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A WOW to the Southwest Louisiana Convention and Visitors Bureau

I've become accustomed to great service at the Southwest Louisiana Convention and Visitors Bureau. So accustomed, as a matter of fact, that I've probably taken them for granted.

Of course, the CVB does a great job of their core service which is pretty significant. Here's a short list of what this group does:

serve leisure travelers media professionals, convention planners, sporting groups and those in the travel trade.
provide information on Southwest Louisiana regarding attractions, events, accommodations, dining and more. This includes a terrfic website.
provide royalty free photos, great pages for linking from real estate sites, and a beautiful builidng to start/stop area tours

Just last year, a group I fell in with called on me to call on the CVB for an 11th hour need. Rather than an attitude of "Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part", Executive Director Shelly Johnson and crew responded in their typical, cordial fashion. I was impressed and thankful.

Today, I sent an e-mail to Director Johnson. In minutes, a reply from her AND the director of sales offering to help for what promises to be a great TEX/LA gathering of bloggers in 2009.

Shelley and Tico...What Outstanding Work!

Thanks

Posted by Mary Kay Hopkins on 08/14/2008 02:48 PM

Comments (10)

southwest louisiana

This post has been included in Louisiana Information Calcasieu Parish, LA Information
Post is included in group: Texas Louisiana Get Together Planning Group

10 Comments on A WOW to the Southwest Louisiana Convention and Visitors Bureau

AUG

2008

MK, I'm really looking forward to planning and attending the Texas Louisiana Active Rain Gathering!!! Derenda & I have been "brainstorming" about this for months!!! :)

MK, I'm excited to have CVB helping us with planning the Texas Louisiana Active Rain Gathering. WOW!!! It's going to be great. No one will want to miss this Gathering!!!

AUG

2008

I would love to be involved in the planning for this event! What can I do to help?

Judi, so sorry I could not get with you when you were in Lake Charles last time. Regardless, it would be so approriate to use the blog as a way to gather all those brainstorming efforts. Did I read something about a Texas gathering this weekend?

Emily, as you can see we are in the early stages so this is a great time to get involved. Let us know what sort of organizational effort you like the most and we'll try to plug you in to something you enjoy. One thing I'm going to toss out is that we try to find some sponsors to help defray expenses. We could do the normal gold, silver, bronze levels but with more appropriate names. So, if you are one who doesn't mind approaching businesses for sponsorships, let us know.

MK, yes, there's an Active Rain Gathering/Jason Crouch's Birthday Celebration in Austin tomorrow in Austin. Hey, if you, Derenda and Emily can get there, you are certainly welcomed to come! We'd love to see y'all.

I took the initiative last night to contact a few of my Texas AR members to ask them to help out with the planning/organization of the event. I asked Deb Brooks (Lake Livingston/Huntsville/Houston area and she has accepted. I asked Jason Crouch to represent the Austin area, and Amanda Hall for Ft. Worth/Dallas area. We have the 3 of you from Lake Charles and Lisa Heindel from New Orleans and me from San Antonio. We should get lots of creative ideas from this group!

MK, the gatherings have been fairly simple get-togethers in the past. Usually meeting at a restaurant to network, lunch, dinner or drinks for a couple of hours. Of course, the one we held in April in Bandera was the barbeque and lasted from around noon until the late afternoon/early evening. There have been a few blogging workshops/seminars/classes -- one in Tennessee and one in Phoenix/Scottsdale. I had a couple of requests for a blogging workshop at the one in Bandera but there was no internet access at the location so we couldn't do it and the request came late in the planning stage. So, I thought we'd be able to fit it into the schedule for the Gathering in Lake Charles and by adding it to the agenda early, we'd be able to focus on finding a place with wireless internet access (for those who don't have aircards) to hold the class/workshop/seminar and have one of the Active Rain Guys teach it. I contacted Brad Andersohn because he & I have been "friends" from the time I joined -- actually, I think we joined around the same time and look at what he's done!!! :)

Haven't heard from Jason or Amanda yet, but Jason's busy still getting settled in his new office and finalizing the plans for tomorrow's AR Gathering & JC's B'day Party!!! I'll talk to him about it tomorrow if we get a chance or one day next week. Then, I'll start twisting Amanda's arm and will have Lisa H. help me with that! :)

Judi, is it ok for me to quote you in a new blog so it will stand out and serve as a starting point for what our objectives are for the gathering?

All, I've placed the names (definite and pending) we have so far (with great thanks to Judi) within the TexLa group so we can continue the dialogue there.

MK, just read it -- yep, it's ok to quote me. :) I'm looking forward to meeting Amy Richard. Hope the surgery on her foot goes well and her recovery goes well.

AUG

2008

Since this blog was first posted, more appropriate blog topics have been created to deal with these topics. So, to decrease reading/responding, I suggest we close this blog insofar as comments re the AR gathering.

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