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This Culture Vulture's Really a Lamb
OCA head tapped to run Market New Haven, too
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Business New Haven
2/3/2003
By: BNH
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Last month directors of Market New Haven named Barbara Lamb to fill the vacant executive director's job. Lamb is also director of the city's Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA) and executive director of New Haven Festivals Inc.
When did you become head of the Office of Cultural Affairs?
In 1997 I was hired by the city to do economic development. Because of my background in the arts, I became the main liaison [between the mayor's office and] the arts community. I began working on economic development that the office hadn't been working on before, related to tourism, arts and marketing. I was assigned to work with the Regional Leadership Council subcommittee that ultimately resulted in hiring [Baltimore consultant] Sandy Hillman to help put together a plan as to what we should do to try to market ourselves.
A study had already been done that showed that people in greater New Haven had a very negative impression of New Haven and what was going on here - totally out of line with the reality of New Haven at that time. We were still suffering the reputation developed in the early 1990s. There was disagreement about whether we should try to change people's behavior, or change perceptions. Since we couldn't come to a consensus we decided to hire a consultant.
Sandy Hillman won the contract hands-down. She said you have to [change perceptions and behaviors] simultaneously, give people a reason to come and visit - be it festivals, events, restaurants, shopping. When you get them in here and they see what a great place it is, they'll want to come back.
How did Market New Haven come about?
The plan said to create an organization totally dedicated to marketing the city. It shouldn't be an add-on function for the Town Green [Special Services District] or the Convention & Visitors Bureau or the chamber of commerce. Those organizations have very specific missions.
Who foots the bill for Market New Haven?
It is jointly funded by the city, Yale, the Community Foundation and several corporations. The annual budget is around $1 million. There are three staff members. The focus had been on events and retail promotions. There is advertising, some event support, some branding and then generating press releases and getting the media interested in writing positive stories about New Haven.
What's in Market New Haven's immediate future?
We're winding down our third year. We are going to be looking to developing another fundraising campaign. We'll be looking to get additional commitments from Yale, the city and our business partners and hopefully new business partners. I'm taking [Market New Haven] on for no additional compensation. Assuming the funding is not there, we'll scale back to meet whatever funding we do have. I feel strongly when people look seriously at the program and all of the plans we are formulating now, it would make sense to continue to fund it and for new funders to come on board.
There aren't exactly extra dollars around now.
Anyone who knows about marketing and advertising knows that the first thing you do in a recession is not cut back on your marketing expanses. In terms of continuing to try to attract more businesses here, more people to live in New Haven and buy homes and for people to feel good about coming in and spending money, we need to continue to give them a reason to do that. One thing that Market New Haven has been successful at is attracting people from farther away; we're getting more buzz beyond the borders of greater New Haven. We now are generating interest from travel writers and others from various parts of the country who want to know more about New Haven. There is no other city of its size that has what New Haven has to offer. Not only the high-quality arts and cultural offerings but the great restaurants, shopping, parks, the great universities. Show me another city of 125,000 people that has what we have.
Isn't there a lot of overlap in marketing effort and focus among the Convention & Visitors Bureau, Market New Haven and the Town Green District?
This appointment will help eliminate some of that overlap. I'm working very closely with [CVB Director] Karolyn Kirchgesler and Scott Healy from Town Green, as well as Tony Resicgno from the chamber. Collectively we are sharing resources, that's why we are collaborating with Scott on the Infonewhaven.com Web site and with Karolyn to develop a whole program for promoting New Haven in collaboration with what they're doing.
Is that new?
It's been going on piecemeal. The Office of Cultural Affairs under my direction has always prided itself in collaborating wherever we can. We're always looking for partners. Now we have a group to advise Market New Haven. The board is made up of the head of the chamber, the CVB, Town Green, Market New Haven, Office of Cultural Affairs, the Arts Council and Yale. We can take a collective view on marketing New Haven, on events and all the things we're doing and want to do.
Who is on the board?
[Yale Vice President for New Haven & State Affairs] Bruce Alexander, the chair; Henry Fernandez, economic development administrator for New Haven; Karen Dawes who was a marketing VP from Bayer and is now an independent consultant; Wes Bray, principal of [Marketing Drive Worldwide] of Wilton, also a marketing consultant; and Tony Vallillo of UI.
Looking at 2003, what are the priorities?
No. 1 is to merge the staffs [of the Office of Cultural Affairs and Market New Haven]. The staffs will stay on the payroll of the original employers but they'll be working on events together. The total staff is six people. No. 2 is to do some heavy-duty public relations, national PR, and we will be putting together a plan for that.
Who cares what they think of New Haven in South Dakota?
If you're a business here and you're trying to recruit high-level management, or a university trying to attract faculty or students, or a developer that wants to build a project like a hotel or a conference center, you want to make sure that people want to come to New Haven. If someone is sitting out in Omaha and making a decision about their national conference of cardiologists, you want the people sitting around the table to say, 'I heard that's a great place, a hopping little town.'
Two years out what would you like to have accomplished?
I would like New Haven to begin to have established a reputation - around the country but especially between New York and Boston - as a great place to visit, to come for great restaurants, great shopping, great jazz, other events like the International Festival, to be seen as an exciting center for theater and culture in general.
What has been or should be done to promote New Haven's business environment?
Word is getting out because it's conveniently located between New York and Boston, we're on the intersection of I-91 and I-95, , on the Amtrak line now downtown is serviced by the State Street [rail] station. In the Register today, this international firm is moving in from Madison to New Haven. I think the word is generally getting out that New Haven in open for business and is a great place to do business. We have the Connecticut venture capital fair [Crossroads], which moved here two years ago from Stamford.
New Haven's always been between Boston and New York. What's Market New Haven's role?
The role we play is to help get that word out. I don't think we're going to do any straight advertising that New Haven is a place to move your business. I think everything we do will feed into that.
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