GOP Civic Fest Fiasco

[Avidor]

KSTP:

http://kstp.com/article/stories/S569605.shtml?cat=1

Check out this blog:

http://notdrinkingthekoolaid.blogspot.com/

[ISUGRADIA]

1. It was a joke

I will be interested in seeing what numbers they release. Poorly publicized and when I went, twice, each time there was a small crowd and many seemed to be bused in delegates, not the general public. The vendor areas were dead and they were not happy there.

[Avidor]

2. MnIndy Says Civic Fest was a "Civic Bust"

http://www.minnesotaindependent.com/7955/civicfest-was-a-civicbust

Among the widely trumpeted 8 billion RNC-related media impressions of the Twin Cities were a few distinctly negative impressions created by a Minneapolis Convention Center event called CivicFest. It was meant to draw 150,000 media representatives, schoolchildren, RNC delegates and other visitors to see exhibits such as a replica of the White House and to shop for Minnesota gift items.

But even after they dropped the $15 fee that might have sent budget-minded civics-seekers scurrying for low-cost alternatives, officials say attendance only reached 50,000. Event vendors want their $2,500 booth fees back, one telling the Star Tribune hours went by when no one came.

Cheryl Luger, a local government watchdog who can make any day a festival in civics, tracked the project from its inception 10 months ago as a “Delegate Experience/Community Festival,” when Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak proposed and the city council approved spending $200,000 on the event. “During a tight budget year, this matter came forward late in the game,” Luger recalls. Now she wants taxpayers reimbursed.

The plan was to convert RNC hoopla into convention center promotion, since many attending the RNC would be people “with strong influence over or responsibility for where their organizations hold future meetings and conventions.” The $200,000 outlay during a tight budget year was justified because “individuals who visit Minneapolis as a convention attendee or visitor are much more likely to have a favorable impression of our community, and more likely to want to return.”

CivicFest appears to have accomplished the exact opposite. One vendor told KSTP: ”I will never come back to a convention in this town because of being misled. They lost my business for life.”

... Mpls press release:

"Mayor Rybak Declares MSP Republican National Convention a Success"

http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/mayor/news/20080905newsmayor_rncasuccess.asp

[Love Bug]

3. I didn't even hear of it until now,

and even if I had, I would have avoided what sounds like something designed to suck up to the RNC delegates.