Raider Nation's Austin Invasion

May 6, 2006

EDITORIAL BOARD

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

The Lubbock Economic Development Alliance has pulled off one of the best PR guerilla raids in recent Texas history, and it did it swinging a tote bag.

Eager to make an international gathering in Austin aware of the High Plains city, home to Texas Tech University, the corporation snagged a contract to provide a tote bag to the delegates and other visitors at the World Congress on Information Technology. Austin has worked for years to bring the congress to Central Texas to boost awareness of this city and cement its growing status as an international hub for high technology development.

But Lubbock saw no reason to let Austin have all the glory. The Lubbock folks quietly had a tote bag made in Tech's red and black school colors and emblazoned it with the word "Lubbock" on the sides. They slipped quietly into Austin, entered the convention center — and soon had conventioneers hauling a bag everywhere that loudly advertised Lubbock, not the host city.

And when stunned, flummoxed and outraged Austin officials tried to counter by getting this city's own bag into the hands of convention-goers, they were thwarted; the manufacturer couldn't produce in time.

Lubbock deserves congratulations for its imaginative derring-do, successfully exploiting an opportunity for international exposure at only token expense. The Lubbock boosters got the best of both worlds: International visitors learned of their city but saw Austin. Quite a coup.