Local
Think Global, Buy Local
It’s been repeated a lot — buy local. The holidays are coming and your local businesses count on you to shop where you live. Why should you? Here’s a good infographic that might help answer that question. by daSantosh.
Read MoreBrookings, SD 1 Million Cups
I’ll be headed to Brookings, SD this afternoon to speak at the 1 Million Cups event on Wednesday at 9 am. 1 Million Cups is a national weekly event. You can read more at their website here. They say it best: 1 Million Cups (1MC) is a simple way to engage entrepreneurs in communities around…
Read MoreCommercial Revitalization Webinar
On April 29 at 1 pm,Tyler Abens and I will be featured on a National REALTOR webinar. The webinar will showcase how becoming engaged in community and downtown revitalization efforts can lead to leasing/sales of vacant buildings and other positive impacts on commercial real estate development. Targeted efforts involving REALTOR® associations, REALTORS® and community organizations…
Read MoreTucson Ideas to Take Home
I’ve spent the past week in Tucson for Chamber Institute. I love to explore a new community and see what kind of ideas I can take home with me! Many small towns are fund raising to save movie theatres, historical buildings, and community projects. Ideas are needed for ways to honor donors. These leaves…
Read MoreTen Things About Being a Board Member
Do you sit on a board? At some point, most of us who actively volunteer and work in a small town will be a board member of some organization. Here’s ten things you might want to know. Work, Wisdom and Money — if you have two out of three of those you will make an…
Read MoreBecky and Deb, Left Alone
A couple of weeks ago Becky McCray, www.beckymccray.com, came to Webster City. Becky lives in Oklahoma, is a small town enthusiast and expert, and was on her way home from a speaking engagement in Canada. It made perfect sense to us that she should stop in Webster City, Iowa on her way. Becky and I…
Read MoreExpect the Unexpected
Where are you traveling? Have you explored your local county first? It’s a question I ask a lot – there are so many exciting things to see and do here in Hamilton County and I’m just getting started. The problem for a lot of Chamber and Tourism organizations is where do we begin when we…
Read MoreTimes they are a-changin’
Bob Dylan starts that song off singing Come gather ’round people Wherever you roam And admit that the waters Around you have grown I’ve had the great pleasure to first volunteer at the Greater Franklin County Chamber of Commerce and then work as communications director. I’ve met many fine people in the community, enjoyed various…
Read MoreSnow Day
Today I was scheduled to attend the Central Iowa Tourism Region quarterly meeting at Prairie Meadows. I came down the day before and attended the Tourism Legislative Showcase at the Iowa State Fairgrounds and made arrangements to stay at my uncle’s house in Colfax. (I brought his sister, my mom, with me so they could…
Read MoreWhy We Honor Dr. King
Today is a day we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr. A day of reflection, what his life may mean to us 45 years after his death. There are many quotes by Dr. King and one of my favorites is: “Another way that you love your enemy is this: When the opportunity presents…
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