a grand finale!

The Mission Worship Conference, a three day event, was a sell out for them (it's been sold out since September and they have been coming to Eastbourne since 2003!) and a tremendous conference to be involved with. With 2,000 delegates flooding into the Congress Theatre and overflow in the Floral Hall, it really utilised the venue to its full potential this weekend. The delegates certainly kept the exhibitors and bookshop happy – yes, there was even room for that as well!

I know many of the delegates had come from all over the world and it is good to hear so many positive comments about the town as well as the venue. It really is an ‘all round experience’ for them coming to Eastbourne. Looking forward to seeing them all next year!

Gill

Conference Manager

Busy week for the Eastbourne Conference Sales Team

We have had a great week! We love what we do, so every week is a good week (well usually!) but this past week has been exceptional for the two of us in the Conference Sales Team. We have dealt with all the usual things such as answering enquiries about the Devonshire Park Centre, checking our diary for dates, putting several room hire proposals together and making quite a few sales calls but we've also done some extra things too!

It started with us attending a networking event at the York House Hotel on Tuesday. We met some great people, some we knew already as well as some new faces and managed to spread the word about the Eastbourne Conference Bureau and what we're all about.

Wednesday we were up early and on the 6.57 train to London for a day's training on 'Maximising Your Showrounds'. Between us we've done hundreds of showrounds and, due to our venue finding function, have also seen first hand how many of our Eastbourne venues do it. Therefore, we already have a fair amount of experience but felt there is always something new to learn. We had a great day as it confirmed that a lot of what we already do is best practice but we certainly picked up a lot of useful extra tips, so we felt completely invigorated and keen to put our new found skills into practice!

Thursday was the day of our first Tweetup, organised in partnership with our Visit Eastbourne and Convex Leisure colleagues. We had around 40 fellow tweeters come along to the Devonshire Park Centre and the room was absolutely buzzing with lots of Twitter talk, business deals being discussed as well as everyone just being social and getting to know each other better.

Then finally Friday was the day we got to put our new showround training into practice. We had spotted a potential client on Twitter, made contact, managed to generate interest in the Devonshire Park Centre as a possible venue for some of their events and Friday was the day they were coming to Eastbourne for the first time. It went really well and the training obviously paid off because they commented that it was one of the best showrounds they'd ever had. They said it was really well organised and before they left they asked us to check our diary for three potential dates in 2013, each for around 800 delegates! A great result!

Here's looking forward to this week now!

Jenny
Conference Sales

Thanks for your top tips at our first VisitEastbourne Tweetup!

Well last night we held our very first VisitEastbourne tweetup and I have to say, I think it went pretty well. If our sign-in sheet adds up correctly then it looks like we had 43 tweeps attend in total - fantastic! It was great to see some new faces and bring together a different network of people.

I have to thank Jenny @ConferenceEB for her help in arranging it and sorting out the venue, as well as Callum @ConvexLeisure who provided some delicious canapes and wine!

A board set up by @EastbourneCan asking what people would like to see in Eastbourne certainly seemed to attract quite a bit of interest and I'll be watching their blog with interest to see what comments they got.

Thanks for everyone's feedback on yesterday's tweetup - it's really useful to know what you thought and I think we'll definitely look to organise another VisitEastbourne tweetup in the new year.

Yesterday was also a chance for us to hear your top twitter tips. I'm forever reading different articles on good protocol for tweeting, best times to tweet, best tone to tweet etc. but it was really interesting to hear your twitter tips, which many of you posted at the event. So, here it is - a guide to twitter by Eastbourne tweeters...

@bamb_bamb - Tweet pics of your work but write about life

@eastsussexmusic - Make the story interesting and amusing (if you can)

@stephdoesrunnin - Tweet as if you're only talking to one person, others can be more likely to respond

@bournebreaks - Don't just try and sell!

@laptop_station - Retweet to help promote others, they will/should return the favour!

@David_Ruddle - Be consistent. Don't try and sell.

@Stella_Holman - Networking on twitter. Be interested in the other person.

@eccn_news - Have a sense of humour and always tweet like a human. (by the way, I can definitely vouch that @eccn_news had a great sense of humour!)

@121fs - Have a web browser favourites folder titled 'twitter'. Add in your links to twitter, bufferapp, Sky News, BBC News etc... Open all links early in the morning and load up your buffer app with stories to save you doing it during the day. Saves me hours!

@BlinkTankTweets - Create separate accounts for different sections of your business and follow relevant people.
@hey_tc - If you tweet a link always include a few of your own words.

And we have one more tip that we need claiming as the person forgot to label them with their twitter name!

Be yourself - even if you're a business, people will follow you anyway.

So there it is - a guide to twitter by you! Let me know what you think of these tips by sending us a tweet @VisitEastbourne and if you didn't contribute then tweet us your tip! Plus make sure you follow us to find out who has won the pair of tickets to Beyond the Barricade at the Congress Theatre on 9 December!

Thanks again to everyone for coming and here's to the next!

