Dear Volunteers,
Happy Tuesday and Ramadan Mubarak to all who celebrate!
New Health Department Restrictions Likely
As you might have seen in the news, the City of Milwaukee Health Department is poised to walk back its current health order to Phase 5 due to an increase in positive cases. We are talking with the Health Department regularly to gain more clarity on what this means for hospitality businesses and will share more as soon as we can. For those operating with approved plans from the Health Department, I believe that the changes will be minimal to your operations.
New Vaccine Awareness Campaign
In much better news, vaccination rates continue to climb here and around the state, but there are still many who haven't made up their mind about getting a vaccine. That's why we've partnered with a broad coalition of local government, non-profit, health care, public health and community organizations to launch a comprehensive multi-media and grassroots campaign designed to help empower local residents to make informed choices when it comes to getting vaccinated. You can see the campaign images and videos here. A huge kudos to our amazing agency Hanson Dodge, who donated their time to produce this powerful campaign.
Meetings & Convention Campaign
This week we were so proud to announce the launch of a new advertising campaign that positions Milwaukee as a bold, modern, and experienced-obsessed destination ready to safely host meetings and events. Created in close collaboration with the Wisconsin Center District, this colorful, dynamic campaign targets meeting and event planners across the country with an emphasis on key markets in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Denver (all three markets known for having large representation of associations, corporations, and faith-based organizations), and with an additional focus on industry segments that have proven successful for the destination. The goal of the campaign is to support long-lead convention bookings for 2022 and beyond and maximize event attendance for 2021.
This campaign's look and feel positions Milwaukee as an innovative destination that can deliver a world-class business experience for attendees. We know this campaign highlights Milwaukee's strengths and we believe it will help generate business to put our hospitality community in a strong position as we begin to emerge from the pandemic.
See campaign creative, spearheaded by our agency Hanson Dodge, here.
U.S. Junior Nationals at Wisconsin Center April 23-25
We are happy to welcome U.S. Junior Nationals to Milwaukee on April 23-25 for their 2021 Windy City Classic. The event will take place at the Wisconsin Center, Germantown High School, and Homestead High School, and is expected to bring up to 11,400 attendees and $3.7 million in economic impact. Congrats to all who've worked really hard to bring youth sports back to our community.
One volunteer shift remains for the USJN event: Saturday, April 24th, noon until 3 PM. Please consider signing up here.
Tomorrow is Milwaukee Day
Here are a few events and promotions to help you celebrate, and a few perennial ways to toast the city can be found here. No matter what, make sure you show your love for Milwaukee by supporting Milwaukee businesses and by posting about it on social using #MilwaukeeDay!
Milwaukee in The Daily Beast
If you didn't see it, Milwaukee got some well-deserved love in The Daily Beast late last week. Our team was happy to assist the writer and Travel Wisconsin in fact-checking and providing many ideas for this piece. If you love the story, we encourage you to share it! For many travel publications, the more web traffic an article generates the more likely they are to cover the destination within that article in the future.
Get your Vaccine at the Wisconsin Center
I wanted to give a friendly reminder to all that walk-ins are welcome at the Wisconsin Center and it is open seven days a week. Learn more here.
Partner Updates
- I encourage you to check out mercadoMKE, a hub of helpful info about Latino-owned businesses! You might just discover restaurants, clothing shops, handmade items, a service directory and much more.
- It's Milwaukee Black Restaurant Week so I encourage you to treat your team and your family to meals at our community's Black-owned restaurants at least once this week.
- South Shore Terrace Beer Garden will reopen for Milwaukee Day! Whitnall Park's beer garden will follow soon after and open on April 21.
- Villa Terrace's new exhibit Villa Incognito: Latent Narratives in the Permanent Collection features a very special surprise: the return of the Dake Gallery overmantel. This elaborate and commanding hand-carved overmantel was built as a component of the Dake Gallery paneling. Because the ceilings are not high enough to accommodate it, it has been in storage until now.
- Resonance Food Co., the Bradley Symphony Center's hospitality partner, has a curbside meal program called Sound Bites To Go. Simply place your order before Thursday at 5 p.m. each week, and select your pick-up time for Saturday evening. On Saturday, pull up underneath the marquee, and they will bring everything out to you.
- Pat's Rib Place, famously endorsed by Oprah herself, is coming to the Milwaukee Public Market!
- Milwaukee Public Museum and America's Black Holocaust Museum are partnering for the United States debut of Nelson Mandela: The Official Exhibition, a new, global-touring exhibition on loan from Round Room Live that takes visitors on a personal journey through the life of the world's most iconic freedom-fighter and political leader. I can't wait to see this!
Have a wonderful week!
Sincerely,
Peggy
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Peggy Williams-Smith VISIT Milwaukee President & CEO (414) 287-4233 pwilliamssmith@milwaukee.org |
