WorldCity Business Magazine

X: Passion for the Arts

by Suzy Valentine

Culture isn’t just something grown on a Petri dish.

It is the product of years of investment in the arts and the requisite support of the right venues in which to showcase that creativity.

British institution Loughborough University lists concentration of arts, sports and media among criteria for determining whether a metropolitan center qualifies as a world city.

The academics who have been ranking cities since 1999 through the universitys Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network look at everything from a city’s size to its global economic impact. They also consider a number of different artistic factors when apportioning points to a city.

They include whether there is high endowment of the arts in the form of notable museums, galleries, opera, orchestras or a concentration of theaters, film production and festivals.

In the sporting arena, sites of major international events including the Olympic Games are considered.

In popular culture, researchers review TV, videogame and music production as well as the creation of literature, magazines and documentary.

In 2002, South Florida staged the first Art Basel Miami Beach a sister event to the original Swiss festival and in 2006, the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts opened.

This year, Super Bowl XLI came to town and there are plans afoot to build three museums in downtown Miami’s Bicentennial Park.

South Florida has become a hub for Latin American entertainment companies.

But, as our cultural commentators explain, it is a work in progress.

The state of Utah invests its funds in one headliner the Sundance Film Festival. Meanwhile, South Florida has numerous film festivals vying for attention.

Theater is evolving and the hub is just forming.

There isn’t a world-class orchestra that calls South Florida home. Rather, the Cleveland Orchestra is to be resident at the Carnival Center eight weeks a year.

Still, as our experts comment, culture is growing in the city just like something on a Petri dish. WC

Parker Thomson, partner, Hogan & Hartson

If Miami is to consolidate its reputation as a world-class arts and culture center, it must continue efforts started 20 years ago, that have gone largely unnoticed.

The Carnival Center for the Performing Arts is in its first season, working out inevitable bugs but already a major artistic success.

The Children’s Museum on Watson Island opened several years ago. The Miami Art Museum and the Miami Museum of Science & Planetarium have basic public funding and are raising private funds to design buildings and build them.

This will be complemented by the expansion of the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, construction of the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, the complement to the New World Symphony’s Lincoln Theater a Frank Gehry structure, the opening of the performing arts facility at Florida Memorial University, renovation and reconstruction?of the Gusman Center, the Lyric Theater, the Manuel Artime Center, the Colony Theater and the Byron Carlisle Theater.

The buildout of this arts infrastructure is reminiscent of that in New York City toward the end of the 1800s.

We are also expanding on the visual arts revolution kick-started by Art Basel Miami Beach and the major collections of modern art in Miami.

We are building upon diversity by bringing visual and performing arts audiences together. Art has widespread appeal like sports. People that play together, stay together. Art forms bonds that create cohesion.

The arts build a sense of place in Miami bringing Europe, North America and Central and South America together. This is the mark of a world city.

In business, to attract strong legal and professional firms to Miami, we must build the clientele. Elephants like elephants.

The bigger the business entity, the bigger the business transaction, the greater the need for quality professional services firms.

To this end, Miami must make the airport and the seaport work. As economic engines of Miami, both need overhauls to succeed overhauls of buildings, services and experienced management. That’s big money. Success is impossible unless parochialism is exorcised. If we continue as we are, we will kill the opportunity.

Pete Smith, Chief Human Resources Officer, Burger King

To transform Miami into a world class city requires changes in perception and reality.

First, many Americans and even a few national politicians think of Miami as a banana republic.

We need to continue to bring arts and culture to Miami. The construction of the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts was a good start, but we’ve also fallen short on other projects. The city’s failure to convert the Jackie Gleason Theatre into a permanent venue for Cirque du Soleil was a major lost opportunity. Plans for a new art museum need to become a reality.

Equally important, new venues must appeal to the local demographic.

Events need to be convenient, inexpensive, and culturally relevant. Baseball should be a huge rallying point for the city, but games are played on the Broward County border, away from major population centers and inaccessible through public transportation. Baseball games take place several nights a week and there will only be a steady stream of people to a stadium that sits downtown.

Eddie Carbone, Executive Director, World Golf Championships-CA Championship

The world of golf has been undergoing a hybridization process over the past eight years with the introduction of the World Golf Championships and finally this year South Florida courtesy of Doral is getting a piece of the action.

It’s win-win for golf and it’s win-win for Miami.

Why? Because, the format attracts a stronger field of world-class golfers and this extends the coverage of the event. In short, it puts Miami where it should be in the spotlight.

Of course, money talks too and the first CA Championship at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa, which ran March 19-25, offered golf’s largest purse, equaled only by the Players Championship. The four majors the Masters, British and U.S. opens and the PGA can’t compete.

This year’s purse offered $8 million in prize money $1.53 million of it going to the winner.

The World Golf Championships, started in 1999, attract top talent. The CA Championship joins the accenture Match Play Championship in Tucson, Ariz. and the Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio. A fourth, in China, is to be confirmed by year end.

The new animal is the result of a sea change in golf that the U.S has seen in recent years. Whereas foreign nationals were once a minority on the PGA circuit they now account for more than half of its golfers.

Embracing this internationalism, the format brings golfers from the world’s circuits together in a mega-event or Super Bowl of golf.

