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International POW WOW Shuts Down South Beach!!!

May 27th, 2009 by Heather Anderson

Alas, we are hard at work for Washington County. Last week, as WCVA’s Tourism Sales Manager, I attended the travel industry’s premier international marketplace and the largest generator of Visit USA travel.  I joined the Oregon delegation and spent three days in intensive, pre-scheduled business appointments and met with a variety of International and Domestic buyers from key countries interested in the various things Oregon and Washington County have to offer. The Oregon delegation consisted of representatives from Travel Oregon, Travel Portland, Travel Lane County, The Oregon Coast, Southern Oregon and Central Oregon.

Pow Wow is no ordinary trade show.  It roughly consists of U.S. travel executives representing more than:

1,000 supplier organizations and destinations from every region of the U.S.
      representing all industry category components

1,500 International and Domestic Buyers from 70 countries

 

Historically, the business negotiated in these meetings results in the generation of over $3.5 billion in future Visit USA travel. International

 

Pow Wow offers international and domestic buyers and U.S. suppliers the opportunity to conduct business that would otherwise occur only through an exhaustive number of around-the-world trips. There were also plenty of opportunities to network at the various ‘nighttime events’ offered each evening.  On Sunday they shut down South Beach for a massive beach party. Also, we had an Oregon moment. Intense rain and a little flash flooding had us ‘wading’ the streets of Coconut Grove and forced us to come together and fight our way to the buses!  Onward ho!

 

Highpoint – Arriving to the welcome party in South Beach by bus and noticing that the police escort and closed off streets were for us! We took over a huge portion of the beach dressed in white and experienced the many moods and colors of Miami Beach in a breathtaking setting right on the sand! One stage with world-renowned DJ Irie spinning club music, another stage featuring music of the tropics and yet another with live jazz entertainment all wrapped up with performers, food, vendors and great conversation!

Lowpoint - As a native Oregonian I am blessed with beautiful “fair” skin…so, my lowpoint was obviously my sunburn!

 

Tags: Events, Pow Wow, tourism, washington county oregon
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