PIERRE – The plastic red hotel will still ruin you, but instead of advancing to Boardwalk to face your demise, you’ll take a long walk off a short Pierre … or rather pier.
Pierre, the tiny South Dakota capital pronounced “peer” by its roughly 14,000 residents, will hold the top spot in a new version of Monopoly featuring U.S. cities coming out this fall. Pierre and 21 other cities will replace the properties in original 1935 game that named after places in Atlantic City, N.J.
Hasbro Inc. left it to voters to choose which cities would appear in this version and another that will feature the names of world cities. More than 4 million votes were cast, and Pierre, the second-smallest state capital, came out first. It will pair with Minneapolis — the new Park Place — to bankrupt opponents unlucky to spend a night at one of their swanky hotels. Penny-pinchers — or those hoarding white $1 bills — can spend a turn in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
The new versions celebrate the 80 years of hoarding fake cash and bankrupting family members during summer vacations. But it’s the third consecutive year that Hasbro has turned to a social media to decide on tweaks to its popular game. Previously, fans decided to add a cat token and retired the iron, and they were also invited to incorporate their favorite “house” rules into the wider game.
“What’s so important these days is to have your fans help tell you where the brand should go,” said Jonathan Berkowitz, Hasbro’s vice president of marketing.
There will be other changes to the new versions, including a faster style of play in which players collect different properties in their passport to win. The company incorporated suggestions from players who wanted to see a quicker pace, Berkowitz said.
The idea of adorning the world-famous monopoly board with Pierre, an old government town whose Capitol building still has saloon-style doors on the bathroom stalls, captivated local officials, media and residents. The city’s part-time mayor took to the local radio stations, teachers developed class activities around the contest and the state tourism department sent out social media blasts encouraging South Dakotans to help land Pierre on the board.
“We got the community engaged, and it became for us, in our smaller community, an exciting thing to be able to promote what we have going on here,” said Laurie Gill, who serves as mayor outside of her day job. “And I don’t know that it was picked up that way in some larger the communities.”
The cities for the Monopoly Here Now edition were determined through online voting done in collaboration with BuzzFeed.
Which city is where
Here’s a look at the placement, according a press release:
Dark Blue: Pierre; Minneapolis
Green: New York, NY; Virginia Beach, VA; Los Angeles, CA
I’ve known Bill Siegel for a long time. He and his firm Longwoods International have been tracking the performance of the advertising campaigns of countries, states and cities for over 25 years. So when he called me up and said, “Can we get together? I’ve got some really interesting numbers to share with you,” I readily agreed.
Bill had a simple question he wanted to answer: Is there a halo effect generated by tourism advertising?
Yes, we can survey consumers and directly see how a state or city’s advertising campaign works in influencing perceptions of a destination’s tourism product and ultimately in motivating travel. But are there other benefits in boosting the community’s overall image with the same audience?
North Dakota is a case in point. For the past decade, the state’s “Legendary” campaign has been a successful branding statement connecting the state to potential travelers in an emotional and authentic manner. The most recent ROI research shows that North Dakota’s U.S. campaign generated over $100 in visitor spending for every dollar spent on advertising.
North Dakota’s “Legendary” advertising campaign kicked-off in 2005.
But here’s where it gets even more interesting. Are the same viewers more positive to North Dakota as:
A place to live? Yes, up 41%.
A place to start a career? Yes, up 100%.
A place to start a business? Yes, up 75%.
A place to attend college? Yes, up 87%.
A place to purchase a second home? Yes, up 113%
A place to retire? Yes, up 75%.
Tourism advertising helped boost the state’s image in unexpected ways.
Longwoods asked the same six questions in assessing the impact of advertising campaigns for a number of other states, including North Carolina, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The findings couldn’t have been more consistent. In each and every case, effective tourism advertising had the same impact, improving consumer perceptions of each state in accidental yet positive ways. And while tourism marketing has been shown to generate significant economic impact by driving visitation, these results demonstrate the potential long-term benefits for broader economic development.
