S8E11: Rural Economic Development Through Events

Tune in to this week’s episode of the Experience University podcast as we delve into the transformative power of events in rural economic development. Join host Dr. Kristin Malek as she explores the realm of ag (agriculture) tourism, cultural events, and the strategic nuances of tourism marketing with the insightful director of Visit Knox County, Stacy Miller. Discover how these events not only attract visitors but also foster community pride and economic growth. Don't miss out on this enlightening conversation!

Ag Tourism (1:56)
Rural Tourism (3:47)
Rural Events (5:34)
Cultural Events (10:40)
Lodging for Rural Events  (11:12)
Tourism Attraction Pairings  (13:03)
Promoting Pride and Community  (15:38)

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Transcript

Speaker
Welcome to Experience University, where we aim to educate, inspire, and empower individuals who wish to design transformational experiences. Now, your host, Dr. Kristin Malek.

Dr. K.
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Experience University podcast. I'm your host Kristin Malek. Today, we're talking about all things world tourism. I want to give an overview of why we're discussing this and then introduce our guest, Stacy. This is something that's brought up a lot. I'm known for events, event design, and event strategy. I work on a wide variety of projects right now—health equity, Microplastics, and more—because every organization has events, associations have events, so I get to play in many different sandboxes. I get to experience a lot of different things. One area that surprises many is economic development and tourism, particularly rural tourism, which is our topic today. Tourism is part of economic development. Visitors' first interactions with a community often involve a hosted event. It makes sense to me, but not to everyone. I've invited our guest, Stacey Miller, to discuss rural tourism and its connection to events and world tourism. Thank you, Stacey, for joining me on the podcast today.

Stacy
Thanks, Kristin. This is exciting.

Dr. K
I know this is exciting. Stacy, could you give us a brief background about your position and Knox County? I'll also share why we don't typically think in county standards when discussing rural tourism.

Speaker 3:
My name is Stacy Miller. I'm the director of Visit Knox County, a position I've held for two years now. I work in the economic development office. The director realized she couldn't handle both economic development and tourism, so she brought me on board. I grew up in the ag tourism industry on an elk and buffalo ranch. We conducted covered wagon tours, accommodating 30 people each, through our herds. Participants could pet and feed the animals while learning about them. We operated for 23 years until a flood. I'm well-versed in tourism, especially in Knox County. We might have been the only ones in the tri-state area offering such personalized animal tours.

Dr. K
How big is Knox County? Put it in perspective just for people globally who are listening.

Stacy 
So Knox County has about 8000 residents. It's a hidden gem. 

Dr. K. 
So, how I know you, how we ended up interacting, was one of our government agencies in the United States, the USDA. They put out a rural prosperity grant opportunity, and you connected with someone locally, and you said we're interested in doing this grant. And then I was found, and I was brought in as part of this tourism and placemaking strategy team. But that's how we met. I remember so distinctly when we had our first meeting. In hindsight, it could have been seen as contentious, but we're all just such delightful people. Where I really pushed this boundary of like county is a residential term. And I had everybody at the table. I said, tell me your favorite place to visit and the answers were everywhere like Boston, LA, Orlando, Paris, Frankfurt, all of these places. And then I asked, 'tell me what county they're in,' and nobody could do it. There wasn't a single person at the whole table who could do it. And I said, you know, that's why we have to separate residential and the tourism perspectives because in tourism, we're selling specific town names or specific attractions. We don't necessarily sell it on a county standpoint. And so that's where there's a little bit of contention there. Do you remember that meeting?

Stacy
Yes, yes. And that was not the first time I heard that. So you did great at trying to guide us through separating that, not just trying to advertise or promote Knox County. But yes, regional tourism and people don't know state lines, they don't know county lines, but yet I'm Knox County. So it's a fine line.

Dr. K
I guess it all comes down to marketing, right? It's all about what we put at the top of the brochure, the website and what's at the bottom. It's so true. We're talking about rural, we're talking about a lot of interesting places with a lot of history and history that's not always appreciated. And I know we're going to talk about that a little bit later. But oftentimes when I'm in these communities and I'm talking about events and tourism, I get that pushback from our lovely citizens who are saying like, “I don't want those tourists in my town. I don't want them messing things up.” It's kind of funny because then I say that's perfect for events because you host the event, you bring them in and then you send them home. They're not here in 2024 messing up your town. I'm doing air quotes right now. Right. I know you can't hear that. Tell us about some of the signature events like the dam race and Kolache Days that you have that bring in people from a wide variety of areas both within the United States and in some cases international.

