BREAKING NEWS :

What must happen quickly?

Promotions to quickly move Langley forward are not difficult or necessarily expensive. Every thing outlined below is not new. They are common sense events and promotions that are used by thousands of cities very effectively. I have implemented many in other towns for years and they work. Many of them could be implemented by summer and the Christmas season. The others would all be in place for next year if we start now. Below is an outline of many events that will bring tourism to Langley. The key is data gathering to plan and refine each event. This is TOTALLY absent now from the chamber and the tourism fund from the city. 

CHRISTMAS: start early, possibly July or August and hold a contest for holiday house decorating. Have awards for best home with several categories. Animated best use of lights, most artistic etc. Have awards for best block with the same categories. Have the same awards and categories for merchants as well. People love to take the family and visit these neighborhoods. This is an event that is easily promoted in the mainland papers and media outlets. It is something that can be promoted for the entire month of December. The tree lighting event should be over two weekends for maximum response. The same for the Christmas parade. There should be a Santa that moves to different businesses each night the events are held. Some of the ways to package this would be:

 
• Work with mainland TV and newspapers to do coverage as well as posting in weekend sections.
• Place small display ads that feature a discount coupon to be redeemed at food outlets during these events.
• Work with Inns and B&B’s to have elaborate decorations and promote weekend packages.
• Encourage Inns and B&B’s to hold Christmas ceremonies such as tree decorating sing long’s and make them child friendly. Encourage families to spend Christmas at the location and exchange gifts. There are Inns that have done this for many years such as the Awhanee in Yosemite and the Benbow Inn in Garberville. This is a tradition for many and there is a waiting list.
• Create relationships with bus tour companies to bring groups to the Christmas events.
• Have Christmas sing alongs at Churches and WICA. These are easy to promote through churches and senior groups. The bus companies can be a part of this.

 

VALENTINES DAY: Again a natural combination, Langley and valentines day. Sadly the only items a Google search turned up were in years past and mostly in Coupeville? All the obvious tie in like chocolate lovers magazines, web sites etc. What about the award winning wine industry here? I found absolutely no mainland media stories. The bus tour tie in’s are a natural as are vacation web sites. What about some Inns and B&B’s coordinating with single sites and clubs to promote dinners and romantic weekends? Drive over, car pool or a small bus to bring groups. Have music and singles will come. It is not hard to make Langley be inviting for romantic couples to want to come here.

MYSTERY WEEKEND: This event is not well publicized and could be much bigger. My suggestions are:

•  Create a theme that ties into a book or movie popular at the time.
• Hold the event over a weekend but have options to come for one day if necessary for some.
• Coordinate the event/theme with Inns and B&B’s for clues to be part of the stay. There would be bonus clues for patrons. Make sure that the actors circulated through those Inns and B&B’s at publicized times to bring people through the businesses. Make sure every downtown business also had clues to promote foot traffic.
• Effort must be made to encourage businesses to stock for events where possible.
• This event is perfect to jointly promote through bus tour companies. It should be coordinated with the ferry system to time bus loading so only one a trip is in line and given assured loading. Island transit will work to have shuttle buses at a parking area to avoid parking problems.
• This event is easy to promote through book clubs, bookstores on the mainland and clubs.
• A contest sign up is encouraged to gain a large email list. Anyone signing up will get advance bonus clues and notice of other events.

EASTER: Easter is something most every parent celebrates regardless of religious beliefs. Every family with a child or grandparents does the Easter basket and egg roll thing. Create religious and non-religious events. Have an Easter egg hunt starting at a Langley park and have participating businesses give away plastic eggs that have a discount coupon inside to be redeemed within two weeks. Coordinate with local churches to hold a special service that is promoted through mainland churches. A reciprocal agreement is easy to create. A sunrise service at the marina as a multi church event and promoted through mainland outlets. The event could have a breakfast catered through local food businesses at the churches big enough to handle the crowd. The secular side of Easter is huge and needs to be taped into. Having someone dressed as an Easter bunny passing out healthy treats as well as other fun things around the city. Perhaps the puppet guy doing an Easter show several times a day, having people reading Easter stories, secular and non secular in various businesses. The whole idea is to create a tradition that parents will want to return for. Having Inns and B&B’s do similar Easter weekends as a tradition like Christmas.

