Olaguibel: Valley cities bonded well at Las Vegas retail conference

WESLACO, Texas – As Rio Grande Valley cities and economic development corporations often work in silos, so being able to collaborate at a recent trade show made for a fantastic bonding experience.

This is the view of Rebecca M. Olaguibel, director of retail and business development for the City of McAllen. McAllen joined forces with many of the other leader Valley cities to operate within a giant booth at the big ICSC extravaganza in Las Vegas.

ICSC is held over three days in May each year with the aim of connecting cities with major retailers and their representatives. The giant Valley booth was operated by the Rio Grande Valley Partnership.

At a press conference held at the offices of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council, Olaguibel pointed out that the City of McAllen has been attending ICSC for almost 15 years. Usually, the city operates its own booth. But this year, Olaguibel said, McAllen was happy to work under the RGVP umbrella.

“We ultimately made the decision to partner and sponsor the (RGVP) booth because we knew that it was going to be an amazing return on investment. And it definitely was,” Olaguibel said.

Olaguibel said retail is big for McAllen.

“For us in McAllen retail is our primary revenue stream. This is what feeds our city. This is what keeps our city going and because it’s very important to us we weren’t really going to go (with the RGVP),” Olaguibel said.

“But when you (Daniel Silva, president of RGVP) came along with this opportunity, we felt that as a region, one region, infinite possibilities on the retail side, this is something that we weren’t going to pass up.”

Olaguibel said she particularly enjoyed preparing for the conference.

“We had several meetings and phone calls where we were able to collaborate with the other partners in this Partnership. We talked about data, we talked about best practices, we talked about the look of the booth,” Olaguibel said.

“We talked about how we were going to interact in that booth, because we wanted it to be a nice and friendly atmosphere. We didn’t want any of our clients to think that we (the different Valley cities) were competing with each other because, at the end of the day, we all realize that what works for this region is going to work for everybody.”

Olaguibel reiterated her point. “What works for McAllen works for this region. And what works for this region works for McAllen. We always want everybody to be successful.”

Olaguibel said that thanks to the images portrayed at the booth the various partners we were able to convey the message that the Valley is “strong economic powerhouse.”

“We were delighted to work with all the cities to make that happen.”

Other cities and EDCs were represented at the press conference, which was hosted by RGVP. They included the City of Weslaco, Edinburg EDC, and Pharr EDC.

In a Q&A, Olaguibel again said how impressed she was with the pre-planning for ICSC.

“For us in McAllen, I think we really enjoyed all the pre-planning that went into this because it gave us an opportunity to get to know our partners, to really bond with the other cities because we work in such silos, right?” Olaguibel said.

“I mean, our neighbors are Edinburg, Pharr, Mission. But this presented a unique opportunity to really bond over this, because retail is so personal to each of the cities. And so, I appreciate it. We appreciated all of the pre-planning.”

Olaguibel said she and her team were “very happy” to share McAllen’s photography and other assets to help produce the look of the group, working closely with RGVP’s Fernanda Sanchez and her team.

“Curating that booth, curating that look was exciting for us because we were able to share our best practices and learn what other cities were doing to attract developments and investments,” Olaguibel said.

“So, we’re always happy to learn and to share on that as well. So, again, just a fantastic bonding experience for the entire region and we’re looking forward to doing it again.”

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