More on Ladies’ Night Out

The Downtown Merchants of Historic Hillsborough (NC) present their very successful Ladies Night Out promotion this Thursday, April 30. The event draws hundreds of women into the downtown twice a year.  We discussed the event during a smallwander conference call.  An audio replay of the call is also available.

Since several member towns and promoters were interested in why the event is so successful, we share a brief slideshow presentation of the event prepared by Anne Derby of the Hillsborough Yarn Shop.

Council for Entrepreneurial Development, Venture 2009

I attended the Council for Entrepreneurial Development’s (CED) Venture 2009 conference this week. The conference invites entrepreneurs in the technology and biotech spheres to make pitches to investors. I threw on my best tan slacks (one of two pairs of dress pants that fit) and headed down to Pinehurst, NC, to survey the situation, since it was in my neck of the woods.

I tweeted the whole event. The entire stream is here, but I’ll give you a few highlights.

Chris Hughes, cofounder of Facebook, was one of the keynote speakers. It was very amusing to see many well-dressed middle-aged people with a lot of money lining up to speak to the 25-year-old after the conference. I met Chris and told him about smallwander.com. He said it was a good idea, and appeared to have a sincere look in his eye.

John Stumpf, CEO of Wells Fargo and regular guy from Minnesota, gave a speech that was probably very similar to the one he gave internally to his company after they merged with North Carolina’s Wachovia. To paraphrase, “We’re a regular community bank, our two companies are complementary, America is going to come out of this crisis, eventually…”

John Denniston, green investor, had a very good presentation. He had a slide that showed that our country has 350% more debt than our GDP. That is way worse than it was during the Great Depression. Other take-home: now is the time to invest in green technology.

Erskine Bowles, President of UNC, had the most down-home speech of the presenters. The take-home message with him was that staff cuts are coming to UNC faculty. He talked a lot about the state and country needing to move to a knowledge-based economy, but everybody seems to know that by now. However, he rightly asserts that we need to make NC the go-to state for innovation.

I sat in on the presentation for the new tech companies. A couple highlights:

PocketGear puts their mobile applications store on all non-Apple smartphones.  In excess of 30,000 programmers have already written apps for them.

From a travel perspective, Nadev Gur of Worldmate talked about how his company will serve biz travelers on mobile devices. He said that travel is the largest e-commerce “vertical.”  You will be able to book itineraries and manage changes in real time while you are traveling.  Information, such as cancellations, are pushed to your phone.

From a smallwander perspective, it would be good to get an app together for mobile devices, apple or non-apple, to search for smallwander towns and amenities while traveling.  As far as seeking an investor at this point, I am open to ideas.

Small Towns, Big Ideas

Will Lambe, author of  Small Towns, Big Ideas: Case Studies in Small Town Community Economic Development, will be the featured guest for the next smallwander.com conference call.

The University of North Carolina’s School of Government, in collaboration with the North Carolina Rural Center published the book, which is the result of a yearlong study by Lambe, associate director of the Community and Economic Development Program at the School of Government.  The collection features real stories, from real places that are successfully confronting real challenges similar to those facing small communities everywhere, such as globalization, geographic isolation, urban sprawl, aging populations, and natural disasters.

Small Towns, Big Ideas profiles towns in 18 states ranging in population from 175 (Chimney Rock, N.C.) to 15,000 (Helena-West Helena, Ark.).  The case studies are told in an engaging narrative that includes information useful to civic leaders in small communities and policymakers dealing with rural development issues.

According to Lambe, “One of the main themes emerging from these case studies is that successful small towns tend to employ a range of strategies that cut across community and economic development broadly.  The case studies allow us to take the strategies apart and to draw conclusions about how and why particular strategies work across a wide range of small communities.”

Lambe is also interim director for the North Carolina Local Government Service Corps, a three-year initiative that will place graduates of the Master of Public Administration programs at UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Wilmington, and Appalachian State University into the service of economically distressed rural communities, beginning in 2009.  The Service Corps was initiated as a result of observing—during the Small Towns, Big Ideas study—the need for economic development and capacity-building assistance in many small communities.

Small Towns, Big Ideas can be downloaded from www.cednc.unc.edu/stbi.  The site also features a database of the case studies, searchable by criteria such as community type, location, and population.  A hard-copy of the publication can be ordered through the Rural Center’s website at www.ncruralcenter.org.

Our live conversation with Will will take place on Monday, March 30, at 10 am.  It’s free and open to the public.  There is also an option for you to type in your questions.  Immediately after the talk, a recording will be posted.

Here is the dial-in information:

EVENT:  Small towns, big ideas
DATE & TIME: Monday, March 30th at 10:00am Eastern
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast — it’s your choice)
TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW…

Art Towns

John Villani, author of the 100 Best Art Towns in America will join us on Monday morning for our free monthly smallwander.com conference call.

