You're not even going to believe that I'm posting this here. Maybe this has happened in the past, but based on what I've seen the last few years, I'm shocked to see this...
I got a heads up from Dwight that something was coming in the mail as he received his yesterday. Today I received it too!
It's a 24 page (including covers) promotional brochure for the WBCCI International in Madison WI in 2009. I'm guessing it's gone out a few weeks early as there's a welcoming message from the (yet to be installed) WBCCI President, Jerry Larson. Oops! Is everyone sure that Jerry is going to win this election? Are you
really sure?
My guess is that this is how the Greater Madison Convention & Visitors Bureau operates, but even if that is the case, it obviously took quite a bit of effort from Jerry and staff to get this together. Two pages of General (rally) Information, two pages of TOUR descriptions, a page of Rally Attendance Promotional items, and believe it or not, the three page tentative schedule for the rally! Granted a lot of the sessions aren't outlined, but hey -- it's a full basic schedule covering TWENTY SIX DAYS! Wow... That's not all though -- apparently the entire site has already been laid out for parking. There's a full page site map included showing all the different lots and their Airstream holding capacities (not to be confused with tank holding capacities). The entire site is laid out for 1500-2000 Airstreams. If they had only oriented the map with North being straight up... Well, you can't have everything!!
There are a full ten pages of advertisements from local Madison companies within, so you would hope that covered the cost of publication and distribution. I'm absolutely impressed by this effort. It should do a lot to get the masses thinking about Madison in '09. There is also a mention that this entire booklet will be available as an online pdf. I'll be looking forward to using it not only as a tool to promote Madison in '09, but as part of a membership campaign to get Airstream owners interested in joining the club!
Did I mention the scratch-off ticket you'll receive in the parking bull-pen to see if you're the winner of a brand new 2009 Airstream hooked-up and ready to drive away by a brand new 3/4 ton Ford or Dodge Tow Vehicle? Well if it sounds to good to be true... Actually the odds of winning are 1:593,775 so with only 1K to 2K tickets being issued, there's a pretty good chance nobody is going home with this pair, but hey, it's just a scratch anyway. Imagine printing ~600,000 tickets to issue just 1500. Wow, what a waste of paper, ink, and TREES... They probably could have just borrowed a casino slot machine and put three AS images on five columns. The odds are probably about the same... Everyone gets a pull...
Let's see... 1,004 miles one way, times two equal 2,008 miles round trip, divided by 10 miles to the gallon equal 201 gallons at $4 a gallon equals $804 round trip; or $5 a gallon equals $1,005 round trip; or $7 a gallon equals $1,407 round trip. Put a 7-10 day slow crawl vacation on the front end of that week with a couple of nights courtesy parking (where available), and that's a pretty cheap 2-3 week vacation. Try and go away for 2+ weeks relying on hotels or hotels and air travel and you'd really be ratcheting up that number!
Here's the tricky part. A brand new pricing scheme. Rally Fee/person, Airstream Parking, and 30amp fee. Items one and two have to be done very carefully if you don't want to encourage hundreds of Airstreams opting out of the convention center for their own little clique camping spots, a la NEU in Perry of '07... Be very careful Jerry!!
So bottom line -- kudos for getting this one out -- a
year in advance! Attached is the Rally Attendance Promotion page showing the contest, and revealing that there will be 200+ vendors at this International. Come on -- somebody wake Jerry up -- he's daydreaming!!
I'll be happy to be proven wrong, but I'll have to go find an even bigger smiley if I'm right...
200+ vendors, ha! 