The Brag Basket is our tradition of sharing. I feel like sharing ice cream this week. :) Hey, it’s a basket. Photo by Hartini The basket is always free and open all weekend, this one March 9-11, 2012. Have some good news this week? Put it in the Brag Basket. Don’t hold back because of…
If you love small towns, you want to read Katie McCaskey’s Micropolitan Manifesto. I have an interview with Katie coming up soon, but I couldn’t wait any longer to share the manifesto with you. Get it. Read it. Tell Katie what you think. Note: updated in 2025 to replace dead links to the PDF at…
Audio tours at tourism destinations are nothing new. Museums have been handing out little headsets for years. But all kinds of new technologies are available. Now that every visitor is carrying a cell phone, you might as well make use of it. Here’s an example from Zedler Mill, in Luling, Texas. There is a welcome…
Small town businesses are starved for capital, but small town people continue to bank and invest their money with corporate behemoths based on Wall Street. What if we could change investing from a gamble in the stock market into a local development tool? Local investing is the answer. Local Dollars, Local Sense and Locavestingcomplement each…
The Brag Basket is our tradition of sharing. Since I was late getting it open, I’m blaming the puzzling basket in our basket photo this week. :) How do you get into this basket??Photo by fdecomite on Flickr The basket is always free and open all weekend, this one March 2-4, 2012. Have some good…
Brian Matson, Fargo-Moorhead Convention and Visitors Bureau, shared some excellent tips for video in small town tourism at our Tourism Currents Track at BlogWorld Expo in LA last year. Brian Matson knows great videobecause he does great video. Many destinations create slick, expensive videos to showcase their entire place in 5 to 7 minutes. Each…
Many small businesses can’t qualify for a small business loan from a traditional local bank. A bad credit record disqualifies many. Lending standards have tightened. Some small towns are limited by local banks that don’t support small business; others don’t have locally-owned banks any more. The good news is that alternatives are available. We’ll be…
Tourism is economic development, and it influences all your recruiting efforts. “If people think it’s a nice place to visit, they think it’s a nice place to live.” –Cynthia Reid Cynthia Reid said this while talking about recruiting businesses. Every effort you make to improve the visit-ability of your town also enhances your economic development. …
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