Lead Agency

Early in our planning process, we designated the Williamsburg Hotel/Motel Association (WHMA) as the lead agency to coordinate the operational activities for all Ironman events. The WHMA is a well-funded, lead organization within the Greater Williamsburg business and tourism community. It has a staff of telephone and online marketers who handle and process reservations seven days a week.

Our vision for managing the Ironman event in the Williamsburg area would be to have the WHMA manage the needs of the event from room stays to packages and attractions. In addition to making it easy for participants, volunteers and attendees, this approach allows us to better manage the event and understand financial impact on an annual basis.

All participates would go through the Housing Bureau for all of their travel, accommodation and package needs. The WHMA is designated as the official Housing Bureau for all accommodation requests from visitors and participants alike. The majority of reservations would be handled through the Association’s website at www.mywilliamsburgvacation.com.

Sponsorships

Many area businesses have expressed an interest in the event. During the first stage of the bid review process, we have not focused our attention on local sponsorships. Upon being selected as a potential site, our focus will shift to informing and developing the local business community and providing a list of local community and regional sponsors.

The Commonwealth of Virginia has also offered to assist with its vast network of suppliers and partners to introduce Williamsburg Ironman sponsorship opportunities.

Williamsburg Ironman Marketing Programs

We have several new and exciting ideas to help promote Ironman and continue the wonderful job your team has done in creating such an inspiring and pure event. We believe we have several approaches we would incorporate into the Williamsburg Ironman that will enhance the mystique and prestige of Ironman! The Williamsburg community is not endorsing these ideas but sharing them for further differentiation of the Williamsburg Ironman.

Modified CxO Challenge

Should Ironman Virginia become a reality, we would like to incorporate a modified CEO Challenge to the venue. The key difference is that c-level executives, i.e., Chief Information Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Technology, etc., would have their own category along side Chief Executive Officers. This could mean that the CEO senior staff could participate in the event with their boss!

This CxO Challenge would help extend the unique CEO Challenge venue to senior executives at corporations with revenue of $2M or more while at the same time offering them a choice of Ironman venues.

From a corporate team-building perspective, nothing would bring together a team of corporate executives than to have the common goal of training for and completing an Ironman competition. CEO senior staff members could train together but also conduct staff meetings while they train. For today’s innovative companies, building strong, cohesive senior management teams is critical to their success.

CxO Team Building Training Camp

The CxO training camps are business management retreats designed for two purposes…prepare for the Williamsburg Ironman and build a bond between members of a senior management team.

In today’s economic environment, corporate leaders are looking for ways to build bonds and strengthen trust and relationships between their senior management teams. Having the common goal of completing an Ironman event offers just such an opportunity. It would be one of the Williamsburg Ironman’s priority marketing projects.

Ironman4charity.com

The Ironman for Charity initiative started in Upstate New York in the late summer of 2002. A group of Western New Yorkers bound for the 2003 Lake Placid decided to pool their training programs to raise money on a per-mile trained basis for charities of choice of the 12 athletes involved. With permission from Ironman North America and in cooperation with the Janus Fund Charity Challenge, the initiative has been highly successful…raising over $10,000 to date for local charities in exchange for 24,000 miles of training by the participating athletes.

This technology and concept is the property of R.C. Tubbs and Associates who will donate the tools, concept and technology to the Williamsburg Ironman project.

Ironman Keys to Williamsburg Program

The Keys to Williamsburg program has two components, one for the Ironman event participants and one for the event volunteers. This program may offer two levels of coupons for each category offering discounts on merchandise, activities, etc.

Ironman Alumni Scholarship/Charity Challenge

The Ironman Alumni Challenge is a way for individuals with college/academic degrees to compete for points for their alum. Each scholastic institution would accumulate points based upon the number of alumni participating in the Williamsburg Ironman events. The more alumni and event placement, the more points accumulate in their designated school’s points treasury.

Though sponsorships, these points would be converted into scholarship dollars and/or Ironman participation fees for existing students and/or military. We would also track, on a university basis, the alumni base and most points accumulated.

State & Local Marketing Campaigns

We have assurances from the state and local levels to promote and support a Williamsburg Ironman venue. Of course, our local marketing efforts throughout the community would include promotion of the Williamsburg Ironman venue.

To start this process, we are planning a regional press conference as soon as we are notified about making the short list of potential host sites from your office. We have several business meetings already scheduled to present the Ironman opportunity to the business community.

