Additional Marketing Opportunity for EBA Sponsors

Thank you for being an EBA sponsor! The goal for this additional marketing option is to provide you, our valued sponsors, with increased name recognition.

Sponsor Guidelines for Commercial:

Available only for EBA member Diamond, Platinum and Gold level sponsors 1. The opportunity to have a commercial aired at the June EBA meeting in Ft. Worth, TX is being made to the June EBA member Diamond, Platinum and Gold sponsors; 2. Your participation is Optional; 3. The commercial may be no longer than 3 minutes in length; 4. The commercial must be funny/comical; 5. Since we will be in Fort Worth, TX which is knowns as “Cowtown” – we would like the commercials to have a Western feel or Dallas/Fort Worth type feel/backdrop if possible, although not mandatory. Think “Cowboys”; Saloons; Ranchers; Horses and Cattle; Oil/gas wells …. Or the TV show “Dallas” with JR Ewing. Some information on the history of Ft. Worth is provided below. 6. The commercial cannot be an infomercial about your company. But, the commercial can provide Name exposure for your firm and can highlight a service or product that you provide. Such info/ideas must be interwoven within the commercial with the commercial being humorous. (See examples on the EBA Website of commercials from the January Long Beach meeting); 7. The commercial must be produced internally by your firm’s staff. It may not be produced by professional videographers, editors, etc. 8. The commercial video will need to be uploaded to YouTube and the link for it emailed to Headquarters in care of Lisa Kraus Gardner @ [email protected] no later than end of day Monday, May 16th. 9. The commercials will be aired between the conference presentations; polling; and/or prior to announced breaks/lunch. 10. Up to 2 commercials may be aired between each panel change out. If the commercial Sponsor is part of a panel and/or is Sponsoring the next break/lunch/reception, their commercial will be played as close to their sponsored event or participation as possible. Otherwise, the commercials will be aired in order of sponsorship, with all Diamond sponsor commercials played first, Platinum sponsor commercials played after Diamond, and Gold sponsor commercials played after Platinum. Within each sponsor level, commercials will be played in the order sponsorship registration was received for that sponsor level. 11. The commercials are not intended to air until the June meeting. However once aired, if you are willing and give the EBA permission, we will post the commercials on the EBA website and at some point in the future, we may use them within EBA marketing information. No commercials will be posted to the website and/or used within marketing information without the prior consent of the sponsor. Additionally, in order for the video to be posted to the EBA website and/or utilized for future marketing, please be aware of copyright issues. Product names of items utilized in the video should be blurred or blackened out. Any music or canned film footage utilized in the commercial must be purchased for use in order to comply with copyright laws. 12. The conference audience will be polled and asked to select their favorite commercial, after all of them have been shown. On the final day of conference we will announce the top two winners. Winning organizations will receive 15 minutes of podium time at the following EBA conference.

Fort Worth, TX Overview (obtained from Wikipedia and Ft. Worth related tourism websites: Fort Worth was established in 1849 as an Army outpost on a bluff overlooking the Trinity River. Today Fort Worth still embraces its Western heritage and traditional architecture and design. Fort Worth went from a sleepy outpost to a bustling town when it became a stop along the legendary Chisholm Trail, the dusty path on which millions of head of cattle were driven north to market. Fort Worth became the center of the cattle drives, and later, the ranching industry. Its location on the Old Chisholm Trail helped establish Fort Worth as a trading and cattle center and earned it the nickname "Cowtown".

Fort Worth became the westernmost railhead and a transit point for cattle shipment. With the city's main focus being on cattle and the railroads, local businessman, Louville Niles, formed the Fort Worth Stockyards Company in 1893. Shortly thereafter, the two biggest cattle slaughtering firms at the time, Armour and Swift, both established operations in the new stockyards. With the boom times came some problems. Fort Worth had a knack for separating cattlemen from their money. Cowboys took full advantage of their last brush with civilization before the long drive on the Chisholm Trail from Fort Worth up north to Kansas. They stocked up on provisions from local merchants, visited the colorful saloons for a bit of gambling and carousing, then galloped northward with their cattle only to whoop it up again on their way back. The town soon became home to "Hell's Half-Acre," the biggest collection of saloons, dance halls and bawdy houses south of Dodge City (the northern terminus of the Chisholm Trail), giving Fort Worth the nickname of "The Paris of the Plains".

Building on its frontier western heritage and a history of strong local arts patronage, Fort Worth has, in recent years, begun promoting itself as the "City of Cowboys and Culture". Fort Worth has the world's largest indoor rodeo. Many local museums lend themselves to the Great West, such as: National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame, and Fort Worth Stockyards Museum. Each year, Ft. Worth also hosts the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and the Academy of Western Artists, based in Gene Autry, Oklahoma presents its annual awards in Fort Worth in fields related to the American cowboy, including music, literature, and even chuck wagon cooking. Additionally, Ft. Worth has preserved “The Stockyards” into a viable area of music, entertainment and restaurants, inclusive of Billy Bob's. Billy Bob's Texas is a popular country & western nightclub in the Fort Worth Stockyards, Texas, United States. It promotes itself as "The World's Largest Honky Tonk" with 127,000 square feet (12,000 m²). Billy Bob's opened April 1, 1981 to national attention with Larry Gatlin & the Gatlin Brothers as the first performers. Other artists who appeared that first week were Waylon Jennings, Janie Fricke and Willie Nelson. Since, artists such as Pat Green have carried on the tradition. In addition to several dance floors, musical stages, arcade games, and billiards tables, Billy Bob's is the home to a small indoor rodeo arena, in which they have weekend bullriding events.

When oil began to gush in West Texas in the early twentieth century, and again in the late 1970s, Fort Worth was at the center of the wheeling and dealing. In July 2007, advances in horizontal drilling technology made vast natural gas reserves in the Barnett Shale available directly under the city, helping many residents receive royalty checks for their mineral rights. The city of Fort Worth contains over 1000 natural gas wells (December 2009 count) tapping the Barnett Shale. Each well site is a bare patch of gravel 2–5 acres (8,100–20,200 m2) in size. As city ordinances permit them in all zoning categories, including residential, well sites can be found in a variety of locations. Some wells are surrounded by masonry fences but most are secured by chain link.

The area where our hotel is located, is identified as “Sundance Square”. This area of downtown Fort Worth, was revitalized by the Bass Brothers beginning in 1982. Sundance Square is the name of a 35-block commercial, residential, entertainment and retail district in downtown Fort Worth, Texas. Named after the Sundance Kid in western folklore, it is a popular place for nightlife and entertainment in Fort Worth and for tourists visiting the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

Check out the videos on this link: http://www.fortworth.com/stockyardsadventure/ https://youtu.be/gba6g6V4pg4