High school nationals bid

[PenforPrez]

I feel more comfortable discussing this topic now. I just wanted to get some things cleared up before I discussed this openly.

The company I write for does the largest high school quiz bowl nationals event in the country. I thought an excellent long-term goal for my own projects would be to bring the tournament to St. Louis. The tournament has been in Chicago the last three years, and in various other locales before that.

So far, things have been fairly easy. I'm finding my dream of this tournament very easy to pursue. I had a vision of teams playing in rooms downtown with a view of the Gateway Arch in the background. So far, so good there. :D

Now, I'm to the hard part: publicity. This tournament has never been covered by local media; nobody in this country cares. The media coverage we had last year was from *Japan*. :rolleyes: That's incredibly sad. But I've got friends with connections in the STL media, and I'm hoping I can work that out to some local coverage or publicity.

But I'm very excited about this. Coaches want to have the event in St. Louis, the company wants to have it in St. Louis, and I'm making it happen. That would look really good on the resume. :D

Paul

[cache]

Wow. That's big. Congrats, Paul!

[wordsmith]

I feel more comfortable discussing this topic now. I just wanted to get some things cleared up before I discussed this openly.

The company I write for does the largest high school quiz bowl nationals event in the country. I thought an excellent long-term goal for my own projects would be to bring the tournament to St. Louis. The tournament has been in Chicago the last three years, and in various other locales before that.

So far, things have been fairly easy. I'm finding my dream of this tournament very easy to pursue. I had a vision of teams playing in rooms downtown with a view of the Gateway Arch in the background. So far, so good there. :D

Now, I'm to the hard part: publicity. This tournament has never been covered by local media; nobody in this country cares. The media coverage we had last year was from *Japan*. :rolleyes: That's incredibly sad. But I've got friends with connections in the STL media, and I'm hoping I can work that out to some local coverage or publicity.

But I'm very excited about this. Coaches want to have the event in St. Louis, the company wants to have it in St. Louis, and I'm making it happen. That would look really good on the resume. :D

Paul

A word of advice? Focus on small alternative media in terms of local coverage. They're less likely to blow you off, and look for "off the beaten path" type stuff (which your thing is, if nobody's covering it).

[PenforPrez]

A word of advice? Focus on small alternative media in terms of local coverage. They're less likely to blow you off, and look for "off the beaten path" type stuff (which your thing is, if nobody's covering it).

Makes me wish I still knew the editor of that small newspaper. But I can work that out. No worries. :)

That does make a lot of sense. Especially since the mainstream public doesn't really take notice.

Paul

[wordsmith]

Makes me wish I still knew the editor of that small newspaper. But I can work that out. No worries. :)

That does make a lot of sense. Especially since the mainstream public doesn't really take notice.

Paul

Yup, and if niche publications pick it up, it's more likely that mainstream media will in the future.

[wordsmith]

And follow up, too...multiple times. I'm far more likely to put something in that I wouldn't, otherwise, if somebody gets on my ass about it.

[PenforPrez]

Last night, I finally got to pitch the bid's basics to a friend of mine who is a company officer.

I said: "Financially, this is an offer we can't refuse."
He said: "Why? Are they paying us to come there?"
"Pretty much."

That got his attention! :D He likes the bid as it is, but I have to sell it to The Man. Not a problem; been doing that via email this week. :)

Paul

[PenforPrez]

So this weekend is the most important time for my bid. I need to visit with the decision makers this weekend and draw their attention to what I have. How could it miss? They're paying us to come. :D

It can't miss. I'm on a good hot streak this week, so I need to strike while then iron is hot. I just have to be as confident as I've always been and hit the points I know will strike. No problem. :)

Paul

[PenforPrez]

The tournament this weekend in Chicago went very well; an elite school from Richmond won the national title. That wasn't surprising.

One of my Missouri teams made the deepest playoff run of any MO team since 1999. Their top player ranked second in the individual standings. I told people he was either the best player in the nation or pretty close. I was right! :D

Paul

[PenforPrez]

So I pitched my nationals bid to a lot of people this weekend. Everybody loved the idea of having the tournament in St. Louis. Nobody I talked to absolutely rejected the idea, and it created a lot of discussion at the tournament, which I took as a good sign. :)

Naturally, the top two people came last. I was confident of explaining it to them sufficiently; they're friends of mine, and I just needed to hit my marks.

Pitching it to the #2 was a breeze. His biggest concern was dealt with by a recent rules change here in Missouri. He saw nothing that I had missed, and everything seemed to be workable. He wants me to write it down, which I've already mentally organized.

Then came The Man; the President of the company. I had organized my thoughts to explain to him to try to make it coherent. I started off with the vision I had for the event, then got into the locations and the financials thereof.

I looked him straight in the eye, and I said: "Nobody could match this bid unless they pull a Fortune 500 out of the hat. They're paying us to come."

He gets this look of utter shock, and he goes: "No shit?!"

SCORE!!!

:D:exclaim:

Past that, I had his full attention, especially when I told him how much. He said quite clearly the hotel we have the tournament in now in Chicago probably wouldn't match it financially. But there's other considerations, and I impressed him with most of those, and the months of thinking and planning I've done paid off. He could tell how clearly I've thought most of this out, and he was impressed.

I felt on top of the world at that point. Things are looking very good for my bid right now. I have a lot riding on it, and I'm very optimistic that I'll win. :)

Paul

[PenforPrez]

The two top people at the quiz bowl company I write for wanted something written up with my ideas for the St. Louis bid. Took me two weeks and 6 1/2 pages (single spaced in 11-point type), but I did it. I emailed it to the closest people to the bid last night.

Now, the President of the company is talking about coming down to take a look at the locations. It keeps moving forward. Forward is good. :)

Paul

[PenforPrez]

Officially, as of this morning, I have lost my bid for 2008. Disappointing yes, but it's only a minor setback. I gave it a hell of a good run and did the best I could. I simply have to move the goal to 2009. I'm on the right track; just didn't quite work this time.

Paul