Holiday Parade in Battle Creek

Ok, just to point out some differences between how the Battle Creek International Festival of Lights is being handled now v.s. the way it was run back when I was maintaining their web site. This is not a shot at the people running the IFOL now, nor is it even a shot at their current web developer. Their current web developer is very reputable and I have even referred some work to them. I don't know the people that are currently running the IFOL either, so this is nothing personal towards any of them either:

The IFOL used to get pretty good media coverage. The Battle Creek Enquirer always covers the parade each year. Usually a local Television station does too. This year, the Enquirer did cover the parade again. I found 3 pictures of the entire parade so far, and from what I saw on Access Vision, it didn't look like there were too many people lining the streets like in the past. This could be because it rained this year during the parade, but in past years, when NMP was maintaining the site, there was a year just like this year, and it was raining, but the streets were crowded to the point that you could hardly get around! This year, it look like people could have a front row seat, with nobody behind them.

When we used to go to the committee meetings, my wife would remind the comittee members about the correct web site address for the festival. She did this to the point that it was almost embarassing. I finally pulled her aside one day and told her that if they didn't get it by now, there weren't going to get it at all. There is a story about the Taste of Battle Creek that proved me wrong on that (putting the incorrect web site address on the posters that they were distributing all over the city etc. incorrect web site addresses on the shirts, until we said something about it and they redesigned the shirts, but the posters were already done and being distributed... etc etc. but like I said, this is for another story)

I can't find anything about the IFOL anywhere on the local TV stations web site. I'm sure that Access Vision has something on it, and that's about the extent of their TV coverage.

"so why are you posting this Marc?" you ask. Because it's just one more way of proving how valuable a web site can be to a company or organization.

It doesn't help that we haven't had any snow this year, and I'm sure the rain forcast did make some difference in the turnout for the parade, but watching it on Access Vision, the crowd just looked very sparse out there.