Office Space

Preliminary discussions have identified two potential locations for an Ironman event office. The two office sites for the Williamsburg Ironman would be co-located within the offices currently housing the Williamsburg Hotel/Motel Association or housed with the Williamsburg Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. This will give Ironman North America direct and ongoing access to the operations supporting the event.

Ironman Staffing Requirements

Our research indicates that Ironman North America host communities have a small staff contingent within the community. We have several interested individuals that we believe could strengthen our new relationship with Ironman North America.

Ironman Race Director

We assume that the race director’s responsibility is to act as a community coordinator, identify and secure sponsors, and inform and energize the community to the event. He or she work with local officials and community functions to coordinate race details throughout the year.

Volunteer Coordinator & Support Organizations

Ironman North America recently explained that “a volunteer coordinator typically has come from or is hired by a local office to coordinate, assign and gather volunteers. That person reports directly to (Ironman North America) office (the race director for that event). Other tasks include helping to run captain's meetings and others as assigned.”

Groups that have expressed an interest in volunteering include:

Kiwanis Club	The College of William & Mary	Chamber and civic org.
Wal-mart employees	Numerous military bases within the area	Various community, religious & charity groups

Clean the Course Week

Similar to the Adopt a Highway program, Clean the Course week’s purpose is to ask sponsoring and supporting organizations to designated a segment of the route to have their members or employees to sweep road shoulders and pick up tree debris and materials that may trip or impede the race participants.

The volunteer coordinator, in conjunction with the highway departments and other organizations, would work to coordinate this effort prior to each event.

Block of Rooms

As the Williamsburg Hotel/Motel Association is the primary agent for most of the rooms in Williamsburg, we can accommodate your requirement for 200 total room nights for the race. We can also arrange for 25 rooms nights for the three to four trips to Williamsburg during the year for management meetings, etc.

Warehousing

We understand your warehousing needs to be on the order of 3-5,000 square feet for a period of 2-4 weeks. We have several locations in the community with the storage capacity you require.

Banquet Facilities

There are multiple locations throughout the Greater Williamsburg area. Meals and meeting places for large scale events, like the carbo-loading meal might best be served at the College of William & Mary, a potential site for Ironman Village. Other group meetings for volunteers, participants and professional athletes can be held at various locations around the area. As this is a partnership, we will help negotiate favorable rates on your behalf.

Marketing Fee

Two community organizations, the Williamsburg Hotel/Motel Association and the Williamsburg Area Convention and Visitors Bureau’s board of directors, have committed $50,000 each for the Ironman North America marketing fee. A total of $100,000 is being offered to cover the Ironman North America marketing fee.

The final terms and conditions would be worked out during the negotiations after Williamsburg has been selected as your host community.

Police Coverage – Traffic Control

Police services costs are currently estimated at 50 officers spending approximately 85 total hours for each event to equal $12,000. We would ask you to confirm that the number of officers we have estimated is sufficient to cover the course. Ninety-five percent of the course is on country roads. There are only a handful of intersections involved but we would need your experience and expertise to determine if we have sufficient traffic control coverage.

We have three municipalities involved and several private/public segments of the course. All three support the Ironman opportunity. Most of these organizations have their own police/security departments. The Security Team Captain will coordinate the activities and hand-offs on an event basis.

Once the course is finalized, we will be able to apportion the costs of police services across the involved groups. At this stage of the process, we would be willing to discuss police traffic costs with Ironman North America but with the provision of better understanding cost estimates based on the final course design.

Credits & Acknowledgements

As with any worthwhile endeavor, it takes the efforts of many people for a successful outcome. We wanted to acknowledge some of those people here:

· The Executive Directors (Cathy Waltrip & David Schulte) and the Boards of the Williamsburg Hotel/Motel Association, The Williamsburg Area Convention and Visitors Bureau

· WHMA Ironman Triathlon Marketing Committee:

o Mike Sullender

o Douglas Pon

o Ernie Young

o Hunter Vermillion

o Chris Canavos

o Mike Pleninger

o Cathy Chaplan

· Ralph Earnhardt, Marketing Manager, Virginia Tourism Corporation

· James Golden and the College of William & Mary senior management team

· Mike Pleninger, President, Newport Hospitality Group

· Andy Hungerman, VP of Operations, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

· Wally Riley & Thomas French, President, Williamsburg Kiwanis Club

· Kelly Mihalcoe, Photographer

· John Triska, Manager, Kingsmill Audio/Visual

· Bob Tubbs prepared this proposal on behalf of the Williamsburg community. He also completed the research, proposed map route, etc.

Financials

We believe the bid proposal in cash and in-kind to be worth between $240,000 and $265,000.