Many thanks to those of you who filled out an evaluation form.  Here's a summary of our responses to your suggestions and thoughts:

1.  Most would like BIG to be annual, but for that to happen, we'll need a bigger team of helpers, and we may need to become formally constituted (in order to compete fairly for funding).  Ideally we'd like to work more closely with Fortrose Academy too (and a sizeable majority would welcome this) - this is already under discussion.  If you have volunteered to lend a hand in any capacity, thank you, and we will be in touch in due course if we can take up your offer.

2.  Most think BIG has the right balance between small businesses and voluntary groups.  Some comments about 'not enough food stalls' - if you have a local producer living near you who doesn't know about BIG, make sure they do next time!

3. The separate 'BIG cafe' tea-room worked well, but our caterers were taken by surprise by the numbers who attended (1/3 up on 2007), and we would not put stalls into the cafe next time.  Still a big improvement on previous years though!

4. This was the first year we've used a PA system.  We would definitely relocate the speakers next time, and apologies to those stallholders somehwat deafened by their proximity!  It's a difficult space to cover in terms of sound, but better to have the PA than not, we feel.

5.  The Academy ground floor has a lot of room but is rather a tricky space.  We felt our signage worked well this year generally and only one or two people reported feeling like they had missed anything.  Using the corridors beyond the cafe worked well, and was a great improvement on using the school gym as previously.

6. Small businesses and community groups alike have reported strong interest and sales - dry stone walling, RSPB, salsa and tai chi demos and Munlochy Primary School stalls all came in for high praise.

7. Some interesting comments re how we describe BIG on poster/fliers - if anyone can come up with a better summary of the event suitable for publicity use, let us know.  It IS a gathering, but we aren't prancing up and down in kilts, as someone pointed out.  Community market?  Community Fair?

8. There were also some kind comments regarding the overall atmosphere of the event: 'felt the better for going', 'nice mix', 'great day out', 'caught up with lots of folk' for example.

9.  The most effective means of promotion appears to be fliers, posters and good old word of mouth.