We have a robust first quarter of meetings, conventions, and public shows at the Minneapolis Convention Center and other venues around the city. The Big Ten Women’s and Men’s Basketball Tournaments headline our calendar. Our sales team has already been actively participating in customer events and trade shows with reports of strong interest in our destination. And we have launched our “Winter-apolis” marketing campaign to celebrate the unique collection of winter activities that distinguish us from other regional destinations.

This month, the Meet Minneapolis board kicked off work on our destination master plan (DMP). We are calling it “Destination Minneapolis: Charting the Future of Tourism.” Many cities, including Orlando and Dallas, are in the midst of such plans as they strive to increase their competitiveness in the marketplace. Our DMP will result in specific recommendations that will require broad community support. Organizations like the City of Minneapolis, Minneapolis Downtown Council, Metropolitan Airports Commission, Hennepin Theatre Trust and others are at the table helping to shape the plan. As one of our industry’s stakeholders, you will also have the opportunity to weigh in through focus groups, town hall meetings or surveys. We will keep you posted on ways to participate.

I will leave you with the call to action I shared with our team as we embarked on this new year.

Stay True
Our community’s experiences have shaped our values as well as how we tell our authentic stories. We cannot lose sight of the fact that we are a much different community than we were four years ago, and we should own our transformed identity.

Keep Climbing
Delta Air Lines used this tagline for several years and the sentiment behind it is: Curiosity fuels us, innovation propels us, and humanity lifts us, so we never look back. We only Keep Climbing.

That is why I am challenging each of us to consider a professional or personal development opportunity that will take us beyond where we currently are.

We Need Us
We need to support each other today as much as we did during those dark and uncertain times of the pandemic and subsequent civil unrest. We're all human. Check in with each other, especially those you may not see on a regular basis. You never know who may need a small expression of encouragement.

The Future Is Bright
Looking at what lies ahead in 2024 for Meet Minneapolis and the industry we represent, we have a lot to be thankful for. For example, we will soon see our long-awaited Tourism Improvement District (TID) come to fruition as a tool to expand our sales and marketing programs in new areas. And as I noted above, the DMP is underway and is an equally compelling opportunity for us.

Thank you all for being valued stakeholders. I am looking forward to a great 2024 and I hope you are, too.