Stacy
Yes, the Crofton Dam race is a growing event. They started with only 80 participants. It's a triathlon event. They do the hike or the running, and then they do the kayaking, and then they ride their bikes from the park, the Lewis Clark State recreation area, which the Lewis and Clark Lake is the second largest lake in Nebraska. And so they ride from there into Crofton. And so have that feather in our hat that we have the scenic and challenging roads. And so that is an attraction to those athletes or adventure tourists, I guess, that want to experience that. And so the Crofton Dam Race committee did an exceptional job at marketing that and bringing people from all over the country and different countries around the world that have participated in this.

So, but they treat them so well, they bring them in, they wine them and they dine them, they give them great awards, they feed them well. And it's just Kelly and I always help with that and they come through and they just,”We just love it here. We just love the scenery and the people and we just come every year and we bring our friends.”  So it started out with 80 now they're up to almost 300. So we'll see what this brings. But it's in July of every year.

Another event is Kolach days. They claim to be the Kolach capital of the world. Of course, in Verdigre, it's full of a lot of Czechs and we have our Czech heritage. Friday and Saturday are more community building events. Sunday is the more cultural day where we have the parade. You have the ball where they announce the Kolach King and Queen. This year I have a photographer coming. He is going to capture those moments that haven't been captured like I have wanted. And so the memories, I love Sunday because you go to the hall and there's three generations of families, polka dancing. 

I don't know why I'm getting emotional, but it's such a cool experience and like how these kids are just facing their culture with the polka dance. Other people like, “You're polka dancing” and it's like, “Yeah, it's fun” and you're drinking pivots and you're just having a lot of fun and the kolaches are all gone by Sunday because everybody ate them all. And they've enjoyed their dumplings and sauerkraut and such. So, of course, I am Czech so I’m partial to it. We also have Berry Pepper days in Creighton and that is all focused around this sweet frozen treat that they have made in the seventies. They have a whole celebration around Berry Pepper days and Bloomfield has their Appreciation Day as well.

Dr. K 
And I love that because when I go into communities oftentimes, the first thing that I say is, "OK, tell me about your signature events or your annual events." Then I say, "OK, is it a community builder or is it tourism because both are equally important?" But they're handled differently. Tourism events, obviously, your community is going to come to those events if they're interested in it, but they're really geared towards bringing in people who are at least two hours away and infusing money into the community. 

And then your community builder events, I say oftentimes you need these, if you're talking to the youth in your community or anyone in the community and they're like, “There's nothing to do here. I'm so ready to get out of here,” like you need some community builder events because that's what builds that pride in your place. That's what gets you out to see the scenes and to talk to the people and to do all those things and you really do have a good mix of both, which is awesome. And I will say I was pleasantly surprised by Crofton when I went up there to visit. And I know that some of those people that had been going for the dam race are also contributing to all those new houses being built right on the water. That's also driving up property values, right? Because tourists become residents. It is the cycle. That's why tourism's under economic development in most places.

Stacy
I do need to add that we have two tribes in our county. They are a very large asset to our county, the Ponca tribe, their powwow, this is going to be their 30th year this year and it's gonna be four days, and they brought in 1500 people last year. And so they brought in a very good crowd and it's growing all the time, but it's a cultural event. It's very unique and it's very cool to experience.

Dr. K
So I know some people who are listening in, they are sitting there saying, “Well, that's cool. But I don't have the infrastructure. I don't have all the bathrooms. I don't have all the grocery stores. I don't have places for these people to sleep. You're talking about a rural community of 8000 spread over so many miles. And now you're talking about bringing 1500 people to this event.” I mean, obviously bathrooms you can bring in porta potties or the executive bath or whatever style you want. But how are you handling the lodging? How does that work when people are coming in? And there's not a ton of hotels in a rural area.

