Deadlines and Opportunities
Save
the Date: SCTB Annual Meeting/Tourism Forum Feb. 10 
We're hosting our annual meeting and
tourism forum Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2010, at the FountainGrove Inn. Stay tuned to this channel for more
information.
CTTC
State Travel Releases Deadline Dec. 11
California Travel and Tourism
Commission is looking for submissions for upcoming press releases: California Dining, California
Learning Vacations, and Something's brewin' in California - Microbrewery tours. If you would like to
submit to any of these, please send the information to Tina Luster, tluster@sonomacounty.com, by 5
p.m. Dec. 11.
Media
Opportunity: Campus Circle Journalist – Deadline Dec. 11
A journalist with Campus Circle,
(www.campuscircle.com, cirulation 90,000 in the greater Los Angeles area) will be visiting Sonoma
County Jan. 1-3. If anyone is interested in hosting her for accommodations, a meal or an attraction,
please contact Tina Luster, tluster@sonomacounty.com, by Dec. 11.
SCTB
Deadline: What’s New, Dec. 14
We are looking for what’s new with
you. Please submit your what’s new item to www.sonomacounty.com/partners/whats-new, by 5 p.m. Dec. 14.
Your submissions will be used in SCTB’s quarterly press release covering January through March 2010.
Sunset Co-op Wine Pages: Deadline Dec. 20
Sunset will be running co-op
advertising pages focusing on wine, in the Inside Bay Area special section in the March issue.
Advertisers receive a four-color image, 25 words of text, a web address and a toll-free phone number.
Also, advertisers will be listed on the directory page, and receive a 30-day hot link listing on
sunsegetaways.com. For more information, visit www.sonomacounty.com/2010SonomaWineCoopSheets.pdf.
Submit your information to Kimberly Scargle, InsideSF@gmail.com, by Dec. 20.
LA
Wine Fest Accepting Wineries – Early Registration Ends Dec. 15
Sonoma County wineries looking to be
showcased in the LA area can still register to be an exhibitor at the LA Wine Fest, taking place in
June. Early bird registration is through Dec. 15. Download a registration application at
www.lawinefest.com/exhibitors.html.
Travel E-zine Seeks Info: Deadline Dec. 31
PR reps and media lead catchers: casa
naranja TRAVEL would love to hear from you about your property and/or clients. casa naranja TRAVEL
(www.casanaranja.com) is a travel e-zine. We target the sophisticated and style-conscious
Hispanic/Latin American reader seeking a source for travel and trends and a guide to finer living with
sabor Latino!"
Please e-mail your info, including a
link to your website, to elizabeth@casanaranja.com. Make sure the subject line is HARO-CN TRAVEL.
Please cc Tina Luster, tluster@sonomacounty.com. Deadline for information is Dec.
31.
Family Spring Break Info: Deadline Feb. 1, 2010
The managing editor for
MomsLikeMe.com, a network of local sites for moms, owned by Gannett Co., Inc./USA Today, would like to
feature some spring break suggestions in early 2010. Any region within the U.S. is fine; this will go
on 16 of their sites that are all over the country, plus the national site.
Please send your information, by Feb.
1, 2010, to Mary Ann Barton, mbarton1@gannett.com.
Chefs
Needed for Inside Sonoma
Inside-sonoma.com has gotten a
facelift of sorts. As part of our latest refresh, we've added a "cook" category,
inside-sonoma.com/cook, that features professional chefs who have restaurants, a catering business or
are instructors. We are also sending out a recipe each month in our consumer e-newsletter that goes
out to more than 20,000 people.
What we need from you: your bio,
information about your restaurant, and one of your recipes that you think epitomizes your food
philosophy. Also, please include a specific Sonoma County wine recommendation, for example a 2006
Matanzas Creek Merlot. A photo of either you or your dish is optional. Please send your information to
Beth Snow, bsnow@sonomacounty.com.
Media Lead Catchers Needed
Who at your organization is the
contact for media leads? While leads with long lead times appear in our Tourism Update, sometimes we
get requests from media that are due before the next Update. If you are a public relations
professional for several properties, please list all the properties you are the media contact for.
Please send the media contact information to Tina Luster, tluster@sonomacounty.com.
