Kansas Flint Hills Workshop Series 2007 - February

Press Release by the Flint Hills Tourism Coalition:

EMPORIA, Kan. – Tourism is growing in the Kansas Flint Hills and many enterprising individuals are looking for ways to reap the benefits of the increasing number of visitors.

To help these emerging entrepreneurs, the Center for Business and Economic Development (CBED) of the Emporia State University School of Business will hold a pair of workshops in the coming months entitled “Creating and Developing Authentic Flint Hills Products and Services.”

“Much work has been done to identify Flint Hills area producers interested in adding revenue to their farm and ranch operations by developing products and services of interest to the experiential tourists who are becoming a regular part of the Flint Hills landscape,” said Dr. Bill Smith, Director of the CBED. “These workshops, one in February and one in March, will provide the opportunity for these folks to get to know each other, perhaps identify mutual interests, and hear from a panel of like-minded people in different stages of developing their own products and services, from the very experienced to the just-getting-started.”

The first of these workshops – featuring panel members Kent and Rose Bacon, Winston and Jane Sommerfield, and Susan Hauge – will be held on Wednesday, Feb 21, from 1:30-4:30 p.m. in the Roe Cross Conference Room of Cremer Hall, on the Emporia State campus. The second workshop will be held at the same location, at the same time on Wednesday, March 14.

The workshops – developed in partnership with the Flint Hills Tourism Coalition, the Flint Hills Resource Conservation and Development AgriTourism Initiative, and the ESU School of Business Small Business Development Center – are part of a series of workshops designed to enhance tourism in the Flint Hills. The first workshop, held in January, featured a presentation of the Flint Hills Heritage Story Project by Dr. Jim Hoy. Future workshops, to be held once a month through the end of 2007, will feature topics such as tourism marketing, goal setting and risk management in agritourism, and web-site development. More topics for future workshops will be announced at a later date.

For more information, or to register for a workshop, contact Dr. Smith at (620) 341-5345 or by email at wsmith@emporia.edu, or visit the program’s website at www.emporia.edu/business/cbedworkshops.php. There will be a $10 fee charged to all participants.