Tour Sales, New Orleans, Swearing In, and Billboards

What an adventurous few weeks!  We continue to develop and strengthen our community and national presence.

AAA Los Angeles Guide
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On the tour sales and marketing front, Craig Post attended a national summit for a large membership club.  This is a huge step and undertaking that has been made possible due to numerous steps but began by Hal Grotke.  Thank you Hal for beginning the process to connect us with them two years ago.  We plan to strengthen our tie with by creating special packages in the future.

I attended by the NTA conference in New Orleans and spoke to numerous tour operators.  They are all excited to bring people to us and we expect to see a bump in traffic from these groups over the next 9 to 12 months.  It was interesting to learn what the foreign markets are interested in and we look forward to fulfilling them.  This week we have someone visiting all of the major Asian tour operators to hopefully secure there business.

While in New Orleans, we combined it with a museum scouting mission.  Thank you in large part from a ticket grant by Delta, registration waiver from NTA, Tourismcares helping coordinate, and our partner museums hosting us.  We visited the WWII Museum, USS Alabama, and USS Kidd - all on top of a busy schedule of meetings.  We ran into our good friend from the USS Bowfin and discussed ways to make all of our ships more successful.

Visiting other museums gives us a sense of pride and accomplishment.  I commend our crew for the huge progress they have made in a short period if time.  It is absolutely incredible.  We must remember that we have been open in LA for 2.5 years at this point.  WOW!  We spoke with the WWII Museum and realized very quickly they are also an entrepreneurial organization.  The dedication of their team made it possible to make them one of the top museums in the world.  We can do it also!

A touch screen at the WWII Museum.

Some of the significant highlights at the WWII Museum include the arrival experience, the follow a service member cards, the Road to Berlin, and the Tang Experience.  We spent 5 hours at this museum and easily could have spent longer.  The information was well planned and executed with a focus on telling a human story.  This is a perfect example of an organization that stays focused on an end goal and keeping the quality high.  We are striving to do the same.  Keep up the great work!

While touring the USS Alabama, you quickly get a glimpse into IOWA past.  The bunks were all chains and canvas.  They pulled many of them out and there are wide open spaces throughout 2nd deck.  We also quickly realized how unique the Battleship IOWA is and how we can utilize the natural assets in telling the story.  Imagine for a moment on what we can do with the compartmentalization of the ship and how we can tell the story!

The USS Kidd is absolutely beautiful and well restored.  There crew is passionate and dedicated to the long-term preservation of the KIDD.  The WWII configuration is neat to see and we could even see the bottom of her hull in its unique mooring configuration.

When I returned, I went straight to work in supporting the rapidly developing LA Waterfront initiative.  Councilman Joe Buscaino has grabbed the bull by the horns so to speak and leading the charge in waterfront redevelopment.  Our neighbors have joined the cause and we are seeing some great movement. Special recognition to the Chamber of Commerce, Neighborhood Councils, and the Port of LA for taking on the important effort of creating a world class waterfront.

Assembly-member O'Donnell Swearing In

We welcomed our local elected officials to the ship on Saturday for the swearing in of Assemblymember Patrick O'Donnell.  What a great event!  The crew came together to assist and execute the plan flawlessly.  The attendees and staff mentioned to me how it was obvious we knew what we were doing as it was seamless.  This is a testament to a maturing organization and the teamwork necessary to pull off an event such as this.

We continue the planning and fundraising surrounding the "IOWA Story".  The story we intend to tell covers from "Cradle to Today", includes a large human story presence, and will encompass the vast majority of the ship.  Currently we have 33 possible topics to cover within the tour and museum experience.  The first topic will be the IOWA Veterans Association exhibit.  As we grow our museum and experience, it will take focus and dedication to execute appropriately.  A consistent and fun experience is necessary to maintain a strong audience.

Our planning for the annual Gravely award came together last week and we have a recipient selected.  Please join us on February 18th for this important event.  Speaking of events, we have Music Under the Guns, Movie Under the Guns, and a Presidents Day festival coming up.  Give our events team a round of applause for executing this aggressive public events schedule.

Our marketing folks had phone calls with KRLA on our annual Memorial Day festival to begin the planning process.  We also had conversations with a few of our cooperative partners on expanding our advertising and reach in the area.

We welcomed aboard Johnny Wu to assist in executive admin and marketing admin functions.  He has a degree in history and is jazzed to be working on the IOWA.  When you have a chance, please welcome on board.

To close out this week, you will see a few great graphics that Tobias from Vessel Design Group created.  Tobias and Vessel Design Group volunteer much of there efforts and I encourage anyone looking for a graphic design and / or marketing branding experts, to please contact them.  The first one you see is for new billboards that were donated from Outfront Media.  This company continues to support the IOWA and please support them if given a chance.  The second card you see is an early draft of a card we are working on to give veterans.  This was an idea present by Arthur Huhta and it is finally coming together.

Billboard donated by Vessel Design Group.

Veteran VIP card by Vessel Design Group

Until next post, have a fun and safe couple of weeks!