Innovation
Thinking positively
How Dennis Roche used a new name to reinvigorate an entire city
By Megan Tackett
Smart Business Akron/Canton | September 2008
There are more than 6 billion people populating the world, and
Dennis J. Roche is doing everything he can to tell them about
Cleveland. As president of Positively
Cleveland, the city’s newly renamed
convention and visitors bureau, Roche
is getting creative in his approach to
promoting the Northern Ohio city as a
business-meeting and tourism hot
spot.
In order to get the word out on
Cleveland, Roche first had to get the
word out on Positively Cleveland. Until
last year, the organization was known as
the Convention and Visitors Bureau of
Greater Cleveland — quite a mouthful
and relatively generic. So, after surveying 11,000 meeting planners and 100
travelers about possible logos, the
Convention and Visitors Bureau of
Greater Cleveland became Positively
Cleveland. The same year, Roche led the
organization to a new, more visible home in the historic Higbee Building on Public
Square. It found a new virtual home, too,
with the creation of a new Web site. It
was a positively better situation all around.
In the same year that it
acquired both a new name and
a new location, Positively
Cleveland attracted new friends,
as well. Roche and Joe Roman,
president and CEO of the
Greater Cleveland Partnership,
got together and brainstormed
ways to join forces in order to even more
effectively market the Cleveland area.
The result was Cleveland Plus, a regional brand composed of Positively
Cleveland, Team NEO and the Greater
Cleveland Partnership. Soon thereafter,
the highways were dotted with cars
proudly sporting the Cleveland Plus
bumper sticker.
But Roche knew there was still more
work to be done. While administering a total rebranding of his organization, he
simultaneously headed efforts to advocate for the Medical Mart and convention center project. When he
wasn’t meeting with industry
leaders to create Cleveland
Plus, Roche was lobbying for
the new center, handing out literature at public events, maintaining yet another Web site,
speaking publicly on the subject and rallying at public hearings.
In addition to attracting outsiders, he’s
working to get Clevelanders jazzed up,
as well. An online “Be a Tourist in your
own Hometown” sweepstakes, a
MySpace Web page, a YouTube video
and logo T-shirts keep everyone energized.
HOW TO REACH: Positively Cleveland, (216) 875-6600 or
www.positivelycleveland.com
