While, technically, we all work to make Milwaukee the place that it is, there are some people in town for whom hyping and bettering Brew City is a full-time job. One of those people is Dean Amhaus, president of Spirit of Milwaukee.

Amhaus, a Milwaukee native, has spent enough time away from the city to know what others think when they hear the name "Milwaukee" and that, combined with his marketing background, make him well qualified to pitch Milwaukee as a great place to live, work and play.

We asked Amhaus to tell us a bit about the creation and mission of Spirit of Milwaukee and about the challenges he faces in his job as something of a Milwaukee cheerleader.

OMC: Maybe you can give us the quick history of Spirit of Milwaukee. I didn't know, for example, that it was launched by Midwest Airlines.

DA: Spirit of Milwaukee was started about 8-9 years ago as part of the naming rights agreement for the Midwest Airlines Center. When the center was being proposed a few civic leaders had approached Midwest Airlines about placing the company's name on the building. The thought was that it was a natural fit since the airline would be flying people into the city for conventions. The idea was to use the naming rights funds to help market the new center to conventions and build awareness of Milwaukee among potential visitors.

Tim Hoeksema, the Chairman, President and CEO of Midwest Airlines, agreed with the general idea but was equally interested in marketing to another audience. At that time and to this day when Midwest Airlines tries to attract talent to work for the company Tim has found that one of the basic roadblocks in securing talent is the fact that many of the recruits have no knowledge or a negative perception about moving to the Milwaukee area. In talking with other business leaders in the Milwaukee area he found that they were and continue to face this same problem. Early on Tim realized that if he could get the recruit to come to Milwaukee and see what was taking place in the community he could sell them on living and working in Milwaukee. His challenge was just overcoming that first humongous barrier which was a person's perception.

So, when Tim agreed to place Midwest Airlines name on the building he wanted to channel the funds through a non-profit organization, i.e. Spirit of Milwaukee, that was not only interested in improving Milwaukee's perception with visitors but also with potential talent and their families, business expansion decision-makers, students, media, etc. from outside of the Milwaukee region. Tim's idea was that you need to market the whole Milwaukee package not just one facet of visiting, working, living or learning in the area.

OMC: How do you approach promoting Milwaukee? Do you travel outside the city or work on people who come in to visit for work or play?

DA: We take a very different approach than the traditional idea of marketing a place. The norm is to spend money on advertising but to be truly effective with this approach you need to spend tens of millions of dollars; millions that this community does not have to spend nor would I suggest should be spent. Sure, we can create a great ad with nice pictures and compelling copy but look through any magazine and you can see that any city in the country can do the same thing. Just because an ad says that a city offers a "great quality of life" does not necessarily mean that it is so. Therefore spending that kind of money on advertising becomes a tremendous waste as it not very effective.

With that in mind we rarely travel outside of the Milwaukee region to promote this place. Why would I talk with a business leader or a reporter in another city and show them a nice brochure with pretty pictures? It does not work. If I am going to try and sell a new food product I don't want the person to just look at a picture I want them to sample it. Therefore rather than talk with someone in their city I want them to come to the Milwaukee area. Because of the dramatic advancements that have taken place in this community and the numerous choices that are now easily available we are extremely confident that we have a great product to sell. It is very easy to change a person's perception once they are here and see what is taking place in Milwaukee. Every single time we have a new visitor they end up saying "I had no idea."

OMC: What are the greatest hurdles?

DA: It is all about the perceptions that people have built up over time and a lack of exposure to reality. This is not only from outsiders but also from people who live in the region. For instance from the outside, you run into people from the East or West Coasts and they not only have no notion of what is taking place in Milwaukee they don't even know where it is located. I can't count how many times I have heard that Milwaukee is near Minneapolis or the really geographically challenged who put Milwaukee near Pennsylvania or Montana.

Locally, we have too many people who don't reach out beyond the few miles where they live or work. It is true that we are our own worse enemy when it comes to our impressions of the region. Too many people don't fully appreciate the richness of this region compared with other places in this country. We are way too quick to criticize Milwaukee and don't realize that many people across the country would welcome our tremendous quality of life which ranges from the arts to commuting times and yes, weather.