BUSINESS
Partners in prime time
Collaborative sponsorships at NTA events
build business and teamwork
“There’s no question that, this year, Tennessee was in the house.”
And with that—on the last day of Travel Exchange ’17 in St.
Louis—Frances Manzitto of Visit Clarksville declared Tennessee’s
collaborative sponsorship a success. The partnership, which
included four DMOs, four attractions, a hotel and a tour company,
is the most recent example of NTA members teaming up to
sponsor at association events. While participants differ in goals and
strategies, most reach the same conclusion Manzitto did: “We had
bumps in the road, but it was worth all of the work, and it came
together beautifully.”
Getting together
The origins of sponsor partnerships
are as varied as the members who
assemble them.
Maverick Aviation Group has
co-sponsored a breakfast at Contact with
the Las Vegas CVA for the past five years,
and for Maverick’s Dan Flores, it was a
matter of name recognition: Vegas had it
and he didn’t.
“I was new to Contact, but John (Meyer,
of the Las Vegas CVA) and I had been
friends for a long time,” Flores says. “It
wasn’t feasible for Maverick to sponsor
on our own, but partnering with the des-
tination really works.”
Teaming up to get more bang for the
buck is not unusual. It’s the reason the
Tennessee partners came together, and
it’s also how Patti Culp of the Alabama
Travel Council was able to join with
Sports Leisure Vacations to sponsor the
Past President’s Reception and the Board
of Directors Dinner, held each year on
Convention Eve.
“Clayton Whitehead asked if I would
consider hosting with Sports Leisure
Vacations, and I told him I didn’t have the
budget for it but would find some part-
ners,” says Culp, who rounded up several
Alabama DMOs. “And they were thrilled.”
Whitehead, as a tour operator,
approached the venture from a differ-
ent perspective. “We aren’t your average
sponsor. We have nothing to sell,” he
says, speaking also on behalf of business
and life partner Mark Hoffmann. “We do
it for spiritual reasons; it just feels right.
Mark and I are giving back to the associa-
tion that has given us so much.”
A native of Savannah, Georgia,
Whitehead also cited a cultural angle
for picking Culp as a partner. “I felt what
people really wanted was simply to visit
with one another in an unstructured set-
ting, but above all, I wanted the event to
be Southern!” he says. “So I called Patti
and she was all in.”
Left, top: Strutting their stuff for Savannah
at Contact ’16: Renea Scott (Old Savannah
Tours), Kai WIlliams (B Historic Savannah),
Kate Burke (Hotel 504) and Mindy
Shepard (Telfair Museums).
Left, bottom: Mindy Shea (Visit Savannah),
left, and Mindy Shepard (Telfair Museums)
are a “project” within the Savannah
partnership.
14
June 2017