Theater Name: IMAX Theater at World Golf Hall of Fame
Location: St. Augustine, Florida
Contact: Lauren Alleva, lalleva@wghof.org
Film: Galapagos 3D: Nature’s Wonderland, (nWave Pictures Distribution)
The World Golf Hall of Fame (WGHOF) IMAX Theater’s goal with the Galapagos 3D: Nature's Wonderland Educational Event was to educate the community as well as promote the theater and the film. They want the community to know they offer educational films for the entire family, and they want to offer exciting events like this one to entice the community to come out and spend the morning learning and enjoying hands-on activities at the theater.
Target audience for the program:
- Education community (primarily Elementary and Middle Schools)
- Duval, St. Johns, Clay Flagler, Nassau, Putnam counties
- Public schools, private schools and home school groups
- Special Community Groups
- Youth groups/scouts
- Diving/Snorkeler groups
- Environmental Groups
- Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
- Marine Biology Students
- UNF Environmental Center
- Jacksonville Zoo
Program Elements
All of the theater’s programs meet Common Core curriculum standards and Next Generation Sunshine Standards and are accompanied by educator guides and pre- and post-field-trip activities. Offering an educational day with local partners, giveaways, and a film viewing continues to meet those goals.
WGHOF worked with the Sea Turtle Conservancy group from Gainsville, Florida, as well as Jax4Kids, a local media and activity company. Both groups set up tables at the event with hands-on activities and raffles for the attendees. They offered specimens to view, educational posters, flyers, stickers, demonstrations, games and giveaways throughout the event. Guests were able to stop by each table to speak with the organizations to learn more about what they did, ask questions and get take-home items like recycled tote bags, stickers, temporary tattoos, and educational materials.
Marketing the Event
To promote the event, WGHOF sent two emails to its local database over 10,000, included the event in the weekly IMAX newsletter to over 21,000, and sent an email to its teacher database of almost 6,000. They also provided flyers to World Golf Village partners to hand out to guests during the week leading up to the event. The event was included on all local online calendars, and local media received a press release about the event. WGHOF also ran Facebook ads and had an event page for people to join. People were able to share, post and respond within the event page, which made it easy to get more visibility and answer any questions.