Growing your business – Renaissance style

My children enjoying their day with the knights in 2011

One of things my family loves about living where we do is that the Maryland Renaissance Festival is walking distance from us, so we usually go over there a couple times a season to catch a show, eat a turkey leg and see some interesting people! With the massive number of cars parked there on any nice weekend indicating the success of his operation, I decided to ask Jules Smith - the president and general manager – what he did to make the festival so popular.


Of the roughly 25 Renaissance Festivals nationwide that operate for six or more weekends – and have a constructed village – the Maryland Festival consistently places in the top three in attendance (Texas and Minnesota round out the top three). Four times in the last seven seasons the Maryland Festival finished first. Their best year ever was 2007 – their 31st season – when they had 323,000 visitors. When I asked Jules how he did it, he quickly laid out for me the simple ideas that transformed his company’s financial and operational performance:

Read the rest at the Washington Business Journal.