CVB Wins Award for CD Produced by CWS

One of our clients - the Rochester Convention & Visitors Bureau - recently received a Travel Marketing Award of Merit from Explore Minnesota Tourism at their annual conference. The award was given to the RCVB for a series of multimedia CD presentations which are produced by CWS and customized for conventions, sporting events, and other bids. Each custom disc typically features a personal introduction by Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede, often with a bit of offbeat humor and highlights of all that Rochester has to offer.

Travel Marketing Awards are given annually to note creative, successful tourism marketing programs by Minnesota communities. The RCVB entered the multimedia disc as an example of an electronic marketing tool that goes "above and beyond" typical sales presentations.

The CD gives meeting planners a sense of connection with the Rochester community, especially with the guided tour from Mayor Brede. Custom discs have been produced for 13 amateur sports organizations and meeting planners, in addition to a general purpose disc that is used for other presentations. In many cases, the CDs are also left with events attendees to boost participation and with travel writers requesting information.

These multimedia CDs have generated six confirmed pieces of new business for the city of Rochester, representing 13,450 visitors, 16,850 hotel rooms and an economic impact of more than $3.8 million. Two additional bids are still under consideration.

CWS is proud to work with the CVB and other organizations to promote the great city of Rochester!

Alan De Keyrel = "Person of the Year"

It's official... Time Magazine has selected Alan De Keyrel as the 2006 Person of the Year.

Well, sort of.

As much as I really like the ring of "person of the year" next to my name, it didn't happen exactly like that. What they really said was that "YOU" are the person of the year and I took it personally. Let me explain.

America loves its solitary geniuses-its Einsteins, its Edisons, its Jobses-but those lonely dreamers may have to learn to play with others. Car companies are running open design contests. Reuters is carrying blog postings alongside its regular news feed. Microsoft is working overtime to fend off user-created Linux. We're looking at an explosion of productivity and innovation, and it's just getting started, as millions of minds that would otherwise have drowned in obscurity get backhauled into the global intellectual economy.

Who are these people? Seriously, who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I'm not going to watch Lost tonight. I'm going to turn on my computer and make a movie starring my pet iguana? I'm going to mash up 50 Cent's vocals with Queen's instrumentals? I'm going to blog about my state of mind or the state of the nation or the steak-frites at the new bistro down the street? Who has that time and that energy and that passion?

The answer is, you do. And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you.

Isn't that cool? The article goes on to talk about Web2.0 as a "massive social experiment" with no clear purpose in sight. In the meantime, we all continue blogging, podcasting, and commenting back and forth. Many of us spend countless hours developing "thoughtful content" with no real monetary gain or benefit. We simply do it to participate in this "social experiment" we now call Web2.0.

For what it's worth... we'll give ourselves a pat on the back and keep on blogging. We started this blog almost a year ago with no clear vision or purpose other than to entertain and inform. As of today, "Everything Internet" blog is ranked in the top 100,000 of all blogs (15 million are in the United States alone). It's nice to be recognized every now and then and every blogger should be proud of his/her contribution to this "experiment".