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.

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

Buy local podcast

Leon Tongret and Greta Lint discuss how buying locally helps small towns.

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Subscribe to podcast in Itunes.

Buy local-online seminar scheduled

Photo by Keith Pomakis

This conference call is free and open to the public.  Please share your thoughts about buy-local campaigns.  Hear from experts.  Ask questions.  Smallwander.com offers free seminars about small town tourism and economic development.  Calls are held on the last Monday of every month at 10 am.  The seminars are later posted as podcasts.

Smallwander.com showcases locally-owned merchants, attractions, restaurants, and lodging to travelers seeking authentic small town experiences.

EVENT:  Buy local
DATE & TIME: Monday, July 28th 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=3630342

Why smaller is sometimes better

From Blogging Stocks

When the big company leaves the small town

Posted Jun 22nd 2008 5:10PM by Gary E. Sattler
Filed under: Employees

This post opens our Big Company, Small Town series, featuring large companies and the small towns in which they are headquartered. Watch for more Big Company, Small Town posts coming soon.

All across this great country of ours, small cities, towns, and villages have been built in the shadows of major companies that supply work for their local populations. It can be a wonderful situation that cultivates a special kind of community and a deep-seated local pride. However, it can also be a recipe for civic disaster, if the major supplier of a wage base in a locality goes out of business or leaves town. Such was the near disastrous fate of Park Falls, Wisconsin, not so long ago.

The city of Park Falls, which is Wisconsin’s most geographically isolated city, was built around its paper mill. At its height, the mill helped to bring the population of the city to nearly 4,000 inhabitants. However, in 2006 the paper mill, which was operating at reduced capacity under ownership from out of state, was shut down almost without any prior notice. The result was immediate and deeply wrenching turmoil. Not only had the paper mill workers lost an excellent source of income, but the collateral damage was jarringly significant also. Loggers had no local market for their pulp wood. Dozens of family-feeding log trucks were idled. Private contractors who did various types of work for the mill were left with thousands of dollars worth of unpaid invoices. Local vendors, retailers, and support businesses almost immediately went slack.

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Travel to Main Street to shop–by train

Here is an interesting post from teaberries in All the Little Stuff That is Life.

“What I’m saying, is 1) bring back Main Street shopping, only maybe this time, we need to base it on more European models of villages and towns. 2) It’s time for the big-box retailers to break themselves down, and start fitting into the mold of small town America. Then 3) reform transportation, start using trains again. This country has thousands of small towns, and hundreds of miles of railroad tracks connecting them. Use them, again. Refer, again, to Europe and Japan.”

Full article…