V72x2 – 144 hours of Vegan Food in Richmond, Virginia – because 72 hours is not enough!!
Each January, Vegan Action hosts RVA’s annual vegan restaurant week, challenging area restaurants, cafés, and bakeries to flex their skills with special and unique vegan options that are not on their regular menus.
Why is it called V72x2?
In 2018, V72 started as a 72 hour event coupled with cooking demos, activities, and speakers. We pivoted to a week long event (144 hours = 72×2), to support local businesses in the wake of covid and also due to the community feedback that 72 hours was not nearly enough! While we hope to bring back the in-person activities in the future, V72 has grown substantially since the start, with over 30 restaurants participating in 2022! We have even heard that attendees like to maximize their V72 enjoyment by carefully planning out the spots they will visit once we post the specials.
V72x2 gives all of Richmond – not just vegans – a chance to try a new dish and support our local businesses!
Visit Vegan72.com to learn more!
HOW TO GET A V72 STYLE EVENT STARTED IN YOUR CITY
Because V72 has become such a success, we’re created this model for coordinating vegan restaurant events in cities nationwide. Our goal is to make this event accessible for anyone to host in their own city.
FOUR MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT – Get a team together to plan and choose a weekend for the event. Reach out to 25 restaurants to start with explaining that you are organizing an event to highlight unique vegan dishes in your city. Explain that you will do all the promotion and provide all needed materials, all they need to do is come up with a unique dish or dishes for the three days of the event. Emphasize that it cannot be something already on their menu. The goal is to get vegans to their restaurant to try something new as well as get omnivores out to try a unique vegan dish. Give them a deadline to respond with a yes (we suggest a month at the most).
THREE MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT – Continue to reach out to restaurants, food trucks and coffee shops for involvement.
TWO MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT – Start sharing final list of participating restaurants with the public. Create a Facebook event page and share, share, share. And get everyone you know to SHARE it.
ONE MONTH BEFORE THE EVENT – Get posters, table tents and postcards printed. Add event to local online calendars. If you are part of an animal or vegan organization and have an email list, share the event by email.
THREE WEEKS BEFORE EVENT – Promotion is important – full color flyers at all participating restaurants and as many places around town as possible. Boost your Facebook event page and share, share, share. And get everyone you know to SHARE it. Send out press release.
TWELVE DAYS BEFORE EVENT – Provide table tents for all participating restaurants if your budget permits. Begin to announce daily menu items on Facebook event page (with pictures if possible). Ask friends, family, coworkers and everyone you know to go to at least one participating restaurant for the weekend.
THREE DAYS BEFORE EVENT – Provide participating restaurants with a folder containing a stack of passports, a sheet of stickers for the passports, an event info sheet, and contact information if they need more materials.
DAY OF THE EVENT – Hire or ask a friend to take good quality photos of both the event and the special dishes. Share Facebook posts of the event and food as you go. Most importantly, eat some good food and enjoy. Be sure to share your story and photos with us!