Destination Grandview

destination grandview
: Hi this is Michelle Wilson I'm the executive director with the tri Village Chamber partnership and you're listening to business inspirers and today I'm very excited to have my friend Brian cheek with me. Brian is the executive director of Destination Grand View. Thanks for joining me. Thank you. Happy to be here. So this is a little different because we are typically talking to entrepreneurs who have started a business from the ground up and we talked about you know what got them there and their passion. So I decided which him talk about me today. Now I'm Jerry. We're going to talk all about you and and your your background and how you did get to Destination Grand View and where you'd like to see it go. We'll get there eventually so I would love to know where you came from and would you grow up here in Columbus.

: Sure. I grew up in northwest Ohio in a small town called St. Henry Ohio. That's about two hour drive from here and I moved here for college. I started at Columbus State because I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do. Did about a year and a half there and then decided I wanted to go continue and get a four year degree. After about six major changes I ended up with a communications degree from Ohio Dominican.

: Okay great. So did communication. So I mean where did that leave you I mean did you think I want to do this in a specific industry or no I just had open options.

: I sort of picked the major because it was so open and knowing my personality that I wanted the flexibility to change throughout my career path which I have and that degree did give me that flexibility.

: Ok so you changed a few times. What did you think you wanted to do when you were younger and starting out.

: In first grade I wanted to be an artist OK. My parents save everything and I just found this piece of paper that says I was going to be an artist and my work would be shown in Chicago.

: Wow. So that's very specific so that's what I originally I guess wanted it to be because I know you asked that question at each episode. That's what I started out when I graduated from college though I really wasn't sure and I went into sales because my background I had worked through college putting myself through college working retail jobs throughout Columbus and as well as restaurant jobs and all those types of service industry jobs so I knew that I wanted to kind of home skills into a sales role. And so that was the first job out of college I actually worked for a small computer company right down the road here on Dublin road called retro box and Internet. And I did some international development for them. OK. And then changed careers again went back to retail and then went back into corporate sales again at the Columbus Dispatch. And there I decided that I would didn't want to do sales anymore and I wanted to do something really community minded and go into the nonprofit world. And I was lucky enough to get into experience Columbus which then started my path down tourism. So as you can see the communications degree did help me bounce around a little bit. But I found my really my setting and working for a nonprofit specific to Columbus area.

: Great. And of course I also worked at experience Columbus and we have a lot of friends in common. And that place has really been pivotal in so many people's lives and perhaps changing their career paths because they get there and they realize that there's so much about this city that's undiscovered and that's really wonderful.

: And it's been it's been a it's been a great thing for me because it did get me to where I am with the chamber as well. Absolutely. I agree. But certainly you know it's I know you didn't state experience Columbus you had a couple of other experiences in between there and where you are now also.

: So from experience Columbus I went to the election center for the Arts for a little while and did some sponsorship and development and membership there and then I went to the Ohio history connection and did marketing for that statewide organization. So they have 50 plus history sites throughout the state. So that was great because then I was on the other side of the tourism world. I was on the attractions side. I understood how the museum worked their stress points you know being low on staff often. And how do you get things done or how do you market to a wide variety of audiences throughout the state. Sure. So some great marketing exposure there too. So I was pretty content there until this job opened up at destination Grandview which is the great opportunity one that doesn't come along very often. And so I felt like I could take everything I had learned in membership and tourism sales that experience Columbus as well as the everything I learned on the attraction side of things into this role and take my tourism skills even further.

: So what was it that was so desirable about this position. I mean besides all of the experience that you could bring to it but it's a small growing organization. You came in when it was they were really trying to take the next step to take destination maybe to the next level and give it more exposure.

: So well first and foremost I loved Grandview so I thought anything that I had done in my past if I followed my passion it was going to be successful. I felt like I was going to be a win win for myself and the organization. So right away I always loved Green VOA for a variety of reasons. You know I came over her study Dustoff in college and hung out here all the time in college. A lot of first dates here in college I filio and places like that. So that's really first and foremost. I was like Oh that's a great area and that should be on the map for years and they should be getting some of the tourism dollars. And with the addition of the second hotel and the grand event center in the ground the yard I knew that they were positioning themselves to foray into that market.

: Absolutely. And so you mentioned going back to the very beginning of your answer you mentioned bringing your passion to something. What is your passion if you could identify a couple.

: So as far back as college when I moved to Columbus I just fell in love with everything local. And it wasn't that easy then to find things local it was sort of you know now it's just everywhere. Everything's local. We're hyper local but at the time you know in the mid 90s there the local thing was sort of there but wasn't celebrated as much. And so one of my first jobs in college was actually had hired Designer Craftsmen a show of hands which was that lean on a shopping center of Arlington. And I really learned how to promote those local artists and I saw the value in what they were doing and then I saw the value in the service that we were providing to the community of exposing them to this great artwork being created by people in Ohio. So I've always sort of had that in me. And so that's what really brought me into wanting to wanting this position even more because it's something I've always done is celebrated local and this was the way to do it and a great community.