WELCOME THE WHALES: This event, although fun is too local and needs to be expanded. Besides the parade it could be coordinated with merchants giving away information that will be used to answer a quiz about whales and marine life in the sound. Coordinate with mainland schools that could do a pre study of whales and marine life leading up to the event. Parents would be encouraged to bring their kids for the event and questions asked the next school day about what the kids learned. Tying the event to education at adult and different kid levels will bring more people than locals who just go home without spend any money. A restaurant could get a mold of a whale and serve special pancakes etc. Promote business with a whale of a deal. Again working to bring bus tours to Whidbey is very possible. A serious lecture as well as for kids on whales and marine life could be given in the Clyde and promoted to attract the professional as well as school kids. What ever works to bring bodies to Langley to spend a few dollars.

EARTH DAY: This event currently is held at the Cash Store and is too small. There is enormous interest in this subject. The event needs to spread between the Cash Store and downtown Langley. With a little work many more exhibitors could be provided. Encourage exhibits in a more professional manner with solar and other green energy providers. Have lectures on recycling and on the solar restroom at the Cash Store. Have demonstrations on green roof building and other types of friendly house building. Actually building a straw shed during the weekend where people could get hands on. Have exhibits on First Street. Have lectures and exhibits at the marina. Have business give away information and people can get clues for an earth day quiz and prizes. When I have attended the electric cars that locals built were interesting but there was no information, nobody to answer questions. The builders were spending all their time talking with one person. The event MUST be more professional and tied to commercial businesses and promoted as such. If the event was properly organized and promoted it will appeal to a very large audience on the mainland. This is something that is easy to get on mainland TV and radio.

MOTHERS DAY: Just more of the same type of Inns and B&B’s promotions for the day. Mother’s day is a family event and no reason why more mainland families should not spend it on Whidbey. Specials at restaurants etc. Work senior centers and senior retirement facilities to encourage families visiting grandparents to bring them to Langley. 

MEMORIAL DAY: There are already some memorial day ceremonies but there is no reason why Langley can not work with veteran organizations here to hold a service in Langley to encourage people from the mainland to come. 

CLASSIC CAR SHOW: There is an active classic car club here and by coordinating with other mainland clubs it could be held on first street and a parade later. People who own these cars are usually in the upper income and are the ideal people to see Langley. Create packages with Inns and B&B’s to encourage a weekend stay. Encourage people who act at WICA to dress in period clothes and wander around. Have businesses and the actors give clues for a quiz on classic cars to be held at the end of the event. Take a page from the Monterey event and hold a golf tournament to tie in with the classic car show. It could be expanded to include racecars, cars with a movie history and motorcycles.

THE 4th OF JULY WEEKEND: Fireworks at the beach home rental areas are already big but as far as I can see there is absolutely no tie in with bringing mainland people and families to Whidbey. This does not mean bringing more fireworks but families and couples to view the fireworks. Mainland events already draw thousands and if tie ins with Langley businesses were attractive many of those people could be attracts to south end displays. This could be a big opportunity for Langley with a pre sunset patriotic concert and then buses to Freeland Park for the show and bus back to Langley. This would avoid so many cars clogging Freeland streets. If the first year proves popular then bleachers could be set up and reserved seats sold as a Langley concert/dinner package.