We’ll ask John about some of his favorite small towns that celebrate art.  Our local arts council president, Tinka Jordy, will be on the call to discuss what we can do to make our town, Hillsborough, NC, more of an arts destination.

Hope you can join us.  If you can’t make it, I’ll eventually post it as a podcast.  We’ve got a backlog of them.  Thanks for being patient.

This is a webcast as well as a teleconference.  If you go to the web page below, you’ll be able to type in questions for our guest and you’ll be able to hear us.  If you phone in, you’ll be able to speak to us.

EVENT:  Art towns
DATE & TIME: Monday, February 23rd at 10:00am Eastern
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast — it’s your choice)
TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW…
http://instantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=6267333

Conflict Management

I recently visited a downtown development nonprofit in a local small town. The executive director told a story about how, within the first couple months of his job, a local church informed the community that they were going to take down one of their historic buildings in order to add parking. The new director was forced to launch a campaign to save the building. The episode caused a lot of pain in the community, and the building was lost.

Since downtown organizations are continually facing conflicts about all sorts of issues, including development pressures, I thought I would share with you some of the principles of conflict management taught to me by the Orange County Dispute Settlement Center in North Carolina.

Staff of the Dispute Settlement Center of Orange County, NC

Positions vs interests

A lot of times we argue from a set-in-stone position instead of an underlying issue. An example would be two people arguing about whether a window should be open or shut in a room.

Position 1: The window needs to be closed.

Position 2: The window needs to be open.

Interest 1: Raising the temperature of the room.

Interest 2: Keeping pollen out of the room.

Granted, this is a springtime example that I am giving you in the middle of winter, but you can remember what spring was like, can’t you? I believe this example came from Getting to Yes, by Roger Fisher and William Ury. Once you look at the problem from an interest standpoint, you can come up with an easy solution that solves both party’s problems in a spirit of collaboration.

Solution: Raise the thermostat.

This is assuming that neither party has an interest to keep the planet viable, which happens a lot.

“I” messages vs “you” messages

Anyone who has ever been involved in a conflict will know that you can’t negotiate with someone by constantly pointing the finger back at them. If you do that, all they have to say is, “No, that’s not true,” and you don’t get anywhere. If instead, you focus on what your own thoughts and feelings are, then the other party is more inclined to listen.

Conflict management styles

Competing: Pursuing personal concerns at the expense of someone else.

Accommodating: Yielding to the other party’s point of view.

Avoiding: Not addressing the conflict.

Compromising: Seeking the middle ground.

Collaborating: Working together to come up with a solution that is pleasing to both parties.

Would you agree that collaborating is the desired conflict management style in most cases? However, the other styles have their appropriate uses. For example, you don’t want to collaborate with someone who does not want  to get out of a burning building if they don’t want to go.

Perfection vs discovery

Perfection: We act as a judge. Things are black and white. Failure is seen as bad. This can lead to frustration.

Discovery: We act as a coach. You look for creative solutions. There is more of an attitude of acceptance. This can lead to fascination.

This is the tip of the iceberg. If you would like more information, feel free to contact me, or, particularly if you are local, the Orange County Dispute Settlement Center.

Third places

Our friend Mike Knutson over at Reimagine Rural saw our post about Jim Thorpe, and this got him thinking about a recent post he made about third places.  Third places are those hot spots in your community where you can share ideas, such as coffee shops.  Mike goes into detail about the characteristics of third places here.  Third places are neutral ground,  accessible and accommodating, and are places where you can routinely run into regulars.   In case you are wondering, the first place is your home and second place is your work.

How important are third places to you?  Should we make a special effort to design communities with third places?

Mike will join me on Monday morning at 10 am to discuss the role of third places in rural communities.  Feel free to call in.  Or, you can wait until I post the conversation as a podcast.

EVENT:  Third Places
DATE & TIME: Monday, January 26th at 10:00am Eastern
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast — it’s your choice)
TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW…
http://instantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=5847438

Do downtown promotions = dollars downtown?

Art Walk in Hillsborough, NC

Smallwander.com is hosting it’s monthly teleconference this upcoming Monday, Nov 24, from 10 to 11 am.  The topic is “Do downtown promotions = dollars downtown?

I particularly would like to explore why Hillsborough NC’s recent “Ladies Night Out” promotion was successful.  On a rainy Thursday night, hordes of women descended on the town and bought like crazy in the shops.  If you have similar stories about how special events translate to dollars in the shops, please think about them beforehand and share them with us.

Panelists will include Amy Wilmoth, a freelance marketing consultant for small businesses in the Triangle area of North Carolina, Elizabeth Read, Executive Director of the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough, Eddie Ide, President of Newton Merchants, Inc. of Newton North Carolina, and Greta Lint, tourism consultant.

We will be inviting town representatives in our smallwander network.  People will be able to either call in via telephone or listen in over the web.  They can also type questions to us.  The call will be recorded and eventually posted on our site as a podcast.

