Last week, we hosted the first Indiana Tourism Summit at the Indiana State Museum. It was great to see so many industry members in attendance and we hope you got as much out of the summit as we did.
Our four speakers included Bill Geist, Josh Hallett, Dan Schilling and Rob Hunden. Here’s a brief synopsis of what each one spoke about:
Bill Geist – Zeitgeist:
Bill has been a friend to the tourism industry for many years. From his time at the Madison (WI) CVB to his current role as a CVB/tourism consultant, he is at the forefront of the tourism industry. Bill’s presentation focused on everyone’s favorite topic: Strategic Planning.
While Strategic Planning can be viewed as a dry and tedious, it is still a necessity. Bill spent time talking about best practices for creating a strategic plan and among those was the idea that there’s no such thing as a bad idea. The beginning of a strategic plan is a brainstorming session. Some of the best ideas come from these early sessions.
Josh Hallett – Voce Communications:
Josh has spoken for our industry before, at our Tourism Council meeting in December of 2007, but every time he speaks, he brings something new to the table.
Josh’s speech touched on social media and how to use it effectively in your organization. The goals of the Tourism Tech Corner are similar and Josh is extremely knowledgeable about interactive new media.
Josh actually attended the tour of Lucas Oil Stadium and took some great pictures. Check them out here.
Tourism's Triple Bottom Line
Dan Schilling – Civic Tourism:
Dan brought some great information with him. Heritage (Cultural) tourism is one of the fastest growing segments of tourism, and tourism is the 1st, 2nd or 3rd largest industry in each of the 50 states. It’s Indiana’s 3rd largest industry.
One of the most interesting ideas Dan brought was that of the “Triple Bottom Line”. More than any other industry, Tourism benefits from being located in an economically, socially and environmentally healthy area. Similarly, no other single industry can contribute as much to help an area become more
Rob Hunden – Hunden Strategic Partners:
Rob is a native Hoosier and an IU graduate and has done quite a bit of work in Indiana, even though his office are located in Chicago now. Rob spent time talking about economic development through real estate development. His speech resonates, not only with the Indianapolis’s of the state, but also with small towns and cities.
After the presentations, we all headed over to the Lucas Oil Stadium for a guided tour that brought us through many public areas of the stadium, as well as some private areas. We got to go down on to the turf, through the visitors locker room, up into the press box and through the Quarterback suites.
Dinner followed soon after at The Rathskeller. Good food, good beer and great conversation followed. I hope that everyone had as much fun attending the event as we had!
Very soon, we’ll have each presenter’s presentation posted on our industry site, Tourism.IN.gov, and I’ll come back and link to those.
What were your thoughts of the Tourism Summit? Did you like it? Anything you would change?