Edward Thorndike, an early educational psychologist, first coined the term “the halo effect” in a 1920 article titled “A Constant Error in Psychological Ratings.” Thorndike asked two commanding officers to evaluate their soldiers in terms of physical qualities (neatness, voice, physique, bearing, and energy) and personal qualities (including dependability, loyalty, responsibility, selflessness, and cooperation). He found that if an officer liked one aspect of the soldier, he tended to have a positive predisposition toward everything about him.
Nearly one hundred years later, the same can now be said of tourism advertising. We’ve known for a long time that effective tourism advertising campaigns build positive feelings toward a travel experience and inspire travel. But thanks to Bill Siegel and the Longwoods team, we now know that the same campaigns have other benefits that elevate impressions of a destination in an unintended yet positive manner.
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RALEIGH, N.C. – A dozen or so games into an already impressive career, Andrew Hammond is beginning to figure things out.
The 27-year-old rookie became the second goalie in NHL history to give up no more than two goals in each of his first 12 starts, and the Ottawa Senators beat Carolina 2-1 when Mark Stone scored 4:46 into overtime Tuesday night.
Hammond (11-0-1) matched the record set by Boston’s Frank Brimsek, who in 1938 also went 12 consecutive games without allowing more than two goals.
“It was awesome to tie that record tonight. Maybe (the NHL) caters to my game a little bit more,” Hammond said.
“Now that I’ve made a few adjustments and added a little bit more structure to my game I’ve been able to kind of think the game a little bit better,” he said. “The guys at this level are so skilled they make the play more often than not. For me, a big part of my game is just reading the play and maybe that helps a little bit.”
Hammond made 35 saves to outduel the Hurricanes’ Anton Khudobin, who stopped 31 shots but lost for the first time in six career appearances against Ottawa.
“Hammond was real good,” Senators coach Dave Cameron said. “Any time a guy can come in and have an old coach coach him and he (ties) a record from before the old coach was even born, you go back a long way.”
The win left Ottawa four points behind Boston in the race for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
And the victory came in a tough building for the Senators, as Carolina is 11-0-2 in its last 12 meetings with Ottawa at PNC Arena.
“That’s one of the most exciting overtimes I’ve ever been a part of,” Carolina coach Bill Peters said. “I thought they dominated in the second (period), and then we recovered in the third and had a good pushback.”
“It was kind of like a playoff-style hockey game, and I thought both goaltenders made big saves.”
Elias Lindholm gave Carolina a 1-0 lead in the first period with his 15th goal. Patrick Wiercioch tied it in the second for Ottawa with his second.
The Senators are 12-1-1 since a 6-3 home loss to the Hurricanes on Feb. 16. Carolina also beat Ottawa 3-2 on Jan. 17.
“For a team that’s not necessarily playing for the playoffs, Carolina played a great game,” Hammond said.
Stone’s goal was his 18th of the season. Kyle Turris and Erik Karlsson, who leads NHL defencemen with 56 points and 38 assists, set up Stone.
“We had a ton of chances,” Stone said. “And some of the saves (Hammond) makes — when any goalie makes them you kind of shake your head. But for him to be that stable this early in his NHL career is spectacular to see.”
The Hurricanes led 1-0 after the first period despite being outshot 10-7.
Lindholm scored on a rush at 12:59 of the first, beating Hammond over the left shoulder with a drive from the top of the right circle. A cross-ice pass gave Jeff Skinner his 100th career assist.
NOTES: Carolina will visit Montreal on Thursday. Ottawa will host Boston in the opener of a four-game homestand. … Carolina D Jack Hillen (concussion) missed his sixth straight game. D Rasmus Rissanen (MCL) was out and is expected to miss 3-4 weeks. C Riley Nash was a healthy scratch. … Ottawa’s healthy scratches were C Colin Greening, C Zack Smith and D Eric Gryba. … Carolina’s Brad Malone and Ottawa’s Mark Borowiecki fought at 2:44 of the first. The Hurricanes’ Nathan Gerbe fought the Senators’ Milan Michalek at 17:28 of the third.
New hotel inventory like downtown’s Aloft have helped Hillsborough significantly increase bet tax collections and room revenues. Here, Aloft developer Punit Shah and his wife, Carla, pose in front of the WXYZ Bar.
