"The challenge ...... develop and deliver .... results-oriented marketing program .... a diverse portfolio .... exciting, high profile role ..... appealing"

Bureaucratese at it finest.

Translated it means: "I really don't know what to say since I have not started my job yet, so I am throwing these words at you and see if you bite."

Isn't this the guy behind the $300,000/year storage of the garbage truck that won't be used? What kind of life experience does this guy have (pretty young).

Isn't this also the guy that didn't realize all that garbage on the cutbanks was there for weeks and weeks?

Outside of working for the city, what has he been involved with in the community? How does a local guy who nearly no one heard of get the job to raise the profile of Prince George? Name three major tourism oriented initiatives (not dances/parties) this guy's been a leading force in, local or otherwise.

Are the results at the City so great that the best we can do is hire from within?

I hope we can at least expect him to do better than that other great hire (Communications Manager) - the bar's been set pretty low.

FYI - Aidan Kelly, also known as DJ AK, organizes and promotes (and performs in) dance parties. Dance parties require a PA, lights, a venue, a DJ and posters and that's about it.

I'd like Opinion250 and other media to report on what REAL tourism experience Mr. Kelly has and results he's achieved with more complex concerns and issues like multiple levels of government, funding bodies, hotel and beverage industries, local sports, arts, recreation and cultural groups and organizations, etc.

"Aidan has an excellent grasp of the strategic leadership and relationship building required in order for Prince George to emerge as a premier tourism destination"

I gather none of the people over the past 3 decades had those attributes .....

Then again, I have known them all and have formed the opinion that it was their environment which did not allow them to excel. One cannot do a thing if one does not have the resources.

So what new resources is this poor guy that has moved from transit to solid waste and now to tourism going to be handed?

Maybe we should give him 1 month of summer travel funds and one month of winter travel funds so that he can find out what our competiton looks like, what amenities they have, how they compare to us, how they are organized, and which organization works the best.

Then give him a year to change the system so that we have a chance at success. Because I tell you what. In case no one has noticed, it ain't been workin' very well so far.

Take a look at the WalMart parking lot in the evening around 8pm and you will find our tourists all huddled together watching the sunset over the scrawny trees on the ridge to the west from their lawnchairs overlooking the pavement.

BTW, unless we have the infrastructure, all the strategic leadership (caution, buzz words) and relationship building (oops, some more buzz words) in the world are going to accomplish squat.

So, maybe he will get MR P.G. to wave a big glow stick and some rave music to attract tourists?

How much $$$?

Ben. You need to add a thumbs up and thumbs down feature.

Thumbs up to Simon's comment. Funny.

@kolberg - likely $100,000 plus benefits or so I would imagine. Ben - you should follow up: salary and benefits vs. background, experience and results is a good angle. City hasn't been too good at balancing that lately.

-Ive been a govt worker and stock investor/speculator for long enough to know that people who use these "buzz" words are crappy managers.
-These words are frequently used when there are no goals or goals arent being acomplished to keep the investor/client feeling "good"..They are also used quite often when the business is failing.

-Buzz words are just carbon copy business school stuff which i as an investor could care less about...What i care about is the $$$.

Mr. Kelly's dance promotion company, Respekt Entertainment Group, on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5563247439

Oops - link: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5563247439

My question to all of you above is if you all think you know so much and clearly you do then why is it that none of you got the job as CEO of Tourism or any of Aidan's other previous work. If he wasn't a qualified individual then he would have worked his way up so quickly.
I believe that Aidan is the best candidate for the position and I cannot wait until he starts so that he can prove all of you incorrect.
To bring up his parties is actually a good point. It proves that he has the ability to not only do his jobs with parks, transit and tourism but he can also get the young people involved and liven up Prince George which trust me it was needed! Aidan has done nothing but great things for the City of Prince George.
As I said previously, if you don't think he will do a good job then maybe you should have applied for the position.

"Prior to this, he was responsible for managing the overall service delivery and marketing initiatives for Transit and originally started with the City as a Community Policing Coordinator. Mr. Kelly has served three years on the Board of Directors for the UNBC Alumni Association and currently sits as a Director with the Two Rivers Crime Prevention Society. In addition, he has extensive volunteer experience with numerous organizations in the areas of public education, charity fundraising, event management, and athletics."


DO you all still not think hes qualified?

"Prior to this, he was responsible for managing the overall service delivery and marketing initiatives for Transit and originally started with the City as a Community Policing Coordinator. Mr. Kelly has served three years on the Board of Directors for the UNBC Alumni Association and currently sits as a Director with the Two Rivers Crime Prevention Society. In addition, he has extensive volunteer experience with numerous organizations in the areas of public education, charity fundraising, event management, and athletics."


DO you all still not think hes qualified?

A bunch of people complaining on Opinion 250. How unusual.

Not to mention Aidan has been involved with JDC West, a commerce competition for Western Canadian universities. I believe Prince George will benefit from having a young perspective. Too many old boys running the show and look at what they have come up with over the years.

