Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau celebrates 50 years

August 12, 2011

The Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau is celebrating its 50th Anniversary as a leading destination marketing organization. In recognition of this milestone, the AOCVCB is launching a brand new website. Built by an in-house team of technical and design professionals, the website is powered by Drupal, an open-source content management framework.

“We are thrilled to be celebrating our 50th Anniversary as a leading convention and tourism organization, and we have no plans to slow down now,” said Charles Ahlers, AOCVCB president. “Our team has been working diligently for months to revamp, redesign and rewrite our web presence, and it will be officially launched on our 50th anniversary, August 23, 2011.”

Earlier in the year, the AOCVCB launched an aggresive Facebook campaign, also in celebration of its 50th anniversary. The campaign, entitled “Share Our Sunshine,” included a sweepstakes and content that included 50 destination prize packages worth over $70,000. Social media is a key component of the Bureau’s current marketing initiatives and their upcoming plans include a number of innovative programs, including the OC Blogger Bash coming up in September of 2011.

“To remain relevant in today’s world, companies and organizations must adapt and change to the needs of their customers, and communicate in the most appropriate way,” said Ahlers. “We have adopted this philosophy and feel that with this new website, we’ll be able to achieve even higher goals. Our organization has accomplished a tremendous amount with our industry partners over the past five decades and has evolved much like our destination. We look forward to an even brighter further in the years ahead as we continue to promote Anaheim and Orange County as a leading meeting and leisure destination.”

Anaheim/OC Visitor & Convention Bureau History

The Bureau opened its doors on August 23, 1961, as the Anaheim Visitor & Convention Bureau. The first offices were located in a humble Anaheim farmhouse surrounded by fragrant orange groves in what was then a more rural Orange County. These simple offices were located on the site of what was to eventually become the Anaheim Convention Center. In the beginning, there were five employees who handled a bit of everything; sales, administration, marketing and promoted the growing destination as a Disneyland vacation hub, as well as an ideal location to hold meetings during the ‘off’ season.

The organization has grown tremendously as Orange County’s major destination marketing organization. The Bureau officially expanded the corporate name in the early 90s to the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau to better reflect the regional marketing scope of the organization.

Today there are more than 50 employees who handle convention sales, marketing, public relations, social media outreach, destination promotions, travel trade marketing, convention services, convention housing, partnership services and administration.