Glen Campbell Museum to Open Next Year in Nashville: Scheduled to open early next year is the Glen Campbell Museum & Rhinestone Stage, which will honor the life of the musician and singer whose recordings and stage performances were popular in both the pop music and country music categories. The “Rhinestone Cowboy”—it is the name of Campbell’s biggest recording hit—will showcase different stages of Campbell’s career, displaying a collection of personal artifacts, including guitars, instruments, golf clubs, family photos, stage clothing and more. The new, 4,000 square-foot attraction will be located at the corner of Broadway and 2nd Avenue, and, in the evening, will turn into The Rhinestone Stage, a live music venue that hopes to attract local as well as nationally popular acts. Campbell died in 2017 at the age of 81. A specific opening date will be announced later. In the meantime, the answers to travel trade inquiries about Nashville attractions can be found at https://www.visitmusiccity.com/travel-trade/group-travel.
Scheduled to open on September 19 is the Fashion District in Philadelphia, more than replacing the old Gallery at East Market, which stood 9th and East Market Streets. The Fashion District spans three city blocks, features over 800,000 square feet of flagship, traditional, and outlet shopping, as well as destination dining, entertainment, and art and cultural exhibits. Among the scores of shops and stores that one will find at the Fashion District are: Pandora, South Fellini, UNIQUELY Philly, Hollister, a Levi’s outlet store, H&M, A Columbia factory store, EXPRESS, francesca’s, Aéropostale, Bella Shoes and Burlington. The Fashion Center also features more than a dozen eateries. Convention delegates will enjoy the location as the new attraction is located in Center City Philadelphia, within easy walking distance of the city’s historic district, Convention Center, and Reading Terminal Market. For more information, visit https://fashiondistrictphiladelphia.com/ or call 215.925.7162.
Tour an Amazon Fulfillment Center: Having purchased his fair share of goods from the giant online merchandiser, INBOUND’s editor thought it would be an interesting experience to see just how the what the company looks like inside one of its warehouse fulfillment centers. Earlier this year, Amazon began offering tours at about two dozen sites in North America. We chose the one in Breinigsville, Pa., which is about a 60-mile drive north of Philadelphia. What one learns in the approximately one-hour tour is that, even though tens of thousands of orders a day are handled in the 600,000 square-foot building (it’s about mid-range as far as fulfillment centers are in size) we visited, the whereabouts of every item and every package is known at every moment it is inside the building. Because of the scale and range of activity involved, even the smallest economy—such as the 40 thousandth of a second that is saved by using an air pressure stamp to fuse an address label on to a box (thereby avoiding delays that might occur if a regular adhesive or a water-based solution were used to apply a label) reduces the amount of dead time. Packages are separated according to size as they’re moved along and placed into bins that are loaded onto waiting trucks, whose schedules are set according the flow of packages that that is tallied by the program, which is constantly being tweaked by IT teams that are a major part of the scene. Our reaction to the tour? In a word, Whew! To book a tour, first go online. The ad hoc group that we helped form totaled 18 people. Reservations are needed for groups of 10 or more. Click here to find a site and book your tour … which is free.
Children of the 1980s—Video Game Nirvana is Here: Just opened in Lancaster County Pennsylvania is Gameseum, a pinball, arcade and video game museum as well as a working arcade. Its owner, 21-year-old Steven Van Splinter Jr., has filled the museum with a sizable collection of original coin-operated arcade games, which is loaded with games from the 80s, including include Asteroids, Millipede, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Track & Field, Space Invaders, Mortal Kombat and Mario Bros. Its pinball machine collection dates back to the 1940s and includes Williams and Gottlieb machines and wedgeheads such as F-14 Tomcat, Gorgar, Skyrocket by Bally, Comet, Magnotron, Strato Flite, Liberty Bell, Lady Luck, Super Star, Mibs, Skyjump, Wild Wild West, 4 Square, Mayfair and Jive Time. Rather than insert quarter after quarter into the machines, patrons can play on a $10 per-hour basis or a $25 all-day pass. For more information, visit www.thegameseum.com.
