Green Bay home to Judds this week

It's a little strange having one of the most successful country music duos of all time in your complex, yet it's not concert day. Such is the case for The Judds who are in Green Bay for the week rehearsing for their new and what they say is their last tour - "The Judds: The Last Encore." The new tour will actually start right here in Green Bay at the Resch Center on Friday night, November 26 - the day after Thanksgiving. They're obviously not open to the public, but the rehearsals are taking place in the Brown County Arena. Sesame Street Live just ended its shows there on Sunday night. The Judds then moved in and set up their production for the rehearsals. The Gamblers have a home game on Wednesday night, so the Resch Center wasn't available. Toward the end of the week, the Judds crew will break down the set-up in the arena and move it over to the Resch for the show Friday night. Having the two arenas next to each other allowed us the chance to offer them this opportunity. A nice feather in Green Bay's cap I think.

The show will feature new Judds music while highlighting 25 years of favorites including some of Wynonna's solo hits. We're told the concert will also feature holiday seasonal favorites by weaving several classic Christmas songs into The Judds' set list. I did a little research on the duo and you forget they had 14 #1 hits, received more than 60 industry awards and sold more than 20 million albums in only 6 years. Should be a great show. We've still got room for you!

Dane has it "Cook"ing

We all know social media has hit like a fire storm. Most every business is using either facebook, twitter or writing a blog. (pssst...you're reading my blog). This past week comedian Dane Cook came to the Resch Center and he is a big user of twitter. I mean big. He has well over one million people who follow him on twitter. One million! That's more subscribers than most if not all newspapers in the country! I don't mean collectively, but for a single paper. Cook uses twitter to tell his fans what he's doing and to promote his tour, his CDs, movies, whatever. He tweeted on the way to Green Bay - we re-tweeted him a couple of times! So, we got in on the act. We were able to obtain two front row seats to his performance to give away as part of a twitter contest. My guess is his management was willing to part with the front row tix for the contest because Dane is a big believer in twitter. We simply asked our followers to re-tweet the message that Dane Cook was coming to the Resch and that one lucky re-tweeter would be randomly chosen as the winner. We got a great response and more exposure for the show.

What does this mean for you? Sign up to be a follower of @reschcenter. You will be among the first to know when shows are coming or when tickets in the first 5 rows are released like they were for Dane Cook. You will also have more chances to win tickets to upcoming events - probably for doing something as easy as re-tweeting our message. Welcome to the new world of marketing. Take advantage of what we have to offer and what other businesses have to offer. They're all anxious for you to hop on board their social media bandwagon...and many times willing and able to give you great deals or great giveaways. Just ask the gal who sat in the front row for Dane Cook!

Taking the plunge at Lambeau

It's a big day for us in many ways. Exciting because PMI Entertainment Group and the Green Bay Packers have announced Kenny Chesney is coming to Lambeau Field June 11, 2011. As promoters of the concert, it's clearly our biggest venture as far as risk that this company has ever taken. It's been a long process, but we're thrilled to be working with the Packers to bring this huge concert here. And it will be huge. It'll be unlike anything this area has ever seen as far as a concert is concerned. It'll take several days to set up the large production and will have a ton of trucks and buses. Capacity will be close to 50,000 people and those folks will hear about 6 hours of entertainment with Uncle Kracker the opener followed by Billy Currington and then a full set by Zac Brown Band and a full set by Kenny Chesney. It will likely be a gauge for possible future concerts at Lambeau.

I've already heard "geez, more country, what about rock?" The fact is there aren't a lot of touring stadium shows out there - rock, country or whatever. Some won't work at Lambeau because of unique set-ups that could destroy the field. We also have a limited window of opportunity because of the football season which means a concert could feasibly be held from possibly late May to late June or so. Trust me, if a huge rock concert presented itself that could work, we'd do it! The same goes for booking the Resch Center. There isn't a lack of rock shows by choice. It's about opportunities and numbers that work. There are a lot of country tours out there that do work for the Resch. That's the simple explanation. I'm not the biggest country fan myself. Having said that, it's going to be one heck of a party at Lambeau next June.