Dinosaur Encounter Exhibition in Bournemouth Summer 2009

Everything Dinosaur will be working at the Dinosaur Encounter exhibition in Bournemouth over the summer.

Travel back in time to the Mesozoic and come face to face with giant dinosaurs, that is just one of the many Summer attractions being offered this season at the Bournemouth International Centre (BIC), Bournemouth, Dorset.  Just a fossilised dinosaur bone’s throw from the Jurassic coast, come face to face with Tyrannosaurus rex and other famous dinosaurs with the Natural History Museum’s Dinosaur Encounter Exhibition.

Dinosaur Encounter

Are you brave enough to meet the huge armoured Ankylosaurus with a 50 kilogramme club on the end of its tail ready to take a swing at you?  Or do you fancy yourself standing beneath the gaping jaws of a T. rex?  All this and more awaits the brave dinosaur hunters who venture into the BIC this Summer.

Dinosaurs continue to fascinate and amaze, in fact on average a new dinosaur species is named and described every six weeks, dare you enter their world and come face to face with these giant prehistoric creatures.  The BIC in association with the Natural History Museum and aided by team members at Everything Dinosaur are bringing the Jurassic and Cretaceous world’s to life with fossil encounters, activities, interactive exhibits, replicas and of course the dinosaurs themselves, many of which are animated (they move), thanks to the those clever robotic engineers at Kokoro.

Dinosaurs at the Seaside – Bournemouth

Picture credit: BIC

Theories from Palaeontologists

Palaeontologists have put forward a theory that dinosaurs like Triceratops may have lived in coastal environments, so at least one huge dinosaur is going to feel at home on the south coast this Summer.

If you are unable to visit the south coast, take a look at Everything Dinosaur’s website instead: Everything Dinosaur.

The Dinosaur Encounter Exhibition runs from Saturday July 11th until Friday 28th August, 160 million years of dinosaur evolution crammed into seven weeks, that’s not bad going!  The Solent hall at the BIC has never had such fearsome and awesome visitors and with the event opening at 10am each day (final entry 5pm), there has never been a better chance to get up close to dinosaurs and learn a little about these amazing creatures.

BIC ticket hot-line (UK) 0844 576 3000 (family concessions available).

Travel back in time this Summer and come and see the dinosaurs, this exhibition is going to be a “roaring success”!

A Dinosaur Wall Mural

Team members at Everything Dinosaur have just completed our testing programme and added to our product range, this wonderful and very colourful dinosaur mural.  Turn a child’s bedroom wall or part of a classroom into your own dinosaur theme park with this 3-D computer generated image of the world of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals.

Dinosaur Wall Mural

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Everything Dinosaur

This wall mural is made up of 12 strips which can be assembled and stuck to the wall of a child’s bedroom or a school room to make your very own dinosaur “dino-rama”.  Although such a scene is entirely a fabrication of the designer, we love the way that all sorts of prehistoric animals from the Mesozoic have been put into the mural together.

Clearly this reconstruction is not accurate, firstly the animals featured are separated by millions of years of evolution and many of the genera depicted lived on different continents.  However, this picture and many reconstructions of prehistoric life seen in dinosaur books are merely representations of life and not actual depictions of genuine prehistoric environments.  Another reason why such busy-looking panoramas are not the equivalent of typical snapshots of a habitat is perhaps not so obvious as the other two reasons mentioned above.

In reality, it is most unlikely that so many different individuals of different species of large animals would be in the same area at exactly the same time.  If you talk to any wildlife photographer or speak with anyone involved in wildlife illustrations, artwork or even nature themed television programmes, they will tell you how unrepresentative such pictures are.  However, this is not the point; the mural nicely depicts a whole host of prehistoric animals in relatively accurate and natural poses.

The mural represents a sort of “pictorial palaeontological garden” and we are confident it will delight many dinosaur fans and enthusiasts.

To view the range of dinosaur themed toys and gifts available from Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website: Visit Everything Dinosaur.

Putting aside the one or two inaccuracies, this dinosaur land mural is easy to put up and can cover a wall 10 feet wide by 8 feet tall (3.05 metres x 2.44 metres).  It can be easily trimmed (we found wallpaper scissors or robust kitchen scissors worked fine), so that it can fit any wall.  The special backing to the mural prevents any underlying wallpaper from being seen, so there is no need to strip off the existing wallpaper to fit this mural.  It requires adhesive to stick it to the wall, we found wallpaper paste worked well and as it was supplied in 12 strips it was very easy to handle and put up.

A Dinosaur Themed Bedroom

Dinosaur themed bedroom mural.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Everything Dinosaur in the Local Paper

As a company run by parents, teachers and real dinosaur experts (Everything Dinosaur), we tend to be regarded as quite unusual.  We certainly stand out amongst the other businesses in our area, a fact that has allowed Everything Dinosaur to gain a lot of publicity regarding our educational activities with schools and other organisations.

Everything Dinosaur

None of us would claim to be experts in the art of public relations, but PR does play an important part in our marketing communications mix.  Public Relations is concerned with the management of relationships between organisations and their stakeholders (publics), be they customers, financiers, suppliers and so on.

A typical example of PR for Everything Dinosaur is when we got our new van and wanted to put some signage on it to promote us.  Rather than opt for the more prosaic options, we ran a competition and the winning design incorporated the concept of the van being attacked by a dinosaur.  Certainly this design was very different from the run of the mill signage seen on other vehicles.

Our new “Dino-Van” was so eye-catching that the local paper sent a photographer round when the vehicle signage was unveiled.

The “Dino-Van” Article in the Local Paper

Picture and story credit: Middlewich Guardian

The picture shows one of our team members collecting the van keys from a member of the signage company that brought our concept of a van attacked by a dinosaur to life (Intent Signs).

