Reverberations of the upcoming Rotary Show rang throughout this meeting, in both direct and indirect ways. So I will start this accounting with how President Mike ended, which is to encourage anyone who has not yet sold or bought an ad, participated in skit development, rehearsed with the chorus, or assisted with any other committee required to put on this one project we Rotarians 100% commit to doing each year, please take this opportunity to do so!
Please call the Rotary office or Wendy Irwin at 632-1128 to sign up for a night at concessions, ushering, or clean-up after each Rotary show. All nights still have opportunities to serve above self, but especially on Saturday night. As one can tell from the reoccurring Rotary Show theme of the announcements at this meeting, which follow, a lot of people are putting in a lot of effort toward this project’s success so JOIN IN THE FUN by stepping up to the proverbial plate.
As previously announced the Rotary Show Ad Sales team members exceeded goals with extraordinary efforts; so now there’s yet another way to step up to the plate by focusing on filling the seats. So if you somehow haven’t been able to participate in one of the aforementioned manners then consider purchasing a group of ten tickets or more to one of the nightly Rotary shows; and give the wonderful gift of a greatly entertaining evening out to friends or clients of your business.
And I can personally vouch for the efforts thus far of the Mighty Rotary Show Chorus toward making this show yet again the best ever! Always one of the most bonding experiences connected with the show, our chorale efforts have been enthused by some wonderfully creative lyrics; and with classic dedication, the group is making it through some a number of choreography-limiting-age-related injuries as well as shared-rehearsal-air-space sectional-rotating upper-respiratory/viral/allergy thing. The latter a result itself of that strong dedication to show up for required rehearsals no matter what; which is why I totally spaced Tuesday in a 100-degree fog, complicated by a last minute tax return inconsistency issue, that I was this meeting’s newsletter scribe. Thus please accept my apologies if I have left anything, or anyone out, of mention in this rendition as I am doing it sans notes completely from memory and our President’s very focused scribblings. So yet another lesson in the importance of focusing on the task at hand, in spite of all the other things in our lives that pull us in different directions.
With a thank you to the Traverse City Country Club for good food, President Mike led everyone in the blessing of and pledging to, America. Homer invocated that as with spring flowers and emerging growth bringing hope of a coming new season, let Rotarians be that sign of hope in the world locally and internationally. Words which while not specifically connected I am confident were referring to the hope of even more ticket sales to the Rotary Show leading to more service-above-self good-work projects. In support of the same premise Vern encouraged everyone to be “a Rotarian that’s what I am” to the soaring tune of Fly Like An Eagle, meaning volunteer for a shift at, or buy tickets to, the Rotary Show.
Mark Newhouse introduced visiting Rotarians and guest, and Jeff Kimpton introduced the Interlochen Center for the Arts students of the week, Lorenzo Pipino and Margaret Williams (the latter won $63 toward tuition in the 50/50 drawing).
Lorenzo is a senior voice and opera major at Interlochen Arts Academy. A native of Columbus, Ohio, he attended IAA for two years, and Interlochen Arts Camp for three. He has interests in music composition and song-writing, and vocal/opera performance and will attend the Beinen School of Music at Northwestern University in the Fall.
Margaret is a senior oboe major at Interlochen Arts Academy. A native of Asheville, NC, she has attended IAA for two years and Interlochen Arts Camp for three. Margaret has strong interests in music performance and environmental ecology and was pleased to be able to have two strong programs at Interlochen to help her grow musically and academically. She will double-major in music and ecology at the University of Georgia-Athens in the Fall.
Katy McCain displayed the poster for the Rotary Show and asked if anyone has a place at their business in which one could be displayed in order to increase attendance to the show, please contact her or the Rotary Office. She also reminded everyone of the Rotary Show After-Glow party to be held at Sorellina’s on Saturday, April 28th following the Show (approximately 9:42 pm estimated from last year’s timetable), for which advance reservations are requested at $15 p/person. And just a few, or maybe a few more, tickets are yet available for the infamous Rotary Show President’s reception to be held at Red Ginger on Wednesday, April 26th prior to the show; for which you can obtain vouchers/tickets from Mark Newhouse.