CHOOCHOKAM ARTS FESTIVAL: A nice event as it stands and I may be wrong but I never saw it promoted in the mainland papers or other media outlets to any extent. This would be just as news worthy on mainland TV as any event Seattle has. It just needs some tweaking to move up a notch. Again the obvious tie in with Inns and B&B’s and working with bus tour companies. Doing a Google search I came up with nothing in the mainland media promoting the event. There is a Choochkan web site but it does not offer much. There needs to be live streaming video to start building an audience and interest. The film contest is good but more needs to be done to promote it. Why not cross promote with schools and film schools even out side of Seattle to push the contest? There needs to be some better cross promotion with merchants pushing specials. Again a contest with clues given at booths and merchants with the quiz at the end. As usual it requires an email sign up.

MORE SUMMER EVENTS AROUND THE MARINA: I read that the harbormaster and the Port are planing some events at the marina. This is long overdue and I wonder just how those events will be coordinated with other Langley businesses? This is a natural and like Valentines Day there are single boat clubs that do come here occasionally. There is a huge potential to find specialty interest single clubs and create tie ins with them. Singles are often somewhat affluent and will spend money to impress other singles. 

GET SERIOUS ABOUT LIVELY LANGLEY: Business must cooperate and be open late on Friday and Saturdays. I understand that it is hard to be open with no business but it is the chicken or egg thing. When we start to build foot traffic it will pay off slowly but if people come and no stores are open? The city must have lights like Christmas on to liven up the streets. The city needs to have strolling music from 4pm to closing. It could be the high school jazz band and other local fun music groups. Even the kazoo band is fun. Anything to get some spirit of fun in the streets. Local food establishments should be encouraged to have food carts with pizza, ice cream and coffee move around town. Have a balloon guy making fun stuff for kids. This makes great press and mainland promotions can and will bring new visitors.

CREATE RALLIES FOR SPORTS CAR DRIVERS: Sports car clubs again are often in the upper income brackets and just as bicycle races and marathons are popular here for the beauty so would car rallies be popular. Car rallies are not races at all but well under the speed limits. The object is to follow complex directions at a given speed. The point is if you drive at the precise speed you will arrive at the checkpoint at a precise time. Early or late cost points. The fun is in the navigating challenge. The rally starts at a set location and finishes at another set location. This would tie in with a restaurant and inn for the finish. The entry fee includes a lunch and award dinner at the end. Naturally there is time to wander Langley and weekend packages at Inns and B&B’s.

ISLAND COUNTY FAIR: Although well attended now the possibility for much more is obvious. Bus tours would bring mainland visitors and help parking. Promoting weekend packages at Inns and B&B’s could become a family tradition. When a good marketing plan is created that ties in downtown Langley to the fair TV and radio promotions could be tried. The media promotions should be tied in with major statewide merchants like Les Schwab, Pro Build, Radio Shack, Dairy Queen etc. The ads could be part of a contest with weekend fair packages as the rewards. The fair should move toward a green theme and partner with green building businesses and services. This could include major green appliance manufactories, hybrid car manufactories etc. This would give the fair a much broader appeal, bring in space rental income and coop advertising promotions.

BETTER UTILIZATION OF THE FAIR GROUNDS: The fair grounds could be utilized for many big events in Langley. Trade shows like woodworkers, ceramics and many other hobbies. In fact several smaller hobby events could be combined. An auto show for new models, food, home/renovations, have a build and live green show the list is endless. The main point is these shows have large following and that means visitors from the mainland who will spend money and hopefully return.

DJANGOFEST: The usual tie in’s and promotions for other events.

OCTOBERFEST: As usual a Google search for Octoberfest’s in Washington turned up many but NOTHING in Langley. What a missed opportunity and the usual tie in’s as above would make this a must see event. 

THANKSGIVING: A perfect opportunity to create family traditions at Inns and B&B’s. A harvest Fest, pumpkin carving events and more. The usual bus tie in for folks from retirement homes and centers. Special dinners at restaurants etc. do something silly and fun like pardon the turkey like the White House does. Anything fun that could get media coverage. 

