The fundamentals of securing a convention or major event involve developing and cultivating a prospect, issuing a proposal and monitoring the decision making process, and ultimately convincing the prospect to sign on the dotted line. The sales process may include customized marketing, digital or print materials, a clever authentic memento to help stay top of mind for a customer, direct customer contact via a sales call, tradeshow or visit to Minneapolis to review our facilities.

But an even more specialized strategy to convince a customer of our value is a personal bid presentation to a group of decision makers. That presentation may include key community representatives joining our team to augment the destination story telling. This personalized strategy has yielded positive results over the years. For example, our 2014 Super Bowl bid was personally presented by Richard Davis and Marilyn Carlson Nelson to the 32 NFL owners. Our focus on having civic and business leaders help us to tell our story, along with paying close attention to every bid detail, was a key component of beating our competion, New Orleans. And New Orleans had a formidable track record of never losing whenever it bid on a Super Bowl.

Another recent example of this customized sales approach, to distinguishing ourselves from our competition, was the bid presentation to the National Urban League (NUL). In his first week in office, Mayor Jacob Frey made time in his hectic schedule to join us at the National Urban League’s offices in New York City. We are pursuing its 2021 or 2022 annual convention. Not only did the Mayor anchor our multi person presentation but he also helped to carry boxes containing materials we needed for the presentation. We expect a decision on NUL in the early summer. The National Urban League's president is Marc Morial. He is a former mayor of New Orleans and was actively involved in multiple, successful, Super Bowl bids for his home city. He was pleased that our Mayor played an active role in our efforts to recruit the NUL.

Mayor Frey joined a group of community leaders that was assembled to strategically address the major decision-making criteria for the NUL. From the depth of corporate support, to our favorable political climate and a community-wide commitment to diversity and inclusion, our group told a uniquely Minneapolis story.

While this group of individuals working together is solely for this particular bid, the strategy of telling the community story is a staple of our sales efforts. This is an example of leaving no stone unturned as we creatively work to secure future events and conventions for the city. This is how we can contribute to growing our hospitality and tourism economy and keeping our industry professionals employed.

As we encounter more and more intense competition, this unique approach to telling our story will become even more vital to our future success.

Pictured from left to right: Betty Williams, Meet Minneapolis; Steven Belton, Minneapolis Urban League; Mayor Jacob Frey, City of Minneapolis; Melvin Tennant, Meet Minneapolis; Jon Campbell, Wells Fargo & Company; Dorothy Bridges, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis; Ravi Norman, Thor Construction