Rochester Books 100,000 Rooms

At CWS, we work closely with a number of government entities and other organizations that promote the City of Rochester. This week, the Rochester Convention and Visitors Bureau announced that during the last year, a record-breaking 100,000 room nights were booked in Rochester hotels. This is no small accomplishment for a city whose population itself is 100,000, and we want to congratulate the CVB staff and everyone in the hospitality industry whose cooperative efforts made it possible.

Due to the presence of Mayo Clinic, Rochester is a city that's built on hospitality, playing host to a huge number of visitors every year. The resources offered here, including the support of our first-rate Convention and Visitors Bureau, attract ever-larger numbers of people and events, which has a huge economic impact. 100,000 bookings translates to $25 million in the local economy.

CWS supports the CVB's efforts to bring groups to our area by producing multimedia presentations that are customized to each group, featuring a personal welcome from Mayor Brede and other local representatives. To celebrate the 100,000 mark, we filmed a series of interviews with leaders in the hospitality industry commenting on the accomplishment:

We look forward to an even better year for the hospitality industry in 2008!

Launch: DowntownRochesterMN.com

CWS is pleased to announce the launch of Downtown Rochester MN.com, a new website developed for the Rochester Downtown Alliance. Occasionally, the complaint is heard that there's nothing to do in Rochester. In fact, the downtown district is quite active for those in the loop, and this website aims to substantially increase that number of individuals.

The site is intensely data-driven and represents a joint effort between the hardworking staffs of both RDA and the Rochester Convention and Visitors Bureau. The pool of information will be kept up to date constantly by these organizations and by downtown business owners themselves.

In addition to highlighting current and future activities in downtown Rochester, the site features information about new developments in the district and an itinerary planner that walks a visitor through the steps of planning a night out on the town. Information on parking downtown is integrated throughout the listings, so there's no excuse not to get out and explore.

Rochester offers a host of sights and sounds -- theatre, music, art, comedy, unique shopping, and excellent restaurants both old and new. Keep yourself up to date by subscribing to email updates or RSS feeds from the website. Have an idea for something you'd like to see happening downtown? There's a suggestion box for you.

Let us know what you think!

We're Alive and Kicking

It's been over a month since our last communication... and we feel horrible about that. It's kind of like when you forget to call your mother for awhile. You keep remembering that you need to call, but something more pressing seems to come up. We're sorry about that and promise to make it up to you real soon.

To bring you up to speed, here's what we've been up to:

Lyle:

Lyle went on vacation last month, which started a work overload at our office. (Yes Mom, it's all his fault). He was gone for nearly 10 days traveling the country and having a great time with his wife Sarah. His shoes are nearly impossible to fill, so we've been busy catching up ever since his big trip.

Alan:

The Walk America walk was a huge success. We had a fantastic turnout of over 600 people and raised lots of money to help save babies. It was very cool and Carson has agreed to continue to be the Ambassador for the March of Dimes Chef Auction later this fall. We look forward to helping this great cause as much as we can.

Ryan:

Ryan just finished another year of college and continues to get smarter by the minute (or at least that's what he tells us). Needless to say, we're happy to have him back on staff full-time for the summer.

As a company, we have some really exciting projects in development. The Rochester Downtown Alliance is set to launch in just a few short weeks (keeping Josh busy). In addition, we're starting or working on web projects for The Wing House, Chocolate Time, Dean Riggott Photography, the Mayo Civic Center, Mayo Clinic, ABPMR, Custom Alarm, and Tru Tain (to name a few). Look for launch announcements about these companies in the coming months.

As if that wasn't enough to keep us busy, we continue to expand our video production business with several projects in the works for the Rochester Convention and Visitors Bureau. Graphic design and logo development continues to be an expanding part of our business, so as of this week we have added a new section to our website.

Now that we've "gotten back in touch", we promise to call more often. We'll have more updates, marketing suggestions, and website tips in the very near future. Well, as long as Lyle doesn't take any more vacation. :)

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!