The Redirect
As the trip down memory lane continues as we celebrate 30 years of Zeitgeist, one would expect that my five years in Madison would be full of stories. But over the years, you've heard most of them. So today's post will link to those stories about George Nelson and Morrie Andrews for those who are curious, and then we will continue on, reminiscing about our 30 years consulting destinations.
Those five years helming what was then called the Greater Madison Convention and Visitors Bureau were generally consumed with building the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Monona Terrace Convention Center. Originally proposed in the ‘30s, but never realized, it was Mayor Paul Soglin who brought the idea back to public consciousness in the summer of 1990. I had just arrived to lead the Bureau and had no idea that this concept had been brewing for months.
As I have chronicled over the past couple of weeks, there were some interesting twists and turns in my arrival. One of them, not disclosed to me during the interview process, was that the Mayor was not a fan of the CVB. He and my predecessor sparred on a regular basis and he really had no use for our organization. On my first day in Madison, I trotted down to City Hall and met Wanda. She was the gatekeeper and glue in the Mayor's office. No one got to the Mayor without Wanda. She knew the Mayor’s attitude towards my organization. And on June 1, told me that there was an opening in his calendar the week after Labor Day. Sigh.
I'd swing by every few days, poke my head in, and ask if there had been a cancellation in his schedule. Wanda and I struck up a friendship over those weeks and then, one day, I'm sitting in my office, and the phone rings. It's Wanda. “He's just got a cancellation, get your butt over here...now.”
I was seated in his conference room as he came in the side door. He looked at me, sighed, and dismissively said, “what do you want?”
It was a moment unplanned. A moment that changed the trajectory of my relationship with the best Mayor this city has ever had.
I said, “it's not what I want. I want to know what you want. City Room Tax makes up 70% of our budget. I need to know where you want me to take this organization.”
He then replied, “no one's ever asked me that. Let me give that some thought. Come back next week?”
It certainly didn't happen overnight, but that was the moment that a relationship that would benefit both of us and the city of Madison began. With a simple request. Tell me what you want, and I'll do what I can to get it done.