: Well that's that's awesome. So what are the differences with destination going to you when you first started and now a couple of years down the road what have you done to grow the organization.

: Ok so a couple of things that I did right off the bat was to sort of start packaging things in the area. So you know we have great microbreweries and tap rooms. So packaging those but also packaging them in a way so that a visitor coming into the hotel would be able to find them in an easy manner. So we have some brochure cards at the hotels promoting those bars and breweries and restaurants and things with the distance from the hotel so that we really take that sort of proximity thing out of it so people realise that there's this great neighbourhood you know within a mile within walking distance from their hotel.

: So that was one thing we did right off the bat was package things for the immediate visitor coming in the door during sort of leisure traveler business traveler sure and proximity kind of took that piece out of it to not be intimidating to the visitor but proximity is a huge deal for the Grandview area specifically because the proximity to downtown Columbus to the Short North arts district to the Arena District is amazing.

: I mean we we are positioned Grandview is positioned beautifully to draw some of those visitors in from even downtown and conventions that are taking place there is that accurate absolutely every every promotion that we do that's a national promotion we make sure that we use just those places in all of our advertisements so we always say Ohio State downtown the Arena District in the Short North arts district of course. So we always try to position ourselves in a way that people can link us to those destinations that they might be coming in for that there's this great neighbourhood right next door or to stay in and then visit those neighbours as well yeah good.

: So what do you do to market the area. I mean what are your primary initiatives. The green View area is not huge shirt. So thinking that it could really be a destination might be difficult for some people who are somewhat familiar with the area like you know when go going. What are you going to do with view.

: So when starting I'm trying to find out I've been in a position about a year year and a half now. So one of the things I've been doing since I started is to try to find the right markets for us and trying to keep our feet in all those markets and try to figure out what is the fit. Where does Grandview fit and says some of the markets that we've looked at doing our weddings for instance which I love that market for the entire neighborhood because you can do everything from get your imitations up Peabody paper on Grandview avenue you can have a great rehearsal dinner at the Avner's steak restaurant you could have a bachelorette party down at Hofstra house and then you could stay at the hotel and obviously have your wedding at the grand event centre so it really a wedding has the most economic impact for the entire area. So that's one market I went after right away because they felt like that was one that would speak to so many people and affect us all in a positive manner and then also tour bus market that's another market that I've always been involved in way back since experience Colombus so that market we go after and typically that when we've done a lot of partnerships I'm all about partnerships and locally I work still with closely with experience Columbus and others DVDs on trying to attract that bus market here.

: We're not necessarily going to get them to always stay overnight here but we will get them through to perhaps TOPIK cream and that's due to her Watershed Distillery. Those types of things so we're always keeping our keeping them in our vision and then the other markets would be of course for leisure traveller which we retail a lot I feel through social media we have a really strong Instagram presence of over 13000 followers on just Instagram and growing so I think we reach a lot of the leisure travelers through those through our social media efforts and then meeting in event planners with the grand event centre. It's a great venue for those conferences and conventions but also another thing that I recently completed was a Event Centre document so I package all of the great event spaces in Grandview and there are some really great ones that I don't think a lot of people were even aware of that you could maybe rent this restaurant out or this museum has a downstairs conference centre that you can rent out. So we package all those details that are specific to meeting planners that they want to know about how many rounds will fit in the room. This kind of detailer onto one document and then we'll push that out through social media as well and it's also downloadable on our website.

: It is downloadable that going to be next. Absolutely.

: And then if you need specific information about any of those venues I have a entire database. Now all those details like if they accept outside caterers that type of thing so you can always reach out to me directly and I'll help you with that.

: Great. I know going back to my many many years ago to experience Colombus we attended. I was within the bus market so we attended trade shows you know to try to educate people on everything Columbus had to offer. Is that something you're doing but on a smaller level.

: Sure absolutely. Back to partnerships. So locally I am working with experience Calmas and other CVB. But on a statewide effort we have a program called Ohio has it which is a co-op of CVB and attractions went together to focus on the bus market as a state. So we co-op our dollars together so that we can send an attendee to those conferences throughout the country so that we're all represented at those conferences when we come back those leads are shared to be more affordable to do it that way. Absolutely. And then another example of trade shows. I will attend small market meetings once a year. That is one show that I budgeted for because I think that makes sense for shirt in particular weddings trying to figure something out there for we are wedding shows I guess. I haven't done any wedding shows yet OK. Being a CVB it's a little tricky right. Because you're trying to bring in a destination and they tend to want those destinations. All their actions to attend individually but that's for me to attend or to wrap my head around how we're gonna attend that market. But I do advertising through some wedding publications. Absolutely. And we share those leads with our partners that are participating in a wedding program that I'm doing right now with that market.

: So you're the only paid staff member correct. So you wear a lot of hats too. And talk about a typical day. Maybe we should start with telling me the listening audience what is a destination marketing organization. What what do you do.

