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Editor's corner

We were really pleased to receive the following email from one of our readers about last month's article The demise of repeat appeal.

“Your article "The Demise..." is absolutely spot-on and is the best, most provocative and honest piece I've seen written on the subject. In an industry notorious for delusional business strategies and shameless self-congratulation, I have come to rely on your newsletters for the straight dope...whether I want to face the reality of your analyses' ramifications or not!

“Thanks for the insight.”

It's great to know that our readers appreciate all the work it takes to put together our Leisure eNewsletter.

Since our last eNewsletter, I've spent time:

• At the friends and family pre-opening and training events at our Doc Brundy's Delectable Diversions eatertainment project in Utah (see article this issue),
• At Davis Farmland and Davis Mega Farm Festival working with them on planning an expansion of both venues, including an expansion of their food, beer and wine offerings at the Festival, and
• Touring agritainment and other venues in Pennsylvania for four days with a group of six of the top agritainment farmers in the world.

Davis Farmland has been our client for 24 years. It has been rewarding to have worked with them over those years and to see their business grow and evolve to become two major and successful regional agritainment destinations.

Most people in the CLV and FEC industry don't comprehend how large the agritainment industry is and how much they are competition, especially in the Fall. Many of our clients generate revenues in the multi-millions of dollars over just six or seven weeks when they are open, far exceeding the total revenues of most FECs that are open all year.

I was pleased to be featured along with our Ocean5 eatertainment project in Bisnow's article yesterday about family entertainment centers (click to read).

In August I'll be visiting three of our clients: Doc Brundy's, a resort on the West Coast we're designing a leisure venue for and Ocean5 and Table 47 that we wrote about last month.

If you ever get to Kansas City, be sure to visit us in our purple home, built in the 1920s. We've had our office in it for the last 15 years. The architectural style is Greene & Greene, named after two West Coast architects (yes, you guessed it, both named Greene) who developed a style that was a bit of a rebellion against Victorian architecture so prominent during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

We have a varied selection of articles for you in this issue that range from why Americans are having fewer babies, the challenging teenager employment landscape, the bifurcation of out-of-home entertainment, what attendees really want at sport and live events, all about Doc Brundy's Delectable Diversions and who's the best target market for CLVs.

Hoping you have an enjoyable and restful rest of the summer.

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