Recently together with Skal members from New York, Long Island and Philadelphia I toured the massive entertainment complex American Dream in East Rutherford.
I don’t use the term massive lightly. The complex has over 3 million square feet of space. It’s divided into several areas including a ski slope where the temperature is 28 degrees, an ice skating rink, a water park at 81 degrees (temporarily closed) with wave pool and lazy river, Legoland and a Nickelodeon themed park. You can literally go swimming in the winter and ski in the summer within yards of each other. And while there is no fee to enter the complex (aside from a parking fee) there are separate fees for each of the various sections. Aside from the fun and games there are numerous retail outlets, both high end and budget stores.
Did someone mention food??? There seemed to be 50 or more eateries within American Dream for the casual as well as the exotic diner. Fast food and elegant sit-down dining. More types of food than I’ve ever seen in one place. https://americandream.com/directory/dining/all-food-drink/
They also have meeting rooms for corporate events which is one of the main reasons we took the tour. Our host, Stan Kravitz, will send us more information on meetings and full day events including families. We could have a multi club meeting there later in the year.
As Skalleagues we are all interested in tourism and should all be showcasing what our particular region can offer tourists. Here is New Jersey we have numerous family entertainment parks and sports venues which are popular tourist attractions.
Representatives from these venues should be Skal members. Skal provides an additional, global, marketing arm for them. I urge all of our members to reach out to these sales and marketing managers and invite them to a Skal meeting. And go and visit American Dream!
One last item is our “new” Skal app. Go to your app store and download it today. It provides fast links to the most up-to-date Skal events including NASC in Mexico City (May 4-7) and the Skal World Congress in Quebec City (December 5-10). I’ll be doing a podcast next week to highlight the app and all it can do.