Officials from the Spokane Arts Commission and the Spokane Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) want to help local event promoters, artists and musicians gain more visibility for their work. That was the message to a small crowd of performing artists, bands, arts organizations and other arts professionals who gathered in the Spokane City Council Chambers on Thursday, March 20, to learn more about how to work with conventions, tour groups and other visitors to the community.
“There are 30-50 conventions and events each month that use the Spokane CVB to coordinate their activities,” CVB communications manager Pam Scott said.
Many opportunities exist for local businesses, artists, musicians and event planners to gain exposure and increase their audience. Foreign and domestic tour operators put together multi-day packages for their clients, busing them around from one location to the next, dropping dollars with each stop. These operators need to know good places to take their clients, and each tour needs to be a little different. Many tour operators make the CVB their first call for information.
Guided tours frequently include artist show receptions, behind the scenes opportunities, historic buildings, music venues, antique shops, restaurants, and other local events and stops. Advertising the availability of any of these typically long-running opportunities is a great way to bring in more traffic, and ultimately more money for the local community.
The CVB has been involved with the placement of information about Spokane in many important publications, including Flathead Living Magazine (a Montana-based publication about fine living that is nationally distributed), Where To Retire (Spokane is featured in the March-April issue), even getting local confectioners Bruttles on the Rachael Ray TV show.
“I’m always promoting Spokane to the Los Angeles film community,” Juan Mas of North By Northwest Productions said. “We need to let people know we’re a real city.”
In addition to the greater Spokane area, the additional areas of the Inland Northwest, including the West Plains and the Palouse can benefit from the CVB’s efforts.
“We don’t get a lot of reports from the West Plains about what’s happening out there,” a CVB spokesperson said. “We recently had a request for information about sending a tour group to see David Govedare’s ‘Grandfather Cuts Loose The Ponies’ outdoor sculpture in Vantage, Wash. We redirected them to his ‘Joy Of Running Together’ sculptures (the Bloomsday runners) at Riverfront Park.” If the CVB knew of more places to send visitors along the route to Vantage, she said, that trip might have happened, bringing tourist money to the West Plains all the way to Central Washington.
The CVB’s next project is to develop a community arts brochure and to develop program ideas as products that can be marketed to groups.
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