Three Miami-based organizations launched a joint marketing campaign designed to promote Miami-Dade County as a destination for business, meetings, and travel at the “Miami: Where Worlds Meet” reception Thursday. About 100 local business leaders, tour operators, and media representatives attended the event at One Up Restaurant & Lounge.
“It’s fairly simple. We’re here to promote Miami as the ultimate live, work, play destination,” said Rolando Aedo, senior vice president of marketing and tourism for the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, which partnered with the city’s economic development agency—the Beacon Council—and the Miami Downtown Development Authority on the campaign.
“This is a relatively new collaboration. We’ve been in operation in our community for 20 plus years, but this is probably the closest that we’ve ever worked,” Aedo said. “We decided this is the right thing to do because although we have somewhat different missions, there is significant overlap.” The organizations, held a similar event earlier this year in Paris and launched the campaign in New York in mid-March. “We’re looking to do more of these moving forward,” Aedo said.
Holly Wiedman, executive vice president of the Beacon Council, said that most American cities tend to promote tourism and business development separately. “I think it’s a really unique partnership,” she said. “You don’t see it in any of the major cities in the United States where you have a promotion where everybody works together to have that multi campaign to work, play, and do business.”
The organizations worked with Development Counsellors International, a New York-based PR company, to coordinate the event. Organizers placed signage around the room, which highlighted the purpose of the campaign and outlined the funding partners. Television screens broadcast images of Miami, and a photographer from a New York-based company called Catch the Moment took images of guests in front of a green screen. (Guests could select one of four backdrops of Miami for their photos.) Gift bags included a note card from the Miami Downtown Development Authority reminding guests that the average temperature in Miami in March is 23 degrees.