Chris Wilkerson
Deputy Editor- Tampa Bay Business Journal
It has been a good year for the hotel industry in Hillsborough County so far in 2015, with sharply higher revenues per available room putting Tampa at No. 1 among comparable metro areas.
“Every month we’re showing double digit growth over last year,” Santiago Corrada, president and CEO of Visit Tampa Bay, said in a statement. “It’s nice to be No. 1 against our competitive set and it’s overwhelming the amount of business we’re driving here.”
Room occupancy in February was at about 86 percent, 7 percent from the same month in 2014. The room rate was up 10 percent from 2014 at $119.48 and the revenue per available room was up 18 percent at $108.
The Tampa metro’s room revenue numbers are usually in the top three of its competitive set. The other cities in the set include Ft. Lauderdale; Orlando; Charlotte, N.C.; Nashville, Tenn.; Baltimore, Md.; Milwaukee; Austin, Texas; San Antonio, Texas; Fort Worth, Texas; and Long Beach, Calif., according to Visit Tampa Bay.
Hillsborough County collected about $2.5 million in Tourism Development Taxes in February. That number is up more than 16 percent from last year. This year’s fiscal calendar for Visit Tampa Bay – which began Oct. 1 – is running more than 15 percent over last year at this point and almost 9 percent over 2007’s numbers, the previous record.
Corrada has set a goal of reaching a three-year total of $30 million in bed taxes by Dec. 31, 2017. This achievement would bump Hillsborough County onto Florida’s list of “high-impact tourism” counties. Then, the county commission could potentially raise the bed tax by a penny. Eight Florida counties now qualify — Duval, Volusia, Orange, Osceola, Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe and Pinellas.
Chris Wilkerson is Deputy Editor of the Tampa Bay Business Journal.
Donnelle Eller, deller@dmreg.com 7:31 p.m. CST February 7, 2015
UP NEXT
03
Dickinson County leaders are asking for a temporary moratorium on new animal-confinement operations.
Iowa Great Lakes, home to multimillion-dollar vacation homes and a playground for thousands of tourists each year, could become the next battleground over the construction of large animal-confinement operations.
Dickinson County leaders have written to Iowa’s governor, state natural resources leaders and lawmakers, asking for a temporary moratorium on new animal-confinement operations. Leaders say a “proliferation of animal confinements” — thousands of animals producing millions of gallons of manure — threatens the water quality of the state’s natural glacial lakes.
Not only are West and East Okoboji and Spirit lakes important state natural resources, but they’re a key economic driver for the region, attracting $265 million in tourism spending, based on the most recent data available, and a significant workforce and business recruitment tool.
Lonnie Saunders, Dickinson’s assistant county attorney, said a moratorium would enable Iowa — its residents and leaders — to retool the state formula for determining appropriate sites. Changes to the master matrix could build in better protections for water quality and address concerns about odor, health and possible environmental impacts, he said.
New Fashion Pork, the company behind the confinement proposal to house up to 4,400 animals, says it has taken great care not to build within four miles of the Great Lakes, honoring a 2006 agreement made between big pork producers and local leaders. And it’s making concessions that include removing some farmland from its manure-application plan that local leaders say is too close to the lakes’ crucial watersheds.
The Minnesota-based company plans to resubmit a modified proposal.
“Protecting the Great Lakes is very important,” said Brad Freking, New Fashion Pork’s owner. “We’ve donated to several watershed projects. We’re an economic participant in preserving the beauty of the Great Lakes. But there’s a lot of economic activity outside of tourism. The western part of the county is livestock intense.”
Livestock’s growing reach
Livestock production is a massive industry in Iowa, generating about $13 billion in receipts in 2013.
The state is the nation’s largest pig producer, with about 20 million animals, about 5 million more than a decade ago, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Iowa produces about one-third of the hogs raised in the U.S.
But complaints about Iowa’s livestock industry have grown with its increasing size and concentration. Even though Iowa is raising more pigs, the animals are consolidated into fewer facilities, which have decreased by nearly 4,000 in a decade to about 6,300 in 2012, the U.S. Agriculture Census shows.
