October 22 – 24
GADSDEN, ALABAMA
Hosted by:
Rural Tourism Conference
2018
Welcome to Gadsden & Etowah County!
We are so excited to be able to share the beauty of our city and county with our friends in rural tourism from Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee!
The AL/MS/TN Rural Tourism Conference is always one of our favorite conferences of the year, because of the people and the unique towns they represent, and this year it comes to us. Yay!
Look forward to two good days of learning, networking, eating, drinking, and having FUN in the Greater Gadsden Area!
— Hugh A. Stump III, Executive Director, Greater Gadsden Area Tourism
Monday – October 22, 2018
1:00 pm Board buses at Holiday Inn Express Gadsden Noccalula Falls Park Tour
Optional Hike to Waterfall View Public Art and Murals 4:00 pm Return to Holiday Inn Express
5:45 pm Board Buses to reception at Back Forty Beer Company 8:00 pm Return to Holiday Inn Express
Tuesday – October 23, 2018
8:15 am Board buses to Pitman Theatre – Downtown Gadsden 8:45-9:15 am Welcome
Mayor Sherman Guyton
Grey Brennan, Alabama Tourism Department 9:15–10:00 am “Reaching Millennials”
Neville Bhada, CEO, Tourism Skills Group 10–10:15 am Exhibitor Introduction
Who We Are and What We Do Exhibitors (3 minutes each) 10:15–10:45 am Break
Visit Exhibitors’ Booths
10:45–11:30 am “Events – Recruiting and Retaining Volunteers”
Amy Doherty, Events Manager, City of Suwanee
11:30am–1:15 pm Lunch — Catered by Local Joes 1:15–2:00 pm “Team Building”
Dr. Bruce Pieper, CEO, Emerge2LEAD, LLC
2–2:15 pm STS Marketing College Experience — Tina Robbins 2:15–2:45 pm Break — Frios Gourmet Pops
Visit Exhibitors’ Booths 2:45–3:30 pm “Social Media Strategy”
Randa Simpson Hovater, Media Relations Manager, Visit Florence 3:30 pm Load buses to return to Holiday Inn
5:30 pm Load buses and depart Holiday Inn for downtown Gadsden 6–7:00 pm Reception at Gadsden Museum of Art
7:00 pm Dinner (on your own) in historic downtown Gadsden 8:30 pm Load buses to return to Holiday Inn
Wednesday – October 24, 2018
8:15 am Board buses to Pitman Theatre 8:45–9:30 am Downtown Gadsden/Main Street
Kay Moore, Executive Director, Downtown Gadsden, Inc.
9:30–10:15 am “Are Your Communications Half Closed or Half Open?”
Brian Blank, Director of Marketing, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources
10:15–10:45 am Break
Visit Exhibitors’ Booths Wine & Cheese Tasting
10:45–11:30 am “Agritourism Panel – Hitting the North Alabama Wine Trail”
Tami Brooks (moderator), Brooks Consulting Services Janie Coppey, Owner, Wills Creek Winery
Becky Berta, Owner, Jules J. Berta Vineyards Scott Lee, Owner, Maraella Winery
11:30–11:45 am Wrap-up
David Otto Legacy Award 11:45 am Wine Pull, Silent Auction
12:00 pm Adjournment – load buses back to Holiday Inn
“Reaching Millenials”
Neville Bhada is the founder and CEO of Tourism Skills Group, a company that focuses on strategic planning, research and marketing needs of the travel and tourism, and association industries. Find out more at tourismskillsgroup.com
neville@tourismskillsgroup.com | 770-693-2988 Neville Bhada
Amy Doherty
Dr. Bruce Pieper
Randa Simpson
“Events: Recruiting & Retaining Volunteers”
Amy Doherty is the events manager for the City of Suwanee, Georga. Over ten years ago she started as a part-time employee with 27 events. She now oversees 40 plus events a year. Under her leadership, Suwanee’s events have won many awards and continue to grow and diversify each season. Amy has spoken at Southeast Festivals and Events Association one-day seminars and annual conferences for several years. She also speaks each year at the Southeastern Tourism Society’s Marketing College where she is at TMP graduate addressing the second year students on the Festivals and Events track.
adoherty@suwanee.com | 770-904-3387
“Social Media Strategy”
Randa Simpson Hovator is the Media Relations Manager at Visit Florence. Prior to working with the Florence/
Lauderdale Tourism Bureau, Randa was the Relational Marketing Specialist and Graphic Designer for a web design firm in Birmingham.
randa@visitflorenceal.com | 256-740-4141
“Team Building & Leadership”
Dr. Bruce Pieper is a leadership speaker, trainer, and consultant with Emerge2Lead. For over two decades, he has provided customized teaching, training and coaching for those in government, education, churches, nonprofits, and business & industry. Find out more at Emerge2Lead.com
Bruce@Emerge2Lead | 256-690-7309
SPEAKERS 2018 Rural Tourism Conference
2018 Rural Tourism Conference SPEAKERS
“Main Street: Where We Were, Where We’re Going”
Kay Moore is the director of Downtown Gadsden Inc., a nonprofit community partnership dedicated to fostering the economic development of Downtown Gadsden through a comprehensive process of revitalization that seeks to protect, enhance and promote its architecture and historical heritage. Find out more at downtowngadsden.com
kay@downtowngadsden.com | 256-547-8696
Kay Moore
Brian Blank
“Are Your Communications Half Closed or Half Open?”
