William Cone

WILLIAM (WILLIE) CONE
Executive Producer & Senior Consultant
Marketing, Sponsorships, Promotions, Media, Causes & Events

Willie grew up just 150 miles south of the Arctic Circle in the frontier town of Fairbanks, Alaska. He produced his first event marketing project as a high school senior, an international "Walk For Development". Willie has now been consulting on special events, public relations programs, promotions and cause marketing initiatives of all types and sizes for more than three decades. He has been involved with major promotions and causes in over 1400 cities and towns across North America and Europe. Willie spent 13 years with the international educational and cultural program "Up With People". As VP of North American Marketing, he developed media and corporate sponsors for musical show tours and community involvement programs by 5 international casts in 350 cities annually.

In 1986, after taking a year to backpack "off-the-beaten-path" around the world through 30 countries, Willie returned to the U.S. and started his marketing consulting business from Washington D.C. He has played a role in the development of promotional marketing and community projects as diverse as: Hands Across America for Coca Cola, a salute to the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution for Xerox and Nabisco, Kodak's 100th Anniversary of the Snapshot, General Motors 75th Anniversary, The Stratford Theatre Festival of Canada, The 400th Anniversary of Virginia and an international Papal event.

Knight Ridder Newspapers recruited Willie in 1993 for a full-time position that was just too good to pass-up. He was asked to launch the corporate "Event Marketing" initiative for their newspapers. For the next six years Willie worked closely with the senior management at 35 newspapers across the nation on the development of over 250 diverse revenue generating, events including: consumer shows, festivals, sports events, seminars, concerts and numerous other special projects. In addition to overseeing events, Willie advised KR papers on promotional campaigns, marketing strategies, branding initiatives, newspapers in education programs and community relation's outreach.

The Miami Herald Publishing Company in 1999 invited Willie to lead a new venture by creating an entrepreneurial business around events and promotions. He used event marketing to work across all product lines and departments within the company. His mandate was to drive new revenue from both traditional and non-traditional sources and to strengthen the overall branding and marketing efforts of all business divisions within the company. Willie tripled the Herald's event revenue while broadening their community impact.

In 2001, having very successfully grown the paper's event business, Willie decided it was time to pursue a long-delayed opportunity. He reopened his consulting & project management practice to work with media companies, corporations, marketing agencies, educational groups, governmental bodies and non-profit organizations on how to maximize revenue and publicity through creative partnerships, promotions and cause marketing. Willie continues to consult to profit and non profit sector national clients on how to maximize their cause marketing, sponsorships, media, government relations, events and promotions.

Willie is a frequent speaker, workshop leader and panelist for media and marketing conferences. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Arizona and he holds an MBA in International Management, with top honors from, "Thunderbird", The American Graduate School of International Management. Willie has worked, studied, lived and traveled in 68 countries on six continents including a climb to Africa's Rooftop, Mount Kilimanjaro....