While talking with small town organizers, merchants, leaders and tourism officials across the country, we at smallwander.com have learned there really isn’t a venue for them to converse with their peers in other towns. So, I’ve created a series of teleseminars designed to address their concerns and help them increase your bottom line. We’ll feature guest speakers, and will also give them a chance to discuss other issues and network with colleagues.
Our first teleconference, Creating Travel Partnerships, will be held on Monday, January 28, at 10 a.m. Our special guest is Carol Wiersma of the Mississippi Valley Partnership (http://www.mississippi-river.org/). The fee is $49. Participants will receive a CD recording and be able to participate either on the phone or via the Internet, where you can post questions by typing them in. If you have any specific topics you think we should discuss, feel free to let me know. Here are some sample topics:
- Grants
- Signage
- Nonprofit management
- Walkability
- Festivals
- Online sales
- Destination branding
- PR
- Fundraising
- Small business fundamentals
Click here to vote for which topics you’d like to hear about.
Also, if you had any experts you could recommend for these topics, feel free to forward their contact info.
I hope you’ll join us on the morning of the 28th!
John Delconte
Tags: merchants, seminars, small town, Small Towns, speakers, teleconference, teleseminar, Tourism, Travel, webinar
January 23, 2008 at 3:30 pm |
Press Release
For Release: January 22, 2008
Contact: John Delconte, 919-241-5001
Greta Lint, 336-626-0527
http://www.Smallwander.com
New Educational Teleseminar Programs Focus on Small Towns
Hillsborough, NC — When small downtown organizers, administrators, retailers, event organizers and local officials want to learn more about how to do their job, where do they go? Some governmental organizations provide a level of training, but typically people working in tiny towns don’t have the time or money to attend conferences or to network.
So, Hillsborough, North Carolina businessman John Delconte, founder of Smallwander.com, a Website designed to promote small towns to tourists, has developed a series of monthly hour-long educational teleseminars to help leaders and retailers in small towns learn how to increase their bottom line.
Different topics will be offered throughout the year, each providing networking opportunities.
The first session will be held on Monday, January 28, 2008, at 10:00 a.m. Registration is $49.00. For more information, email john@smallwander.com or call 919-241-5001.
The January topic will focus on how small towns can work together to increase their tourism traffic. Participants will learn how 15 tiny, financially devastated towns along the upper Mississippi River, became a tourist destination.
Delconte will moderate a panel discussion that includes: Carol Wiersma, owner of The Good Apple retail store in Stockholm, Minnesota, (pop. 916); Belinda Strotheide, president of Apple Seed Associates in Kalispell, Montanta; and Greta Lint, in Asheboro, North Carolina, tourism consultant and researcher for tourism trail projects in the Carolinas. Strotheide is grant writer and former small town economic developer.
“We’ll focus upon the value of towns partnering together to get more bang for their promotional efforts,” says Delconte. “Community leaders and retailers tell me in my travels they want to increase their revenues, but need help to do so. They’re all trying to do it alone – I’ve seen partnering is a much better way.”
Lint applauds Delconte for developing educational resources and networking opportunities to help small town organizers, administrators and retailers. “Many communities aren’t sure if they have something worthy of being promoted. But, by talking with peers in other towns, they learn their assets and liabilities. Take Danbury, North Carolina, (pop. 450) for instance. It has an arts festival, artists’ co-op, bed and breakfast, a couple of restaurants, an historic hardware store – and natural river and mountain beauty. Yet, community leaders didn’t feel they were ready for money-bearing tourists. Now, they better understand their assets and can begin capitalizing upon them.”
And networking paid off for 15 towns in the upper Mississippi River region in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Wiersma, a former board member of the 15-town region comprising the Mississippi Valley Partnership (MVP) explains that until the early 1900s, the river was the primary source for transportation. “We really didn’t feel economic affects of NAFTA, but we did have the Industrial Revolution that made our towns dry up. They barely survived for decades.” She adds, “But in 1970, a group of artists came to town. They liked the natural river beauty. Within a few years, Stockholm became an art lover’s destination. Community leaders along the river began to talk, work together and we soon saw a dramatic increase in the number of people coming to our towns. I can never stress networking enough. We saw more new faces in 2007 than ever before!
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