Joe Ulman, a member of the Big Spirit Lake Protective Association, said the smell of pigs is becoming more common in hot, humid summers on the lakes.
“Will people still come back when they can smell manure being applied to fields three miles from the actual confinement?” Ulman said.
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Residents also complain that water quality is being degraded by algae blooms — fed by nutrients from livestock facilities, wastewater-treatment plants, urban lawns, and corn and soybean farming.
“I’ve lived on Spirit Lake for 35 years, and I don’t see the water quality getting any better,” Ulman said. “I’m not anti-farmer. We all like to eat. But economics shouldn’t drive the entire conversation.”
How many is too many?
Sen. David Johnson, a Republican who represents the Okoboji lakes area, said claims that the Great Lakes area is becoming “saturated with confined-animal feeding operations don’t stand up.”
Dickinson County, he said, has 39 animal-feeding operations small enough that they aren’t required to meet the matrix requirements. The county has three larger facilities — two cattle and one hog — that are governed by the matrix.
“There are fewer animal operations overall in Dickinson than any county in northwest Iowa,” Johnson said.
Dickinson County had about 43,200 pigs in 2012, about 5,400 more animals than in 2001, according to the U.S. Agriculture Census. By contrast, Sioux County, in the northwest Iowa corner, had 1.2 million pigs, the most in the state, the census showed.
Bill Van Orsdel, a Des Moines businessman and president of the Iowa Great Lakes Association, said three hog confinements have been proposed or constructed within the past 18 months. It concerns his group and others.
“The matrix may be applicable to the majority of situations in which a permit is being requested,” he said. But “it does not take into account the unique tourism-based economy of Dickinson County.”
The debate over health
Last month, a coalition of environmental groups sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, pushing it to set standards on the amounts of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, fine particles and other emissions from livestock facilities, claiming they threaten the health of nearby rural residents and workers as well as animals in the facilities.
Hog, cattle and dairy farms have been blamed for fish kills caused by manure spread on crop fields or spilled directly into streams. For example, a dairy spill last fall in O’Brien County in northwest Iowa killed about 865,000 fish. The company was fined $160,500.
And neighbors have long complained about respiratory irritations, asthma and annoying odors they link to the farms. Some university studies have supported those contentions.
But an Iowa State University professor said research is inconclusive about the confinements’ effect on public health.
Large animal-confinement operations use complex ventilation systems to prevent animals and workers from exposure to ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, said Daniel Andersen, an associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering.
“By the time that air would make it to a neighbor, concentrations are very, very low,” he said. “They’re at levels we would naturally encounter in our daily lives.”
Johnson calls claims that livestock facilities can harm the health of neighbors “outright fear tactics.” And Dickinson County’s public hearings on proposed facilities, which aren’t required by law, are designed to “rally a small segment of people.”
Who’s to blame?
Dickinson County officials aren’t the first to challenge Iowa’s master matrix, a tool created by a 2002 law that was designed to give livestock producers uniform regulations across the state and provide greater protections for residents.
The matrix requires large pig, cattle and other livestock facilities to meet construction and setback requirements. The facilities must meet separation distances for homes, schools and churches as well as recreational areas and water sources. Producers also have to identify the farmland where the facilities’ manure will be applied.
But critics say the matrix allows livestock producers to build too close to people, public places and environmentally sensitive areas such as rivers or streams that can be sources for drinking water.
Criticism about farming’s impact on water quality came to a head last month when Des Moines Water Works notified drainage districts in three rural Iowa counties — Calhoun, Buena Vista and Sac – that it planned to sue them.
The utility claims the drainage districts, and indirectly crop and livestock producers in the area, are contributing to high nitrates in the Raccoon River watershed that have forced the agency to use expensive equipment to filter the water. The utility’s notice to sue says nitrogen levels in one drainage district feeding the Raccoon River have been nearly four times higher than the amount the federal government says is safe for drinking water.
Infants younger than 6 months are particularly at risk from high nitrate levels in water, potentially becoming seriously ill without treatment.
