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UMC General
Manager's Report
to the Utah Travel Council
Or, Read the Article
A Tale
of Two Media Centers
By J. Scott Iverson
| SALT LAKE CITY -- "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times:" a once in a lifetime shot at assisting the Utah Travel Council and the State achieve their own version of Olympic Gold, but a job that had a built-in self-destruct timer. "Should you fail in your attempt, Mr. Iverson, the State will disavow any knowledge of your existence. And, we'll raise your taxes, t'boot." |
| How did it turn out? Well, you can either formulate your own opinion from this brief memoir; from your personal experience, if you had one; you can wait for the "official" Utah Media Center report; or, you can do the right thing and buy a copy of my soon to be undertaken book: "Unaccredited: the Search for Validation and Meaning in a SLOC-oriented Society." |  |
 Spence Kinard |
I seem to have a penchant for stepping-in where angels fear to tread. When I came onboard with the UMC, I felt like a relief pitcher being sent in during the eighth inning of a trailing game. I had called Spence Kinard out of the blue one spring day last year, begging for help in getting out of a go-nowhere job with a major tour operator here in Utah. We met. He smiled. "Boy have I got a job for you," he said. He probably wanted to get even with me for that "Welcome Back, Newsreel" promo I did for him at KSL-TV in 1977. Spence and I go back a few years. |  |
| He didn't mince words. "You've got a lot to do and not much time to do it in." Basically, my mandate under his watchful eye (and welcomed direction) was to put together a functional newsroom and broadcast center, market and publicize it, find sponsors for it, staff it mostly with volunteers and oversee its operation. "Oh and make it breakeven so we don't have to use Travel Council budget" (and therefore taxpayer dollars). For the most part, we pulled-it-off (!) and I don't just mean Spence and I - not by a long shot! Where do we begin our thanks (and apologies to those who are inadvertently overlooked)? |
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Those first weeks in June and July, I was immersed in re-designing the www.utahmediacenter.org website (now closed - please visit www.utah.org/travel). My predecessor had left very little in the way of files or plans and, in my opinion, as our most visible presence to date, the site was much too "vanilla" to attract anybody, let alone the world press. Enter Spence's assistant, Sheri Bintz, along with Vicki Bird and Dave Jonsson from Utah Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). They were able to take my hen-scratchings on a piece of paper and translate them into a very professional-looking, functional and enjoyable website. We created electronic registration forms to facilitate building our database with pre-event registrations and a story submissions form and browsing program, thanks to DCED's Ryan Cornia. We spiced it up with an animated .gif, a javascript menu bar and LOTS more information and links to all kinds of sites of interest. |
| So many UTC members helped with story ideas. Stacey Clark, Margaret Godfrey, Tracie Cayford, Carolyn Austadt, Jon Kemp, Dwight Rimmasch all made contributions to the list. Ken Kraus and Mark Bennett actually took the new guy to lunch and, more importantly, took the time to escort me mentally on a thought-journey around the state, introducing me to lots and lots of characters and destinations who are truly and uniquely Utah. |  |
Ken
Kraus & Margaret Smoot |
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The clock was ticking. We had selected Expo Mart over Crossroads Mall as our venue and a preliminary layout was starting to take shape. With Janice Carpenter's assistance and Larry Clarkson's design, we created a striking orange and blue sales brochure. By August, it was obvious that it was time to bring in Margaret Smoot to assist. Spence and I had talked from the outset about hiring Margaret to manage the Briefing Stage and as she came onboard, we also gave her responsibility for the UMC Media Guide, as well as the task of finding a caterer and, Margaret's personal favorite, liquor licensing. |
| The sponsor search began
in earnest, as did our efforts at communicating to the media what
we had to offer. The Travel Council had been getting the word out
to the press for well-over two years with booths at the Radio and
Television News Directors Association conventions. Spence and I both
did numerous phone interviews and PowerPoint presentations. On Friday,
September 7th I flew to Cedar City to participate in a panel on the
Olympics at the Governor's Rural Summit. On the following Monday,
September 10th, an article appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune: |
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Actually, I only made one poster and nobody bought
it. Oh well, there's always eBay. |
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On September 11th, the world changed. I heard news of the tragedy as I was getting ready to leave for the airport on a trip to the Radio and Television News Directors Association convention in Nashville, where Spence was to moderate an Olympics panel and had invited me to participate. Spence had already arrived at the airport, checked his luggage and his ride had gone. Dean Reeder was somewhere over the Atlantic, but that's another story. Despite the World Trade Center terrorism, UMC preparations continued, if somewhat subdued. What if the unthinkable happened and the Games were cancelled? Though we were all being assured the Games would go on, nobody knew, for a time, how to get our message out without sounding crass. |
| Ultimately, we put our message on a special video created by RTNDA for the news directors. We created a special one-sheet that stressed that "In Salt Lake City, 2002, the world will not only gather to compete … we will gather to HEAL. If you plan on covering it, contact us for help." We took out an ad in Electronic Media. We started doing email blasts and lots of phone calling. |