"Prior to this, he was responsible for managing the overall service delivery and marketing initiatives for Transit and originally started with the City as a Community Policing Coordinator. Mr. Kelly has served three years on the Board of Directors for the UNBC Alumni Association and currently sits as a Director with the Two Rivers Crime Prevention Society. In addition, he has extensive volunteer experience with numerous organizations in the areas of public education, charity fundraising, event management, and athletics."


DO you all still not think hes qualified?

I have personally worked on projects with Aidan and seen his ability to plan and drive new projects and initiatives. I think that the municipality and regions tourism industry will only benefit from point of view of a results oriented young professional. Congratulations Aidan on your appointment and I look forward to seeing the new and exciting things that will be happening at Tourism Prince George.

"Prior to this, he was responsible for managing the overall service delivery and marketing initiatives for Transit and originally started with the City as a Community Policing Coordinator. Mr. Kelly has served three years on the Board of Directors for the UNBC Alumni Association and currently sits as a Director with the Two Rivers Crime Prevention Society. In addition, he has extensive volunteer experience with numerous organizations in the areas of public education, charity fundraising, event management, and athletics."


DO you all still not think hes qualified?

@Test1234 - can't take those achievements away; good for him. Clearly he is a smart, talented and ambitions individual.

But where's the TOURISM experience? That's the six-figure job, isn't it?

I hope he does an amazing job; God knows we need it. But the city's track record for hiring the right people isn't too good in my books. Still haven't heard a peep from the City's new Communications Manager on anything important, and it's been nine months.

So forgive my skepticism.

I have personally worked on projects with Aidan and seen his ability to plan and drive new projects and initiatives. I think that the municipality and regions tourism industry will only benefit from point of view of a results oriented young professional. Congratulations Aidan on your appointment and I look forward to seeing the new and exciting things that will be happening at Tourism Prince George.

How about his first job being to replace that dilapidated shack we call a tourism stop at Hwy 16 and 97? I forgot. Where's the dough gonna come from. Forget this. Easier to yak and build relationships than replace a shack.

The headline says CEO but nothing about CEO in the story so maybe it was just made up by 250 and Mr. Kelly doesn't really have that title.

I just want to know how much they are paying for the "Chief Executive Officer" Tourism Prince George.

Isn't that an oranization that should just have a "manager"? My guess is that it doesn't have more than 2 or 3 full time staff.

It used to be that big organizations had CEOs. But now the bottom rung customer service rep is a manager of customer service so their boss has to be a CEO.

I don't care about giving people grand titles except that then they think they should be paid like a CEO.

This is a job that should pay $40 to $60 per year.

This whole discussion is a waste of time.

Firstly very few tourist come to Prince George. In fact very few tourists have come to Prince George in the last 50 years.

For crying out loud most people in this town know that there is dick all here for a tourist to see. Give us a break. Tourists go through Prince George to other areas, very few stick around.

I can just visualize a family in Vancouver mulling over where to go for their vacation for two weeks. Hmmmmm let me see.

We could go to the Okanogan, or we could go to the USA, or we could go to Vancouver Island, or we could go to Alaska, Hmmmmm, OK I got it. We could go to Prince George and sit at a black fly and no seeum infested lake and watch the sun go down.

Its a rare day indeed that you see a tourist in this town, who plans on sticking around for a week or two. People are no more inclined to come to Prince George than we are inclined to go to Williams Lake, or Quesnel, or Prince Rupert, or Kitimat.

And that's exactly it Palopu... how come we aren't marketing PG and region to the people in PG and region... that IMO is our greatest upside to tourism and it is simply ignored, because doing promotional trips to exotic places is far more fun for those with the funds.

I don't see any vision here, and I don't expect any results.

Kolberg, that's an excellent point.

Furthermore to that is that most of the service manager jobs like you mention have been privatized to semi-private boards, so as to sever the connection between public reporting of how essentially our tax dollars are being spent. The board supports the right candidate that will channel the money into their agenda over the public good (but they would never admit to that). It happens all the time and allows for the 'CEO' to make a huge salary... while the people doing the work under them are often paid minimum wage. Its about building empires rather than actually getting anything accomplished with the tax dollars spent. Northern BC Tourism is a prime example of that.

Alex wrote: "I look forward to seeing the new and exciting things that will be happening at Tourism Prince George"

I do as well. He has a tough road ahead. He has a Board of Directors he has to report to the same as the past people in that position. He is young and has no known experience in the area he is now heading into. Normally Managers and so called CEOs have a welth of experience in the area they work in. That is why they are hired for the position. Typically they are the ones who feed the Board with the information. In this case there is a major danger of him becoming a "yes" man to the Board, a "gopher".

I agree with Palopu to some extent. There is very little in PG to attract serious tourists to stay more than a day on their way through, whether they are from the USA going to Alaska or Europeans with bus tours, or more commonly these days Europeans with rented motor homes that they pick up in Calgary or Vancouver and do one of several circle tours, some of which have PG on the route.

