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April 27, 2005
Talking the talk...
Last week I journeyed to Portland to attend the Event Marketplace at the National Association of Sports Commissions Conference. It is annual event where Sports Commissions, Convention and Tourism Bureaus, and the like get together to network and discuss what is going on in the industry. The Event Marketplace is where rights holders pitch their event to prospective communities and organizations. A four hour block was set aside on both Thursday and Friday for one on one meetings between rights holders and prospective cities. The prospective communities could shop for everything from pro bowling, senior softball, golf, and assorted AAU championships, to of course the best product there, the TriAmerica Series.
Appointments are booked every 15 minutes during the four hour block. That means 16 consecutive meetings without a break. There was plenty of interest towards our sport, so all my available appointments were booked. It was certainly a challenge to pitch the series non stop for 4 hours straight. I was excited to have the opportunity to meet representatives from so many cities. Some did their homework before we met, coming to the meeting with a list of questions and a printout from our website. A couple were completely clueless and one even looked surprised to find out we would need a swimable body of water capable of holding a one mile swim.
I left the meeting with several strong leads for potential future stops for the series. Now it is time for the prospective cities to really do their homework before submitting their bid proposals by our June 1 deadline.
Posted by Fred at April 27, 2005 10:01 PM | More in: Tri America
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