By Steve Taylor
Rio Grande Guardian
McALLEN, Oct. 3 - McAllen civic and business leaders are set to mount a major marketing effort nationally, locally, and in Mexico.
Some aspects of the ad campaign were unveiled to chamber of commerce officials from the state of Tamaulipas by McAllen Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Steve Ahlenius. He did not say how much was being spent on the campaign.
“McAllen is going to be running an ad campaign along the Rio Grande Valley from Matamoros to Reynosa promoting McAllen as a destination for restaurants and shops within the next 90 days. We are also going to run some of that campaign in northern Mexico,” Ahlenius said, during a power-point presentation. “That’s going to shoehorn into a larger campaign that is going to happen nationally, both in Texas and the national market.”
Ahlenius made his remarks when his Chamber hosted a meeting of the Rio Grande Valley-Tamaulipas Chambers of Commerce group.
Ahlenius said the City of McAllen, McAllen Economic Development Corporation and the McAllen Chamber of Commerce would be jointly hosting news conferences in Saltillo, Monterrey, San Luis Potosi and Ciudad Victoria to promote the opening of the Anzalduas International Bridge.
“Obviously, those markets are critical to Mexican visitors coming here. We want them coming through the new bridge, through the Hidalgo Bridge, or any of the other bridges, that gets them to the U.S,” he said.
Part of the marketing strategy will include the promotion of McAllen as a growing destination for arts and entertainment. Ahlenius said the city has commissioned three different artists to design high quality pieces of art that will be displayed in different parts of the city. The money for this is coming for a $25,000 public art grant, he said.
In addition, McAllen will be hosting over 100 artists from across Mexico during an arts event last two and a half days next February. “It’s going to be fun. We are going to have music, it will be a family event and I think you are going to enjoy it,” Ahlenius said. Luis Cantu, a native of Houston who lived in Mexico for many years will be in charge of this project. Cantu is vice president of Community Development and Inter-American Relations for the Chamber.
There will also be a major “matchmaking” event to connect businesses in McAllen with businesses in Sinaloa, Mexico. “It is all about fostering business opportunities between our community and communities in Mexico,” Ahlenius said.
In addition to announcing the marketing campaign, Ahlenius spoke at length about a critical new role the chamber had identified for itself – providing added value to the group’s members and the wider community. “If we are not creating wealth or adding value to our members and to the business community then we have failed our mission as a business association,” he said.
Ahlenius said the days are long gone when the Chamber would put on an event and then go home saying, ‘that was a good event.’
“How do you know it is a good event? How do you measure success? Is it profitable?” Ahlenius asked. He said he tells folks that the McAllen Chamber is a non-profit in name only. “We are a business association run by business people. The expectation is that we are also profitable. When we do things we are not losing money, we are making money,” he said.
Ahlenius said his Chamber is also “highly productive” because it has to be. “We have got to produce and we have got to produce more with less,” he explained. He said he has a story he likes to tell to illustrate this point. Five years ago he visited Ireland to see a new Dell computer manufacturing complex. The plant manager explained that Dell’s goal in the next 18 months was to cut a billion dollars in expenses through gearing up the new factory “That’s phenomenal. I think our challenge as an operation is, how do we get more out of less - because everybody else is,” Ahlenius said.
Ahlenius listed some important attributes a chamber of commerce has to have, including high customer satisfaction, positive relationships, both inside and outside of an organization, and innovation. “Businesses create innovation. The challenge for chambers is to become innovative, to try new things, not to do the same things over again over again,” he said. A chamber can become irrelevant if it does the same things over and over, he said.
Ahlenius said there are five key areas the McAllen Chamber is focusing on to bring about added value to the community. The five are securing conventions, bringing tourists to the city, fostering creativity, fostering innovation, and entrepreneurial development.
With regard to the new $65 million convention center, Ahlenius said the aim is to book 20,000 hotel room nights a year for events connected with the center.
With regard to attracting tourists, the Chamber is specifically targeting two types, the Mexican national and the nature tourist, Ahlenius said. He pointed out that the Chamber has an office in Monterrey and that a “good deal of money” is spent on advertising aimed at Mexican nationals that could be spending a weekend in the city. “We feel very strongly that we have a lot of the restaurant and retail experiences that people are looking for,” Ahlenius said.
With regard to McAllen becoming home to a vibrant class of creative thinkers, Ahlenius cited Richard Florida’s book, The Rise of the Creative Class. In the book, Florida argues that artists, educators, scientists, engineers and the like are the driving force behind innovation, entrepreneurial activity and economic growth.
“The communities of 21st century that succeed will be the ones that foster arts; that foster creativity, those where people want to go to experience different things,” Ahlenius said.
The City of McAllen was catering to such people, Ahlenius said, pointing to Art Walk, an arts-related event that takes place on the first Friday evening of each month on Main Street. He also pointed to the live music on offer in Archer Park and the convention center. Another example, he said, is the creative incubator the McAllen Chamber runs, which has 16 different studios for graphic designers, photographers, filmmakers and other artists to work in. He said the Chamber has awarded $16,000 in grants to local artists over the last year.
A great example of creative people being a driving force in the economy, Ahlenius said, are the two guys that created You Tube in a garage in Palo Alto, California. About 18 months ago You Tube was sold for over a billion dollars, Ahlenius said. “Our board has made a commitment to do things that foster inventors, people who have new ideas, whether it is software, technology, etc. The idea is to get that concept from the garage to the market place,” Ahlenius said.
Focusing on innovation is also a key area, Ahlenius said. The Chamber is providing up to $10,000 in grants to someone who has a good idea that needs to get to a market place. That money can be used for patent searches, testing, prototype development, filings, etc. “The idea is to move that project along for them as far as what they are wanting to see happen,” Ahlenius explained.
Another area the McAllen Chamber is focusing on is entrepreneurship. Ahlenius said this is a critical component for any chamber. He said a small business grant would be awarded to a McAllen area business, probably within the next 60 days, worth up to $25,000. “The idea is to help to grow that small business,” he said. The Chamber also has an entrepreneurial boot camp that is run in conjunction with the University of Texas-Pan American. Ahlenius said this program helps put entrepreneurs in contact with investors who are looking at opportunities to help locally grown small businesses. Ahlenius also pointed to a business plan competition the Chamber runs with South Texas College. The student with the best business plan gets $1,000, the student with the second best business plan gets $750, and the third placed student gets $250. “We do that every semester. The idea is to get college kids thinking about starting their own business,” Ahlenius said.
Matchmaking events are also important to the McAllen Chamber. Recently, the Chamber hosted an event with the state of Veracruz. About 30 businesses from Veracruz and 15 from the Valley were matched to try to foster deals. “That’s what it comes down to. If we are not fostering those types of exchanges, if we are not providing those types of opportunities to our members to do business we have really missed the boat in terms of what we need to be doing in this community,” Ahlenius said.
One new program the McAllen Chamber will be launching, probably within the next 60 days, is helping Latinas who want to run their own business. The program is being launched in association with Wells Fargo Bank, which has chipped in $10,000. It will be called the Latina HOPE program. Hope stands for Home, Office, Part time, Entrepreneur. “It’s for women who are at the poverty level who, by having a home-based business, can make an additional $200 or $300 a month, to help supplement their income, from their homes. That idea was taken from a lot of businesses that we have seen in Mexico,” Ahlenius said.
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