If you’ve been in business for any amount of time, you know that partnerships can be tricky. You can’t take them for granted and you certainly must work at them – just like any relationship. Sometimes they last, sometimes they don’t, but sometimes, more rarely… they flourish.
At Endeavor’s April Collaborators and Cocktails speaker series, we invited two partner organizations that have not only lasted but have partnered for over 15 years and just continue thriving.
Enter VisitGreenvilleSC and TKPR.
As President & CEO of VisitGreenvilleSC (VGSC), Health Dillard helps maximize Greenville’s visitor economy by developing and promoting exceptional visitor experiences to elevate the quality of life and prosperity for our community. The vision of VGSC? To be one of the most visited and talked about travel destinations in the Southeast.
Taryn Scher started her business, TKPR, 17 years ago and now it’s an award-winning PR firm that specializes in travel and hospitality. She delivers her clients “New York results with a touch of Southern charm”, and has successfully landed clients on The Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Travel & Leisure… and the list goes on.
When Taryn first moved to Greenville, she pitched new and fresh ideas to food, wine and music festival, euphoria. They loved her vision, but at the time didn’t have any funds for PR. That didn’t deter her. As a young 20-something full of ambition, Taryn said, “You have no money, I have no friends. So I’ll make you a deal.” Two years after that, her successful results got her a phone call from The Convention and Visitors Bureau, which we all know today as VisitGreenvilleSC.
The rest is history. The partnership started and continues to be strong today.
Throughout their storytelling, the two imparted some very memorable thoughts.
Here are a few of our favorites:
“We don’t want tourism for the sake of tourism. We want to leverage tourism for the positive impact on our community that leads to job creation and reinvested taxes.”
“The Visit GreenvilleSC and TKPR partnership extends beyond us – it’s a collaboration with hotels, ice cream shops, all types of businesses that make it happen.”
“In our organization we make evidence-based decisions with a little bit of our heart.”
“Some people suggest that we have some role in making all these people want to move here. We don’t do that. We just do tourism and what we’ve found is that when you build a community that is really attractive that people want to visit, you’re also building a community that people love to live in and want to move to.”
“When we’re lucky enough to influence people to travel here, our community takes care of the rest.”
We certainly have to give VisitGreenvilleSC and TKPR a ton of credit for putting and keeping Greenville on the map. But we also need to give our community credit. Because as Taryn said, “The formula is impossible to replicate because there’s a magic in Greenville that you can’t explain. It’s the people that make it so special.”
Stay tuned for details on our next Collaborators & Cocktails.
