Thursday 19 July 2012

Grimsby Auditorium is host to the BSSK Mind, Body & Spirit Event this weekend

Grimsby is always a favourite with us - the summer show can be a bit of a challenge as there are so many other things to compete with in the summer - fetes and galas, county shows, fun days and so on.  This time the challenge may well be that the forecast is for the first nice weekend for so many weeks, I think we have forgotten what sun looks like! 

We are hoping that not everyone heads for the beach or the garden centre however, as we have a wonderful show lined up,.  Take a peek at http://www.bssk.co.uk/ and click on the moving picture of the auditorium to go to the Grimsby home page.  There you will find a list of exhibitors attending and another list of the talks and workshops for the weekend.

We hope to see you there!

Saturday 14 July 2012

A Week To Go to the Grimsby Show!

This is our ' final prep weekend' for the Grimsby show.   The admin and paperwork has been going on for weeks, adverts placed, tables ordered for delivery on Thursday, AA signs ordered, caterer contacted to make sure all is well, floor plans drawn up and much, much more.  This weekend is the final preparation and our volunteers help to sort and pack the show kit, top up the treasure hunt prizes, split the wrist bands from sheets of 10 into bundles of 100, and generally get the show licked into physical shape. On Thursday we shop for the all important volunteer sandwiches for setting up day on Friday when there is no caterer on site, then on Friday, we are at the Auditorium setting out tables and chairs, preparing the reception desk and the treasure hunt prize table, arranging the talks room and generally preparing for exhibitors who may arrive from 2pm to set up for the next day. 

This is always the exciting week, as months of work now comes together very quickly!

We love the Grimsby show - it is one of our longest running ones and the people are always so warm and welcoming.  Grimsby, here we come!!!

Friday 13 July 2012

Apparently those of you who get the Blog by e-mail only got half of the last one - to read the whole thing go to: www.bsskmbs.blogspot.co.uk/

Monday 9 July 2012

The Life and Times of BSSK - a behind the scenes peek!

No wonder time seems to fly for us! Today was the real start of the run up to our October Manchester show! In the last couple of weeks we have made the usual phone calls and sent the e-mails just checking on changes and updates exhibitors want for this show, but today was the site meeting at the Monastery, the real starting point.

On arrival I was delighted to see that the first question on my list was immediately answered, the car park work is finished and the diggers a thing of memory (or nightmare)!  The car park is back to its full size, surfaced and ready to use.  One huge sigh of relief!

We had a great meeting - a few new things were discussed and approved, including:
     *   a new room for one of the 'talk rooms',
     *   a change in the type of refreshments offered,
     *   a new means of speeding up pre-paid entries so those with advanced tickets are admitted much faster,
     *  a new home for the 'authors lounge' and much more. 

Plans for the 2013 shows were also discussed in broad outline.

This is always a 'red-letter' day for us - Manchester is now firmly on the drawing board.  Now follows some 78 hours work to put together the programme of talks and workshops and produce the show guide from this.  The hope is to have it to the printer by Friday - well, that's the hope!

Why does it take so long?  Well, besides picking the speakers and talks/workshops from those available, we have a huge juggling act to accomplish as follows - we need to:

     *  try and get those we think will be the most popular into the largest rooms,
     *  to make sure that talks on a similar subject do not run at the same time so the public can attend both iF that is an area of interest for them,
     *  to make sure that where an exhibitor couple both do a talk or workshop, these do not take place at the same time leaving their stand unattend,
     *  to make sure guest speakers are not scheduled earlier than they can arrive, or later than they need to leave,
     *  to make sure those that those that have asked for a partiulcar day or time are accommodated as much as possible

Other than that, it is a breeze!!!!

  We then notify all the speakers of their day and time and make any amendments this produces.  At this point we can then create the 32 page brochure, check, re-check and check it again.  Taking a very deep breath and crossing our fingers, toes and everything else crossable, that there are no errors, off it goes to the printer.  For the earlier show, this was a total of 72 hours. 

Next on the agenda is producing the templates for all the tickets and setting in motion the ticket booking system so it is all ready to go when the brochures are distributed, which starts with the weekend of the Elsecar show.

In the meantime of course, we still have the Grimsby show, the new Stoke Mandeville show and the popular and busy Elsecar show to get together. 

This week's challenge is to try and reduce the price of table and chair hire for Stoke Mandeville from the £2k quoted by our usual supplier, finalise the floor plan and get it to Grimsby, place the local advertising for Stoke Mandeville and Elsecar, the national ads already having been placed, buy the prize draw crystal for Elsecar, and do the prize draw cards for the printer for SM and Elsecar and a meeting at Lincoln about advertising boards!