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Saunders, the Dickinson County assistant attorney, said county leaders are sympathetic to downstream concerns about high levels of nitrogen and phosphorous levels in Iowa streams or rivers.
“The Des Moines Water Works, whether they have it right or not, is saying, ‘Yes, we’re all tied together by these water sources, and what happens in one county may affect what happens in another county,'” Saunders said. “And we’re very sensitive to that. … We don’t want to put our problems onto somebody else.”
But county leaders have little power to prevent producers from locating in ecologically sensitive areas, he said.
“We feel rather helpless,” Saunders said. “We don’t feel like we have the authority to do anything.”
Counties that have environmental concerns such as Dickinson should “have something to say about the location of these things,” said David Osterberg, co-founder of the Iowa Policy Project, an Iowa City research group that has supported tougher environmental protections.
“Most Iowans would look at this and say, ‘Dickinson County, with all those beautiful lakes, why would we want that to be a place for new hog facilities?’ ” he said. “But the master matrix doesn’t make a distinction.”
The battle over the matrix
Past efforts to modify the master matrix have run into agricultural brick walls, Osterberg said.
“Farm groups are so powerful, they just run over everything,” he said. Even proposals that would tweak the matrix are deemed “totally unreasonable and they resist it.”
Groups as diverse as the Iowa Association of Counties and the Iowa chapter of the Sierra Club each year include in their legislative priorities greater local control over siting of large, concentrated animal-feeding operations. But leaders from both groups say they have few hopes to push the issue forward.
The Iowa Pork Producers Association said the matrix is a good tool with strong separation requirements that puts swine facilities in the right locations. “Hog farmers are heavily regulated,” the group said. “If a hog farmer fails to comply, the permit is denied.”
Sen. Johnson of Okoboji said reopening discussions about Iowa’s master matrix would be a mistake.
“The master matrix has worked well for the state, and I see no reason to make changes,” said Johnson, who helped draft the 2002 law and helped broker the local agreement with large pork producers to stay at least four miles outside of the Great Lakes area.
Adding confinement restrictions around lakes, streams, towns or cities in the state matrix would eventually leave few places for farmers to build livestock facilities. And that would prevent families from bringing their sons and daughters into their operations, he said.
“People want more young people to farm, but the only way to do that today is with livestock,” with low commodity prices and high land, seed and other input costs, Johnson said. “So where would you raise livestock in the state? I don’t think that’s fair to people who own land.”
With strong prices for beef and pork, Saunders expects to see more confinement operations around the Lakes. And it’s possible that not all of them will honor the 2006 agreement to locate four miles outside the Great Lakes area.
Saunders sees difficulties challenging the matrix. Counties that have, either by appealing to state leaders or through the courts, “have been shut down, saying the law is the law.”
“You can only get beaten down so many times before you give up,” he said.
A look at state rules on hog confinements:
Building
New confinements with more than 2,500 pigs must apply for a state construction permit — a more stringent requirement than federal law — that state engineers review. Producers building a confinement for 1,250 to 2,500 pigs must submit a construction design statement to the county outlining the standards they’ll use. All producers building confinements for 1,250 or more pigs are required to have manure management plans. Most small producers are not required to meet those requirements.
Separation
The state restricts how close animal confinements can be to homes, schools and other areas. Larger facilities require more distance than smaller ones. For example, new confinements with fewer than 1,250 pigs can build next door to a neighbor. Confinements with fewer than 2,500 hogs in a rural setting require 1,250 feet of separation around them. Confinements must be 500 feet from a water source, such as a well, and 1,000 feet from a major water source.
Master matrix
Counties can provide input into approval of large confinements through a master matrix. Every facility must meet minimum requirements, but producers can choose from 44 items actions that “go above and beyond” the basic requirements to gain county approval. Producers who fail to get a passing score can ask the state Department of Natural Resources for a review. Those who fail to get DNR approval can appeal to the Iowa Environmental Protection Commission.
