Impressing clients via Cirque du Soleil
Lots of corporations entertain clients at sporting events, but a growing number have found a more creative option. They’re the ones fueling the growth of Cirque du Soleil’s Tapis Rouge program.
Instead of competing with touchdowns and home runs for their clients’ attention, marketing managers can spend $200 to $250 per person and buy themselves 60 to 90 minutes of uninterrupted face time inside Cirque’s “red carpet” VIP tent.
“It gives you clear time for networking and marketing, and then you take your clients to the show,” said Gilbert Cadieux, Cirque’s corporate sales manager. “You get them at a time when they’re happy to be there and in a good mood, so they can focus on your marketing message.”
Cadieux said guests of all kinds enjoy a Cirque show: Athletes like the performance level of the acrobats, and arts lovers are touched by the dance, theater and musical aspects.
If Denver is like other tour stops, corporations will pick up about 25 percent of all Tapis Rouge tickets during the June 22-July 22 run of “Corteo.”
Eco-devo czar touts Colorado’s clout
Still recovering from a month-long bout with pneumonia, metro Denver’s economic-development czar Tom Clark traveled to Pueblo last week to repeat the “Toward a More Competitive Colorado” presentation he has been delivering for 18 months. In front of fellow eco-devo professionals on Thursday, he cut right to the chase.
“We kick some serious butt when it comes to venture-capital investments per capita,” Clark told members of the Economic Development Council of Colorado. “We rank fourth in the nation, and we’re fifth highest in the number of new companies, which is a good measure of innovation. That means we’re a much better fungus pot than our competitors.”
Another insight shared while discussing the new nonstop service from Munich, Germany, to Denver International Airport: Denver was on track to start nonstop air service to London in 1992 when Colorado voters passed the anti-gay-rights Amendment 2.
“The next day a lady from British Airways called to say, ‘We can’t come to a state that’s called the Hate State,”‘ Clark said. “That delayed our nonstop service to London by six years.”
An e-mail Harper’s would like to forget
File this blanket e-mail in the “Don’t even ask” category. It was sent April 3 to subscribers of the Harper’s Weekly Internet newsletter:
“The statement, ‘In New York City, someone stole the penis of a chocolate Jesus’ is not true; the source was a satire website that was mistakenly thought to be a genuine news source. Harper’s Weekly apologizes for the error.”
BUSINESS BOOKSHELF:
Be a business champ with “Tiger Traits”
“Tiger Traits: 9 Success Secrets you can discover from Tiger Woods to be a Business Champion” by Nate Booth (Harrison Acorn Press, $19.95).
Life and business coach Nate Booth should send Tiger Woods a royalty check from his book “Tiger Traits.” Booth, however, is unlikely to share that income because he states right up front in boldface type on the copyright page: “This book and the author are not affiliated with or endorsed by Tiger Woods.”
The material Booth cites from thirdhand sources is in the public domain. He uses it – and Tiger – as the hook for his repackaged set of self-help and business nostrums.
Unquestionably, Woods’ life and achievements provide a superlative metaphor for that purpose, given Woods’ current standing as the world’s pre-eminent golfer and the enormous amount of business that gets transacted nowadays on the world’s golf courses.
To drive that metaphor home, Booth presents the analogy of a nine-hole course, with each of the nine chapters or holes representing a trait that contributes to Woods’ winning ways on the links, in business and in his personal life.
Tiger’s nine traits are:
FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
