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THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
AT
CHAPEL HILL
Instituie of Outdoor Drama The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
(Q19) 962-1328 CB# 3240, NCNB Plaza
Chapel Hill. N.C. 27599-3240
July 22, 1991 e, heagey the
Mr. Richard Mix
Mix International Lighting
PO Box 8
Jeffersonville, IN 47131
Dear Mr. Mix:
The Institute of Outdoor Drama is a research and advisory agency of the
University of North Carolina. We work with some 70 outdoor theatre companies
in 30 states across the country, and with approximately 35 communities who are
in various stages of developing their own outdoor historical drama.
Each year in October the Institute produces the National Outdoor Drama
Conference. For several years now we have held this conference on the site of
one of those 70 outdoor theatre companies. This year the conference will be
hosted by The Stephen Foster Story in Bardstown, Kentucky, October 24-27, 1991.
While the conference is nationwide in scope, it remains relatively small with an
average of about 25 theatre companies represented from 20 states and a total
registration of some 60 people. Most of the individuals attending the meeting
are general managers, directors, and some designers, as well as representatives
of communities who are planning their own dramas and who are designing new
amphitheatres.
Programming for the conference is similar to other professional meetings of this
nature, with panel sessions, workshops, speakers, meal functions and the like,
in addition to time spent looking over and discussing the physical plant and
Operations of the host company, in this case, The Stephen Foster Story.
The conference also includes several social functions which allow company reps an
Opportunity to have a drink, mill about and informally talk shop. As you know,
it©s these social gatherings that often hatch the best ideas and lead to formal
deals later on.
In the past, the sponsorship of these social events has been shared by the local
host company and a theatre supply house with an interest in meeting the outdoor
drama managers. Last year, Unto These Hills in Cherokee, North Carolina was the
host company and Omni Stage Lighting and Quality Sound & Video were the sponsors.
I°m writing to ask if Mix International would be interested in sponsoring two of
these social events at the National Conference this year.
The first social hour is scheduled from 6:30 to 7:30pm, Saturday, October 26, at
The Holiday Inn in Bardstown. Plans.call for an open bar and miscellaneous chips
and dip, to be held in a meeting room of the hotel. As we get a little closer to
the conference date, we may want to consider setting up outside, nearby the pool.
The second social event will be later on that evening, immediately following the
banquet, from 9:00 to 10:30pm or so, again in a large meeting room at The Holiday
Inn.
The sales manager of The Holiday Inn is making a special compensation for us with
these events: allowing the sponsor to bring in the liquor, rather than requiring
the sponsor to contract with the hotel for the purchase of the liquor. As I°m
sure you know, that will be a tremendous cost-saver. The Holiday Inn will
provide the rooms and set them up free of charge. The Holiday Inn has also
agreed that the sponsor can either tend bar or can contract with the hotel to
provide a bartender. Likewise, set-ups can be brought in by the sponsor or the
sponsor can contract with the Holiday Inn. So, we have a good deal of
flexibility with these arrangements.
Our best guess is that there will be approximately 60 to 80 people at each social
event. We will have a fairly good idea of the numbers in plenty of time to make
purchasing decisions prior to the conference.
Should you be interested in this idea, we would like to list Mix International
Lighting in all conference promotional information (brochure, newsletter copy
and the program itself). We will also be sure to publicly acknowledge the
company with our thanks in announcements: made during the conference.
As you can see, this is a relatively small meeting compared with many of the
other conferences you must be accustomed to working. The key to ours is that
everyone there will be in a position to purchase, and they come from all across
the nation. We also expect to host as many as 10 planning groups who are in
various stages of developing and building their own facilities. Some of them
will be nearing the point of major obligations. So, I hope this will work well
for you.
If this interests you, please give me a call and I will put the plans into
motion.
sincerely
Director/