Abbeshire & Bluestone Offices, St. Louis
Daniel Bluestone convinced Alan
Edgewater to debrief at Abbeshire & Bluestone. Dan hoped to brainstorm a
little and maybe get some additional business marketing the upcoming book and
maybe the online webinar series. Jan wanted to include Coach Siena in a
discussion about the best way to market the scholarship fund going forward.
Alan agreed to meet with Tony Blank and some staffers from Ambrosia too but
since their St. Louis offices weren’t ready to move in, the Abbeshire &
Bluestone conference room was booked for the morning. So bagels and coffee from
St. Louis Bread Company were waiting for Alan along with a room full of
advertising and marketing people.
Ambrosia Project Manager, Julie Chase agreed to
take notes and produce a conference report for everyone present. She noted that Tony Blank, Grace and herself from Ambrosia would represent the account team,
project management and public relations from Ambrosia. She knew Coach Robert
Siena would arrive shortly. Jan Abbeshire and Daniel Bluestone could pull
people in and out for support since it was their venue;
Abbeshire & Bluestone letterhead
with an agenda for the meeting was placed at a dozen places around the
conference room table. Daniel was trying to control the meeting and he figured
that even late arrivals would see the agenda and refrain from breaking in with
their own topics. Anyway, the bulk of the meeting was intended to give Alan an
opportunity to share with everyone. So the outline included roman numerals and
broad subject headings.
I.
Kansas City Keynote at
Nelson-Atkins Museum – Alan Edgewater
II.
Walmart Meeting – Alan
Edgewater
III.
Scholarship Update and
Press – Coach Siena/Jan Abbeshire
IV.
Book Sales Update – Alan
Edgewater
V.
Webinar/Seminar Schedule –
Tony Blank
VI.
Holiday Events/Appearances
– Dan Bluestone
Alan walked in and poured himself a
cup of black coffee and added some Sweet N’Low. He said hello to everyone as
they were filing into the room. He moved to the front of the room and began to
address the group somewhat extemporaneously. “Good morning. I just want to thank
everyone from Ambrosia for booking our Midwest mini tour. From Rock & Roll to Hall of Fame to The
Sculpture Garden at the Nelson Atkins Museum and all stops in between. It’s
been a great ride. We connected with maybe 2,000 people in 30 days. Is that
about right Tony?”
Tony Blank nodded and gestured that
the number was even higher.
“Cleveland, Canton, Detroit, Columbus,
Cincinnati, St. Louis, KC and Bentonville with special appearances and book
signings sprinkled in. We’ll be heading to Cleveland again in a week or so but
we expect to be mostly in town through the 4th Quarter. The Walmart
meeting was encouraging not only for this year but also potentially for a new
book we hope we can have ready for Q3 next year. I guess I’ll need to get to
work.”
Grace laughed awkwardly and it caused
others to chuckle. Tony felt compelled to comment, “Negative Space comments
seemed to resonate in KC. We reviewed video of Alan’s presentation and we
really think there are some gems there. Stay tuned. The publisher called us
after the Walmart meeting and they are fast tracking book three.” Tony’s impromptu
drew applause from the 7 people in the room.
“Thank you. There are plans to offer
book three exclusively in a three book in a set along with the first two in a handsomely packaged
set of three paperbacks in a sleeve.” Alan loved talking about the special set
especially since he planted the idea with the Walmart buyers and the publisher’s
rep just a couple of days ago. While the project was still unofficial, Alan was
encouraged by the enthusiasm in Bentonville. What he didn’t know was the impact
on other channels or if the idea of a set would go over even with one of the
three books being the completely new Negative
Space book.
The Ambrosia team promised to follow
up on the project as Coach Robert Siena entered the room. Dan invited him in,
offered him coffee and a place at the conference room table. Alan took this as
a cue to turn the floor over to Jan Abbeshire. “Jan, now that the coach is
hear, maybe you want to give us an update on the Alan Edgewater Failure First
Scholarship program.”
“Thanks Alan. Well, as you all know
the awards presentation at the Missouri Athletic Club was a success. We
finished comfortably in the black. We also raised nearly $25,000 for the fund
from pledges and the silent auction that night. What’s more exciting, perhaps,
is the pick-up we got from editors in a variety of business and sports related
publications.” Jan reported matter of factly. “The image of our winner signing
a tribute to his Nana was everywhere both in print and video via YouTube had
more than 450,000 hits. The Andy Valentine a cappella tribute to his Nana was
moving and it helped reinforce the power of the scholarship of this type. The unconditional
nature of the prize with the visibility and performance of Andrew Valentine is
sure to get us a heightened awareness.”
“That song was a show stopper for
sure,” shared Coach Siena. “And it turns out Nana was pretty fond of our boy
Andrew. He stands to inherit a priceless collection of art.
“Well now coach, let’s keep a lid on
that until we know what’s really going to happen with the art collection.”
“I know. Shoot, the kid doesn’t have
to worry about money short term anyway. His tuition is covered for him to
explore music engineering.”
Julie Chase noticed that only a couple
of the agenda items were covered that morning but the net take-away for
Ambrosia were Walmart and developing plans for Negative Space. She also noted
that net take-aways for Abbeshire & Bluestone were the scholarship fund, pr for the latest winner and the wildcard Nana
art collection. She almost forgot to mention it, but Tony Blank passed her a
note suggesting the art collection be included as items for Alan and Coach
Siena to follow up on.
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