photo by: Nick Krug

Michael Davidson, the director of Explore Lawrence, is pictured outside the Lawrence Public Library on Thursday, June 9, 2016.

When about 1,000 clarinetists descended upon Lawrence this summer for ClarinetFest 2016, they left more than $800,000 in the Lawrence economy.

When Lawrence CVB director Michael Davidson told me that figure, my first thought was I knew I should have followed through on that vision of opening a store that sells nothing but clarinet reeds. Then I realized most of the spending came from items like food, gasoline, lodging and maybe some retail spending, such as T-shirts with the slogan “Where clarinets go . . . Treble follows.”

What I mainly realized, though, is there are a lot of different ways Lawrence can attract visitors.

“Sporting events are great, and they have a high profile, but they are just one of the types of events we should be trying to bring into the community,” said Davidson, who began his job as director of ExploreLawrence in April.

In some ways, a clarinet festival may be an even bigger boon to the economy than some of the sporting events. That’s because the festival took place on weekdays, while many sporting events are limited to the weekends. Lawrence hotel operators love both types of business, but generally local hotels don’t have much trouble filling their rooms on an ordinary weekend. Filling rooms on an ordinary weekday, however, can be a struggle.

That’s why Davidson thinks a major strategy for Lawrence tourism needs to be working with KU, Baker and Haskell to bring more academic conferences and events to the community. Davidson said the lack of a true conference center limits the size of conferences the community can attract, but he said places like the renovated DoubleTree and other hotels in town can still accommodate sizable events.

“I think KU may have some low-hanging fruit,” Davidson said of the potential for conference business.

That was one takeaway I got from my recent conversation with Davidson. And that is the purpose of today’s article: To share a few takeaways from a relatively new community leader. I hope this becomes a semi-regular feature of Town Talk in 2017. I get a chance to chat with a lot of community leaders, and I hope to share some of those conversations with you. Here’s a look at a few other takeaways from Davidson:

photo by: Nick Krug

Michael Davidson, the director of Explore Lawrence, is pictured outside the Lawrence Public Library on Thursday, June 9, 2016.

• Lawrence will need to get comfortable with the idea of creating partnerships with Topeka, Overland Park and other area communities, if we ever want Rock Chalk Park to be all that it can be. Davidson — who previously led convention and tourism operations in Newark, N.J., and Walla Walla, Wash. — said Rock Chalk Park has great sporting facilities, but the Lawrence hotel market is not always in the best position to take full advantage of it. That goes back to the idea that hotels generally didn’t have high amounts of weekend vacancy prior to Rock Chalk Park’s construction. But, the park can still be a great host for large events, if some participants are willing to stay in other nearby communities.

“To take full advantage of Rock Chalk, we need to build regional partnerships because we don’t have enough rooms, and we shouldn’t build new rooms just for that because it is a seasonal business,” Davidson said.

But make no mistake, Davidson is impressed with the facility. He said the track at Rock Chalk Park particularly could be a national selling point for the community. He believes the facility is of high enough quality to host Olympic trials, but even with area partnerships we may be hard pressed to provide enough rooms for such an event. However, as a reminder, big time events already are booked for the track facility, including the U.S. Junior Olympics in July 2017, and the Big 12 Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships in May.

photo by: Nick Krug

In this file photo from June 10, 2014, city employees and guests get a tour of the Kansas University track and field facility at Rock Chalk Park.

• Davidson said he would love to have a major attraction like the outdoor adventure park and whitewater rafting facility proposed for a portion of Clinton Lake State Park. He said he’s talked with friends in the Charlotte area — where the proposed developers operate the U.S. National Whitewater Center — and they attest to the quality of that facility, although also noted some of the financial challenges the development had early on.

“I would love to have a destination attraction to market,” Davidson said.

But, like many other people, he’s not sure whether all the details will work out to make a good deal for the community. The project easily could be $70 million or more, and what amount would come from government assistance is unclear at the moment.

“Is Lawrence prepared for a project like this?” Davidson asked. “I don’t know. It is a lot of money. But we definitely should look at it.”

The proposed Kansas Outdoor Lifestyle Center at Clinton Lake would be a 1,500-acre facility hosting outdoor activities such as whitewater rafting and kayaking, zip lines, biking, running, hiking, climbing and paddle boarding.

