Loudoun Summer Music Fest may not happen thanks to AOL

AOL pulled out of sponsoring the fest AND the did it last minute and after promising the money. Seems fairly typical of how they operate these days. And I can say that as I was a loyal employee for 10 years.

http://www.leesburg2day.com/articles/2007/12/12/news/fp691musicfest121207.txt

 

I was an employee for 3 years, though I was not loyal! In my career working for 7 different companies, AOL represented the greatest waste of talent I have ever seen. Bright, bright people everywhere...but the matrix organization and lack of clear direction made bright people become the least effective people I've ever seen.

This doesn't surprise me. With the big cheese moving to New York and continued layoffs, their commitment to the local area will continue to recede. From a shareholder perspective, they probably should be withdrawing sponsorships.

This is a good opportunity for another company to step up to the plate...

 

Hopefully some company (or companies) can hurry up and pony up the cash they need to secure contracts with talent, but I don't know if anyone has $80,000 laying around in their 2008 budget. I agree its not surprising, but the right thing to do would have been to honor their promise and pay for this year, while giving the promoters a heads up that this is the last year they will be sponsoring. Instead they ducked calls and weaseled out at the last minute. But again... considering the source ......

 

there HAS to be other large companies looking for face time in our growing community... think Harris Teeter might do it? i mean, they dropped bags of groceries on our doorsteps and have TONS of competition from other stores... may be they or Wegmans would step up. what other kind of businesses would benefit?

 

How about Wegmans???

 

I doubt that Wegmans will do it. They are still WAY to small in the area to commit that much cash.

Considering that it is the LOUDOUN Fest, it would have to be someone with a major presence in the County, perhaps a developer (Toll Bro's, VM), possibly INOVA or HCA ().

 

whose in charge of sponsorship for the event? let's get this going- I need my 70s and 80s live music fix!!!!

 

yes but Wegmans is building a new location, they are a HUGE corporation, and they could insist that a certain amount of the products used at the venue are purchased at Wegmans... i dunno- if I owned Wegmans, I'd want to sponsor the event since there are a bazillion other grocery stores around.

and developers... i dunno- aren't they losing their shirts on real estate around here right now?

 

Why not break the 80 grand down into some kind of manageable pieces such as 20,000 or 10,000 or 5,000 etc and all combinations of and sell it that way. Advertise for it and make a list of all the potential large corporate donors and don't forget the wealthy individuals. Sure it was nice one donor wanted to do the whole thing and it made it easy but now with a little thought and work I am sure 80,000 can be raised in no time. Orbital comes to mind, a fast growing company and represents a lot of energy like rock concerts etc. Sell the tie in to the corporation or individual.

Lee j

 

Lee I bet we can get $40k for your bar for starters!!!

 

Oh yeah, you and your hubby and son have been to my house ha ha ha I would cook for you girl while you're recuperating but my cooking would probably make you worse. Get well soon hopefully for the next HH

Wonderful article about you and your neighbors in the WP. I think you will be well nourished with the kind of neighbors you have.

Anyway back to the music fest the more I think of it Orbital is a good tie. And how about Dulles Based Reston Limousine

Lee j

 

ok folks- time for action!!! let's not just sit around and grouse about it- let's get it done. if anyone knows who is responsible for soliciting sponsors for the fest, get them to provide some of us with sponsor packets, or their contact info so we can begin beating bushes!

 

Contact info for the fest

http://www.liveatbelmont.com/J2007/index.php?option=com_contact&Itemid=3


and Loudoun Foundation
http://www.loudounfoundation.org/