At the end of the meeting, President Mike reiterated these items with two other reminders that we are back at the Park Place next Tuesday, the 18th, but return to the delicious TC Country Club April 25th, same time same station. Also, help is needed for June 19th Kid’s Free Fishing Day, which is just 52 days after the end of the Rotary Show.
For the meeting’s main act it was on to Trevor Tkach, President, and CEO of Traverse City Tourism, whose arrival at this important organization was most succinctly encapsulated in Allison Beer’s post-presentation comment that he “has hit the ground running and doing a great job”. (Note Trevor is also the reigning Rotary Show Ad Sales Chair). Rotarian (and Rotary Show Chorus member) Kat Paye humorously introduced her previous Cherry Festival boss by including several personal details such as his affinity for a wide selection of socks to feed his focus on being rather a clothes horse (to substantiate this veracity Trevor then displayed a pink/grey argyle pattern he was sporting to the crowd that perfectly matched a similarly hued checked shirt). She also claimed to be one of those who can actually pronounce his name correctly – it’s “TREV or Tuh (like duh – my note) CATCH”. Rotary Show spoiler alert – “but we really (still) can’t rhyme his name”.
While most of our members are of course well aware of the effects of the marketing efforts that have occurred in attracting tourism to Michigan generally, and Traverse City in particular; it was even more impressive to see the specific numbers behind that effort. With the increase in assessments from 2 to 5% greatly augmenting the general overall growth in number of assessed properties’ revenues, the budget for TC Tourism grew from $1,700,000 in 2006 to $6,100,000 in 2016. Of that the amount specified for marketing went from an almost imperceptible $40,000 in 2006 to $3,700,000 in 2016; offering some amazingly effective opportunities for promotional collaboration with Pure Michigan as a national partner and others, such as accommodations search engine newcomer JackRabbit, along with television spots on the Cooking Channel, HGTV and many more.
Trevor went on to describe in essence what the people at TC Tourism do is primarily to attract groups (5 sales persons dedicated to this effort) during off seasons, act as media relations personnel independently for the general area and in support of individual member properties, and market the area generally to the traveling public as a desirable destination.
Marketing efforts expectedly are delegated with 27% to digital, 26 % magazine, 17 % billboard representing the top three segments. Meanwhile, mobile web sessions increased from 2015 to 2016 by 95% with 1.5 million visitors connecting via that technology. Michigan still ranks as the number one state from which people travel (42%), along with the rest of the Midwest in the top ten, but for the first time Texas has crept into the top five last year; and the top 3 cities traveling our way are Ann Arbor, Detroit, and Chicago.
As a sign of the success of marketing and media efforts, accolades snowballed in 2016 with mentions in significant magazines such as Architectural Digest, Conde Nast, Midwest Living and others declaring Traverse City the best, greatest and most beautiful. There were 213 stories in the media providing 66 million impressions worth $16 million in comparable ad value; 53 media representatives were hosted from a wide variety of international (China, Scotland, Canada) and U.S. Midwest regional locations. There were significant gains in presence across all social media outlets of Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter, with the most significant being a 158% increase on Instagram.
Most importantly, according to the most recent figures available (2012) the 3.3 million visitor trips made to the area provided 12,000 jobs and 1.23 billion in economic activity.
In relation to the focus of future efforts, the key word of COLLABORATION most stands out in importance to Trevor’s plans, which most immediately visibly evident by his commitment to “open door” accessibility. Collaboration is key to the success of any future growth as the entire community will need to be involved toward actions that promote year-round activities, since the three seasons other than summer provide virtually the only area for tourism related financial growth and thus will be the best return on advertising monies spent. Collaboration will be within our own tourism area, with other businesses and industries, and as a region with other regions.
CURRENT CAREER –Retired in 2001 as Global Director of Corporate Relations, Dow Corning Corp., after a 39-year global career. Now a volunteer and “community activist.”
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