Donnelle Eller writes about business news, trends and personalities in agriculture, the environment and energy. Previously, she reported on Iowa’s economy during one of the worst recessions in U.S. history. Donnelle is a native Iowan who has also worked in Florida and Oklahoma. deller@dmreg.com; 515-284-8457; @DonnelleE
ATLANTIC CITY —Five years after the federal government removed New Jersey from a plan for drilling for oil and natural gas off the Atlantic coast, Garden State residents found themselves on Wednesday again fighting against the drilling plan.
The federal Bureau of Energy Management held an open house to explain the plan and to gather input from residents to a plan that, if approved, would allow for drilling to start in 10 years.
The plan involves opening the Atlantic Ocean from Virginia to Georgia for offshore drilling of natural gas and oil. While no drilling would take place directly off the coast of New Jersey, environmentalists and elected officials argued the state’s ecology and tourism would be battered in the event of an oil spill that could carry a slick north.
“PCBs, dioxins, spills. That can be lethal,” said Cindy Zipf, executive director of Clean Ocean Action, a coalition of environmental groups. “That doesn’t matter how far offshore. As we’ve seen with the BP oil spill, it travels.”
The area being considered off the Atlantic coast is believed to contain about 3 billion barrels of oil. As part of the energy plan for the United States, President Obama is considering allowing drilling for that oil, but environmental groups say extracting what would amount to ten years’ worth of this country’s oil consumption isn’t worth the risk of harm to the state’s ecology and tourism ecology.
“That small amount of oil and gas that may be off our coast is not worth the risk to the environment or tourism” said Jeff Tittel, executive director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “This is really a battle for our coast but more importantly a battle over energy.”
John Weber, mid-Atlantic regional director for the Surfrider Foundation, said the federal government should encourage energy production through wind, wave and solar power.
“We really don’t need this,” he said. “The value of our coast intrinsically trumps anything we would get out of this.”
William Brown, chief environmental officer for BOEM, said the open house is a way to gather community concerns to determine what – if any – part of the Atlantic coast region should be included in the final plan.
The public comment period for this phase runs through March 30. A draft environmental impact study should be completed by early next year and a final decision about how the plan will look is expected by the end of next year, Brown said.
New Jersey was the eleventh of 12 stops BOEM is making across the country to hold these open houses, a departure from its usual public hearing where members of the public deliver verbal statements to a barrage of federal officials seated at a long table. More than 500 people had attended the public hearing the last time the Atlantic coast was being considered, in 2009.
During the open house, BOEM set up six stations in a ballroom of the Sheraton in Atlantic City. Residents could move from station to station and speak with BOEM representatives about different aspects of the plan. The final station was a bank of six laptop computers where attendees could type out and submit their written comments.
By the end of the three-hour session, fewer than 100 people had attended.
In a letter to BOEM Director Abigail Ross Hopper on Thursday, half of New Jersey’s congressional delegation said the Atlantic Coast should be off-limits to drilling.
Signing the letter were U.S. Sens. Robert Menendez and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who quickly criticized the Jan. 27 proposal to sell leases beginning in 2017 to drill for oil and gas off the shores of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia; and Reps. Donald Norcross (D-1st Dist.), Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-6th Dist.), Albio Sires (D-8th Dist.) and Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-9th Dist.).
“Drilling off the Atlantic Coast is the wrong approach that puts our New Jersey beaches at risk,” said Pallone, whose district includes part of the Jersey Shore. “We’ve seen that oil spills don’t respect state borders. An oil spill anywhere along the Atlantic Coast would cause severe environmental damage to fisheries, popular beaches and wildlife. The fact remains that opening up the Atlantic Ocean for fossil fuel development is unnecessary, poses a serious threat to our coastal communities, and is the wrong approach.”
Separately, Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-2nd Dist.) whose district includes Atlantic City, submitted a statement to the hearing also opposing the proposal.
“Drilling in the Mid-Atlantic region puts at risk some of the nation’s most sensitive coastal and marine resources,” said LoBiondo, who has introduced legislation to ban drilling off the coast of New Jersey. “Bipartisan legislative and administrative actions have protected these sensitive coastal areas from offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling for decades.”
