It’s not a rumor, no matter how BransonFest has done in the past, good bad or indifferent, it isn’t going to do anything this year because it is not going to be held. Rumor has it that this year, taking advantage of the “Ozark Mountain” brand that has proved so successful in the marketing of “Ozark Mountain Christmas,” Branson is going to have a multi month event called Ozark Mountain Spring.
Rumor has it that Ozark Mountain Spring will, for the most part, be a marketing tool to promote events that, much like the now defunct BransonFest, have been taking place for years during the March through May time frame during which Ozark Mountain Spring is scheduled to run. Rumor had it that selected new events, picked to help promote Ozark Mountain Spring and bring visitors to the event would be made part of the event. Why there was even a rumor that a pie show was going to be the major new event for Ozark Mountain Spring in 2009.
Hold on a minute, actually it was much more than a rumor. At the Annual Meeting of the Branson Lakes Area Tourism Community Enhancement District (TECD) on Sep. 30, 2008, Speaking on behalf of the Branson Tri Lakes CVB/TECD Marketing Committee (Committee), the Titanic’s Mary Kellogg said “Branson’s First Annual Great American Pie Show” would be held at the Branson Convention Center on Friday, April 24 and Saturday, April 25, 2009 as part of Ozark Mountain Spring.
Imagine how surprised the Ole Seagull was this week when he received a number of announcements from the Branson Lakes/Lakes Area Convention and Visitors Bureau announcing there would be an Ozark Mountain Spring Community Kick-Off on Friday, January 16, 2009 at 10 a.m. at the Branson Convention Center in the Taneycomo B meeting room. It’s not that the meeting was being announced or is being held that was surprising, it was the way it was announced.
The very first line of the announcement said, “You’ve heard the rumors… Now come and learn the facts!” There have been rumors about the pie show and its concept ever since it was announced at a TCED meeting weeks prior to its announcement at the TCED annual meeting on Sep.30, 2008.
Although certainly not all the rumors, there are three main rumors that the Ole Seagull has heard discussed. The first is that the estimated budget to promote the pie show could be upwards of $250,000. The second was that between $100,000 and $150,000 of that budget would be used to bring in a nationally known personality such as Al Roker, nationally known weatherman with NBC, to help create the possibility for getting large amounts of publicity from the local level to the national level in all media forms. The third is that the people who came up with this idea and support it are crazy.
The announcement clearly indicates that those managing Ozark Mountain Spring were aware of these and other rumors and chose to wait until now to address them. They could have put the “Facts” out months ago but chose not to. From a community involvement and influence perspective what good are the facts going to do now. Even as it makes no difference what benefit BransonFest was or was not to Branson because it will not be held this year; it makes no difference what benefit a pie show will be to Branson because it’s going to held this year.
Or is it? The CVB announcement saying “You’ve heard the rumors… Now come and learn the facts,” doesn’t even mention a pie show as one of the items that will be discussed. It says, “This is YOUR OPPORTUNITY [caps theirs] to learn about what’s happening Spring 2009 in Branson! Craft Shows-Car Shows-Culinary Demonstrations AND celebrating 50 years of Live Music Shows- there’s something for EVERYONE!” Well maybe not quite everyone, there is no mention of a pie show, “Great American” or otherwise.
One could almost see how a rumor that “There is not going to be a “Branson Great American Pie Show” could start as the result of an official announcement like this. Oh be still my beating heart, no pie show or possibility of a pineapple cream pie in Branson. Won’t someone please tell an Ole Seagull that the omission of the pie show from the CVB announcement was a rumor of omission and that in fact it is going to be held?
