Storytelling is at the core of how we succeed in our work. In short, potential visitors are more interested in who we are as a community than what we have in terms of assets. When a convention delegate, individual visitor or event planner can see who we are at our core and can see themselves here, we have won the battle.

We tell our story to individual visitors and decision makers for events through means such as earned media, social media, advertising, and trade show sales activities.

Today more than ever, face-to-face client engagement has become vital as we work to reshape the perception much of the country still has following our Operation Metro Surge struggles earlier this year. It is still hard for me to fathom that an operation that technically lasted only 90 days continues to impact us today even to the extent that some people I have spoken to recently still believe we are under siege.

To accelerate the efficacy of our storytelling, our team has conducted nearly 80 face-to-face customer engagements around the country over the course of recent months. That works out to roughly one event every three days. These touchpoints include client dinners, hosting events at major venues such as the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago and in other key markets.

We have also welcomed prospective clients to events our city has hosted like WWE SummerSlam and Savannah Bananas. Other times, we hold intimate gatherings with concentrations of clients which help us tell stories that the media generally does not feel the need to tell or correct.) We have been gratified by the responses we’ve received from customers who have the opportunity to be in a setting where we can really talk and get to know each other better.

While the tip of the spear of this labor-intensive storytelling strategy is our sales team, every single department within Meet Minneapolis coalesces around the deep desire to make sure we are telling a compelling and authentic destination story.

Support through breathtaking imagery and event strategy, fiscal responsibility in the engagements we undertake, inclusion of diverse messaging, and strategic involvement of key public and private local stakeholders all come together to make this vital storytelling effort come to life.

We are thankful for our internal Meet Minneapolis team and our partners within our local tourism and hospitality industry, as well as the support our local, state and federal officials provide us.

What makes us different in Minneapolis is that we have not become victims of the barrage of unsavory media attention that often besets us. We meet it head-on.

Minneapolis is different because of the unprecedented (a word I wish we could stop using) series of setbacks and crises we faced over the course of the last six years. We persevere even as some wonder how much more we can take. But most importantly, we are different because we have such rich experiences and authentic stories that have yet to be shared with the world. We have only just begun.