The symmetry of 30 years of consulting the Destination Leadership sector wasn’t lost on us. It would be a good time to make some changes. You know…close a door and open a window.

On this day, 30 years ago, I launched Zeitgeist Consulting (now known as DMOproz). I remember turning in my keys at what is now Destination Madison that morning and driving home both excited and terrified.

As I’ve often opined, when I got into this business decades ago, Destination Marketing Organizations generally played the hand they were dealt. These are your assets. That’s what you promote.

It sounds so appropriate and reasonable on the surface.
The rationale goes like this: the entity(ies) investing the cash to power a community’s Destination Marketing Organization should have the right to specify the individuals that will sit on their Board of Directors.

What a long, strange year it's been. We had a chance, earlier this week, to hang out and reflect with friends, peers and colleagues at the Destinations International Joint Board and Foundation Trustee meetings in Chicago.

There have been some really sensational events, occurrences and movements of late for which we couldn't be more elated, proud and thrilled. Fred Dixon moving to Brand USA…and Julie Coker succeeding him in the big Apple.

I truly believe most of us want to understand each other. We just haven’t recognized the complete and total disconnect of our respective languages when, in fact, our “respective similarities” (as Billy Joel once sang) are staring us in the face.

I’m not one to say I told you so…but I’ve been saying it for well over a decade (so, I guess I just did). The nighttime economy (and especially music) should be a critical component of every community development strategy. And the Taylor Swift phenomenon proves it.

In our over 25 years of consulting Destination Marketing and Leadership Organizations, we’ve seen the best of the best…along with the ones that make us merely shake our heads in disbelief.

It’s always dangerous to base an argument on a single data point…but, it’s so tempting when it validates what one has been saying for years. And, as we celebrate 29 years of consulting in the Destination Marketing space, a new research finding looks mighty shiny to this sector veteran’s eyes.

President Ronald Reagan did something that hadn’t been done before…and has been repeated almost every year since. He called out somebody from the audience that was a fairly ordinary person who had done a pretty extraordinary thing.

Over the holidays (I just love that week between Christmas and the New Year to catch up and stretch out), I discovered a series of notes I had taken during the run of BrandWorks University that was staged in Madison during the early years of this Millennium.

Will 2024 be an existential moment for Chambers of Commerce, membership-dependent Destination Marketing Organizations and other community development agencies that require private sector investment?

I prophetically said it on stage during the 2015 Great Debates: “They’re coming for us.” And, they are.

There is rarely a Strategic Planning process we lead that doesn’t produce a community interest in more hotels, restaurants, retailers and nightspots.

As much as we want to stall the inevitable, those of us on the back nine of life provide an interesting conundrum for Destination Marketers…as well as marketers and content creators in general.

The Sedona Chamber & Visitors Bureau has put City leadership on notice that it will not be renewing its contract with the City for Destination Marketing and Management services.

An industry friend messaged me the other day to say, “it’s silly season.” As in, State Legislatures are in session.

Summing up the inaugural Board Leadership for Destinations Symposium as we made our way home from Irving last month.

How often have we all slammed our head against the same wall, thrown up our hands and said, “I’m not gonna do it anymore.”