NJ Advance Media staff writer Jonathan Salant contributed to this report
ASHEVILLE – After attending conference after conference where they saw participants leave with some inspiration, a few networking connections and not much else, Emily Breedlove and Cortina Caldwell decided to organize an event that would prompt innovation in local economies instead of simply talking about it.
“You have to have a plan of action, otherwise this powerful experience is forgotten and becomes a distant memory,” said Breedlove, who is also the president of Small Town Ventures, the consulting and training company she founded last year in Bryson City.
Over a few cups of coffee last fall, Breedlove and Caldwell started brainstorming ideas for what would become the Authentic Communities Summit, which will be held next week at New Mountain AVL in downtown Asheville from March 24-27.
“This event isn’t just about coming together and celebrating authenticity,” Breedlove said. “It’s about creating a space where we can show up, invite others to participate and help improve the economy based on what all of our own priorities are. It’s based on celebrating our heritage, where we come from, what we stand for and collectively moving forward.”
With a schedule packed with 30 workshops, five keynotes and one pre-summit symposium and networking reception, the Authentic Communities Summit looks to give participants the tools they need to strengthen the go-local economy in Western North Carolina on their own terms and in their own ways.
“I want every person to walk away more activated to move strategies forward and to do so with collective effort,” said Caldwell, who founded Visit Venture, a business that helps local economies grow through tourism by fostering community partnerships. “This is not a conference that you leave and can just shelf the material. The impact will be felt long-term because we designed the experience that way.”
Attendees for the multi-day event can choose to participate in one of five different cluster tracks offered: local foods, entrepreneurship, innovation and technology, sustainable living and, lastly, arts, cultural heritage and creative capital.
Every cluster track will explore slightly different themes during the conference. For example, the sustainable living track will discuss how to catalyze resources, area organizations and local demand to cultivate healthy, sustainable and responsible communities. Compare that to the focus of the entrepreneurship track, which will discuss how to foster an engaging, effective and vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem to support local business growth throughout all stages of development.
“The Authentic Communities Summit is built with the intention of engaging changemakers from all walks of life who are committed to taking targeted action in order to positively impact the good of all,” Caldwell said.
So far, the innovation and technology cluster track has received the most interest from those who have already signed up for the event.
“That’s becoming our showcase track, which we didn’t initially expect,” Breedlove said. “One of the most prominent sessions for that track is on financing innovation, and navigating the path of things like intellectual property law and prototyping. We tried to really focus on topics based on what these unique entrepreneurs, inventors and innovators need.”
Caldwell said including the innovation and technology cluster was a no-brainer when the duo decided on the five different tracks.
“In ‘The Startup Guide’ by Ryan Allis, he indicates that by the end of 2015 society will be in the Innovation Age — a time when 50 percent of the population will have access to the internet. Therefore, it goes without saying that we must be prepared to maintain daily living amidst the inevitable impact of technology,” she said, noting one of the topics will explore how to find a work and life balance with technology. “This is a different approach than traditional tech conferences because we are focusing on the impact on the individual, business, organization and community rather than newest releases in technology, software and digital devices.”
Though the cluster tracks guide participants through exploring different themes, they are not necessarily confined to them. When signing up for the event, people can deviate from their cluster workshops indicate which session they would rather attend instead during a specified time slot.
This kind of flexibility can be found in other aspects of the event as well, said Breedlove. For individuals who cannot attend the entire conference for the $115 ticket price, single-day tickets are available for $85.
And for people who cannot afford to take off work, the pre-summit symposium and reception event starts at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 24 and that ticket price is $45. Patricia Michell, the assistant secretary of the N.C. Department of Commerce, will be one of the speakers for the economic symposium event, along with Milenko Matanovic, the founder and executive director of the Pomegranate Center, and Carol Peppe Heweitt, the founder of Slow Money NC.
“When you’re having an event in Asheville but you’re talking about Western North Carolina, you have got to prioritize and talk about things going on in rural communities as well. This can’t just be about Asheville,” Breedlove said. “We really wanted to make sure, especially with the symposium event, that it is grounded in the future of our economy.”
