Leigh Ann Barnes, marketing director for the King of Prussia mall, used the convention to spice up the annual meeting for mall merchants, a generally ho-hum affair attended by about 100 storekeepers. She created a balloon drop, hung patriotic bunting from the balcony, flew state banners, hired a marching band, and fired confetti from guns. Attendance at the meeting more than doubled to 260, making it easier for Barnes to push merchants to offer discounts to delegates and to decorate their stores for the convention. The idea is to attract conventioneers and build the mall's national reputation. Our customers were our constituents, and our delegates were the merchants.
Some ideas come from merchants trying to cash in on the convention.
But his company hopes the Pachyderm Porter, as it is called, will attract some conventioneers, particularly to Dock Street's recently opened brew pub in the Convention Center. Some of the creative ideas will wind up at PoliticalFest, itself a creative morphing of the sports festival into an interactive festival based on politics and the presidency. Carol Fitzgerald, PoliticalFest director, hopes to offer visitors a chance to play president by touring a mock-up of Air Force One as well as the Oval Office. I've already seen a scrapple bell, and it wasn't pretty. The committee wouldn't be averse to corporations creating commercial bells.