How dare you pick on Luxton? So unfair! He contributed 1% of his Med-Eng deal bonus and his time (to this day) to a very important cause and saved the outfit from going bankrupt. Got to give the man points for setting his priorities!
Exec brings Tulip Festival gets back to its roots
By Julie Fortier, Ottawa Business Journal Staff
Mon, Apr 9, 2007 12:00 AM EST
David Luxton, president and CEO of Allen Vanguard. (Darren Brown, OBJ)
After a several years of poor seasonal timing, a new Canadian Tulip Festival is blossoming with the ideas and financial backing from a most unlikely source.
David Luxton, CEO of Allen-Vanguard, an Ottawa-based bomb-detection systems maker, is usually devising new ways to keep people safe from roadside bombs and biological weapons. But lately he has been brainstorming ways to help bring the Tulip Festival back from the brink of bankruptcy.
"It stems from the days when I owned the Ottawa Business Journal and we were big supporters of the festival. I guess it's close to my heart. I think it's worth saving," he told the OBJ. Mr. Luxton is the former owner and co-founder of the Ottawa Business Journal dating back to 1995.
Several cold and rainy springs left the Tulip Festival with debts of about $750,000 last October. With assets of only $65,000, creditors approved a plan to split $100,000 from the assets and an additional $35,000 from Mr. Luxton.
"The options were quite disastrous. I don't think the festival would have survived (without Mr. Luxton's help). We would have certainly gone through a much worse process without it," explained Doug Little, marketing and communications director for the Canadian Tulip Festival, where he has worked for 10 years.
"I was working for the restructuring committee and we were looking for a different way of dealing with the situation. Members of our festival knew David. He was a good friend of the past president of the festival and he was a sponsor of the festival when he owned OBJ," said Mr. Little. "He's been a friend of the festival for many years."
Along with financing, Mr. Luxton gave the committee advice on how to make the festival sustainable in the long term. "He had the idea for a new direction for the festival. He had the most viable option," Mr. Little said.
The plan is to have "a much tighter focus," and get back to the roots of the festival, Mr. Luxton said.
The festival began in 1953 to commemorate a gift of 100,000 tulip bulbs given by Queen Juliana of the Netherlands as a thank you to Canada. During the German occupation in the Second World War, the Dutch royal family fled to Ottawa for safety and stayed at Ottawa's Government House. The festival will focus more on this historic element of international friendship.
"Secondly, we're de-risking the financial model, which in the past has been heavily exposed to weather and the gate at the outdoor music festival. It's very high risk to do that in May in Ottawa. You are fighting very bad odds when it comes to weather, and it has showed up in the financial results," Mr. Luxton said.
Organizers expect more than 500,000 visitors to attend the Tulip Festival this year, which will run from May 4 through May 21. While admission will be free, visitors will be encouraged to purchase a $5 souvenir pin supporting War Child Canada and the festival. War Child Canada is the Tulip Festival's designated charity for 2007 in recognition of its wartime origins.
Mr. Luxton said the festival should be a source of pride for Ottawa.
"It's a 55-year-old institution and I've discovered it's a signature event for Ottawa. I have found speaking to the ambassadors in Ottawa that the Tulip Festival is well-known internationally. This is one of the (city's) defining events," Mr. Luxton said. "Given that kind of prominence internationally, it would be a big asset for us to lose."
Mr. Little agreed. "It's a mess if it gets out there that there's no Tulip Festival. I mean, you can have all the tulips you want, but if you don't have some way of presenting it to the world, it looks pretty bad."
The new vision that Mr. Luxton and the committee came up with will include a theme of Celebridée – a celebration of ideas – and will feature notable Canadian and international personalities presenting ideas about the arts, science and civilization.
"I saw an opportunity to blend some of the elements of the Chicago Humanities Festival, not to run a humanities festival but to borrow a page from the things that they do – to explore ideas," said Mr. Luxton.
"I think there's a chance to bring in Canadian and international thinkers to explore ideas that have shaped history and that are shaping the future."
Mr. Little agrees that this year's events should be very successful. "I think the new plan is fabulous. I think it's going to be really exciting. People are going to be coming and get a quality of programming that people expect from a world-class festival."
The festival will celebrate international friendship by engaging Ottawa's diplomatic and multicultural community and will host an International Pavilion at Major's Hill Park from May 11 to 21. Embassies and community groups participating include the Netherlands, Japan, Turkey, Thailand, Mexico and China. More countries are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
The pavilion will feature culture, food and entertainment. The Dutch Café, featuring a live band from the Netherlands, will be a key focus of the pavilion, along with other live musical acts throughout the week.
Also, one big change to the festival line up is that all events are free. Mr. Luxton said this will give the event "a broader appeal by taking down the fences and having no paid admission."
The festival will begin with the opening of the "Tulip Route" along the Rideau Canal. National Capital Commission properties including Parliament Hill, the Rideau Canal, Major's Hill Park, and in Gatineau, Jacques-Cartier Park, Montcalm-Taché Park and the Canadian Museum of Civilization will showcase close to a million tulips in 50 different varieties.
Mr. Luxton has confidence that sunny skies are ahead for the historic festival.
"A new group of very capable people have stepped up to make this happen. They are very professional and they are there with determination and patience," said Mr. Luxton. "I have had a lot of feedback from people. They think the new vision is a sensible direction, so we hope with time it will become an event that is appealing but also financially sustainable." |
