After an absence of five years, the Health and Wellbeing Fair came back to the Civic Centre bigger and better than ever.
Over forty exhibitors ranging from sports and health bodies, to hobbies and support groups met the public to explain how they can help to find their way to better health and wellbeing.
This event – postponed since 2020 - attracted an estimated 325 attendees across the three hours with 42 exhibitor stands. Most public attendees were from the town of Warminster. Disappointingly, just 2% were from the wider community area, fewer than those attending from further afield.
97% of public attendees found it useful or very useful while 89% of public attendees said they were likely or very likely to follow up with one or more exhibitors.
All the exhibitors would like to be involved in a future event and their satisfaction levels were high with scores of between 4.5/5 for usefulness and 4.6/5 for communication/organisation. For a more lasting impact, 600 40-page booklets containing useful tips, health facts and contact details for help, support, sports and activities were printed. These were handed out to attendees and have been distributed across the Town since. A reprint of an additional 150 booklets has been requested.
The Fair was opened by our own England Lioness, Eileen Foreman. Along with Olympic gold-medallist rower Ben Hunt-Davis, Eileen spoke to attendees and both kindly autographed prizes for a free raffle, which, along with the healthy hampers kindly donated, proved a popular feature. In addition, all attendees received a free 40-page booklet crammed with health tips, summaries of the exhibitors and a list of over 140 health and wellbeing opportunities across the Warminster Community Area. Further free copies will be available at key points in town (including the Civic Centre) in the coming weeks.
The event was organised by the Warminster Area Health and Wellbeing Forum.
“People have really missed the face-to-face contact and the 300 plus attendees felt that the event was fun, friendly and engaging as well as being surprised at the wide range of opportunities available in the local area. With such opportunities, it truly is a case of “the more you look, the more you find”, so we were glad to be able to help that process with financial support from the Warminster Area Board."
Secretary David Reeves