Sessions

Wow! Talk about jam-packed! This year’s session topics include culinary tourism, marketing to women, what you need to know about the pandemic flu, maximizing retail partnerships, generational marketing, staying on top of technology and the Internet (blogs, RSS feeds, mobile marketing, podcasting, wikis...) plus sessions on the economic impact of tourism, the group tour market, creative design and much more!

THURSDAY OCTOBER 12, 2006

8:45 – 10:00 a.m. Keynote:  Phil Goodman , Genergraphics®, the Next Generation in Marketing Marketers have long relied on demographics to determine how a product or service should be marketed, and may get a 30 percent success rate. Using the new field of Genergraphics®, marketers can more than double their success rate to 70 percent or more. Phil will present how each generation has evolved, what motivates them to make travel decisions and why no generation follows another, based upon the social circumstances they were raised with in their youth. 

Phil will also show why there IS NO 50+ market in the United States, presenting the latest research on the grand-parent market and the three generations that it includes. Including the importance of the Boomer as grand parents and how they are becoming the most influential market in the country.  

Learn how important it is to separate each of the generations, without alienating any other generation when you advertise the same product or service.

10:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. Breakout Sessions

Phil Goodman (continued) The Transition of Generations
How do you get people to respond to your products and services?  Bring your questions for keynote speaker Phil Goodman. This is an opportunity to exchange ideas with your industry peers and in an open dialogue. Phil will help you learn to apply the transition of generations to your marketing efforts. 

Tourism in a Bag – Rosemary McCormick, McCormick Marketing
Shopping and dining are consistently the top activities of all tourists in America . Learn from successful marketing strategies and case studies from throughout the USA on how to increase your shopping and dining tourism through dynamic packaging and win/win partnerships. This seminar is essential for DMOs and tourism professionals who need the latest information on how to maximize retail partnerships, and for retailers who want to attract more lucrative tourism business.

Economic Impact of Tourism- Representatives from Longwoods International will head a panel discussion with Ohio tourism leaders on selling tourism's economic benefit for the state.

2:45 – 4:15 p.m. Breakout sessions

Culinary Tourism – Dr. Lucy Long, Assistant Professor at Bowling Green University
Culinary Tourism -"the intentional, exploratory participation in the foodways of an Other"-is eating out of a sense of adventure and curiosity. People travel to taste new foods, but food is also an integral part of travel, opening up windows into the lives of other people, times, and places. This session explores the many ways and venues in which food can be used for tourism and discusses how not only exotic and gourmet foods but also familiar, everyday ones can be an attraction. It also looks at what such tourism means-how it changes the ways we look at food and at ourselves.  

Men Head East, Women Turn Right – Debbie Maier, The End Results
Is your company maximizing its share of the nearly $6 trillion women's market? They’re the world's largest market and the world's fastest-growing market. They account for 80% of consumer and business spending, 70% of new business startups, and they control over half the private wealth in the United States . It’s no secret that women control an enormous amount of consumer spending.  And it’s easy to point out the obvious – that women are different from men in how they shop and select brands. But what is far more important to understand is that marketing and selling to women is not a niche or a fad.  

Women want all the same things as men – and then some.  So when you meet the higher expectations of women, you are fulfilling the demands of men, as well!  Understanding today's female buyer will help you to attract more customers, improve all customer experiences, and enhance sales effectiveness!

As a result of this eye-opening session, you will gain vital information to apply to your business. You will learn how to:

Provide compelling, meaningful and thorough product/service options; (that don’t make her do the work!);

Create effective marketing messages that won’t “waste her time”; 

Position products and services to support her multidimensional life;  and

Ensure productive, mutually beneficial experiences through enhanced communication skills. 

The Pandemic Bird Flu – Melinda Diaz, Ohio Department of Health
Find out what you need to know to plan.

4:15 p.m.– 5:15 p.m. Round Table Discussions

- Ohio ’s Group Tour – Tim Walsh, Cedar Point
- Creative Design – Ann-Marie Whyte, Cedar Point
- Newspaper/Online – Cleveland.Com and The Plain Dealer

FRIDAY October 13, 2006

9:00 – 1:00 Keynote / Susan Sweeney
Formula for Tourism Internet Success
The web has become the number one way travelers search for information. Are you maximizing your online success? Susan Sweeney, the country's top tourism web expert and author of 101 Ways to Promote Your Web Site, will provide you with everything you need to be successful online with a focus on low cost, high impact elements, aimed at organizations with small to medium-sized budgets.

In this session Susan will also explain in plain English the latest technologies to hit the web – blogs, wikis, podcasting, mobile marketing and RSS are just a few of the latest trends that will be discussed. (Sponsored by the Ohio Division of Travel and Tourism).