Smallwander.com hosts a free teleseminar/webinar on the last Monday of every month, from 10 to 11 am.  Topics relate to small town tourism and economic development.

Click on the link below to check out the web page and get the phone dial-in info.

EVENT:  Do downtown promotions = dollars downtown?
DATE & TIME: Monday, November 24th at 10:00am Eastern
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast — it’s your choice)
TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW…
http://instantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=5098998

Social media discussion, Monday morning, Oct 27

Flip video camera

Did you know you can stream live video over the web for free these days?

Did you know you can, in fact, stream live video from your phone?

Did you know a Wall Street Journal blogger posts videos captured from a $200 camcorder?  (And the price has dropped significantly since then.)

These are just a few of the things I learned at this year’s Converge South conference.

Call in on Monday morning (Oct 27) at 10 am to participate in a conversation about some of the new tools that are using to build communities on the web and beyond.  Hear more about Twitter, Facebook, blogging, and other social media.

I’ve invited a few bloggers and techies who I met at the conference, including Wayne Sutton and Ginny Skalski at 30threads.  These folks are experts at creating news and information networks.  They administer the mync.com site.

Robert Scoble, a world-reknowned tech and social media geek, was at the conference to show us how he is using video to get the message across these days.  Although Robert won’t be on the call, we’ll be passing on a lot of what he shared with us.

Hope you can attend.

EVENT:  Converge South Wrap-Up
DATE & TIME: Monday, October 27th at 10:00am Eastern
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast — it’s your choice)
TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW…
http://instantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=4663605

Converge at Converge South

Last year, travel consultant Greta Lint tuned me in to an event that took smallwander.com in a new direction.  I was going to say it changed my life, but I’m not that dramatic.

Converge South is a free conference about using the ever-emerging technologies of the web to communicate with your fellow beings.  Once known simply as a blogging conference, it has grown to include sessions on shooting video for online publication, creating podcasts, increasing online traffic, and the like.

The conference takes place in Greensboro, NC once a year.  This year’s is happening this week, on Thursday and Friday, October 16 and 17.

At last year’s conference, I was a new web entrepreneur who had not entered into the universe of blogging.  After attending the sessions and meeting with friendly participants, I happily hopped on the boat and began learning the vocabulary.   The following definitions are abridged from Wikipedia:

Blog: A blog (an abridgment of the term web log) is a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.  (You are reading a blog right now.)

Podcast: A podcast is a series of digital-media files, which are distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and computers. The term podcast, like broadcast, can refer either to the series of content itself or to the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also called podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster.

RSS: Really Simple Syndication.  An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”, or “channel”) contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner that can be piped into special programs or filtered displays.

Social media: Social media is an umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning among communities, as people share their stories, and understandings.

Social networking: A social network service uses software to build online social networks for communities of people who share interests and activities or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others.

Search Engine: Search engines provide an interface to a group of items that enables users to specify criteria about an item of interest and have the engine find the matching items.

Search Engine Optimization: Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (”organic” or “algorithmic”) search results for targeted keywords.

Web 2.0: Web 2.0 is a term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users.

Wiki: A wiki is a collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites.

With these new “social media” web tools, smallwander.com is better able to collaborate with both town representatives and travelers.  We are better able to share information and learn from each other instead of relying on the staid, brochure-like world that existed previously on the web.

A couple months after last year’s conference, I had our two smallwander blogs up-and-running, Small Towns, which has information to help historic and charming towns to promote themselves, and Smallwanderer, a blog for travelers who are looking for authentic small town experiences.  In fact, our main website is also evolving into a more blog-oriented platform.  We’ll have an announcement on our new web design shortly.

I also learned a little bit about podcasting at the conference, and we launched our first podcast also in May.

If you are in driving distance to Greensboro, NC, I strongly encourage you to attend.  However, if you can’t make it, we are having a post conference call on Monday, October 27, at 10 am.  Dial-in details are below.  Smallwander.com hosts free conference calls related to small town tourism and economic development on the last Monday of every month at 10 am.

EVENT:  Converge South Wrap-Up
DATE & TIME: Monday, October 27th at 10:00am Eastern
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast — it’s your choice)
TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW…
http://instantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=4663605

Next seminar – creating special events to stimulate downtowns

Our next smallwander.com seminar will be an open discussion about planning special seasonal events in small towns.  With the holiday season approaching, many towns plan Christmas parades and home tours.  How important are they for your downtown?  Share your experiences with other downtown managers and tourist officers who are hoping to initiate these types of events.

In case you can’t attend, check back for a recording of the call, which will be posted on this blog as a podcast.  Smallwander.com hosts a discussion about small town tourism and economic development topics every last Monday of the month, at 10 am.

EVENT:  Creating special events to stimulate downtowns
DATE & TIME: Monday, September 29th at 10:00am Eastern
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast — it’s your choice)
TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW…
http://instantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=4418724