I attended the National TEAMS (Travel, Events and Management in Sports) Conference in Las Vegas from October 11-14. Here, I was able to promote the sports venues in Sikeston and Miner and share information about these venues ability to host our events.
TEAMS, presented by Sports Travel magazine, is the world's leading conference and expo for the sports event industry. The 1,200 attendees had the opportunity to participate in networking sessions, personal appointments, a tradeshow and informational conferences.
Conference attendees included sports event organizers and event rights holders, representatives of sports governing bodies and sanctioning organizations and sports commissions and convention bureaus, to name a few. Representatives from sports such as wrestling, basketball, soccer and paintball were available to meet to discuss upcoming event hosting opportunities.
Representatives from 15 convention and visitors bureaus and chambers across Missouri joined together to staff a booth at the conference. By pooling our resources and working as a team, we were able to reach this market at a minimum of the cost.
The project was also a Missouri Cooperative Marketing Program which cut the costs by one half as well. All contacts made at the conference were shared by the 15 representatives and posted on our Web site. We have printed the contacts and are in the process of determining which ones we would be able to host.
If you would like to help us with this process, please call the Convention and Visitors Bureau at 471-6362.
We already have two very successful tournaments held in our cities. They are the Ed Nunnelee Tennis Tournament which is held in the spring and the 12th annual Bootheel Invitational Youth Soccer Classic. The Soccer Classic was just here on Nov. 3-5. We hosted 130 teams from four states; what an economic boom for our area.
Thank you to all the sponsors and volunteers who make this event such a success.