Emma

Promotions and E-Marketing Officer

The 2012 Eastbourne Holiday Guide

The marketing team are currently finalising the 2012 Eastbourne Holiday Guide. Copies of the new Guide will be available from mid-December and the team are excited about seeing the final printed Guide hot off the press!

The Guide is one of our most important marketing tools to promote Eastbourne as a tourist destination and the team have worked closely with the Eastbourne Hospitality Association to produce an attractive and well presented Guide.

This year the design is very confident for Eastbourne with oversized, bold typography and full sized A4 hero imagery. Many amateur and professional photographers who have posted beauty shots of the resort on Flickr have submitted some exciting and unique photography for the Guide, which gives potential visitors a different view of this stunning resort - the Sunniest Place in the UK! We are hoping our Guide will be an award winner in 2012 and are looking forward to hearing visitors thoughts on the design. We hope you enjoy this early preview!

Lisa
Marketing Manager

Youthwork the Conference in Eastbourne

Want to know what it's like to work on a conference here in Eastbourne? Read on...

Well I've just spent the weekend with 1,000 youth workers here at the Devonshire Park Centre in Eastbourne. They have been coming for quite a few years now, but each conference still seems to have its own particular aspect that reminds me that however many times you run an event, there is always something that crops up - a last minute room change or AV equipment need to be replaced… In some ways I am secretly pleased as it shows how good the staff are here, they constantly jump to assist and go that one step further, a real win with the Conference Organisers.

With the Congress Theatre packed with delegates having a good time (see our facebook page for pictures) – Scott Todd is a real hit with this crowd and the Floral Hall is packed with exhibitors and even a book shop! It confirms that conferences are still an important part of organisations and when bringing like-minded people together you can’t forget the buzz!

This year I heard quite a few of the delegates, in passing, mentioning how good the hotels are here and they particularly love the seafront walk before the conference in the morning. With plenty of delegates tweeting throughout the weekend too using the #ywc2011 hashtag, I'm now looking forward to 2012! The organisers have even updated their website with next year's dates already!

Gill

Conference Manager

The second half of our interview with Art Attack legend Neil Buchanan...

Yesterday we brought you the first half of our interview with Art Attack legend Neil Buchanan as he's coming to Eastbourne on Friday 9 December to launch his debut fine art collection at Viewpoint Art Gallery, 38 South Stree, at the Little Christmas event. Read the rest of our interview and discover what Neil's best ever art attack was!

So Neil, you’re coming to Eastbourne for one of our favourite Christmas events, Little Christmas – we want to know what your favourite Christmas song is?
Well my favourite Christmas song is exactly the same as my favourite Christmas movie – it’s White Christmas! We have a movie tradition in my family where every Christmas Eve we watch White Christmas.

Of course we can’t interview you and not mention Art Attack! I was a huge fan when I was younger and watched every week, as did many of our followers! What was your best ever art attack?
When Art Attack became very successful we got to travel far and wide to go massive art attacks! We went to New York, Austria, Barbados! When the producers called me and asked if I had any ideas for a Christmas special, I was like how about a surfing Santa in Barbados? They said ‘yeah, sounds great!’

But in the UK my favourite was the portrait of the Queen, which I did using a quarter of a million pounds in £10 notes that the Bank of England loaned to us and charged us £50 interest. I thought that was pretty good!

Have you ever done an Art Attack in Eastbourne?
Yeah, we did. It was right next to the Pier and we did something on the beach in pebbles, it was something with a nautical theme. I’m trying to think now… it might have been a fishing scene on the beach… it was either a fishing scene or a big picture of a fish.

It was great. Everywhere I went I had this mobile Winnebago where I could sit and shelter in the rain, have lunch and all that. It was when my daughter was in her first year at Eastbourne College and she came down and we had fish and chips from the Pier in the Winnebago.

I’m looking forward to the Little Chelsea Little Christmas event in a few weeks because I’ll actually have the chance to get out and wander round a bit. I’ve driven through so many times, it will make a change to actually have a look.

Christmas is a great time for kids to get creative – what’s your best tip for making Christmas cards and any other tips for hand made gifts?
They’re a lot cheaper! Seriously whatever you’re doing just remember it doesn’t need to be perfect, it just has to be made with love and whoever you’re giving it to should be able to recognise that.

Finally, if we were to buy you the best present ever this Christmas, what would it be?
I love questions that I’ve never been asked before because it makes me have to think! God, that’s hard! I want to say something gratuitous and not correct in a P.C. sort of way. I wanna say something for me!

I think the best Christmas present I have ever had is a game of Subbuteo table football. What I did is I found it under Mum and Dad’s bed and took it out and played with it and then wrapped it back up every day! This was over about two weeks before Christmas! I loved it so much.

When I was 13 I had this fantastic Subbuteo collection. I had a team of 32 that cost 10 shillings each, that’s about 50p today. It really was the best present ever but I sold the lot for £3 and bought a Black Sabbath album!

So you know what I’m going to say! I’d like Subbuteo back place and my present to you is a Black Sabbath album, slightly used and slightly worn…!

