Portland Rose Festival :: 2020 Souvenir Program

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Follow Along With Us:2020 ROSE FESTIVAL COURT - A JOURNEYMarch at the Rose Festival meansit is time to announce members ofthe Rose Festival Court presentedby Unitus Community CreditUnion. However in 2020 thingslooked a bit different.On February 28, we announcedour first Princess at David DouglasHigh School. We continued to announce a Princess each day, untilMarch 11. At this time, things started to change. Corona virus orCOVID-19 became a household word, and a daily topic of discussion.On the evening of March 11 Governor Brown placed a ban ongatherings of 50 people or more. On March 12, we announced ourPrincess at Lincoln High School in a modified assembly with justthe candidates, and close family and friends. Schools started to talkabout canceling classes, and two schools — St. Mary’s Academyand Central Catholic — were planning to move to remote learningfor the next few weeks. On March 13, Central Catholic’s doors wereclosed, but their announcement was successfully held at LloydCenter, and one of the last activities to take place at St. Mary’s thatFriday afternoon was their announcement ceremony, both limitedto the families and teachers of each school’s court members.The weekend of March 14-15 saw some major changes inpublic policy. Governor Brown closed all schools through theend of March. We had to work quickly and creatively to comeup with a plan to announce the final 4 Princesses, scheduled forMarch 16-19. The ultimate goal in determining how to proceed wasmaking this experience transformational for each young womaninvolved. Our solution was to announce the Princess online usingGoogle Hangouts. A TV news camera came to the Rose Festivaloffice to film the announcement, candidates dressed up in theirformal gowns, the previous year’s Princess tuned in to offer wordsof advice, and the new Princess was able to give a speech onInstagram stories.We are grateful to the high school administrators, Court candidates,the news media, and everyone involved who helped us to swiftlyevolve our traditions and provide a memorable experience to allthe students involved. We are proud of how it all turned out!However announcing the Princesses is just the start of the RoseFestival Court Program. On April 9 Governor Brown directed thatschools would stay closed for the remainder of the academic year.Students are learning to do distance learning, and the Princessesare having their training on Zoom.The Court’s Outreach will look different this year. Activities so farhave included doing a live reading on Instagram to children, andmaking a video to cheer for essential healthcare workers, whichwas shared on social media.As plans for a phased re-opening continue, the festival continuesto create flexible plans to get members of the 2020 Rose FestivalCourt together in person, with hopes of providing an experiencethat includes additional training and community outreach.8
#PDXRoseFestival @PDXRoseFestivalTELLING THE SPONSORSHIP STORYSouthwest put its name on two of Rose Festival’s parades, andover the next ten years made a multi-million dollar investment,managed from their corporate headquarters in Texas. “Once theyfelt they had a great foothold in the market, they moved on,” Curtissays. “The good news for the festival was we were able to helpthem achieve their marketing goals. After a few years without anofficial airline deal, Alaska stepped up in 2012 and has taken it tothe next level when it comes to organizational integration.”Sponsors are a big part of the Rose Festival’s story, with fascinatingstories of their own about their connections to Portland’s OfficialFestival. “Most people only think of the money,” says longtimestaffer Marilyn Clint. “But our premier partners represent somuch more than that.” Key sponsors contribute corporateclout, community connections, creative inspiration along withconstructive checks and balances, not to mention organizationalleadership. These Sponsor Stories have been crafted by Clint, thefestival’s resident historian, to highlight the intricate connectionbetween Rose Festival and its premier sponsors.Corporate sponsorship grew in the 1980s as one of the mostimportant financial components for perpetually-struggling nonprofitevents. “Funding a festival is a tricky business,” says Clint. “Fromthe very beginning, companies like Meier & Frank kept the festivalgoing. And Gerry Frank has been part of the Rose Festival board ofdirectors for as long as I’ve been alive, which is a long time.”But even longtime sponsors can be vulnerable to change.“Sometimes companies go away or their marketing goals change,”says CEO Jeff Curtis, whose Rose Festival career started insponsorship sales. “Meier & Frank, for instance, was acquired byMacy’s in 2006. Macy’s didn’t have that personal connection toRose Festival.”A company’s decision to sponsor an event or a festival comesfrom a variety of places. Decisions can be based in good corporatecitizenship, community spirit or strong, targeted marketing goals.“Southwest Airlines is a great example of the latter,” saysCurtis. “In the early 1990s they waited for the festival’s officialairline to opt out, then they called us. They wanted to be alignedwith the biggest event in Portland which was a new market forthem at the time.”When corporate names started appearing in the title of events inthe 1980s, it was initially a controversial step. While the generalpublic seemed to accept it, media outlets were more skeptical.Portland’s daily newspaper went through several iterations ofpolicy in regard to acknowledging sponsors in editorial coverage ofevents. Later it became commonplace.“We had to make some hard calls to local media in the early daysof title sponsorship,” says Clint. “We had to advocate for oursponsors. There’s a formula for the level of investment, whethera name appears before or after the name of an event, as in atitle or presenting sponsor. You’re always trying to be sure yoursponsors are getting a good return on their investment.” RoseFestival follows the guidelines of the International Events Group,the industry leader in sponsorship trends and valuations.Curtis’ background in sponsorship sales is a plus for dealing withthe twists and turns of the festival business. “I have my own salesformula I use every year to forecast sponsorship dollars. The moneyis what makes us able to meet our mission, to accomplish ourprogramming goals. Rose Festival is one of the best in the eventsworld at sponsor recruitment and retention. We concentrate on thebig picture. And as highly as we value our premier sponsors, werecognize the importance of every relationship, no matter the sizeor scope. We have fully embraced a core philosophy of customizedrelationships with all of our sponsors.”“If you look over the long history of the festival,” says Clint, “it’shard to quantify the investment of longtime sponsors like PGEand Wells Fargo. Sponsoring a float in the Grand Floral Paradeis extremely important to us, because floats are the cornerstoneof our programming. And PGE and Wells (in its former corporateidentities of First National Bank and First Interstate Bank) haveprovided parade content for decades. That can’t really be assigneda dollar value, and neither can their contribution to our leadership.More Rose Festival presidents have come out of Wells than anyother company. And PGE’s Rose Festival leadership is legendary.There’s more than money to the sponsorship story.”9
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Portland Rose Festival :: 2020 Souvenir Program

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