Many of my friends and clients have asked how I got started in this crazy business. They've heard me tell the story of a conversation in a bar (hey, ain't that where the best ideas are born?) at the 1995 Mid-Winter Conference of IACVB (now DMAI) in Kansas City.
It was a conversation between me, DuPage County CVB CEO Skip Stritmatter and then-Chicago Southland CVB CEO David Ferguson. We were talking about the consultants that were then in play in the DMO space. And, while the two primary players at that time were good...they had never spent time in a CVB CEO Chair. Thus, the three of us discussed, they lacked the understanding of the unique politics that often played a role in effective DMO management and governance.
Which got me to thinking. Which propelled me to launch Zeitgeist a few months later.
I see and talk to Skip often. But David? He moved on to another CVB out east...and then, at least for me, dropped off the grid when he stepped down there.
Imagine my surprise as I absentmindedly stepped onto an elevator in Waco on the way down to the Texas Association of CVB's Legacy Awards Luncheon when a voice says, "Bill?"
It was David...on his way down to receive the Legacy Award for his work in the 70s to launch TACVB, T-Net and a bunch of other stuff.
It was so great to see him...and to be able thank him for planting the seed in my head that became Zeitgeist.
And for those of our friends that had lost track of him since his last DMO post, he's in real estate in San Antonio. And loving life.
There is life after DMOs.
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