February 2006

Thank you to our business partners whose efforts, and joined with us, helped to ensure Broadcom's large group event a first-rate success for our town. The Southern California Corporation was very pleased with the affair, your hospitality, and their experience of Mammoth. These folks will be back - as a group and as single-family return visitors! You've made a positive impression on these folks. This is City Concierge's creative marketing at its finest - your direct positive impact receiving immediate positive reactions leading to long-term results. For those who missed this opportunity for free advertising, read below to learn how this new partnership strategy and City Concierge's local teamwork can promote and improve town tourism. - Deborah Bendinelli, Media Relations

Over 20 Mammoth Lakes businesses, tourism organizations, and the Mayor joined hands and donated products and services to entice large group events back to town again. After several years of decreased large-group business, City Concierge developed and coordinated the beginnings of a strategy by organizing, facilitating, and welcoming back the first of the corporate group guests in 2006. Broadcom Corporation, an Irvine, California-based global communications leader, held its January employee appreciation event here, and Mayor Rick Wood, along with other local businesses, made sure these guests knew that the town appreciated Broadcom choosing Mammoth for the affair. It had been a long, dry spell for large group tourism, which everyone was happy to finally break.

"The parking lot at the Mountain used to have 40 tour buses every weekend, but for the past several years, it's been more like four tour buses per weekend. Something had to change - we want these groups to come back again and again," states Jefferson Lanz, City Concierge's Managing Director and Mammoth Lakes Tourism and Recreation Board Commissioner. He explained that this new strategy - showing large groups, like Broadcom, a big welcome, a great time, and that we want them here - is a great way for Mammoth tourism-based businesses to encourage these folks to choose our location for tour packages, events, and workshops. The Mayor, local businesses, and Lanz are counting on this continuing effort to bring new commerce from these groups, as well as return revenue from converting the guests into single-family return visitors - something that benefits everyone.

From left: City Concierge's Jefferson Lanz, Mayor Rick, Broadcom Executive Kevin Cadieux

That's why Lanz reached out to the business community and local organizations in order to collaborate and build tourism partnerships that support this new approach, beginning with the Broadcom event. For the 320 people that attended, the welcoming strategy took the form of a "Mammoth Lakes gift bag," with special lodging, dining, and business discounts. Furthermore, Mayor Wood wrote a welcoming letter to the group and met them at their appreciation party. He, too, saw this type of cooperative partnership as a valuable opportunity to entice and increase tourism visitation. According to Mayor Wood, this is a way for visitors to see that "we're a small town with a lot of big town class, and an even bigger heart."

The coordination efforts of City Concierge assembled business and community participants and their marketing-based offerings. Local entities such as the Mammoth Visitors Bureau, The Village Ben and Jerrys Ice Cream outlet, the Side Door Café, Mammoth Creek Inn, Grumpys Restaurant, Meadowridge Condominiums, Mammoth Times, Elegant Bath & Kitchen, Mammoth Reservations Bureau, Footloose Sports, Mammoth Premiere Reservations, Mammoth Monthly Magazine, Mammoth Sierra Reservations, Ski and Snowboard Valet, Mammoth Ski Museum, Access Business were involved. Gifts, services, discounts, special lodging and parking, coupons, dining, promo freebies, and smiles were key in making Broadcom feel welcome and wanted.

The post-event feedback from Broadcom has been great, with the trip coordinators reporting a good time had by all. These families skied, snow shoed, hiked, and built snowmen, and rode boards, snowmobiles, bikes, dog sleds. They shopped, took pictures, and perused galleries and museums. They dined, danced, soaked in spas, and snuggled beside fireplaces. Variety - and the Sierra's scenic beauty - is why this group selected our town for their event. Now they can add Mammoth hospitality to their list and pass the good word on to others.

SHAMELESS PROMO
Next Issue... The Real Estate Agent and Company that generated leads off the City Concierge site and closed the sales.

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