Stacy
 Right. For the powwow, I know the lodging filled up in almost the whole county and that is the same weekend as our fair. So that poses a problem. The powwow was on the western end of the county and the fair is on the eastern end. But yeah, they filled up the state park. There were people staying in NorFork. They have the casino. You know, they opened up a lot more camping spots down at the Tribal grounds. They're expanding that this year to accommodate even more. They have tents pitched all over too. So they did build a very nice shower house with multiple bathrooms in there and then they bring in porta potties as well. Every other community, they were just bringing in the porta potties.

Dr. K
I would say if people want to come, they're gonna find a way. I see a lot of communities who do the increase of airbnbs or B&Bs. There's camping, RV parking, all of these things. So just because you don't have a physical hotel for these 1 to 5 events that you host a year, it doesn't mean that you can't make it happen. You just have to design for it, right? You design for that as part of your strategy.

Stacy
Part of the adventure.

Dr. K
So one of the things that I always find interesting, I'm consulting with you all for tourism strategy. And I went in and I did like a deep dive in all 11 communities and we did the secret shopper first impressions, type evaluations as well with other professionals. I went through and I kind of broke up with the different tourism strategy for each community would be and then kind of heard them together.

So for example, there's a couple of places that have no infrastructure for public. It's like, “OK, you are a bedroom community with the church. You don't have a restaurant, you don't have any of these things.” It doesn't mean you can't bring money into your community. It's just all gonna be events and pop ups then, right? You're gonna have stands or arts and crafts fairs or farmers markets. Some communities have a lot of infrastructure, and where do events fit in there.

I'm pairing things up by that. I know that that's not your normal way of thinking about that. And when I first announced what community meetings we were putting together, there was maybe some confusion when you saw the first list, just tell me what your first impressions were and the thoughts going through your head.

Stacy
I was a little nervous because I thought you were gonna go to each community separate or each community would come to you. So then when you did pair them up, I thought, “Oh boy, they're not gonna like that because they're gonna have to sit there and listen to each other's presentations.” But it did make sense. When you had the communities close to the water, you had the more touristic communities or like you said, the infrastructure.

So, and in the end, I think that they understood and they appreciated it as well. So you have opened a lot of minds and doors in Knox County especially. I appreciate the themes that you come up with. I wouldn't have thought of that. And so I'm glad you did. It's always great to have fresh perspective and new ideas come in because it's just good.

Dr. K
Yes, absolutely. And seriously, it's so true because I know everywhere, but especially in rural, it's like you have very limited dollars to spend and you want to hold on to all of them. And you're like, I'm gonna spend this money on this pie and it's my pie and nobody wants to play with each other or in like a regional perspective or even the communities with each other. And then it's like, no, if you play together, yes, you're only getting a slice of that pie. But that slice is so much bigger, so much bigger than your whole original pie just by working together. And oftentimes when you explain it like that, people do get on board, but it's a slow process that leads us into the last question that I have. So if you had a takeaway for everyone on the call, listening in, whether it's event, professional tours and professional economic development, professional students who are studying in any of these areas.

Stacy
My job is to bring in tourists to hopefully they will stay, but also share with them what is in our backyard and the stories and because they appreciate what we do have and also to build our communities. I mean, to help our younger generation build the pride, build the appreciation for what we have. But people that don't experience what we experience every day,, they wanna know the stories, they wanna know what the locals do and don't be afraid to tell them because that's what they want to know. And that's how they're going to connect with you and want to come back and want to spend their dollars in your communities.

Dr. K
And I love that because we can't assume what other people want, right? Just because to me, my farm in the backyard that I see every day, all day, you know, for years and years, people will travel here from Europe to come check out your farm. So it's just with things that we take for granted or that we just see every day because it's in our backyard and it can be a real tourism attraction. But thank you so much for being on the podcast today and for sharing your wisdom, especially for other rural communities and people who maybe weren't even thinking about having events as part of their rural tourism strategy. Thank you for being on. Thank you and everybody for listing in. We have one more episode on this season: season eight. Stay tuned for next week before we go on our summer sabbatical and then pick it up in season nine. Talk to everyone later.

Speaker
Thanks for listening to the Experience University podcast. Stay tuned for our next episode.