Brian Blank, is the Director of Marketing at the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. Prior to that he served as the member and marketing director for the American Sport Fishing Association. Brian has a vast amount of experience in social networking, community based marketing, customer tracking, product evaluation, and customer recruitment and retention.
purepremium007@gmail.com | 301-606-6679
Tuesday Night Caterer Spotlight
Beautiful Rainbow Catering Company
is a garden-to-table education program for adolescents and young adults with significant cognitive disabilities in the Gadsden City Schools. The program operates a cafe open to the public in the Gadsden Public Library and an organic garden growing vegetables year-round. The students learn academic and transition skills through instruction in the cafe and garden.
Like us on Facebook @beautifulrainbowcatering Follow us on Instagram @beautiful_rainbo
Tami Brooks
Becky Berta
Jules J. Berta Vineyards
Becky Berta is the owner of the award-winning Jules J.
Berta Vineyards and the Tomato Tomato Pizza Club. She is the label designer, accountant, marketing director, website designer, and winemaker and is actively involved in promoting the North Alabama Wine Trail.
bertavineyards@hotmail.com | 256-891-5115
“Hit The Trail, The North Alabama Wine Trail”
Tami Brooks is the owner of Brooks Consulting LLC and Social Focus Marketing Solutions. She writes about travel and destinations for several print publications and publishes the travel blog, Tami’s Trippin’. You can find her on Facebook and Instagram or visit Tamis-Trippin.com tamaraebrooks@gmail.com | 256-557-9436
Janie Coppey
Scott Lee
Maraella Winery
Established in 2005 by the Lee Family. Maraella Estate Farm Vineyard & Winery is the realization of the dream of a family wine business. We promise the embracement of the principle to make fine wines. Wines of distinction that represent the finest varietals.
scott.lee@lst.com | 256-494-1000
Wills Creek Vineyards & Winery
Janie Coppey is the co-owner of Wills Creek Vineyards and Winery in Duck Springs, Alabama. Janie grew up in Duck Springs on a dairy farm that is now the site of the winery. Since 2001, she and her husband, Jahn, who grew up working vineyards in the Rhône valley of Switzerland, have been making varieties of muscadine wine, fruit wines, vinifera wines and other specialties.
jrcoppey@aol.com | 256-538-5452
SPEAKERS 2018 Rural Tourism Conference
Walnut St
tt
tS ht5 S
tS 6th St
S 7th St N 7th St
Locust St N 2nd Stt
Broad St
tS ts1 N
Albert Rains Bl
Henry St N 5th St tS ht4 N vd
tS truoC
Broad St
Chestnut St
411
tS ht4 S
tS ht5 S
S 6th St
N 3rd St tS ts1 S
tS ht4 S tS dr3 S tS dn2 S
Chestnut St
Short St
411
Riverside Dr 278
431
431
Locust St
Broad St
tS dr3 S tS dn2 S
Albert Rains Bl
vd
Meighan Blvd Meighan Blvd
Bay St Walnut St Chestnut St
Walnut St
tS ht6 N
515
504 200
531529525 519
501
538
546-A 532
124
329
438
210
Map not
to scale Back Forty Beer Co. (200) 200 N 6th Street • Gadsden ( 256-467-4912
Beautiful Rainbow Café 254 College St • Gadsden ( 256-549-4699
Blackstone’s Pub & Eatery (525) 525 Broad Street • Gadsden ( 256-543-7473
Blu. Chop House (538) 538 Broad Street • Gadsden ( 256-438-5588 Café 5 (501)
501 Broad Street • Gadsden ( 256-547-1066 Chestnut Station 410 Chestnut Street • Gadsden ( 256-546-4229
The Choice (531) 531 Broad St • Gadsden ( 256-546-9055
Coffee Bar (532) 532 Broad St. • Gadsden ( 256-459-5000
Frios Gourmet Pops (546-A) 546A Broad St • Gadsden ( 256-459-4946
Gadsden Variety & Deli (422) 422 Broad Street • Gadsden ( 256-547-8871
Gridiron Bar & Grill 201 South 3rd Street • Gadsden ( 256-546-7305
Harp & Clover (124) 124 Court Street • Gadsden ( 256-467-4824
Jefferson’s (529) 529 Broad Street • Gadsden ( 256-546-4112 Mater’s Pizza (329) 329 Locust Street • Gadsden ( 256-547-2556
Mu-Dear’s Kitchen 906 Forrest Ave • Gadsden ( 256-467-4037
Old Havana Cigar Co. (438) 438 Chestnut Street • Gadsden ( 256-444-7291
Rock-N-Roll Sushi (504) 504 Broad Street • Gadsden ( 256-467-3225
Sugar Moon (210) 210 Locust St • Gadsden ( 256-444-8020 The Still
221 S 3rd Street • Gadsden ( 256-312-8764
Tre Ragazzi’s Italian Café (519) 519 Broad Street • Gadsden ( 256-543-2726 (Map courtesy Downtown Gadsden Incorporated)
