playcore - building communities through play

Tom O’Rourke, CPRP

Executive Director

Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission

Charleston, South Carolina

torourke@ccprc.com

April 7th, 2014 Atlanta Georgia

WE are in the EXACT same business !

… so, what business are we in?

Future

5 things

1. The Health and Wellness of the American People will be our country’s biggest problem.

2. People in our profession are going to need to figure out where to find money.

3. We are going to need to sell our greatness.

4. Keeping up with automation will need to be strategic.

5. All of our greatness will need to be measured

Health and Wellness

47 Trillion Dollars are going to be spent in the next 20 years on

diabetes/obesity issues.

By the end of this decade, over 50 million people will be killed as a result of their food and exercise choices. (Twice as many as infectious disease.)

There are more people that are overweight than people who are starving.

By the end of the decade there will be a half-billion diabetics and over a

billion pre-diabetics, and only half the doctors to take care of them.

Finding Money

• Governmental Capital Funding.

• 1 million =

$87,000/year for 15 years

• Foundations – remember you are not selling playground equipment.

• Grants

Selling our Greatness

First – Who are you selling to? Second – What is it specifically is it that you are selling? What is the most effective and least expensive way to do it?

Social Media

• Over a billion monthly active users

• Over 700 million daily active users on average

• 680 million monthly active mobile users

• Average age is 35

• Fastest growing demographic is women 55+

• 11 million businesses using Facebook Pages

Why Social Media ?

A Picture is worth a thousand words.

As you post…Remember,

• Be in the moment

• Be generous

“80% of the content you publish or share should pertain to things that really matter to your audience.

The other 20% can be about your products and services.”

Why?

• No one wants to hear a sales pitch from you every day.

• We’re conditioned to ignore a lot of blatant sales content.

• Keep fans interested and encourage new fans with a well-rounded social media campaign.

Automation Decisions will need to be strategic

• There is a limit to the amount of stimulus an environmental play area

should have.

Our Greatness will need to be measured

• Health statistics – Medical Records

• Number of people using compared to actual cost.

• Documented Research

Organizational Health who you are speaks much louder than your strategies

Creating a Culture of Excellence

Culture : The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization.

• Attitude: How do we view the organization that we work for? Is the Leadership of

the organization working toward a shared Mission, Vision, and Values? • Values: Are the organizations stated Values “real?” Are they merely words or do

these Values form our culture? • Goals: Does the organization have Stated Goals? Are they known to all, monitored,

and evaluated at the end of a stated period? • Practices: Does the organization operate with a set of written standards? Are we

consistent? Are employees empowered?

Branding

• Branding happens when a customer

looks at YOU and sees a reflection of THEMSELVES.

Summary

YOU

Thank You

torourke@ccprc.com

www.ccprc.com/orourke