We re-tooled our security plans, which had been minimal, and hired The Annapolis Group out of Maryland to perform a security survey and assessment for us. We subsequently hired them to manage our security operation because, although an arm of State Government, we didn't really show up on the Utah Olympic Public Safety Command's radar. Resources, we were told, had already been allocated. We were nervous. |
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 Dave Hansford |
By October, the technical issues were flying faster than I could handle on my own and we brought in Dave Hansford as our TechOps Manager. Both Dave and Margaret were godsends. Dave immediately jumped in and got a handle on our dealings with our broadcast partner, Video West, as well as State ITS, Qwest, DCED and Wasatch Electric and other vendors involved in the build-in. In his spare time, he coordinated technical issues with our network clients and shoveled snow off the Expo Mart roof. Meanwhile, Margaret was scrambling with the learning curve involved in publishing the Media Guide and brought in designer Lisa Cook. Great choice, Margaret! |  |
 My Office On a Sunny Day |
November, we started our move-in at Expo Mart. I left my lovely Council Hall eastside window cubicle for the darkest corner of Expo. I had plenty of room, at least. (Sorry Spence, next time, we'll give you an office, too.) November and December are big blurs of activity: build-in and set-up, the ubiquitous, ongoing hunt for sponsors, deal-making, fielding questions from the press, from the public, from the UTC staff, glad-handing, contract writing, schmoozing, collecting checks, oh yeah, and celebrating the Holidays. |
Security was still a huge concern. State support finally came in a BIG way from Public Safety's Deputy Commissioner, Verdi White, who saw our desperation and took it upon himself to see that we got officers assigned to us from State Corrections, as well as the Highway Patrol, when we had visiting dignitaries. Verdi even relocated himself to Expo Mart during the Games. How do you spell relief? V-E-R-D-I. |
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I blinked and we were open for business. What an experience! Here I am shaking Ashcroft's hand, Gale Norton, Norman Lear, Rudy Giuliani… Here I am getting my picture taken with David Letterman's mom. Here are the likes of CBS, ABC, ESPN, CNN, et al, constantly on the move, sleepless, driven in their pursuit and filing of literally thousands of Olympic and Utah stories and reports. Here are Olympic medallists as far as the eye can see, waving like golden grain in a soft breeze. Okay, okay, it was winter. Bad analogy. |
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| Everybody had his or her own, personal Olympic moment. Here is mine: the Canadian pairs ice skating medallists, Salé and Peltier, were at UMC for a nighttime satellite feed to the Larry King Show. CNN had the exclusive. The place was abuzz - this was before they had been awarded the Gold. We brought them in the back door and straight up to the roof. During the interview, the other network sharks started circling. The interview concluded. With Wayne Paret, head of UMC security and several others, we formed a wedge to get the pair through the gaggle of reporters and photogs, off the roof and back down to the third floor elevators. Once on the elevator, the press started to follow right inside. Shrinking back, Jamie buried her head in my shoulder while security pushed the press back so the elevator doors would close. Suddenly, I was John Wayne: "I'll pertect ya, li'l lady… Jus' stick close t'me." Freeze frame. Now, I'm a happily married man, but at that moment, I would have gladly taken on the biggest, smelliest, grungiest network cameraman to protect that sweet young thing. She just sent me an autographed picture, which I will frame and treasure and tell its backstory to my grandkids as long as I live. |
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 UMC at Devereaux |
Then, almost suddenly, it was over. We tore down and moved a very abbreviated version of UMC to the Devereaux Mansion for the Paralympics, where we helped a number of European and Eastern European journalist "regulars" while watching a lot of sledge hockey. |
| Was the Utah Media Center a success? I'm biased, but I'd have to say absolutely a big, resounding "YES!" Were the media twelve deep at all the sponsor booths? No, but most sponsors got much more exposure than they realize, and the long-term benefits will be coming back for years. The media verged on obsequious in their appreciation and compliments. For example, the producer from the European Broadcasting Union said when he got home, he was going to pack-up his wife, kids and father-in-law and head straight back for Southern Utah on vacation. This trip was something he decided on during the Games. Compliments have been many, so the one below, from Mike Rizzo at ABS Sports Radio can serve for all:
Yeah, but did we breakeven? Well, I suppose if you only count the actual dollars that have come in against those we spent, the answer is probably going to ultimately be no, not quite (although we still have money in the bank right now), but when you figure that our security costs more than tripled after 9/11 and when you weigh everything against the dollar value of the publicity we received, to me, at least, we're several million in the black. Oh! … Given the title of this piece, I guess I should at least make a comment about that other media center. As one who was lucky enough to get a SLOC credential, I got to go over several times. My thoughts? "A nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there." It was big and it had everything and then some, but it wasn't home. As they say here in Utah (or at least in some branches of my family): "We done good." |
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