The Ford Championship at Doral last year hosted 23 of the top 50 ranked players on the PGA circuit. This year’s accenture saw 64 of the top 65 compete. That’s the difference. That kind of kudos translated to coverage of the CA Championship by more than 200 media outlets from more than 20 countries with the tournament broadcast in 450 million homes. All the world’s eyes were on this event and, in turn, on South Florida.

With the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament coinciding with our event, sports synergy brought additional sports tourism and sports dollars. Miami through its neighbor Doral benefits.

I see it as world-class golf equals world-class city.

Henry Martinez, Senior vice president & managing director, Discovery Networks Latin America / U.S. hispanic

Up until a few years ago, Miami was considered the indisputable hub for the Latin American television industry. Most of the major players in the region either ran their operations from Miami or at least had a major presence in our city.

This was no surprise to anyone, because the city has traditionally been considered a cultural kaleidoscope and home to a wealth of talented people who not only understand the television business, but who are also well acquainted with Latin America. Such considerations have been a driving force for communication companies such as Discovery Networks, which reaches all of Latin America and the U. S. Hispanic market.

Nevertheless, and despite all that the city has to offer, Miami is becoming an expensive place in which to live and do business. The high cost of living and real estate, both residential and commercial, as well as skyrocketing insurance premiums are making it harder for businesses to afford local skilled personnel to perform high-skilled jobs.

As the gap between salaries and cost of living widens, companies must find ways to be flexible and make the best use of their resources to hire cost-effective talent in places such as Buenos Aires where the Latin American operations of companies including Disney, Turner and MTV have now built an important presence. As a result, Miami is rapidly losing its status as Latin America’s TV capital.

To encourage businesses to come and stay in Miami, the city should provide appropriate state and local tax incentives for infrastructure investment. A fund should be set up through an economic development board such as the Beacon Council to encourage investment in creative development and production for the television industry. And while home pricing cannot be controlled and is already leveling off or declining, the insurance situation continues to feel like a neglected and critical issue that our politicians need to address more aggressively.

Kathleen Davis, CEO, Sport Management Research Institute

Does Miami have a sporting chance?

Since arriving on the sports scene in the early 1990s, I have viewed first hand the sports metamorphosis that has descended upon South Florida and Miami vicinities. With the addition of two major league franchises (Marlins & Panthers), the hosting of three Super Bowls (XXIX/XXXIII/XLI); the building of the AmericanAirlines Arena and Homestead Miami Speedway; and the continued improvement to existing Professional Events (the Sony Ericsson and CA Championship at Doral), Miami has etched a position as a competitive world-class sports metropolis. I have attended and assessed hundreds of sporting events over the years from Wimbledon to the Olympics and these experiences have taught me valuable lessons about which venues and cities excel in staging sport events and which don’t cut it.

There are lessons to be learned from the tremendous growth Miami has experienced in 10 years, from an economic standpoint.

Poorly planned events, an over-crowded sport marketplace, and/or poorly executed entertainment experiences have caused the demise of several sport franchises and events.

To continue to be recognized as a world-class sports city, careful planning by existing teams and events to meet the ever-changing consumer needs (tapping a growing Hispanic market, providing first-class service and entertainment options for consumers) will be pivotal to Miami’s success as a top-tier sport capital nationally and internationally.

From a competitive standpoint, cities that are “top tier” in exceeding customer needs in this arena include Sydney, London, Rome, Chicago, Houston and Seattle.

What will it take to be the top destination in the world?

Miami’s multi-cultural ethnic mix requires constant massaging, understanding of cultural norms, and the defining of the mutual respect mantra that all those who live and consequently work in the sporting realm should possess for improved effective and efficient service delivery.

Hiring sporting event staff that respect one another who also understand, appreciate and are passionate about providing great service to others ill win out in the long run egardless of the score on the playing field.

Finally, the tourism industry in Miami, a serious service partner for many sport visitors (NBA Finals, World Series, Super Bowl) must continue to bridge the gap with providing great service at a competitive price.

The tourism market does not want to run the risk of overpricing itself and not delivering for future sporting event bids nationally and internationally.

Miami has paradise to offer sport consumers, unmatched in other metropolitan vicinitie with the world-class Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The bureau and sport event/team partners rely on tourism industry partners to continue to raise the service/value bar in their visitor accommodations and attractions.

To be successful in the coming years, providing great service at a competitive price strategy must be firmly rooted in the tourism and sport industries.

If this takes place, we will all be around to enjoy it.

*Aaron Podhurst, founding partner, Podhurst Orseck *

Investing in the arts is helping pave the way for Miami’s future. In the last decade alone, local residents have seen Miami become an epicenter for the arts.

From the recently inaugurated half-a-billion dollar Carnival Center for the Performing Arts to the new home of the Miami Art Museum in Bicentennial park, local residents and tourists have plenty of reasons to celebrate the arts.

Miami’s emergence as an arts capital results from combined public and private support.

In 2004, voters approved a general obligation bond to the tune of $175 million to fund a new Miami Museum of Science & Planetarium project.

The new Miami Art Museum and the adjacent Museum of Science are two examples of how Miami could eventually take its place among other large metropolitan cities such as Chicago, Detroit and New York City.

Tourists and residents alike are looking for new ways to experience Miami and all that it has to offer.

The Miami Art Museum promises to be an attractive, learning experience for all the ages. It will, in an efficient manner, provide education and learning for the students of Miami-Dade County.

Another testament to Miamis artistic awakening is its investment in a New World Symphony practice center. This Frank Gehry-designed facility will be a showcase within a showcase.