Winter 2010 Recent weeks have included new projects and workshops . . . learning and leading. ISLAND HAPPENINGS As part of Baxter's ongoing relationship with the Dauphin Island, Alabama Chamber of Commerce, an article promoting the Island as having the most Dog Friendly Beach on the upper Gulf Coast was written and distributed to media across the southeast.  He also assisted in the creation of the Island's revamped website by providing the majority of the images now displayed.  Visit www.dauphinislandcoc.com for a look. Wanting to continue exposing the client to the traveling public through increased use of the Internet, basic programs were developed to include a presence on social networking and visual sites such as facebook.com, twitter.com, youtube.com and flickr.com. TEACH ME, TEACH YOU Baxter presented seminars titled, "Harnessing the Power of Social Networking" to the Texas Festivals and Events Association during its annual conference in Fort Worth this summer. The same program was presented to the Great Northwest Houston Convention and Visitor Bureau in August. BAXTER IS C.E.R.T.IFIED As a part of his ongoing commitment to community involvement, Baxter volunteered to solicite corporate partners for the Harris County Citizen Corps/C.E.R.T. Rodeo Round Up in 2010.  The Harris County C.E.R.T., Community Emergency Response Team, stages the statewide event each year to showcase CERT teams from across Texas.  Baxter "wrangled" partners such as Green Mountain Energy, Walmart and other well known companies to support the event. READ ALL ABOUT IT... Baxter was profiled in a recent issue of The Cypress Times, an online community e-newspaper covering the people and happenings of Northwest Harris County, Texas. Visit http://www.thecypresstimes.com/article.cfm?articleID=21368 or read on ... 30 YEARS OF AMUSEMENT WITH MIKE BAXTER The Cypress Times By John G. Winder Mention an amusement park and watch a child’s eyes light up. Mike Baxter is the same way. For most of us the amusement park experience is an ethereal moment of glee experienced beneath a summer sun which, like every ride, ends too quickly and leaves us wanting to do it all again someday. Mike Baxter’s amusement park ride has lasted for 30 years and shows no signs of stopping. Mike Baxter is the Marketing Director of TradersVillage in Houston and in Dallas. In 2009, Mike will celebrate his 30th year in the theme park and attractions industry and his 10th year at Traders Village. Traders Village will turn 20 in 2009. It is a year for celebration and is proving to be a great ride for Mike. In late 2008, Traders Village Houston broke all previous attendance records with the Indian Pow Wow in November drawing 53,000 people. If you’ve never made it out to Traders Village, and you think it’s just another flea market, you’re wrong. Traders Village has at least as much in common with a theme park as it does with a flea market, probably more. Traders Village is known for the flea market, the great bargains, and the opportunity for you to rent your own space and sell your own goods. All of that is true. Traders Village is also known for kiddie rides, corn dogs, ice cream, great music and one-of-a-kind events like the Indian Pow-Wow, The Bayou City Cajun Festival and the Annual Blue Grass Festival. Mike Baxter is the guy who comes up with all of these great events and makes them happen. But how does someone get to spend 30 years riding the rides, eating the Cotton Candy and making the magic happen? For Mike, it all began with Journalism. Not the path one might expect to lead to a career at amusement parks like Astroworld, Hanna-Barbera Land, Splashtown and Traders Village. Mike graduated from Georgia State and fell immediately into a job in his chosen profession as a reporter. Mike was paid $125 per week plus a $50 car allowance to traverse from small Georgia town to small Georgia town covering the local news. “My boss handed me a camera and told me I had to take all m own pictures, too. I didn’t know anything about photography, but I learned by doing,” Mike says of his days in Georgia journalism. “It was a great time, it really was. I was young and a reporter. It was really great.” Mike only lasted six months as a reporter for the Neighbor Newspapers, a Georgia community newspaper chain. He was quickly promoted to editor. “I didn’t know anything about editing. This was in the days before everything was computerized, so I was self-taught on how to cut and paste and creatively layout a newspaper, “ Mike says with a smile. Mike worked in the news business for a total of two years and then he applied his creative abilities and writing skills to public relations. Mike still works in PR today, and has his own business working as a writer and publicist. It would be his career in PR that would lead him to a career in the Amusement Park space. “Lake Lanier Islands in the biggest man-made lake east of the Mississippi. I did their PR and was their Coordinator of Special Events,” Mike says. It was a PR job that brought Mike to Houston in 1979 to work for Astroworld. Unfortunately, the Astroworld job was only temporary, but Mike had made friends in the industry in a very short time and they helped him to land a new job in PR and marketing with Sea-Arama Marine World in Galveston. Sea-Arama was the predecessor to Sea World. In ’83, Mike went to work for Hanna-Barbera Land in Spring (Now Splashtown). “The coolest thing was that I got to spend several days with Bill Hanna. I took him around town promoting the new park,” Mike says as he sits in his office beneath an original animation cell of Hanna and Barbera’s Yogi Bear. “That was amazing having real one-on-one conversations with an icon from my childhood.” Hanna-Barbera Land was short-lived however and in just three years it converted to Splashtown where Mike then spent the next 14 years as Marketing Director. It is all of Mike’s extensive experience in the Amusement Park world that he brings to Traders Village. It is that amusement park attitude that makes Traders Village so much more than a traditional flea market. While the work at Traders Village can keep Mike hopping seven days a week he still finds time to pursue his first love; writing. Mike is an accomplished travel and feature writer and he is heavily involved in travel and tourism PR work, too. Mike is the exclusive publicist and tourism consultant for Dauphin Island, a resort destination on the Gulf of Mexico in Alabama, and he works as a freelance travel and marketing consultant. With an extensive history of writing music reviews and doing interviews with some of the biggest names in the music industry, Mike has turned his PR skills to working with several bands, as well. “I don’t do a lot of music reviews or interviews these days, but I really love that.” Mike has interviewed Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. “He was really nice and a sharp guy, too. Not what I expected.” He’s interviewed John Kay from Steppenwolf, Natalie Cole and even the Spice Girls. “Three of them were really nice,” Mike says. He interviewed four. Mike has done publicity and public relations projects for local honky-tonk diva Miss Leslie and Her Juke Jointers, Cajun rockers; Bayou Roux, County favorite; Kyle Hutton, and even publicity photos for Guppies From Outer Space. All of Mike’s history and experience comes to bear in his work in public relations. From having to learn to be his own photographer, to the day-to-day experience that only a newspaper can provide, it has all come together for Mike. “Being able to write, take photos, and design my own art for marketing projects is incredibly important for employers,” Mike says. He adds that in addition to learning to be his own photographer, right down to learning all the development and dark room process, he has now learned various computer programs and software used for layout, and he’s moving on to video now. He does all of this while putting on some of the most memorable and largest events in Houston – almost every weekend. Mike Baxter has also served for four years on the Board of Directors of the Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau. He is a past Chairman of the Tourism Committee of the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau, as well as a past president of the Great NW Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau. Today Mike Baxter serves on the Board of Directors for the Texas Festivals and Events Association. Mike is married to Rhonda, a third grade teacher in Klein ISD. Mike is grateful that Rhonda has come to understand the tourism and attractions industry enough that she never complains about Mike’s bizarre and demanding schedule. Mike spends his leisure time, of which there is precious little, traveling the back roads of Texas photographing and videotaping wildflowers, old farm structures and vintage signs for his online site at flickr.com and YouTube, and looking for quirky characters and out-of-the-way places to blog about.