Thursday, November 6, 2008

Public Relations For River Walks

Writen by Lance Winslow

When a city decides to put in a River Walk like San Antonio Texas did they often must spend significant redevelopment dollars in advance and the city has to also believe this is the best for all concerned. Recently on a whirl-wind tour across America; I had stopped at several cities wishing to put in a River Walks with water features to attract people and tourists.

During this trip, I had gone to Rancho Mirage CA, Dayton NV, Columbus GA, Wichita KS, Idaho Falls and Caldwell ID to name just a few and talked with economic development folks, Chambers of Commerce and City Planners who were trying to key off what they had done in San Antonio and later in Oklahoma City.

All these Economic Development folks and one was a former advisor to the Carter Administration seem to understand that the key to the projects success was not merely a; Build it and They Will Come Strategy, but rather a full blown public relations effort to get local community buy-in. It became quite evident to me that that for these projects to succeed a much needed emphasis on public relations was indeed needed. In the end this is how San Antonio’s River Walk has become World Famous. Please Consider all this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

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