Ummm, where is the 72 hours that the Manchester show guide needs I ask myself?  I see quite a bit of midnight oil burning in my immediate future!

We also take countless phone calls and answer dozens of e-mails daily, so please do bear with us if it takes a day or two to get back to you on any point.

Never let it be said we don't enjoy a challenge! Chris says I thrive on it - I suppose I do - if I am honest, I know I do!

Hope to see you all at one of these forthcoming shows - makes it all worthwhile to know people are having a great day at one of these events!


Tuesday 26 June 2012

We have been nominated in the Soul & Spirit Awards under 'Best Mind, Body & Spirit Event Promoter'! If you have enjoyed a BSSK show, either as an exhibitor or visitor, please vote for us! http://www.soulandspiritmagazine.com/soul-spirit-awards-2012/.

You have to vote in every category, but in the ones where you have to type a name, if you don't have one to put, it accepts an X. Thank you everyone that has voted so far!

Monday 25 June 2012


30th June & 1st July, 2012

Wood Green Animal Shelter, Godmanchester, Cambs, PE29 2NH

Open 10.00am to 5.00pm each day
Adults (over 15) : £4.75
Concessions : £3.75
2-Day Pass : £7.75
2-Day Concessions : £5.75
Under 15s : FREE
FREE parking

godmanchester

Another new show for BSSK!


We always start early in a year viewing venues for areas we hope to visit the following year. This led us to Wood Green Animal Sanctuary in Godmanchester, between Huntingdon and Cambridge, with a view to running a show there as part of our 2013 schedule. The place was ideal and ticked all the boxes on our ‘requirements list’, and the cherry on the top was the fact that all the hire fees go not to some faceless corporate entity, but to support the running of the animal shelter. Well, that was it! Angie and Chris of BSSK and all the volunteer helpers are great animal lovers, but Chris particularly so. His passion after BSSK shows of course, is helping suffering and abused animals. No great surprise then, when he announced he didn’t want to wait till 2013, couldn’t a show be fitted into 2012? After one false start with a date, here we have the new WOOD GREEN SHOW, on 30th June and 1st July 2012!
The venue is set in 52 acres of beautiful countryside and is the Charity headquarters, It is one of the largest rehoming centres in Europe and rehomes dogs, cats, field animals and small animals. It offers us a large show auditorium, adjoining space for talks and workshops, ample parking and good refreshment facilities. It is well known to the public, already hosting, antique fairs, wedding fairs, craft shows, toy & train fairs and of course, umpteen cat and dog shows! They have never had Mind, Body and Spirit or anything remotely like it, so this will be a first for the venue too. On site there is a cafe, pet and gift store and animals to visit in pets corner and the kennels and cattery, so this is a family day out too.
The venue is easy to find, being only 5 minutes to junction 24 on the A14 from the A1 southbound. Brown tourist signs point the way, and of course, we will have our authorised AA signage to help too.
Come and join us at this new show for a great day out.


Monday 28 May 2012


Don't miss this wonderful event - new workshops, new exhibitors and old favourites too!

Friday 25 May 2012

BSSK Nominated in the Soul & Spirit Magazine Awards

Hi one and all

The sun is shining and we are in good spirits!  We just had a call to say BSSK events have been nominated in the Soul & Spirit Magazine awards under the category of 'Best Spiritual Event Promoter'.

We would be delighted if you would all vote for us - to do so, please follow this link:  http://www.soulandspiritmagazine.com/awards/ .  Once there, you will find a big box with 'Click here to Vote' on it, half way down the right hand side.  That takes you to the survey.  You have to put something in every field, but if you can't think of a favourite medium or favourite psychic, you can put a row of X's and it accepts it.  Likewise if you are having trouble getting it to take your address, you can put an x in any blank fields and that does the trick.  You can tick not to receive loads of junk mail, so no problem in filling in the address.  I guess they need it to make sure we don't fill in loads of entries!  [Not that we would even think of such a thing! :)]

Please help us to get into the first three places if you enjoy our events - we will be very grateful for your help.

Angie xx

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Hi Everyone

Well, we are off again - this time to Newcastle.  Please note one and all, the event is at Newcastle Racecourse, High Gosforth Park, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE3 5HP and is open on Saturday 28th & Sunday 29th April from 10am to 5pm.

One of the magazines 'helpfully' listed the wrong venue in their free listings, but it is definately the Racecourse!

We have one change to the talks and workshops - 3pm on Sunday should have been Eve Holder, but unfortunately she cannot attend for personal reasons, so Chris Reynolds has stepped in to give a talk on EFT - Emotional Freedom Therapy and how our emotions can make us ill.

To see the full list of talks and workshops for the weekend, please visit: http://www.bssk.co.uk/events/newcastle2012/talks.html.



