Rocking the Ambassador Scene: How Nashville CVC's Platinum Program Hits the Right Notes in Community Engagement and Tourism Advocacy

Background

The Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp (Nashville CVC) is dedicated to showcasing the vibrant culture and hospitality of Music City. In their pursuit of enhancing local engagement and promoting tourism, they developed the Platinum Ambassador Program, designed to train community members to become knowledgeable advocates for Nashville. Given the diverse needs of its audience and the scale of its initiative, Nashville CVC faced several challenges in creating an effective and accessible training program.

Unique Challenges

1. Learning Experience Platform: Finding a platform that was easy to manage, capable of supporting a wide array of languages (140+), and included engagement and gamification tools proved to be a significant challenge. The platform needed to be user-friendly for both the administration and the community members.

2. Engagement and Motivation: It was crucial to ensure that participants remained engaged and motivated throughout the course. The program required interactive and gamified elements to keep the community members interested and committed to completing the training.

3. Self-Management and Accessibility: Nashville CVC sought a solution that allowed them to manage and update the course independently while expanding accessibility to a broad audience.

Course Implementation

Learning Experience Platform Selection and Features:

• Learning Experience Platform: The Nashville CVC selected the Learn Tourism platform that met their needs for ease of management, multilingual support, and robust engagement tools. This platform enabled the development of a self-managed, interactive learning experience.
• Course Development: The Platinum Ambassador Program consists of a signature 90-minute course designed to be informative and engaging. The course incorporates gamification elements, such as quizzes, badges, and leaderboards, to enhance participant motivation and interaction.

Expert Design and Support:

• Instructional Design and Behavioral Insights: The nonprofit Learn Tourism - the industry academy - provided expertise in instructional design, organizational psychology, and behavioral economics. This collaboration ensured that the course was not only well-structured but also aligned with the objectives of fostering advocacy and enhancing community engagement.
• Seamless Build Process: Learn Tourism's support facilitated a smooth development process, allowing Nashville CVC to create and deploy the course efficiently. Their insights helped refine the course content to maximize impact and accessibility.

Results and Community Impact

• Enrollment and Completion: The program has successfully trained over 1,300 local advocates, with an impressive 80% completion rate. This rate significantly surpasses the typical benchmarks for online training, reflecting the program's effectiveness and participants' strong engagement.
• Community Impact: The course has generated notable excitement and value within the Nashville community. Trained ambassadors are now more knowledgeable and enthusiastic about promoting Nashville’s tourism offerings, contributing positively to the city’s visitor experience.
• Expansion and Success: The success of the Platinum Ambassador Program led to the launch of a new online training initiative targeting members of the travel trade. Utilizing the same learning experience technology, this program aims to extend Nashville’s reach and influence within the travel industry.

Conclusion

The Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp’s Platinum Ambassador Program illustrates a successful response to the challenges of creating an engaging, accessible, and self-managed training course. Through the strategic use of a versatile learning experience platform and expert guidance from Learn Tourism, Nashville CVC has achieved significant community impact and high engagement levels and expanded its training efforts to the broader travel industry. The program’s success demonstrates the effectiveness of combining technological innovation with thoughtful instructional design to meet and exceed training objectives.