Tap
into the Awesome Power of SCTB
Our crazy team of communications
people has added all the ways community partners can be involved with us. It’s on the very informative
Partners page on our website. Please take a few minutes to look at www.sonomacounty.com/partners to see all the information. We encourage all of you to visit the
page to discover all the marketing, public relations and sales opportunities available to
you.
Cheerio, Old Chap! London Called and We Went
 In conjunction with the California
Travel and Tourism Commission and other California partners, our own Tim Zahner and Mark Crabb
attended the 2009 World Travel Market in London and introduced thousands of tour operators and travel
media to Sonoma County.
This was our second year in a row and
we met with tour operators that had Sonoma wine country in their programs and met with others that
were adding us to their new programs for 2010. Thank you to our partners B.R. Cohn Winery, Rodney Strong Vineyards and Arbios Cellars for providing wine for the VIP event.
The U.K. is California’s top overseas
market, with an estimated 818,000 visitors in 2008. This is a 17.6 percent market share of all U.K.
travel to the U.S. In 2008, 4.7 million Britons visited the U.S., up 3 percent from 2007. There were
77,000 Irish port-of-entry arrivals at California airports in 2008, an 18.5 percent increase from
2007. This is a 14.5 percent share of all Irish arrivals into the U.S. in 2008. 
Artisano Has a Successful Debut
Artisano, a festival of wine, food and art, had its debut in November. It was a glorious fall day at Geyserville Inn with music, food, wine,
art and good company. Hundreds of people turned out for the new festival and drank in the great mix of
wine, art and food from small producers.
From left, Ken Fischang, Kerry Damskey and Percy Brandon sample the small-production wines at Artisano.
Economic Reports Remain Mixed
The latest economic releases again
present a mixed picture. A downward revision in Q3 GDP from the original initial estimate of 3.5
percent to 2.8 percent growth reflects weaker consumer spending than initially thought, though U.S.
consumer spending rebounded in October following a sharp fall in September. In addition, there has
been a modest improvement in confidence, with the Conference Board's Consumer Index increasing
slightly in November. Read more about it at
http://www.ustravel.org/resources/Outlook/09/December.htm#Cook.
PR
RoundTable Scholarship Auction a Success
Kudos to, well, us! And our very
generour partners who donated lots to the PR RoundTable’s holiday scholarship silent auction. Because
of their generosity, the scholarship fund was greatly enriched and attendees got a sample of what
Sonoma County has to offer.
Thank you so much to Louis M. Martini;
C. Donatiello Winery; the Sonoma County Regional Parks; J Vineyards & Winery; Artisan Wine Tours;
Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn; Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel & Spa; and Osmosis Day Spa.
We can safely say that our auction
lots were among the most contested. We had to elbow more than one person away from our favorite lots.
Some people are just so pushy!
10,000 and Counting
Congrats to SCTB for reaching over
10,000 fans on Facebook this week! With no advertising dollars spent, our message is reaching more
than 10,000 facebook fans EVERY DAY.
Thanks to Tim Zahner for leading us
into uncharted waters; Keri Hanson for spearheading the charge and dedicating herself to the social
media strategy. Beth Snow and Tina Luster deserve undying gratitude for writing some great posts.
Justin Hayashi, our intern, helped with research that kept us on track. And Jeff Herdell, web guru,
found the best ways to make our social media integrate seamlessly with our larger public relations and
marketing mission.
The PR and Marketing team also thanks
the entire staff of SCTB for promoting us, telling their own networks about us and for being active in
telling the Sonoma County story. Also, thanks to our partners for giving us new things to write about
every day.
Not a fan yet? Visit facebook.com/sonomacountyca to sign up. Here’s to 10,000 more
fans!
Sonoma Valley hailed as a 'Slow City'
Sonoma Valley has been named the first
designated Cittaslow in the United States, joining the Cittaslow International Network of 129 towns in
29 nations around the world accredited since 1999.
Cittaslow, meaning "slow city,"
embodies the ideas of the international Slow Food organization, and extends its philosophy to a focus
on quality of life issues and thoughtful attention to economy, lifestyle, and sustainable methods. For
more information, go to cittaslowsonomavalley.org. Read the article at www.sonomanews.com/articles.
‘Sophisticated’ Sauv Blanc Gets High Marks
Congratulations to Kelley & Young
Winery! Wine Enthusiast Magazine awarded the 2007 Sauvignon Blanc 90 Points, and called it “"Lush and
sophisticated!"
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