We have the usual wonderful mix of therapies, readers, aura camera, psychic artist and amazing trade stands so do come along and have a great day enjoying some 'me time'.  The cafe is within the exhibiton hall and we have made a definate request for vegetarian and healthy options to be available along with the hotpot and bacon rolls!

There is heaps of free parking of course and the racecourse is easy to find, just off the A1.  Don't take the turning for Gosforth itself, take the next one with the brown tourist sign for the racecourse.  This year we are delighted that the council have agreed to planning permission for our AA signage, something they refused at previous shows, so it should be easier for those not familiar with the venue to find it.





Visit the Newcastle page of the website to see exhibitors, the prize draw, map and directions, eating out and accommodation - www.bssk.co.uk/events/newcastle2012

We hope to see you there for a great weekend!

Angie xx













Monday 9 April 2012



BSSK @ THE MONASTERY, MANCHESTER - EVENT IN FULL SWING
 
Only four more days to go before the amazing BSSK event at The Monastery, Manchester!  I can't believe how quickly it is coming around. 

Workshop tickets have been flying out of the door - so much so, that we have had to ask TEN of our speakers to run a 'second sitting' at the end of the show, so we have a series of 5-6pm talks and workshops on both days to add to the advertised programme.  This has created almost 500 more seats in the ten most popular talks/workshops.

We have a staged close down to the ticket pre-booking:  Workshop tickets may be booked for posting until 3pm tomorrow, Tuesday 10th April.  After this time, they may be pre-booked for collection in the ticket office until lunch time on Thursday, 12th April.  After this time, just call into the ticket office on arrival at The Monastery.  Entry tickets may be booked for posting up to 3pm tomorrow, Tuesday 10th April.  If you have an e-mail address and can print from your e-mail then you may book up until 2pm on Thursday, 12th April.  Following this time, on arrival at The Monsatery, join the cash queue at the front door and pay on the door for admission.

The chef at The Monastery has created a great menu for us again and we are confident that the quality and value will be as good as ever.  We have some great MBS artists on stage, providing a range of music to enjoy along with your refreshments.

Due to the many requests we have received, part of the wonderful Monastery garden will be designated as a 'no-smoking' area to enable it to be enjoyed by the non-smokers too if the weather is as kind as it has been in previous years.

Once again, we have a wonderful variety of stands in the Main Space and in the Cloisters.  Try sample treatments in a range of therapies or enjoy a complete treatment.  Have a reading by crystal ball, palmistry, tarot cards, runes, angel cards and more from one of our expert, professional readers.  Visit our Astrologer for a proper birth chart reading, not the usual newspaper horoscope variety, or have your aura photographed with the aura camera.  Browse the wonderful, colourful, excitingly different trade stands.  Clothes, jewellery, crystals, books, C.D's, art, incense, oils, personal care lotions and potions, gifts and decorative items covering every pathway from Angels, Buddhist, Pagan, Wiccan, Faeries, and much more!

If you are a Mind, Body and Spirit regular, this is one show not to be missed!  The wonderful atmosphere of The Monastery adds to the ambience of the wonderful show we have put together for you.  If you are new to MBS shows, this has to be the best one to start with, there is so much to do and explore!

Saturday 14th & Sunday 15th April - 10am to 5pm - we hope to see you there!

Wednesday 21 March 2012

BSSK @ The Monastery, Manchester 14th & 15th April 2012

The wonderful BSSK weekend at The Monastery, Manchester returns on 14th & 15th April.  This year there are even more talks and workshops with a total of 2,956 workshop/talk tickets available over the two days, covering 66 workshops. We are delighted to say that  2,326 of them are for free talks and workshops.  This represents amazing value for an entrance fee of £4.75 or £3.75 for seniors, students, disabled and their carer.

Then of course, there are the wonderful stands in the main body of the Monastery and the Cloisters, live music in the large, carpeted, catering marquee and the delight of the building itself.  If the weather is kind, it is almost worth the entry fee to sit in the Monastery Garden and soak up the atmosphere.  Last year some of the musicians chose to play outside in the garden rather than on the stage and it was simply a magical experience for those who were fortunate enough to be there.

Full details of exhibitors can be found at http://www.bssk.co.uk/events/monastery2012/exhibitors.html


Full details of talks and workshops can be found at http://www.bssk.co.uk/events/monastery2012/talks.html

Booking is strongly recommended for talks and workshops, even the FREE ones, as seats are limited in the various rooms.  You may telephone your order to BSSK at 01724 849886 or book online at http://www.bssk.co.uk/events/monastery2012/booking.html.

Entry tickets may also be pre-booked to avoid the queue, or pay on the door on arrival if you prefer.