November Viz Biz

Membership

A special Thank You to all of our members of the Steering Committee for their hard work and dedication. There will be some changes for 2009; Donna Deford will be stepping down as Chairperson and Bill Gormont will become Chairperson. There is still a need for a Vice Chairperson. If you are interested, or would like to nominate someone for the post, please contact Amanda Norsen, Bill Gormont, or Donna Deford.

The VIC meetings are a wonderful way for your organization to network with other members, and find new opportunities for cooperative programs. Please take advantage of the VIC. VisitRochester members who actively participate are three times more likely to gain visitor business.   It is also an opportunity to showcase your organization by hosting a VIC meeting.  If you are interested in hosting a VIC meeting, please contact Amanda Norsen . The next VIC meeting will be November 18th from 3:00 to 5:00 at the Eros Restaurant. Please see the minutes of October's VIC meeting. It was held at the Finger Lakes Railway and included presentations from Finger Lakes Railway and George Eastman House. Click Here .

Convention Sales

Great News! Rochester successfully won the bid to host the Lions Clubs of NYS & Bermuda MD 20 Convention in 2011.  Rochester made a presentation on October 24 in Binghamton to 38 council members. 

VisitRochester, the Hyatt Regency and Clarion Riverside participated in the bid presentation. Competition was Saratoga Springs and Lake Placid.

On November 6th and 7th the VisitRochester convention sales department hosted two successful client lunches in the Albany area for about 30 existing and potential clients.  The clients are all part of the NYS association market which is a key market for our convention business in Rochester.   

Convention Services

Please Welcome the Following Groups to theGreater Rochester Area in November:Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church (Youth Event);Army National Guard Yellow Ribbon Team;NY Association of School Psychologists;NYS Association for Computers & Technologies in Education;NYS PTA

That's more than 1,300 convention attendees

Tourism Sales

VisitRochester assited in completing another successful Silent Auction  to benefit the OMCA Development Fund.    The Auction raised a record $35,000.   Appreciation to all of the VisitRochester members who contributed gifts this year and who volunteered their time and talent to help make this event so successful.   Rochester is in a prime position to gain "new" Canadian group tour business in 2009 and beyond.  Sponsorship of the Silent Auction gave Rochester excellent exposure throughout the entire conference.

Tour operators were given the opportunity to enter a drawing for a complimentary Student Group Tour in Rochester during 2009.   Chapman Cultural Tours was the lucky winner.  The drawing took place during the I Love NY sponsored lunch at the OMCA Conference.

"Great Expeditions"

VisitRochester hosted the first ever Educators Fam Tour  in partnership with Snyder Tours of Buffalo, NY. Teachers from throughout Western NY spent a day visiting educational tour offerings throughout Rochester. They were an ideal test market for the VisitRochester "NEW" Educational Tour Catalog "Great Expeditions"(click for photo of cover). The catalog features over 35 unique educational travel experiences for students that include Rochester, the Finger Lakes, Genesee Valley and the Seaway Trail.  "Great Expeditions" addresses a growing trend in group travel toward the demand for educational activities and a shift from the adult senior market toward youth travel.

I Love NY Launches Winter Package Drive

I Love NY is recruiting Winter Getaway Packages to feature on its getaway package micro-site.    Please submit your packages to VisitRochester prior to November 12th.  This is a perfect opportunity for you to boost demand during otherwise slow periods.  Winter Media coverage will be very substantial through partnerships with Travelocity, Orbitz, online advertising, sweepstakes programs, AAA.com, PR outreach and radio PSAs.  Who can afford not to take advantage of this kind of free advertising?  You will also be given the opportunity to feature a photo of your property alongside your package.

Be creative and think about family fun, ski escapes, spa weekends, shopping sprees & theatre events.   There are special guidelines to follow.  Please contact Paula Savage for more details, paulas@visitrochester.com.

Special Offers

Send us your winter special offers.   We are anxious to post them on the VisitRochester web site.  All VisitRochester members who have something to offer visitors are welcome to submit special offers.  This can be a discount offer, offer with purchase, buy one get one, free child with adult purchase, glass of wine with dinner and the list goes on.  This is yet another member benefit to help drive new business for our members.  Please take advantage of these totally free advertising opportunities you and make your membership dollars work for you.    

Rochester/Finger Lakes Film Office

The Rochester/Finger Lakes Film & Video Office Reports a New Kind of British Invasion. Click here for a picture.

Rising British band SKY LARKIN completed their music video shoot during an overnight shoot in numerous locations around the city of Rochester.   This is just one of a number of projects that producer Barry Sonders and his team at FILM ORANGE have brought to our region this year.

The Film Office has also been working with a Producer from the UK who is interested in taking advantage of the tax incentives for his feature film; assisting with locations recommendations and information about film production support services in the region.   The production is tentatively slated for Spring of 2009.

Executive Director June Foster is attending AFM, American Film Market as well as the AFI (Los Angeles Film Festival) also going on in LA during the market.

Local and regional production companies were very busy producing political campaign spots assisting candidates from Rochester and other upstate NY districts with their media campaigns.

The office has been fielding calls from producers in NYC, LA, DC regarding interest in the Rochester/ Finger Lakes region for their features and commercials.

Extreme Make Over Home Edition aired their episode involving the family from Geneva that was produced in August 2008.

Public Relations

ColdRush is Coming

Please make sure to add your January-March 2009 events to the VisitRochester.com website by November 15^th. VisitRochester will be preparing the Coldrush supplement for inclusion in Late December or early January D&C