: Sure. Well just five destinations Grandview is mission is to showcase the best of greater Grandview Heights to visitors. In a nutshell. OK so we do that in a variety of ways that I discussed previously on a day to day basis. I do have help with our social media through Cheryl Harrison at speech bubble. She does yes she does a phenomenal job with our social media. So I'm very thankful for that. Although I am a person of one she does do a lot of the work as far as social media efforts go. And that's been really great. But on a day to day basis I'm trying to focus on things on those markets individually so I try to break my day up on Kitcher day we've got to work on promotions for the wedding season because if it's that time of the year or if it's planning season for tour bus operators we'll look at that market and then also with meeting in event planners. So there really is a cadence once I got into this for about a year of when the shows fall when they're planning. And so I have set my marketing calendar according to that.

: Great. But you're also having to do research on trends. What's going on with other communities CVB around the SHC bebes. But destination marketing organizations around the region and what they're doing so.

: Absolutely. And again one of the groups that I'm a partner with is the Ohio Travel Association. They do some great workshops and those types of things I attend an annual conference. They are to stay on top of trends. Some of the best trendy ideas though at this conference has come from networking with my peers and we are the thing about the tourism world and I'm sure you can attest to this. It's a really close knit community. There were not super competitive we know that we're all in this together and if we work together we'll all benefit from that outcome of working.

: I do remember that and loving that we openly shared successes and challenges and we all learned from that and embraced partnership says as you've alluded to a couple of times that oh my gosh it helps so much if you can plan a bus trip with a partner organization because maybe you have a half days worth of something to do for fifty five passengers on a bus. But then you can partner with somebody else but also just as I said sharing successes and challenges and learning from those and making it organization better.

: I mean every other month with Kaddo which is the capital area tourism association and that is made up of executive directors and immediate Columbus area. So Dublin Hilliard Yohanna were all there and we discuss some of those trends and topics and judicial things that we might be interested in.

: Great. So are there any new things on the horizon that you can even share with us of things that are coming to the area or are things to look forward to or new packages.

: Well I think in Grandview specifically I think an area to watch would be good deal. I think we've seen some interesting businesses coming in there. There's a distillery going in along there.

: When is that set to open. Do you know ish. Okay. That's good. You're right. Goodale has been transformed already so much and there's so much more of it to come right.

: And I have met with that distillery. I just don't know their start date but I can tell from their Instagram they're moving pretty rapidly. Yeah we're excited about that. But I do think that Goodell is going to just continue to expand Granby crossing which will be a Dublin Road and Grand Avenue. I think it's really exciting to watch as well. There is a proposed hotel going in there too. And then across from the grand Biard crossing the grand via grand event center there's about 10 acres of land being developed there too. So there's a lot of development coming into the area.

: So we're excited about that is a hotel and Green Bay Crossing this proposed set to be on the Grandview side of that property I know it's kind of split between Columbus and Grandview.

: The initial article I read said yes it would fall on the grant park.

: Great for you. Yes but actually it's really exciting for the whole area. But certainly last year Grandview yeah because funding from Destination grab you. People should know is primarily generated by tax revenue. That's correct. OK so another hotel would certainly be an added budget.

: Absolutely. And then is revenues that come in from the hotel about tax don't entirely go to me. They're also shared with organizations like the parks and rec department Harang or parks stability and growth right.

: But that's that's exciting. Very exciting.

: You know growing up in this area I have said many many times that where you sit with the grand event center and the hotels around there in the Graham yard specifically it was a grocery store you know warehousing facility. Who would have thought that is what it is today with this beautiful development and hotels and an event center and more to come. So it's really exciting to see the changes. Absolutely. You're there in the middle of it every day right.

: Absolutely. It's a great area to be in. Lots of growth going on down there I think you'll hear some announcements and other things coming down there too soon.

: I hope so. It's exciting. It's started out as a 15 year project. I don't know how much that's been set aside. Yes so we're about maybe a seven or eight years into that so I'm sure there's plenty more to come. That's good sign. I'm really good.

: I think we're continuing to see growth in Grandview and some great new merchants coming in and a lot of them are still the local flavor that people look for.

: Absolutely there's a lot to do in Grandview. You have taken this organization to a new level which I know that's what you were tasked with but you're definitely the right person. We're so happy to have you promoting our area.

: I appreciate that and everyone has been so great to work with every merchant I've met with is really open and welcoming to providing you with their input and insight on what they see. And you know part of it is just me educating them of where they fit into the tourism world.

: And I think that's it. I think it's education. You know I think a lot of these people come to grab you because they know it's vibrant they know it's close to all some major areas of downtown or not downtown Columbus. And it's it's clearly a great place to be. But educating them on working together and partnering and where they fit in the puzzle is so important. So I know you're doing a great job of that and we love at the chamber working with you of course to promote our area. And I think it's a great partnership. Absolutely. Thanks for all of your support. Thanks so much. We look forward to seeing Graham you continue to grow with all this new stuff coming in and continuing to promote the area. Great. Thanks so much for your time. Thanks for joining me.