Iowa Events
Buy One Product Locally
This blog post is written for residents of Greater Franklin County. But you know what? Change the name to your local chamber and your local businesses and the message is just as strong. Buy Local. This year the Greater Franklin County Chamber of Commerce rolled out our Buy One Product Local Campaign. We focused on…
Read MoreHarvest Tour Redux
This week I was asked by the owners of Tourism Currents to contribute to their November newsletter. ( If you are not receiving the newsletter, you can do so by starting here.) I wrote about the Harvest Tour(s) in Greater Franklin County and what we found out as a result of doing them. Enjoy the…
Read MoreHarvest Tour 2012 Day 2
6 bloggers woke up to country fresh air in Franklin County Iowa on Saturday, October 6, 2012. They came to find out about: how food ends up on their table, rural living and the changes made in the last 100 years, entertainment in a small town, and why someone would want to live here. They…
Read MoreFollowing the Hashtag #HarvestTour2012
6 bloggers came to Franklin County Iowa last night. We took them to the REA Plant and Museum (first farmer owned electricity plant in the United States), the Old Stone House (built in 1854) and Maynes Grove Lodge for some wine and food and mingling. Our hashtag for you to follow along on twitter is…
Read MoreInternational Dot Day – Changing the World
I am a big fan of Angela Maiers. She has championed the You Matter cause and is literally changing the world. In April she brought a group of students to the 140 Character Conference/State of Now in Des Moines and they made me cry. Me and a room of full people. Because they showed us…
Read MoreCorn Shocks – A Rural Tradition
A corn shock is a group of corn stalks tied together. Tuesday I spent the morning helping chop down corn stalks, put 12-15 of them together in a shock and tied them up with twine. Then we threw them on the back of the pick up and I headed off to town to deliver them…
Read MorePartnering with Crafters – in rural Iowa
TownsEnd Winery is a little, family owned and operated operation located in Hansell, Iowa. It’s also a small town success story. I’ve written about them before and today I want to show you how they’ve partnered with other small businesses in North Central Iowa. September 1 and 2 was the 2nd Anniversary of the TownsEnd…
Read MoreMidwest Maybe
Ben Milne from Dwolla said at the Social IRL Conference on Thursday you can contribute in a positive or negative way. Are you someone who complains a lot? You’ll find that negative attracts negative and you’ll soon be surrounded by negative people. Jason Freed from 37 signals taught him that the concept of recognizing bad…
Read MoreLuxurious Living: Tour Hampton
Sadly, we had to cancel this event today due to lack of enrollments. I was just going to delete this post, but then I thought maybe you could help me. Would you share in the comments what you liked about this event idea, what you didn’t like or how you would have marketed this…
Read MoreNo Excuses
Can I tell you the number of times I’ve heard “I don’t know how to do that.” I’m talking about using social media as another marketing tool for your small business. The opportunity presents itself this Thursday to spend an afternoon with Jason Falls, Mr. No BullShit, and be a part of an in-depth discussion on…
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