Greeters are volunteer guides who welcome and show visitors around their city.
Submitted by
Si Chun Lam
Coventry Greeters: Greeters are volunteer guides who welcome and show visitors around their city.
In many European cities, volunteer guide, or "greeter" programmes are in place, where volunteer guides, known as greeters, show people around the city. For example, Paris Greeters (http://www.parisiendunjour.fr/) Brussels Greeters (http://brusselsgreeters.be/Bienvenue.php), London Greeters (http://www.londongreeters.org/) and the Global Greeters Network (http://www.globalgreeternetwork.info).
At the very minimum, a greeter programme basically requires: 1.) enthusiastic volunteers; and 2.) a website to match visitors with volunteers.
With the Coventry Ambassadors programme, we already have #1 in place -- the success of the Coventry Ambassador scheme shows that we have many local people who are passionate about Coventry and everything it offers.
The greeter programme can build on this, giving visitors to the city a warm welcome, and also giving local people the chance to share their knowledge of Coventry and Warwickshire with with visitors from all over the world. What we need is #2 -- web designers and developers who can develop a website to match visitors with volunteers.
Ha ha! This is great idea, have a look at the couchsurfing site, similar idea (bed and breakfast included). I do this all the time University square is a great place to nab bored tourists - I've shown many a day tripper around town, it only takes a few minutes - they go home happy and generally I get a hug out of it :-D
How would you like to proceed with this idea?
It would be good to, initially, find out about the level of interest in the idea (would there be anyone who would be prepared to volunteer to show people around the city?); and if so, see if any web developers could take on the idea plus funding/support from local organisations to advertise / promote the idea (e.g. linked into the Visit Coventry and Warwickshire / Destination Marketing).
Definitely think about how the Ambassadors could be pushed forward. Could this be linked to the #wewillgather project mentioned??
Si doesn't the council maintain a list of the people who took part in the olympics? They would be a great group to pitch the idea to, they could give you some excellent Feedback. the best way to discover a city is with a local :-D
Do you think we could take this further and get local people to introduce newbies to their local club/church/sports team? The difference between a place we live and the place we call home are the social connections we have around us.
I think linking in Coventry Ambassadors would be critical to its success and indeed the Council has a list of people who were involved. Following #CityCampCov instead of starting off with a website we could start off with linking into existing networks, e.g. Coventry Ambassadors Facebook page; and certainly, CouchSurfing; and #wewillgather.
Thanks for everyone's contributions :)
My presentation at #ccCov is here: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B_usTJIBSTpvTkJXbGZjQVFwNkU