Manifesto

We recently had cause to come up with a manifesto of sorts, to explain to someone our aims and intentions, and it seemed like a good idea to post it here too. It does repeat other parts of the site, but as we're still working out all the details, it will probably get tweaked over time, but stay onthe site.
It's kind of like an elevator pitch, but one for when the elevator has broken down for a long time...

FREE PROMOTION

Our website is a non-profit organisation offering free listings and promotion to anyone in Canterbury or the surrounding area. We believe that everyone should have the chance to promote their business, shop, music, event for nothing, and intend to eventually have a comprehensive guide to the area and the mass of creative talent within it. Unlike some of the business listings we have found, we aren't asking for massive payments that could affect someone's ability to promote themselves, if for example, they could only afford the most basic of listing services. All we are asking in return is that people help promote our website by having flyers and posters, which in turn will help inform more people about us and those we are promoting.
The site is designed and run by people who live in Canterbury, enabling us to have first hand experience of what we are promoting, rather than just being another nationwide search engine that lists the standard High Street Brands.

LOCAL BUSINESS

Our aim is to give single or multiple listings to local independent retailers, and create sections devoted to specialist areas, including Arts & Crafts, clothing shops, local grocers / producers (including ethnic groceries, health foods and Fairtrade), music and record shops, restaurants, bars and coffee shops, charities, and so on.
Initially, we will just list the services provided by most of these, but in time, we will add our own small reviews and welcome the opinions of other local residents.

LOCAL MUSIC / ARTS / EVENTS

Being big fans of music, film, and the arts in general, we will be helping to promote local bands, musicians, DJs, record labels, venues and clubs, which will also act as a guide to what is happening the current month and in the future.
This will come in the form of a calendar for events and gigs, as well as featuring flyers and links.
Once we are on our feet, we'd like to do interviews and/ Q&A's with the bands and artists and anyone else who might like to answer some silly questions.
We also have a myspace at www.myspace.com/thecanterburywanderer where we will host tracks by any local bands and musicians who wish to contribute a track, or would just like us to have a flyer for their gig or CD on the page.
Mp3s and jpegs can be sent to us at
canterburywanderer@hotmail.co.uk

STUDENTS

With a city that has a massive number of students and colleges, we'd like to get them involved too, either helping to promote themselves or by publishing articles, opinions and features on the local community and providing an independent viewpoint of the city, and while most students will only be here for perhaps a few years, they still make up a large percentage of the population.
My partner has just finished her first year at UKC, and when she moved here last year, had trouble finding out what events were on, or as a result of this found out about them too late.
We would also like to invite budding writers, journalists, photographers, artists and musicians to contribute ideas, features and gig reviews, as well as helping them to find the right home in Canterbury for their particular interests and talents – exhibitions, venues, poetry evenings, meeting places etc.

FEATURES & CONTRIBUTIONS

Alongside the regular listings, we would like to publish articles on everything from gigs and events to local organisations, groups, good causes, charity events and the like. We'll be writing a few of our own pieces and hopefully conducting some interviews later on, but will consider all proposals and ideas, as we'd like to create a balanced overview of what is affecting the community.

Ultimately we're creative people ourselves, and we'd like to meet more creative minded folks and begin to build a creative network, and find out about what is happening off the beaten track.
The Canterbury Wanderer aims to be an alternative guide to Canterbury, both in promoting alternative groups and ideas, but also a way that focuses more on the city as it is today.
There's a lot of history here, and that will always bring tourists, and we're well aware of all the sites promoting these aspects. We'll eventually have links to these somewhere on the site, but it's our intention to highlight what is relevant now, and maybe even learn something ourselves.