They Are Coming For Us

As we slingshot past the planet known as Thanksgiving and hurtle toward the festivities that mark the end of the calendar year, Terri and I offer our heartfelt thanks to all those who reached out to us this year. The assignments, conversations and experiences have been stimulating, revelatory and fun (when they weren’t maddeningly frustrating). And, you kept our calendar fuller than ever before.

So thank you…but such a schedule has a downside. And, the Z-News was a victim. Has it really been three months since we last connected and shared our take on the state of Destination Leadership? And, based on the e-mails and DMs we receive, we know many of you look forward to these missives, if not to consider my musings, to at least keep current with sector news. So…j’exuse.

And, as our calendar begins to fill for Q1…we’re going to change our approach to doing business in 2024. This will hopefully solve the challenge of finding time enough for me to stay on schedule with the Z-News, the podcast and the blog.

However, there was another victim of our overflowing calendar of client assignments this year. There were more than a couple DMO friends that reached out as their organizations or funding streams were coming under attack. But, we were booked solid with pre-existing clients, unable to fly in for a day or two to attempt to bring sanity back to their environment. And, in those instances, we felt truly horrible that we couldn’t be of service.

So, here’s what we plan to do in 2024. As soon as a month has three weeks worth of in-market assignments scheduled, that month comes off the board; we won’t book the fourth week, deferring clients to future months. In that way, we’ll never be more than a month away if a crisis rears its head and we need to make an appearance in your community.

With the sincere hope that there aren’t 12 crises that consume those 12 weeks, that time can then be transitioned into more content development for you. At least, that’s the plan.

That said, my fear for 2024 is that my dream of a free week each month to develop content for the sector we love may well not be realistic. For, in a world that should be increasingly sophisticated to (and appreciative of) the critical importance of Destination Marketing and Leadership…I see an increase in flat-world voices gaining purchase in community conversations. Attacks on DMOs are increasing in destinations in which residents are saying no mas. And attacks are occurring in destinations that don’t understand they are in a global battle for talent…or, don’t care.

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

Terri and I had the very real pleasure to hang with a retired DMO Pro over the Thanksgiving Weekend. Friends and co-conspirators for decades, our tongues didn’t tire in the over two hours we discussed and debated the world before us…and laughed at some of the silly stuff we and many of our friends had done over the years.

But, there was that moment that he looked back on his illustrious career and said that those years were among his proudest. I waited for the other shoe to fall. And, it did.

“I’m not sure,” he sighed, ”knowing what I know today and with the scars of the battles I fought, that I’d choose the same career path if I had it to do over.”

That’s a chilling thought…and one I’ve been pondering this past week. Not unlike our sector’s efforts to encourage more (and more diverse) candidates to choose hospitality as a career path (only to be faced with wilting disinterest in a career that treated their parents and friends like crap in the years prior to the Plague), who’s gonna want to sign up for this shit?

So, the time to change that narrative is now. Right now. We no longer have the luxury of time (as if we ever did).

Destinations International continues to produce a sizable body of content suggesting new ways to tell our collective story, much of it available whether you are a member or not.

But, it falls to all of us who work in the Destination Marketing and Leadership sector to take that content and drive it home; and drive it hard. As many of you have heard me say from stages across this country, this is Groundhog Day. Just because you said it yesterday doesn’t mean elected and community leaders will remember or value it today.

And, we need to sell it…not just tell it. My favorite session at this year's Annual Conference of Destinations International was that of Josiah Brown, who we recently featured on the DMOU Podcast. Josiah pulls no punches when he says that so many DMO pros have lazily relied on statistics to prove the value of their agencies. Statistics mean nothing to anyone but statisticians…when we are attempting to influence community leaders (who typically aren’t statisticians).

A newspaper editor once told me he demanded his reporters answer two questions before he’d run their stories: Why Now and Who Cares. Those are good questions to start with for DMO pros who want to upgrade their messaging. I’d add another: What Happens if We Do (or Don’t).

So, here’s my suggestion (and a heartfelt request) for a few hours of your time over the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve when things, hopefully, slow down a bit for you. Immerse yourself in the new content that the Advocacy Team at Destinations International has been churning out. Listen to our conversation with Josiah Brown on DMOU. And then map out how you plan to communicate to your community using those 3 questions as thought starters.

And, don’t use a single number. I know you can.

For fans of the first Rocky movie, you know that he starts the bout with Apollo Creed leading with his right hand…but changes the trajectory of the battle when he switches to his left late in the fight. It’s time for us to do the same. We’ve been leading with numbers. Let’s switch to stories that matter....for the win.