An eye opener is there for the asking for those who speak a European language other than English since there are many sites that people highlight their trips and make suggestions of where to stay and what to avoid.

I have yet to run accross a site that says PG is a must see. I have run accross the opposite a significant number of times.

http://www.canada-alaska.ch
That one is an example of saying that the stretch from PG to Whitehorse can be avoided if you have less than 6 weeks since there is nothing worth seeing or doing for the amount of time it takes to cover the territory.

This is another one which gives a very interesting personal account of people who love the wilderness.
http://www.reisetops.com/kanada/db_site.cgi/site_443

They talk about the unbelievable large presence of the wood manufacturing industrie and they are not happy that the Railway and Forestry museum was closed the day they were here (hint..... don't close these important attractions during the snow free tourist season). They were surprised that we have the same selection of groceries and other items such as Dutch cheese, Italian salami and French wine. They also made the interesting observation that we would have trouble buying all that foreign material that is so much more expensive here than in Europe with the lower income we have in Canada compared to Germany.

I do not know how people who are in charge of increasing tourism in this area gather up information from their actual customers. I really do not think they do.

Stupid question of the day from Test1234

"My question to all of you above is if you all think you know so much and clearly you do then why is it that none of you got the job as CEO of Tourism or any of Aidan's other previous work"

Wanna put your thinkin' cap on for a change and try this as a possible answer.

"Because I did not apply"

..... did that ever cross your mind?

Hopefully Aidan is a bit smarter than that and can think beyond speaking the words "test1234" into the microphone.

GUS - that's the whole point... clearly you didn't apply!

My view is this: You are complaining about someone who hasn't even started the job. He still has a couple months until he starts and you are off on a negative tone already.

Why is it that people become negative right away when you don't even know what he is capable of doing. Why don't you zip your mouth and let him start and do his job, THEN have an opinion.

Its like politics - if you don't vote, don't complain! If you didn't apply and you don't think you could do the job then don't complain about someone who believes they can better YOUR community and bring tourism to a new level.

I have to say that I am absolutely shocked by what all of you have said. Aidan obviously knows this isn't going to be a super easy job, he at least has some pride in his community! Its quite disgusting to see such negative information about your own city. If you don't take pride then its a lot harder for others to.

I think Aidan is the one to bring that pride out and get PG on the map for tourism. It is possible with the right person - just wait and see if its him then.

"Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes."

I have personally worked on projects with Aidan and seen his ability to plan and drive new projects and initiatives. I think that the municipality and regions tourism industry will only benefit from point of view of a results oriented young professional. Congratulations Aidan on your appointment and I look forward to seeing the new and exciting things that will be happening at Tourism Prince George.

Test1234. A couple peple on here have made negative comments about Aidan Kelly and I agree with you that they shoud wait and see before they form an opinion.

However, most of the complaining on here is about the way our tax dollars gets wasted. Whether it is the airport, Boundary Road, IPG, "twinning" with China, or Tourism Price George. It seems that a lot of money being spent on "expert" this and that or perks to city insiders with no accountability.

It is therapeutic to vent on this formum and cheaper than buying an island and starting up a new country.

If there is a tough job out there it is to get people to come to Prince George for a vacation or to even stay for a week.

Good Luck Aidan

"If you didn't apply and you don't think you could do the job then don't complain"

You jump to some very far reaching conclusion with no basis Test .....

There are two thoughts in there

1. if you did not apply

and

2. and you don't think you could do the job .....

If those two conditions apply then "don't complain.

Well, guess what, the "and" is not an "or", thus the admonition of yours of not complaining does not even hold because only one of the additive conditions applies.

I tell you, I am a principled enough person that if I had applied and had not received the job, then I would not complain. That would be totally unfair.

However, this person is taking a public position and we are free to complain.

If you read my words a bit more carefully and did not see a red cape right away that you feel you need to charge at, you would note that most if not all the complaining I did was about the condition and process of dealing with tourism here. It has been a very bad situation for at least 3 if not more decades.

I wish him luck, because no one has been able to turn the thing around. I know at least two people who have been either given their walking papers or decided to take the walk out of there themselves because they had differences with the board.

Rubber tire trade was one issue. Location of the main tourism office was the other.

To many, those are still the issues to this day.

This position is a non-job. We have been touting tourism in this town for 50 years, and have made little if any headway.

Whats the worse case scenario. No increase in tourism over the next 5 years. The new CEO continues to get paid a healthy salary, and continues to make airy fairy statements about the tourist potential in Prince George. On occasion he goes to lunch with the Communications Manager for the City, and IPG Manager, and they enjoy each others company while we pay them each a huge salary.

They fight over the cheque, however it matters little who actually pays it, because ultimately it is paid for by the taxpayer.

These are great jobs with little chance of ever having to show that you are accomplishing anything.

Go Prince George:::::::

In addition to the "Chief Executive Officer", Tourism Prince George has 2 full time employees. FYI. I am not suggesting a hiring spree to justify a CEO.