Bill Geist's Zeitgeist

Music Completes the Destination

I've been saying it for as long as I can remember. It's the culture of a place (not the attractions, facilities or hotels) that completes the destination. And, there's no more universally embraced aspect of culture as Music.

Which is why were were so impressed when the Chattanooga Area CVB created a full-time Music Manager position last year. It's why we can't wait to see what Visit Asheville is about to do with a web platform that launches next week, dedicated to highlighting local talent and making the city a music destination.

And, why we've been loving listening to DentonRadio.com over the past couple months as one of a handful of internet stations that provides the aural background for our office and life. As Denton CVB CEO Kim Phillips tells the story, it was a chance meeting with a local entrepreneur that was working on an online opportunity to connect local artists to consumers. Coincidently, the Bureau had been contemplating how to better connect the dots between music and visitors...but didn't have the connections or expertise on staff. You can guess the rest of the story.

Similar to Spotify or Pandora, online listeners are able to click to find where performers which they are listening to are performing next...or other Denton talent from the same genre. Both DentonRadio.com and the CVB brought assets to the joint venture that the other couldn't do on their own.

And, isn't that the way we should all be viewing the development and curation of content for our destinations? 

These three DMOs are breaking some sensational new ground. Here's hoping their stories get picked up at State, Regional and National Destination Marketing conferences this year!

 

There Has to be a Better Way

I’ve watched as the process to find a successor to Nicki Grossman to lead the Greater Ft. Lauderdale CVB has wound down to 7 candidates…with only two currently working in the Destination Marketing space. This is what happens in a State with Sunshine Laws that don't protect candidates seeking a DMO job.

I mean, really. What DMO pro wouldn't want to succeed Nicki after the juggernaut she's built over the past two decades in a simply sensational destination? To inherit the keys to that Cadillac would be sweet, to say the least. But, upon her announcement that she would retire this spring, media reports swirled that a County Commissioner was positioning for the job.

Which is fine (let's not forget that Nicki was a Commissioner before taking the reigns at the CVB and that worked out pretty well). Because, if I wanted to take a shot (I didn't), a County Commissioner wouldn't scare me off. My resume is better and I'd have industry support on my side. Even if the deck was stacked and the fix was in...I wouldn't mind losing to someone that played politics better than I. 

I'm just not gonna do it in full view of my current employer, my Mayor, my City Council and my industry partners. And, that's exactly what happens when anybody applies for any DMO job in Florida.

And, it isn't just the finalists. All 53 candidates have been outed. That only 53 people applied for one of the choicest gigs in Destination Marketing is telling in and of itself. But, a quick swing through the list of those that didn't make the cut shows very few DMO pros in the mix. I count 6 former large DMO pros (only 3 with CEO experience), 2 former small market DMO pros and 2 smaller market DMO CEOs currently working.  There were lots of applications from hotel and hospitality consultants, GMs and Sales Managers...even a Director of Housekeeping and Laundry. People who generally don't know what they don't know.

But, names that would elicit a "oh, hell yeah," from anybody that knows Destination Marketing. Very few.

All because Florida's media thinks it has a "right to know" when, instead, Sunshine Laws gives it the "right to hurt" the State's economy by denying its DMOs access to some of the best and the brightest Destination Marketers on the planet.

Sad, really.

 

Rock Hall of Famers: Cheap Trick

As if the perennial snub by the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame wasn't one of those egregious disses that makes one scratch their head til it bleeds. But, you know...it makes their induction all the sweeter.

Cheap Trick...the pride of Rockford IL. A band that so many artists have said was one of their greatest inspirations. A group that toured their asses off. Artists that, through their music, helped give voice to a generation.

Tonight...they are finally inducted into the Hall of Fame.

The new album could initially be dismissed as a victory lap for this veteran band of 40 summers. But, Bang, Zoom, Crazy…Hello is as vibrant an album as any in their catalogue.

On this Music Friday, here's one of the best tracks from the new collection: "When I Wake Up Tomorrow."

Always had it. Always will.

Congratulations, guys. Have fun tonight!

DMAI

I had a number of friends, clients and followers poke me yesterday, asking why I hadn't opined on the housecleaning that occurred Monday morning at Destination Marketing Association International. For those outside the Destination Marketing sphere, DMAI is the trade association for DMOs. Its longtime CEO resigned last fall and the new CEO began last Monday remotely...and this Monday in the DC Offices.

