Anthony Cordo recently took over as the executive director at Explore Victoria, the CVB for Victoria, Texas. With a background in visitor services, including eight years at Experience Columbus, he’s attempting to bring a new philosophy to the table when it comes to the meetings industry.
“I approach the group market differently than most in the CVB industry,” Cordo says. “Typically the concentration is on getting the event to the city, then connecting the meeting planners with the services they need to set up the event, followed by providing visitor services to attendees to reduce uncertainty and increase their spending. The gap that’s missing is helping to boost attendance; that’s where I concentrate.
"One of the biggest drivers for meeting planners is attendance. Through my work, Explore Victoria drives that attendance actively; we’re leaving money on the table if we’re not maxing out the attendance at the events that we spend time getting in the first place.”
He pinpoints a recently booked sports event at the city’s new Youth Sports Complex as one example of his smaller bureau’s efforts.
“We recently booked a new softball tournament here in Victoria,” he says. “The new event had a lot going against it: it was new, it was near the beginning of the season. giving teams about one month from formation to playing, and no one knew about it. I reached out to the meeting planner, got her full list of hundreds of mailing and e-mail addresses for potential teams. Working with one of our genuine attractions in the area, QP Smokehouse, we shipped out barbecue jerky to the decision-makers for the teams along with letters explaining the event and encouraging them to book.
"We followed that up with an e-mail campaign that focused on the benefits to attending the tournament. The result has been a dozen college recruiters signing up to attend, 14 teams signing up to attend in one week, and we’re still counting more!”