You may have seen the posts last week and then starting yesterday saying “Vote For St. Louis” or something to that effect. I would bet a good portion of you didn’t give it a second glance and moved right along looking for more celebrity gossip, March Madness or baseball analysis. I’m here not to tell you to blindly vote for St. Louis in this contest but, to tell you why you should vote for St. Louis.

The contest is to determine where the next Social Media Tourism Symposium will be held. This year’s event, the third annual, will be held in November.  110 people attended the first event in Loudoun County, Virginia and 183 people attended the second in Tunica, Mississippi. Neither of those places make me think that a lot of “locals” attended the event, which means outsiders spending money in our restaurants and staying in our hotels. In looking at the event’s “About” page, I don’t see the word “Occupy” so, I would assume we won’t be seeing people trying to sleep in Kiener Plaza. Have no fear, this looks like all systems go for St. Louis.

I would assume that the majority of the voting is being done by residents of the respective cities. The contest  is done in a bracket type system (Click that link so I don’t have to explain it). A valuable group to focus on though is the one attending the symposium. Clearly, we have some awesome things to offer attendees.

Say the event is held Downtown. Maybe at the Embassy Suites on Washington Avenue? Attendees can check out the whole Wash Ave scene. By the time the November event rolls around, we should (fingers crossed) have a brand-new three-screen movie theater right across the street from their hotel. We will also have Takaya New Asian and Pi right there too. Further down the street, we have great places like Over/Under, Prime and Rosalita’s. Just a block or so over we will have Local Harvest. Sure, it’ll be at the foot of a beautiful building that is the definition of having  big dreams without big pockets, but those folks do great things with local food. Farther on, we have parts of the Dave Bailey empire in Bailey’s Range and The Bridge. If it is the same elsewhere as it is in St. Louis, there will be some beer fans in this group of social media people. We know our beer here even without the letters A and B.

Those are places just within walking distance if they have it Downtown. Attendees could get in a car or a taxi for a short ride to Soulard, The Loop or Central West End. El Paso, TX is tweeting about the margarita being born there. We may not be exactly on their level with that stuff, but I’ll put up Cherokee Street any day.

Let’s revisit the fact that this is a Social Media Symposium. The event is about using social media in tourism. St. Louis can hold its own in the social media category. I mean, we do have a pretty active Social Media Club. Erica Smith handles the social media for the Post-Dispatch. She would be a great speaker at the event.  Our food and beer scenes have used social media as an integral part of their growth. A city is only as good as its parts. Bringing some of these people in a “town hall” type event could be hugely beneficial.

No one at this event will be perfect at what they do.  They may think they are going in, but hopefully they will quickly realize they aren’t and will learn from each other. Thinking in local terms, I hope people will learn that you should almost never push the same update to Facebook and Twitter. I also would like people to learn that certain things will make them look stupid in 2012 and beyond.

If you’ve gotten this far in this post, you probably have a great amount of pride in St. Louis. Use that to help us win this contest.  Don’t just tell people to vote for St. Louis, tell them why they need to vote for St. Louis. Think not just in terms that this event would bring money into our city. Think about how we want to show off our city and that people coming in will find this to be the most enjoyable Social Media Tourism Symposium yet.

You have until 11pm tonight to vote in this round.  Share your thoughts on why St. Louis should host this event below and on Twitter using the hashtag #SoMeT12.

Post brought to you by Mills Properties

Cover photo courtesy of Freshletes