Commercials to feature area tourism events, attractions

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Feb 20, 2001

A tourism marketing campaign touting events and attractions in central Oklahoma's Frontier Country will place more than 2,000 television commercials in five major markets across a three-state region.

Frontier Country Marketing Association, a nonprofit organization that promotes travel and tourism within the 12 central counties of Oklahoma, will begin the campaign in April. The sixth annual Frontier Country Trips on a Tankful campaign will blanket stations in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Amarillo, Sherman/Denison, Texas, and Wichita, Kan., with 30-second commercials promoting central Oklahoma tourism.

Each commercial features a five-second intro and exit encouraging viewers to pick up a free Trips on a Tankful coupon book featuring discounts to events and attractions. The 20-second middle portion of the commercial features various events, attractions, hotels and restaurants in an effort highlight all there is to see and do in central Oklahoma's Frontier Country.

Corporate sponsors of the 2001 Trips on a Tankful campaign are Conoco with 377 in-state locations, and Oklahoma/North Texas Days Inn properties with 38 locations and more than 2,600 rooms. The free Trips on a Tankful coupon books will be available throughout the campaign at all Conoco and Days Inn locations in Oklahoma.

Tony Krabel, director of regional marketing Days Inn Worldwide Inc. says leisure travel accounts for 60 percent of overnight stays at his properties.

Jennings leaving OCU

Oklahoma City University President Stephen G. Jennings is resigning to become president of the University of Evansville in Indiana.

The chairman of the school's board of trustees made the announcement.

"During the two and a half years that Dr. Jennings and I have worked together, I have admired the way he has moved the university forward," chairman Bill Shdeed said. "We are a better institution for his being here, and he will leave OCU in a good position to capitalize on the progress it has made."

The University of Evansville's board of trustees approved Jennings' appointment Saturday morning. It will be the fourth university where Jennings has been president.

The others are Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, and The College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Mo.

Oklahoma City University and the University of Evansville are private, United Methodist institutions.

Jennings starts his new job June 1.

On the Internet

Internet usage by Oklahoma's colleges and universities is increasing and could possibly cause problems for the state agencies which use the same network.

Internet usage at college campuses across the nation is up and much of that traffic has been devoted to downloading music files from the controversial Web site Napster.

A court order issued last week shut down Napster, but not before more than 2.2 million MP3 song files were shared among 12,909 users during the site's final weekend.

That kind of traffic could pose problems for the state's network, but none have been reported so far by OneNet, the division of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education responsible for overseeing the state's network.

OneNet serves colleges, hospitals, libraries, state government and a majority of Oklahoma's public schools.

State officials expressed concern last summer that OneNet might buckle under the pressure of heavy Internet usage. The agency doubled its broadband width in response to those concerns.

"Last summer was critical," said James Deaton, OneNet's chief technology officer. "We maxed out, and were flatlining throughout the day, and some evenings, last August."

Deaton said current access is not being threatened because most of the heavy traffic occurs at night when usage by government agencies, hospitals and libraries is down.

"We are seeing continued growth in numbers of people using resources and the amount of resources those applications require," said Phil Moss, Associate Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs.

"We used to just send text through e-mails. Now we're seeing very large files B graphics and streams that require very large resources. And we don't see that changing."

State officials aren't planning another expansion of OneNet. Officials also aren't planning to place restrictions on students' usage of the network. OneNet and state education officials say they prefer leaving those restrictions up to the individual colleges and universities. Colleges and universities are encouraged to educate students on the proper uses for the Internet, both Moss and Deaton said.

From a technological standpoint, officials are looking at using satellites to relieve broadband congestion and creating a systemwide cache for popular Web pages.

New at United Way

Nina Daylor has been promoted to vice president of campaign for the Metro Oklahoma City United Way. She has been with United Way for 12 years and was senior campaign associate.

Jodana Johnson has joined United Way as a campaign associate. She worked as a United Way loaned executive sponsored by Bank of America from August through Decemeber.

Dan Lawler also joined United Way as a campaign associate. He worked as an executive assistant for the Retired Senior Volunteer Program.