Our “Dino Van”

The article states that Everything Dinosaur will be using the dino-design to inspire school children on science projects involving dinosaurs.

To quote the article:

“Even through a recession, innovative and hard-working local companies are bucking the current trend and being successful in these difficult times”.

Publicity is always useful, and although it takes a little time and effort to achieve the right results, we think it is very worthwhile.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website: Everything Dinosaur.

Vehicle Graphics – Final Version

Following the Everything Dinosaur weekly team meeting we have all reached agreement on the graphics layout for the new van.  Vehicle livery is very important to companies, it is an opportunity to have your own mobile advertisement which could potentially be seen by thousands of people.  With an unusual business such as ours, teachers, dinosaur experts and parents working together is quite an unusual combination, a more visually stunning vehicle livery was required.

Everything Dinosaur

We think our finalised designs tick all the right boxes.  There are one or two small points to go over prior to the van going in to be fitted with the new livery but we think we are just about there.

Side View of Finalised Vehicle Livery

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

We have one or two more things to do but the vehicle should be able to have its livery put on this week, in readiness for some teaching appointments and outreach work we have planned for the end of May.

Take a look at Everything Dinosaur’s user-friendly and award-winning website: Everything Dinosaur.

Everything Dinosaur – New and Improved Website

The Everything Dinosaur range of products and services continues to expand and we have something over 500 different products in our range, at the moment with more to be added in the next few days and over the next few weeks.

Everything Dinosaur

To accommodate the extended range, and in order to find even more customer service the website has been upgraded and developed further.  Much more customer friendly information can now be provided, along with more pictures of the products so that visitors to the site can really see what is on offer.

Everything Dinosaur Team Members

Having fun with Everything Dinosaur.  The UK-based company has just launched a new and improved website.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

As always there is plenty of information about the company as well as the free quiz, downloads and all sorts of prehistoric animal related materials.

To visit the Everything Dinosaur website: Visit Everything Dinosaur.

Dinosaur Storage Box that turns into a Prehistoric Themed Playmat

Storage problems for dinosaur models are solved at a stroke with the introduction of these new innovative storage boxes into the Everything Dinosaur product range.  With over 500 different products in stock, the team at Everything Dinosaur seem to provide everything for young dinosaur fans – exactly what the name of their company – Everything Dinosaur suggests.  Whether it is toys, games, puzzles, clothing or models, the team members including qualified teachers and real dinosaur experts are able to keep most enthusiastic dinosaur fans happy.

To visit the company website: Visit Everything Dinosaur.

Adding to the company’s “Dinosaurs at Home” range two zipped canvas storage boxes have been added – the Dinosaur Zip Bin and its smaller companion designed for holidays and travel, the Mini Dinosaur Zip Bin.

The Dinosaur Zip Bin

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Each sturdy, canvas box is ideal for storing dinosaur models and toys, helping to keep the bedroom tidy and preventing it from turning into a Jurassic Park.  However, once unzipped they fold out to reveal an exciting prehistoric landscape themed playmat complete with volcanoes, dinosaur trackways and a river, just the setting for some dinosaur adventures.

The Mini Dinosaur Zip Bin measures 15 cm x 20 cm x 13 cm and when unzipped folds out to produce a 41 cm x 46 cm play area.  This pack even comes with three mini dinosaur models to start off your model collection.  This pack is ideal for taking on holiday and travelling, as all the dinosaurs can be safely stowed away when play is finished for the day.

The larger Dinosaur Zip Bin, another dinosaur themed portable play mat, comes complete with carrying handles.  An ideal storage area for dinosaur models that also unzips to transform into a 74 cm x 81 cm prehistoric landscape play mat.  Set includes four dinosaur models.  In storage mode, size is 34 cm x 28 cm x 20 cm, providing plenty of storage space for any dinosaur model collection.

The Storage Bin and Play mat

Dinosaur Zip Bin and Playmat Combined.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view the extensive range of dinosaur and prehistoric animal themed gifts available from Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website: Dinosaur Toys and Dinosaur Gifts.

Each item is suitable for children aged 3 plus and makes a super play area, encouraging creative play and discovery.

To Decal or not to Decal the Van

With the arrival of our new van discussion in the company has turned to deciding what sort of promotional livery we should put on it.  Given that we all have to drive it at one time or another, we thought it best if everyone in the company was involved.  Over the tea and coffee breaks this has been quite a fascinating topic and as a result of this we all seem to be taken a heightened interest in the livery of other commercial vehicles that we see on the road.

The New Van – a Blank Canvas?

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Choosing a White Van

We have decided to choose another white van, giving us a blank canvas to work with as it were.  This time there are no rear windows so we have the opportunity to put some livery on the back of the vehicle as well as the front and sides.  Quite a competitive spirit has developed amongst us all, so it has been decided to adopt the same principles as many large multi-nationals when it comes to choosing a new corporate identity – we are going to run a competition.  Using some templates of vans (drawing a van shape proved quite tricky for some of us), we are running a competition for the next week or so.  Everybody who wants to can pick up a set of templates from our main office and then they can draw their suggested design for the new livery and seal up their artwork in the large envelope provided and “post” the entry into our competition box in the warehouse.

Everything Dinosaur

Just for a bit of fun we have extended the competition to non-members of staff and we have had suggestions from school children, teachers and given from the car dealer we published this van from and our local garage.  In a few days time, we will go over the competition entrants at our regular weekly meeting to decide which design would be best.  Nobody has asked about a prize for the winner, which is good, but I suspect we shall have to come up with something suitable as a reward for their artistic efforts.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website for fabulous dinosaur models, toys and games: Everything Dinosaur.