ACTION POINTS: It is clear that Langley is a vastly under utilized asset and the possibilities are endless. All it takes is some creative ideas and ACTUAL PROMOTION! REALITY CHECK- when I do a Google search for Langley I get five times as many hits for Langley BC! Why is this – obvious they promote the town more in more media outlets so they get more hits? I have heard arguments that we don’t want people to find out about us and move here. In reality Whidbey this is self-regulated by lack of jobs, transportation to mainland jobs and zoning. What Langley is about is being the perfect destination to VISIT, spend money and return home. The way to promote Langley is simple and only several steps need to be followed after forming a group that will take action of course.

•  Create a priority list of the simplest events to create and promote first.
• Create a meticulous manual to work from with specific assignments, check lists and documentation of the event. This creates a manual to work from next year if different people are volunteering.
• The manual must spell out specifically what each duty is, what is expected of that person and exactly where they are to be, at what time and accountability for that position.
• Before each event training for workers must be done to instill how they are to interface with the public, how to answer questions when asked such as where are the restrooms, when is such and such event and where.
• The experience is what sells Langley and that does not happen by accident. Disneyland is the perfect example. You get a quality experience that is identical with every worker and every time you return. Word of mouth can not be bought. One bad contact and that person is lost and will tell others about their bad experience.
• The community and especially the business community MUST be willing to make sacrifices until success comes and that won’t happen quickly. Langley people must be willing to listen and work together when corrected. There must be someone in charge to oversee how visitors are being treated and willing to make the changes with locals who are interfacing with visitors.
• This may sound a little too commercial and phony to some but closed business and a dying Langley is the consequence to not changing our approach.
• The next big category is RECORD KEEPING. I have asked and effectively there is no meaningful record keeping at the city or chamber. This is such a lost opportunity but it can change now. Here is what must be done. 

 

• Every merchant, Inn, restaurant and B&B must attend training on how to get information from customers without being intrusive. There must be standard questionnaires that ask: 

 

• Where people are from.
• Why they came.
• How thy heard about Langley and the business.
• If possible what they liked and what they did not like and where was the problem or good experience.
• Would they return and would they tell their friends.
• These questionnaires must be broken down into statistical categories and entered into a database. Eventually when there are several databases with enough information they can be correlated and a precise picture of what is working, what is not and what must be changed.
• Good records of each event must be taken. This not only includes numbers but a collection of license plates to learn who is coming from where. Random sampling of visitors about the experience, why they came, where they heard and would they come again.
• The contests and quizzes for events must include the following information:
•  Identification, email, how arrived, are they staying the night, other events interested in etc. The contest prizes must be significant enough to encourage people to fill it out. At the very least the contest sign up must include name and email.
• There should be a grand prize separate from the event if they will take a short quiz. This will ask more in depth questions.
• MOST IMPORTANT every event and contact with a visitor MUST be looked at as a chance to gain valuable information that will help build an information database that will help Langley prosper long-term.
• Someone familiar with how to work the media is needed to create eye-catching press releases. A master calendar with deadlines, contact person, what worked before etc must be created for every event a year ahead. Often getting media coverage is nothing more than sending something in. 
• Media, especially TV loves a photo opportunity. Every event must be created around this idea. The hook, visual or print is the centerpiece of every thing that happens here. Every event MUST be planed around how a visitor will experience it. What they will take away and what experience will assure they will come back. Often time’s local events get caught up in what the local’s thing is interesting. That usually does not attract visitors from the mainland. Everything must be looked at through the eyes of locals and visitors.
• The ability and mindset of looking at EVERY event as an opportunity to promote Langley and bring prosperity to Langley is not easy but necessary.

 

Langley business things can change BUT only if everyone pulls together as a single voice and stops being so polite. There is a time for righteous anger and that time is NOW and the target for that anger is the city collectively and the chamber. It is essential that each and every one separate the nice people you may know socially from the people who are also YOUR elected officials who are leading the town to ruin. I can tell you if it was my life’s savings, my future and possible financial ruin the choice would be very easy indeed.

                                 THE BALL IS IN YOUR COURT LANGLEY MERCHANTS

 localpower@live.com