Where, he promptly canned roughly half the staff before lunch.

My e-mail and TXT boxes began blowing up almost immediately on Monday. Lots of WTFs and OMGs...though, I'm not sure how much God had to do with it all. And, then, the WTFs started up yesterday afternoon, questioning why I didn't post on the events of the day before.

My original reaction was that the pruning of personnel that had become fairly non-responsive to membership was expected. I was surprised that people were surprised at Monday's cuts.

So...here's my take. Because, after 20 years as a consultant to this industry, I appear to have become a person off of which DMO pros love to bounce ideas, concepts and bitches.

What I heard most over the past few years was that the Mothership had become insular and non-responsive. A past Board member told me that he was on his fifth voice mail with no response (not that any member doesn't rate a callback...but a past Board Member?). Committee Chairs complained that meeting minutes (written by staff) didn't reflect the gist of the conversation at meetings, nor the direction offered for DMAI programming. There was clearly an "us vs. them" mentality that had grown into a cancer.

Possibly most telling of the pervasive staff attitude at DMAI was when a staffer called to say that a session that former DMAI Board Chair and Tourism Vancouver CEO Rick Antonson and I were proposing to present at an Annual Convention was great and all. But, they didn't think that Rick brought any value to the panel.

Say whaaaa? One of the true Thought Leaders of our Industry AND a former DMAI Board Chair wasn't appropriate for a session on innovative DMOs?

So, when new CEO Don Welsh distributed pink slips on Monday, I saw it as a reclamation of the Organization from Staff and back to Members. One of the reasons that outsiders like Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are doing so well in the run up to their respective conventions is that they have tapped into the collective discontent of the nation.

The DMAI Board has finally responded to the broad based discontent of its members...and has hired a CEO to make the organization great again.

A bloody first day, perhaps. But anything less and some of us would have chalked it up to business as usual.

That's not what will make DMAI relevant again.

Don Welsh will. Of that, I'm certain.

DMAI Members, Buckle your seat belts...because, this is gonna be a wild, fun and needed ride. And those DMOs that aren't yet members...you may want to consider joining us.

 

 

It's Only Important to the Media

There was a time, not so long ago, that people who aspired to be journalists were individuals who believed that sharing truth and knowledge would make for a better society. Today, however, we have in our midst a whole cadre of bomb throwers masquerading as journalists. Individuals who live for controversy and, where one doesn't exist, create them.

Case in point: A reporter for the Orlando Sentinel wrote a scathing (and stunningly unsophisticated) piece on VisitFlorida a week ago. In one of his several rants within the column, he suggests that when Publix (a Florida grocery chain) wants to advertise, they use their own money, inferring that Disney and Universal are using Floridians' tax dollars instead of their own to do their marketing.

Hey, Sparky? Publix is spending Publix money to market Publix. Publix doesn't market Winn-Dixie. Disney doesn't market Universal. Florida is spending Florida money to market Florida. Get it?

Over the weekend, former Florida Tourism Chief Ed Gilbert returned fire with a perfectly placed shot across the bow, saying what most of us always wanted to say. To the charge that the public deserves the right to know the salaries of VisitFlorida employees: 

"Honestly, the public does not care about the salaries. Only the media care because it may incite some outburst of indignation."

Boom. Stoke the fire of indignation, indeed.

That's all most talking heads and the reporters that follow them do anymore.

And, we are all worse for it.

Capitalizing on the Final Four

While his team didn't make it through Friday night, we gotta hand it to Visit Syracuse's David Holder for taking the opportunity to issue an invitation to the President to hang in the 'Cuse. 

Well played, my friend.

Countrified Rocker

Steven Tyler's gone Country...or, so gasp fans and talking heads. And, this is no April Fool's Joke. The new song has just dropped, the album is weeks away and a solo Country tour is scheduled for this summer.

Except, Steven has always had a Country streak a mile wide. What else would you call songs like "Don't Want to Miss a Thing," "Cryin'" and "Crazy?"

On this Music Friday, here's the "new" Steven Tyler with "Love is Your Name."

Good to know he'll have lots of material for the tour.