— Have you ever heard the quote by Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, about ideas? He said, “Everyone who’s ever taken a shower has an idea. It’s the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference.”

Well, the Greater Mankato Convention & Visitors (CVB) would like to give you an opportunity to make a difference by sharing your idea about an event you have been desperate to see happen here. There is a lot in it for the community beyond general entertainment and that is why the CVB has all ears wide open.

Recently, the CVB hosted the inaugural Mankato Marathon in partnership with Final Stretch. More than 2,000 runners competed, of which more than 61 percent were from more than 60 minutes away from our community, and it is estimated that there were at least 5,000 spectators along the course. This event could not have happened without the hard work and dedication of hundreds of people who took time to be part of something that not only impacted the lives of thousands of runners, but also impacted the entire community’s economic growth.

It’s easy to think of the obvious entities that benefited from the marathon—sporting goods retailers, fitness gyms, exhibitors, restaurants and hotels that saw an increase in clientele leading up to the marathon and throughout race weekend. But if we scratch the surface, we can see many more businesses that showed additional profit such as those that produced signage, provided the merchandise, printed the commemorative poster, and so on.

Community wide events like the marathon affect all aspects of our economic growth and the CVB is on the search for more events of this caliber in Greater Mankato.  The Greater Mankato CVB started to prime for this search process almost a year ago by hiring Jack Kelly, founder of Event Partners Inc., to assess the community’s current capacity to host events, whether they are a tournament, competition or otherwise. Mr. Kelly also provided recommendations that could enhance our position in the events industry. One of his stronger recommendations was to go to the community to get feedback on what they would suggest as events that could be hosted here. The CVB is now implementing a targeted campaign to do just that.

Community members are encouraged to come forth and let the CVB know what else would be a success here in the area, much like the local runners who shared an idea that a marathon could work in Mankato. They were a passionate group that had a dream and worked to make it happen. We would like to see this happen with other events and competitions.

Perhaps you have had an idea about something that you think would be a great fit in our community, or you have attended something in another city that you think would work here. If so, we want to hear about it. For further inspiration, you can check out Jack Kelly’s full report at visitgreatermankato.com/ideasearch. There is a special task force that will look at all the event ideas that come forward and investigate their viability in Greater Mankato. They will be focusing on the time of year of the events, facility capacity, attractiveness to outside visitors, the extent of possible local support and so forth. They will look through these ideas in early December and then get to work on pushing some forward in early 2011.

The CVB is willing to work with groups and individuals to make an event happen that will benefit the community at-large. It took almost two years to take the marathon from concept to fruition. Some events may take time to get them off the ground but the marathon is proof that a well-run event can be well worth it for this community.

Victor Hugo, well known poet and novelist, once said, “An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.” Do you have an idea whose time has come? Let’s find out. Please submit your idea to the Greater Mankato CVB through e-mail at lmrozek@greatermankato.com, or 507.385.6662 or the website at visitgreatermankato.com. We welcome any ideas, no matter how big or small they may seem.



Anna Thill is the president of the Greater Mankato Convention and Visitors Bureau.