So far, demand has been steady and relatively high for the overall conference, the pair said. Caldwell said she expects the Authentic Communities Summit to be a sell-out event.
Though the word “authenticity” doesn’t get thrown around too much in the business world, but Caldwell argues that it should be seriously discussed.
Citing 2008 data from the Authentic Brand Index, which studied how the authenticity of 110 brands translated into commercial value in Australia, Caldwell noted that the stronger the authenticity of a brand, the more likely consumers were to become advocates for the brand.
“The Authentic Communities Summit is our answer to the call for more intentional ways of doing business and creating community. Globally, we are in the midst of a paradigm shift from the mindset of achievement by competition to one of impact by collaboration,” Caldwell said. “People are tired of conventional sales pitches from businesses and empty promises of change from community leaders. People are ready for a radical shift in which the foundation of an individualistic and collective society can exist harmoniously.”
She continued, “My greatest hope is that this event can be a small step toward big change for our attendees.”
Breedlove said she hopes this event will create ripple-effects for people who live and work in Western North Carolina’s economy by fostering the kind of authentic, innovative collaboration that can benefit the region as whole.
“How we move through this world is defined by what we do, and what we do is defined by who we are and what we stand for. Being authentic is permission to fully acknowledge and embrace what we stand for, and I think at the end of the day, that’s all that we’ve got,” she said.
For more information about the Authentic Communities Summit or to register for the event, visit www.exploreyourauthenticity.com.
RALEIGH, NC – March 16, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — Seven years after the Great Recession began, recovery still eludes much of North Carolina, according to a new report from the Budget Tax Center, a project of the NC Justice Center.
“There are not enough jobs for everyone who wants to work, wages are not keeping up with inflation, and the recovery has completely bypassed huge parts of the state,” said Patrick McHugh, economic analyst with the BTC and author of the report. “Simply put, North Carolina’s economy is not working for everyone.”
The worst of the recession is behind us, but the lingering damage continues to weigh down communities and families across the state, the report said. When you look at how the recovery in North Carolina stacks up to the nation, there is more cause for alarm than celebration. North Carolina job creation has generally followed the national trend over the course of the recession and recovery. However, most of the improvement in North Carolina’s economy in the last few years is the result of the U.S. economy returning from the brink of depression.
While economic output has rebounded, there are still many ways in which the comeback in North Carolina has been decidedly wanting. The state has failed to create enough jobs to keep pace with its growing population. The percentage of employed North Carolinians is still well below pre-recession levels, and the state has also fallen below the national average for employment, where it had been consistently ahead of the nation prior to the recession.
Wages and salaries have also been remarkably flat for the last seven years. Paychecks are failing to keep pace with inflation and have fallen behind the national average since 2007.
“North Carolina workers are still doing their part to support economic growth, but they are increasingly left out of the prosperity that their toils create,” McHugh said.
Employment has declined in industries that have served as the foundation for middle-class North Carolina families while many of the new jobs being created are in low-wage industries. The average income in industries that have increased employment over the last seven years is almost $10,000 lower than the average income in industries that have seen employment decline. The bulk of the job growth has been at the bottom of the wage scale in industries such as Waste Services, Health Care Assistance, and Food Services, all of which pay less than the state average.
Recovery has also been wildly inconsistent across the state. The recovery has largely been limited to urban and suburban areas, with almost all of the counties that posted employment gains located in or near a major metropolitan area, with a handful of others benefiting from tourism or military installations. Ethnic disparities also persist. The unemployment rate for black North Carolina residents jumped more dramatically over the last seven years than for white North Carolinians. Both groups still have unemployment rates that surpass pre-recession levels, but black North Carolinians struggle more, on average, to find jobs in the post-recession economy.
“The last seven years have seen North Carolina partially recover from the worst economic shock in generations, but the state remains on an uneven footing,” McHugh said. “While it’s welcome news that the worst of the recession is past, there is no time for complacency given the work that still needs to be done.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Patrick McHugh, patrick.mchugh (at) ncjustice (dot) org, 919.856.2183;
Jeff Shaw, jeff (at) ncjustice (dot) org, 503.551.3615 (cell).
