On February 15, a small group of local residents from Anson and Stanly Counties met at Piney Point Golf Club in Norwood to revisit the draft strategic recommendations from the January 14 public meeting.
From that list, they sought to identify some initial strategic activities that might be launched right away and yield early accomplishments to build momentum for the overall effort to strengthen the regional creative economy.
After much discussion, the working group ranked the following action strategies as their highest priority recommendations. These draft action strategies will be presented to the public meeting on April 14 for further consideration.
• Create a tourism information kiosk (with ATM) in downtown Wadesboro. Work with Uwharrie Capital Corporation to develop this strategy. Roger Dick, Uwharrie Capital, is developing a visitor’s center in downtown Albemarle in the old Cabarrus Bank building. Anson County (Misty Harris) would like Uwharrie Capital to do the same in Anson County. Janine Rywak said a kiosk would be nice on the property that Uwharrie Capital already owns on HWY 74. It could have information about tourism opportunities in the area.
• Increase signage to promote roadside tourism throughout Anson and Stanly Counties (especially on Highways 74 and 52). Work with the N.C. Department of Transportation’s existing tourism-oriented directional signage (TODS) program. Other groups that need to be included in this effort include New Ventures (which may recently have hired someone who can assist with this effort), Convention and Visitors Bureau (Chris Lambert), local sign shops, and billboard advertising services.
• Promote geocaching and develop a “Go Anson Stanly” mobile app that focuses on a regional wine tour. Work with Anson New Technology High School principal Chris Stinson who not long ago started a geocaching program with his students.
• Promote new “trails to market” for local crafts and local food. Promote cultural heritage-related crafts. Create tourism itineraries for visitors. January-March is a good time to hold an event to launch or showcase what Anson and Stanly Counties are doing, as it is not festival season.
• Develop and promote a two-county CSA (community-supported agriculture) project. Note: New Ventures may have already laid some of the groundwork for this to happen. Involve the schools and prison in the conversation to see whether they are interested in purchasing some of the produce. However, for a producer to sell to schools, he or she must be GAP-certified.
• Encourage closer collaborations between local grocers and local farmers. Stores can have “BUY LOCAL” commodities in the produce section of the store (like Harris Teeter does in most communities). Should involve all grocery stores; not just those that are privately owned. A “Buy 10% Local” campaign, affiliated with the existing statewide initiative, also was discussed (see http://www.ncsu.edu/project/nc10percent/index.php).
• Start a farm incubator, like the one in Cabarrus County. A farm incubator leases subplots of land to people who want to start small farms. Often an experienced farmer mentors the newer farmers. Dale Nelson mentioned that he may know someone who is willing to provide the land for such a venture.
• Develop and promote a “A Taste of the Pee Dee Festival,” perhaps combined or linked with a regional “Farm-to-Fork Festival,” The Taste of the Pee Dee Festival can be developed both as a regional brand and as an event. Groups to involve with planning discussions include the Anson and Stanly County economic development offices and Uptown Wadesboro.
• Encourage Anson and Stanly County visual and performing arts venues, wherever possible, to coordinate and combine their marketing efforts. Make sure that both counties co-ordinate or at least look at dates when festivals are planned to not have so much conflict where each event can draw the largest possible audience Overall, though, the working group did not advance many strategies concerning the visual and performing arts.
• Offer young people a reason to stay in the community after high school or to return after college. There is a need to encourage both jobs for and entrepreneurship among young people. Natasha Pender with Centralina Workforce Development Board is already working on job programs in the area. She needs to be involved in this discussion. Others who need to be at the table include the two county managers and the director of the HOLLA! program.
• Communicate about the creative economy initiative more broadly to different groups across the community. How do we get the word out across the community about the upcoming April 14 public meeting? How do we fold new people into the process? How do we help people join the creative economy initiative as it develops and is already in progress?
OTHER IMPORTANT STRATEGIES
In addition to the highest-priority action items listed above, the working group considered other strategies that they also deemed important. Those strategies included the following list:
• Focus upon supporting and promoting the newly restored Ansonian Theater. While there are lots of other buildings that also could be renovated, working group participants acknowledged that there is not a lot of money right now for those renovations. Plus, there is not a lot of support in the regional area for events. Accordingly, they agreed that it would be best to focus upon and evaluate the success of marketing efforts on behalf of the newly restored Ansonian Theater.
• Explore “Search Engine Optimization” strategies to enhance website promotions of regional events and attractions. The working group felt the search engine optimization recommendation should be a priority, but also thought this recommendation really needed to be fleshed out a little more before any action could take place.
• Cross-market the regional creative economy with other sectors and constituencies, as the Olde Mill has done with Stanly Christian Ministries.
• Develop events and activities that can be marketed to coincide with the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.
• Develop arts-related products from recycled materials.
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