What happened when we caught up with Art Attack legend Neil Buchanan!

Art Attack was one of my favourite TV shows growing up and I watched avidly each week to see if there were any ideas I could somehow weave into my GCSE art work. You could imagine my delight when I was offered the chance to interview Art Attack legend Neil Buchanan to find out what he's been up to since the show finished and why we'll have the chance to meet him in person in Eastbourne next month as he visits Viewpoint Art Gallery, 38 South Street to launch his new series of paintings, Hope Street...

So Neil, you’re coming to Eastbourne on Friday 9th December to Viewpoint Art Gallery for the Little Christmas event – are you excited about your visit to Eastbourne?

I actually come down to Eastbourne an awful lot. My son’s at the College in his final year and my daughter went there too so I’m actually a regular! I know Eastbourne and I know Prezzo very well as I meet my son there for lunch!

And am I excited? Yes! I love it in Eastbourne, especially the twinkling lights on the seafront!

Tell us about Hope Street and how it came about…After 17 years of Art Attack, 20 series, 500 shows and 2,000 drawings of dogs, cats, sharks, footballs etc. I thought enough is enough. I’d said everything I had to say on telly and wanted to do something for myself. This is actually my very first fine art collection, my first grown up art. I had a blank canvas and I could do whatever I wanted.

With working in kids’ TV I decided to look at my own childhood and take a trip down memory lane as I’m very into nostalgia. I decided to paint childhood.

The paintings have two characters and I’m asked is it me? The answer is it’s whoever you want it to be. There are no faces; it’s from angles where you can’t see the face so it’s for you to decide. It depends on who you are and if you’ve had that memory yourself. I wanted to touch people’s imagination and tweak a reminder in them.

I felt when I was a kid there was a lot more hope and things were much simpler. So Hope Street is a state of mind, it’s not a place. I lived in an era when to me it was always summer, no one ever died, there was no divorce. I’m sure that wasn’t the actual case but to me, things were a lot simpler. You could climb a tree or have a conker fight without being sued.

Though, coincidentally I actually went to school on Hope Street. My school was on Hope Street but that’s just a coincidence!

The Hope Street collection is a nice place to be.

What is your favourite piece in Hope Street & why?
Ooh that’s a difficult one! Well as you know at the moment I’m touring galleries and although I get asked that, when I meet people I like to ask them what their favourite is and do my own market research!

I have a relationship with every single one of the paintings in the collection. I painted them very quickly because I was using acrylic, which is a quick drying medium so I had to work quickly.

Painting the collection was a passionate experience. I see different things in each picture and can’t pick a favourite. There are some I absolutely love but I hate one bit in it!

They are all labours of love. It took five months to do the whole collection, including research. I went back to Liverpool where I grew up; in fact, my mum still lives there, and took a week to wander round. I wanted the pictures to show situations I used to be in.

And art isn’t your only passion is it? Tell us about your band?
No, my first love was music! Music is what flows through my veins. Growing up in Liverpool, you either wanted to be a footballer or a popstar and I wanted to do both! But at the age of 14, I discovered the two g’s – guitars and girls and I pursued both!

I was in a band and we won the first ever Battle of the Bands in the UK, which I suppose in the old days was like the X Factor is now. We got a record deal and were playing in front of 20,000 people in huge American stadiums. But we were very young and got very ripped off. We were involved in a legal battle for two years and that’s when I went into telly.

But to cut a long story short, all of the band members have recently celebrated a big birthday! I’m not going to tell you what birthday it is but I’m sure you can work it out! We got back together for fun but it turned serious and we’ve made an album and in between the gallery tours, I’m on tour with the band!

The band’s called Marseille so if you fancy taking a look at the Art Attack guy with longer hair and wearing leather trousers then come along! Our tour dates are on our website at http://www.marseilleonline.co.uk/.

But one of the reasons for doing Hope Street is because I used to always get asked can I really draw or paint? You know if there was another guy doing it all then why didn’t they put him on the telly? So Hope Street proves yes, I can do it and people can go on the website and judge for themselves.

So that's it for the first half of our interview but come back later this week when we'll post the rest and let you in on Neil's favourite ever Art Attack as well as what he'd most like for Christmas!
Emma

It's a team effort!

Hello!

Welcome to our brand new VisitEastbourne blog! We're already talking to lots of you via twitter, our facebook page and of course our destination website VisitEastbourne.com, not to mention, seeing the wonderful pictures you've been posting in our flickr group, but we wanted to add another string to our bow. So here it is, our brand new blog, which is very much a work in progress!

The blog will be fed from all members of the VisitEastbourne tourism team to give you as much variety as possible so join us on our journey and look forward to news and posts covering all things destination Eastbourne! From the busy season of conferences to compiling the 2012 Eastbourne Holiday Guide, from responding to journalist alerts to helping TV and film companies to scout suitable locations, and from gathering information for VisitEastbourne.com to coming up with quirky new challenges and competitions - it's all in a day's work!

We love to hear from you too so feel free to leave your comments, we hope you enjoy!

The VisitEastbourne Team