Art History Alive

arthisto April 17th, 2009

In this time of financial crunch and belt tightening, we entrepreneurs have to get creative. This is why, when I learned that some 360 men and women would gather on April 16, 2009, for the Annual Women In Leadership Banquet, in San Jose, California, I put on my thinking cap. Hm m m m m?

This is a gathering of the most professional women in the area and they are coming to hear the former CEO of eBay and recent entrant into the California Gubernatorial race 2010, Meg Whitman. Meg is a powerhouse and, needless to say, highly respected for her leadership. This annual affair also honors a select few outstanding young women of the community for their accomplishments. I decided that I wanted to sponsor this event by donating one of the few raffle prizes to be presented at the end of the evening. This was an opportunity to market Art History Alive to my target audience, and the type of women I like to travel with, as well as support a positive and powerful event.

I decided to design a California itinerary especially for this event that I could give away. The WIL Gold Rush Wines and Yosemite tour is a four day getaway. The prize included a beautiful piece of Brightman luggage, leopard print and all, as well as a bottle of delicious Hatcher Grenache Rose from the Sierra Nevada Foothills. The tour itself includes wine tasting in the Sierra Foothills, a two hour spa treatment, and two days in Yosemite, staying at the historic Ahwahnee Hotel. A prize designed with professional women in mind, and a trip that will pamper the body and refresh the soul.

The marketing power was that the three raffle prizes would be introduced, described and presented by San Jose/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce President and CEO, Pat Dando. Pat is a highly respected, dedicated leader and advocate in both the Silicon Valley business and political arenas. She went above and beyond in her suspense building description of the AHA prize, and I was so pleased to see and hear that the audience loved it.

I had hoped to make an impression, for AHA, through my donation, but it made much more of a splash than I’d imagined. As Pat Dando described the trip, a very noticeable cooing could be heard from the audience, then just before she read out the winning number you could have heard a pin drop. The lucky winner, Marty Wohlwend, of Lockheed Martin, jumped out of her chair with a shriek of joy. Later, after photos, still shaking, we met and chatted, and amazingly Marty was an Art History major! She was beyond excited and we talked of what fun we will have on our trip.

This will stimulate some fun travel! When these women, and their companies, think about travel, I know that they will recall Art History Alive, and that is the prize I am after.

• AHA PR
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