The Holiday Season is many things to many people. First and foremost, for us, it is the opportunity to reconnect with family and friends. But, we also welcome the holidays as a time to do a deep dive into “what’s next.” It’s been said that entry level employees should spend 90% of their time concentrating on the job at hand and 10% thinking about the future. Conversely, CEOs should spend 10% of their time focused on the here and now and 90% on what’s next. Unfortunately, as compelling a concept as this sounds, it just isn’t feasible for the vast majority of people in senior management today.

Except, just possibly, during the holidays.

A number of us in DMO-land used to joke that it was 7...and then off to the next adventure. Seven years seemed to be the average tenure for Destination Marketing CEOs. I never made it past 5 years in either of my DMO gigs. A cooler opportunity presented itself in the first and an itch to jump into consulting after completing my MBA 20 years ago short-circuited the other. But, the 7 year thing is kinda standard for many of us. Except for those that go long. I mean really long. Like two decades.

Like last year, it’s taken a couple weeks to process the intel gleaned from the Annual Convention of Destination Marketing Association International. And, again…I probably came away with more questions than answers. But, that’s a good thing…as it keeps us fresh, searching for answers in this increasingly disruptive world.

Twenty years. Yes, 20. And, yet, it went by so fast. Zeitgeist Consulting marks its 20th anniversary this year…and we thank you for supporting us over the past two decades. As the Grateful Dead surely said as they completed their final concerts last week, what a long strange trip it’s been.

We're experiencing some seriously psychedelic metamorphoses in the DMO Industry right now. We've never seen the rate of change hurtling forward as quickly as it has in the last 24 months. Back in 1995, the internet was just starting to get some traction. Like anything new, there were the early adopters (like us!)...but there were also those that were in complete denial. That first disruptive technology brought a tidal wave of change, from OTAs, Consumer Reviews and Social Media all disintermediating DMOs to providing an easily accessed information platform that has profoundly changed how we sell.