• Expect Downtown Lawrence’s monthly art event Final Fridays to get a marketing boost. ExploreLawrence has taken over the marketing of the art walk event. Plans for 2017 include an interactive map of artists that will be on the ExploreLawrence website, a program to promote Final Fridays in Topeka and Kansas City during those communities’ First Fridays art events, and high tech online marketing.

Davidson said ExploreLawrence will start using “geo fence” marketing techniques. That is where people who click on a Final Fridays online advertisement would have a cookie installed on their phone. That cookie would allow ExploreLawrence to see how many people who viewed their advertisement actually came to the downtown area during a Final Fridays event. Davidson admitted it all sounds a little Big Brotherish, but it is becoming a more common marketing device. He said he’s interested in it because he understands the local tourism industry needs good data to grow.

“We know we have to show a return on our investment,” said Davidson, whose agency relies heavily on transient guest tax revenues generated by hotel stays. “We want to try to do a better job of quantifying how much visitor spending we’re creating.”

In other news and notes from around town:

• Speaking of events, the city sets aside $150,000 from the transient guest taxes it collects from local hotel stays. It uses the $150,000 to fund local events. At their meeting on Tuesday, city commissioners are scheduled to approve the list of events to receive funding for 2017. Here’s a look at the events slated to get grant funding from the city, and a look at those that lost out:

• Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade (Dec. 1-2): $10,000

• Dedication of the Haskell Stadium and Arch (May 25-28): $15,000

• BuskerFest 2017 (May 25-28): $15,000

• Free State Foundations (unspecified): $15,000

• Lied Center: First Nations Student Association Pow Wow (April 1-2): $5,000

• The Lawrence Art Guild Art in the Park (May 7): $6,325

• Lawrence Downtown Olympic Shot Put (April 21): $15,000

• Theatre Lawrence 2017 Holiday Show (December): $15,000

• Lawrence Children’s Choir Concerts (April 2 and Nov. 19): $8,000

• Live on Mass concert event (Summer 2017): $15,000

• Roger Hill Memorial Invitational swimming meet (June 17-18): $5,000

— Lawrence Opera Theatre 2017 season: $9,000

• Spencer Museum’s Power and Pleasures of Possessions exhibit (April-June): $7,000

• Lawrence Art Walk 2017 (Oct. 21-22): $7,950

• Experience Haskell: Native Lawrence event (Oct. 15): $1,725

Events that didn’t get funded include:

• African American Quilt Conference, July 12-15

• Tails and Traditions event, Dec. 2

• St. John’s Mexican Fiesta, June 23-24

• Civil War on the Western Frontier, Aug. 19

• 2017 Lawrence Festival of Trees, Nov. 27-30

Apparently Lawrence also was in the running to host the Young Democrats of America Spring 2017 National Conference. The advisory board had recommended the conference get a $15,000 grant, but it was learned earlier this month that Phoenix was chosen as the host site for the conference.

Commissioners meet at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.

• I’ve gotten word of a way to go to a KU basketball game and make a donation to the city’s efforts to improve affordable housing options.

Longtime affordable housing advocate Steve Ozark once again has donated a pair of his KU basketball tickets to an online auction that begins today and runs through Christmas. Ozark is using eBay to auction off two home basketball tickets. The winner of the auction can select two tickets to any of KU’s home basketball games this season. Ozark said 100 percent of the proceeds from the auction will be donated to the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Ozark is active with the city’s affordable housing advisory board, which is working to provide recommendations for how the city could spend approximately $1.65 million worth of city funding on affordable housing over the next several years.

“In most every single conversation and meeting I’ve been involved with over the past 17 years, the lack of safe and permanent affordable housing is the central reason people’s lives continue in crisis,” Ozark said. “If you think about it, we can’t have a true community without the people who work here being able to afford to live here.”

This concept may sound familiar to you. Ozark last year donated his tickets to the KU vs. Kentucky game for the same cause.

In case you are curious, the tickets this year are in Section 3, Row 7, Seats 12 and 13. The auction is being conducted here. When I last checked, the winning bid was at $150.