Posted on 05/04/2006 1:23:40 PM PDT by hispanarepublicana
Austin City Manager Toby Futrell opened her Tuesday newspaper and saw that economic development glad-handers from Lubbock were in her town, flooding one of the world's most prestigious tech conferences with tote bags stamped with their logo.
Futrell declared a marketing emergency.
The city has no strategic reserve for a tote bag crisis, so Futrell whipped her staff into a frenzy Wednesday to quickly order 2,000 high-quality tote bags that say "Austin: Live Music Capital of the World."
The order, which will cost the city about $2,000, was set to be filled by noon today, when city officials will begin handing out the bags at the World Congress on Information Technology.
About 2,100 business, government and academic leaders from 80 countries are attending the three-day conference that began Wednesday at the Austin Convention Center.
"It would be a travesty for people to leave Austin without Austin tote bags," Futrell said. "This silly little thing is one of the most representative pieces people carry back with them, and they are going to carry memories of our city and a Lubbock tote bag? Nah."
Futrell said her original plan was to require conference participants to surrender their Lubbock tote bags in exchange for Austin ones — a sort of tote bag amnesty — but said she later decided that sounded petty and scrapped the idea.
Futrell said she was appalled that Lubbock had initially out-toted Austin, especially after city workers spent months planning the conference.
"We shouldn't have allowed that marketing opportunity to go by," she said. "It wasn't until everybody saw tote bags with 4-inch-high letters with 'Lubbock' on them, that it sort of hit everybody in the face."
The Lubbock bags feature the conference logo on one side; the other says, "Lubbock Economic Development Alliance, Home of Texas Tech University." The bags are black and red, Texas Tech Red Raiders colors, and have a zipper side pouch and a Velcro closure.
Not to be outdone, Austin will stuff its canvas tote bags with CDs featuring Austin and Texas musicians.
Gary Lawrence, CEO of the Lubbock Economic Development Alliance, said conference organizers called them several months ago and asked if they wanted to sponsor a marketing tool. He said the alliance decided on the tote bags and paid $15,000 for the sponsorship.
"We thought we wanted to put our name out with all these international people," he said. "We never believed that the tote bags would become this big of a thing."
Futrell said whoever thought it a good idea to let Lubbock hand out tote bags at a conference in Austin "should have to go spend a week in Lubbock."
Lawrence doesn't want to escalate the tote war. He said he'll even take an Austin tote back to Lubbock with him.
tplohetski@statesman.com; 445-3605
PS: I talked to a friend from Austin today, and he said this is still creating quite a buzz on Austin talk radio. Apparently, it's the biggest thing since TTU Women's Basketball won the national championship and took out that billboard on I-35 right next to the UT campus bragging about it.
That does seem to work. I haven't washed my car in months; maybe I need to go to the car wash...
Lubbock has. It's where "truth in taxation" was born, which lowers the tax rate if appraisals go up so that the city's budget stays the same. Governor Perry tried to pass this in a bill statewide last year, but RINOs killed the legislation.
I like "Keep Lubbock Flat".
I think a good followup: "Lubbock: Capital of The Flat Earth"
Austin's city council, er, People's Revolutionary Municipal Governing Authority try doing something more meaningful like welcoming "evil capitalism" to their city.
Thanks for the ping...I was in Lubbock for the Art Festival a couple of weeks back.
WOW! What happened to the Tech ghetto? What a change. It was the first time I've been back in several years.
If her shoes match her bag, she's ok.
It's the largest privately funded redevelopment effort in the country. Private developer bought (without using eminent domain) and bulldozed the entire ghetto and is building condos, boutiques and shops, a top-rate hotel with conference center and upscale single family homes.
What a difference! And without using eminent domain! Tech has grown significantly, too.
The stadium is awesome. I spent many a Saturday running onto the field at halftime. I am going to make a point to come to homecoming this year.
At one time, FReeper armyaircorps posted several pics of the changes in town on a thread. I don't know if he would still have a link or not.
I still have the photos available on a free image host. If you wish, I can post a few pics.
Why not? I'd love for folks to see some of your pics.
There's an update:
Lubbock wins tote-bag battle with Austin
Tote-al breakdown: Austin-themed bags won't make it in time to hand out at World Congress.
By Tony Plohetski, Robert Elder
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, May 05, 2006
A shipping delay for one city, a marketing win for another.
Austin City Manager Toby Futrell, frustrated that Lubbock tote bags were being handed out at an international conference in her town, had ordered 2,000 Austin-centric bags to give World Congress on Information Technology participants.
The bags, which cost the city about $2,000, were supposed to arrive by noon Thursday, but Lubbock claimed victory when Austin officials learned that their shipment wouldn't arrive until noon today — just as the conference ends. Austin Chief Financial Officer John Stephens said "some sort of logistical breakdown" caused the delay, but he didn't know the specifics.
Kenny McKay, director of business retention for the Lubbock Economic Development Alliance, said there was a run on the black-and-red Lubbock bags Thursday morning. He also did several TV interviews about the tote-a-tote between the cities.
"(It) turned out to be the best thing that could have ever happened to us," he said.
The Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau will give away the bags — emblazoned with "Austin: Live Music Capital of the World" — at future events, officials said.
tplohetski@statesman.com; 445-3605
Thanks Army Air Corps! What a skyline!
Well, Lubbock could use more tall buildings downtown; heck, TTU campus has as many if not more tall structures (the aerial shot, for example, is from the Architecture building).
Do you have any pictures of "Stangel Beach"? Now that's Lubbock scenery!
I've got news. High-quality tote bags cost more than $1 per, especially on a rush order. I wonder how much they really paid?
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