Be in the Game!
As many of you know, the tourism industry is a special industry. Tourism professionals are really good about sharing info to help others in the industry. Results of a digital marketing campaign, how a certain event did or did not do, impressions of a vendor and how well they follow up with reporting, trends with websites and visitor guides or simply sharing ideas to educate city and county leaders about tourism, tourism folks are special in this regard.
With that being said, there is a lot of knowledge in the Minnesota tourism industry. One of the best ways to be exposed to this knowledge from colleagues and grow as a tourism professional is to “be in the game”. What does being in the game mean? A few ideas…
Take advantage of valuable MACVB events. There are two MACVB events each year. The Education Summit in June and the Annual Meeting in October. Rubbing elbows with other folks in the tourism industry, learning from talented speakers, refreshing your mind, getting to know top vendors who can help move your needle are all good reasons to attend. Taking part in MACVB events with staff is one way of being in the game.
The Annual Meeting is set for October 2-3. St. Louis Park is hosting and what an agenda! Speakers include Erik Therwanger of Think Great. Erik is the Founder and President of Think GREAT, LLC, a specialized consulting firm focused on accomplishing corporate goals through a unique combination of leadership, team building and sales training. Erik draws on his combined twenty years of experience in the military, an executive business leader, and dynamic presenter to help organizations achieve greater results.
The Mayor of Duluth, Emily Larson and Anna Tanski of Visit Duluth will share personal experiences and insights about “When your community gets negative press”. One of the most recent examples was a Rolling Stone article about Duluth during the President Trump visit!
EMT social media expert Caitlin Rick will discuss how to leverage EMT’s social media in your community. Caitlin, if you haven’t spent much time with her or viewed a presentation at an EMT conference, is very skilled and has a great handle on social media.
Representatives of EMT’s new ad agency, Adventure Creative, have also been invited to speak to our group and learn more about us and our destinations. This is a wonderful opportunity as they will be helping to forge messaging for EMT in the future.
Our lobbying team of Todd Hill and Tony Kwilas (Hill Capitol Strategies) represents our industry at the State capitol. Learn about the strategy for the 2019 session, what is affecting tourism and what you need to know about the tourism industry in Minnesota.
Our surveys tell us our group enjoys and benefits from the “round robin” type discussions amongst attendees as well as the “CEO Roundtable” discussions. In addition, something new is “30 ideas in 30 minutes”. Get ready to take notes on this one, the best ideas from colleagues around the state in a high speed format.
And in true MACVB style, the reception, dinner and festivities around networking for the day one evening are in full swing. Discover St. Louis Park has some fun twists being planned, not to be missed. Is it possible some actually attend because of the fun networking evenings?!
Plan now to attend the annual meeting October 2–3 in St. Louis Park. “Be in the Game” and sign up now for the conference. We look forward to seeing you there!
-Joe Henry, 2018 Board Chair
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