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How a ghost town made something from nothing with a folk festival

By Becky McCray

Handmade afghan showing a dutch oven over a fire, with the words "7th Annual Dutch Oven Cook-Off and Fall Festival, Avard, Oklahoma"

Craft entrepreneurship is a strategy for prosperity that works in every community, no matter how small, even if everything else is against you. Even if all you have is the dirt under your feet. This is the story of Avard, Oklahoma, a town that knows how to make something out of nothing. Often listed as […]

September 3, 2021 Filed Under: community, economic development, entrepreneurship, rural, tourism Tagged With: arts, craft, events, festivals, rural culture

Join me for the Rural Renewal Symposium online Oct 13

By Becky McCray

Join me for the Rural Renewal Symposium hosted by Oklahoma State University. It’s an online event on October 13, 2020. What is the Symposium about? The Symposium is meant to raise awareness, attract resources and stimulate research toward solving grand challenges facing rural communities. And goodness knows we have some grand challenges. I’ll be facilitating […]

September 26, 2020 Filed Under: announcement, rural Tagged With: academic, Becky McCray, events, Oklahoma State University, research, rural, Rural Renewal, speakers, virtual events

How to get the city to suspend the rules for you

By Deb Brown

A woman carries an up-cycled chair she bought at Junque Fest surrounded by a diverse crowd

  By Deb Brown When I was Chamber of Commerce Director in Webster City, Iowa, one of our big events was Junquefest, a three day event where vendors come to town and sell all kinds of junque. We wanted to close the streets and let the vendors park their trailers by their booths. That was […]

January 7, 2020 Filed Under: community, entrepreneurship, rural Tagged With: Climate, community, Deb Brown, events, permission, regulations, rules

Using events to promote service and industry businesses

By Deb Brown

Events that showcase your non-retail small business  You want people to learn about your business. Events sometimes help with that. You’re just not sure how to create an event for non-retail businesses that people will come to. Who goes to the insurance agency if they don’t need insurance? Who goes to the packing plant unless […]

September 11, 2019 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, marketing, rural Tagged With: chamber of commerce, events, experience, experience economy, industry, manufacturing, marketing, non-retail, promotions, service businesses, tours

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