I spent this past week in Goldsboro, North Carolina for the state's Main Street Conference, (say it with me!) THE LARGEST STATE-WIDE DOWNTOWN REVITALIZATION CONFERENCE IN THE COUNTRY! I don't know if they are so proud of it being the largest because of attendance numbers, how many days it spans, or what, but I do know that the quality of what they delivered can't be beat.
This was my first North Carolina Main Street Conference, so I wasn't really sure what to expect when I agreed to come as a speaker. I was unprepared for how incredibly valuable, fun, and engaging it would be. If you ever want to put on a conference, I highly suggest you talk to Liz Parham and her people - they absolutely know what they're doing! They know how to throw a conference like nobody's business.
What did I get out of it? Probably way too much to include in a blog post, but I'm going to try. I guess I could summarize it and just say it's all about the people. The people I met were phenomenal in so many ways. Here's what I mean:
1. Before my presentation on Board Engagement I decided to find the venue I was speaking at. It's a church, St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, to be exact. With too much time to kill I decided to just hang out in the lounge I found inside and clear my head, settle my nerves and just 'be' (om...). As I sat there, a man with a white collar walked in. Busted!, I thought. He introduced himself as Father David and told me to make myself at home. I get to my presentation and immediately realize I am facing a very large gold cross at the back of the room. Dear, Lord, I prayed, please don't let lightening strike me! Fast forward to the end of my presentation, I turn around and Father David is behind me, where apparently he caught the last five or so minutes of my speech. He was very excited and said my message was so appropriate for his board as well and mentioned that I could easily be a senior pastor. Dear Lord, I prayed, please don't let lightening strike us both! We had a lovely conversation - he was so sweet and supportive - and the irony isn't lost on me that the Jewish girl sought sanctuary in a church. Good people who encourage and support are everywhere.
 |
|
2. As the conference team and I began to set up for my presentation, I tried to explain to the very sweet IT guy assigned to me that I usually kill tech equipment, namely slide show remotes. Nah, he explained, it's all going to work beautifully and if not, I'll be right here. And he was. Thank goodness. Because as I moved from slide 1 to slide 2...nothing! In a flash, Chris is out of his seat and up at the front to save me. All good, it's working again. I go to slide 3...nothing! From the back of the room I hear, "Again??" and I giggle. "I told you I couldn't be trusted with this thing!" At this point, a lovely young woman who was volunteering at the event came and sat at the computer and said, "Just point at me when you want to advance to the next slide. I've got you." After the audience, and Father David, cleared, Chris said, "That was awesome! Best one I've seen yet...and I've seen them all." As they say, it takes a village. And I'm so grateful for the awesome people working and volunteering at this conference - I'd still be standing there on slide #1 if it weren't for them!
3. During my speech, near the beginning, I decided to ask audience members to participate and I began with the woman in the first row directly in front of me. The man behind her, said something like, "Oh, crap! Then I'm next!" and took off like he was running for the exit. He was joking and it was perfect! I knew I had someone I could play off of, someone I could pick on. He was the most engaged person there. Well, except for a few others. One brave Board President responded voluntarily to one of my questions and part of her response was in praise of their Executive Director. "And she's here...back there!!" she says and points to a woman halfway back in the audience. So I plopped myself down next to this poor ED, handed her the mic, and asked her to share some of her board engagement strategies with us. She was great - especially for someone who didn't come thinking they were going to be in the spotlight. It turns out that all three of these rock star audience members who contributed to my presentation were there representing the same town and Main Street program. AND it just so happens they will be hosting the 2025 North Carolina Main Street Conference (let's say it again - THE LARGEST STATE-WIDE DOWNTOWN REVITALIZATION CONFERENCE IN THE COUNTRY!) in their sweet Downtown Mooresville .
4. There were so many fantastic people that I met at the conference - other speakers, sponsors, Main Street leaders from different towns, National Main Street staff members, and business owners. I loved hearing Leniece Lane of
Small Town Soul talk about Canva and teaching us to stop agonizing over template and photo choices. "They're all good, so just pick the first one that meets your needs and GO!" she said. She demonstrated how you can make a month's worth of social media posts in under an hour and how to resize and reformat them to make a whole suite of marketing collateral that has that brand consistency we're all trying to achieve. I enjoyed meeting Robert Allen (We ARE
Stewart!) in the sponsor tent - so dynamic and engaging and ready to be of service to everyone he met. He even called me while I was attending a conference session to tell me to come back to the tent, he had someone who needed to meet me (it was Leniece!) I met Tia Vice, Associate Manager of Strategic Projects for Main Street America who wasn't able to attend my presentation but asked all about it and told me more about the projects she's working on nationally; gave me her card and said she'd like to stay in touch. I met Andy and Lisa Jay, proud publishers of
The Destination Magazine.
I knew I loved them after talking (a LOT of talking partially due to a bit of drinking at the after-hours cocktail party we made up!) but I loved them more when I got a copy of their newest issue - it's rack card sized, fits in a man's jeans pock perfectly (Lisa measured to be sure!), and has the tag line "We tell you where to go!"
5. I saw a lot of cool things on the downtown Goldsboro tours I took. Best was the effort they made to dress up their vacant store fronts. It's okay to have empty properties (it happens) but to see a town working to make them attractive.,.or at the very least, not a detractor from the aesthetics of the downtown is golden! I especially loved the ones that had photos from the building's past and all the lives it has lived. The Vault in the old bank building, which now serves as home for the Arts Council, was really cool. But haunted. Pretty sure evil spirits are there. How do I know? Well because the first photo I took just looks ghosty. As I got closer (but not too close, because my claustrophobia said, "Girl, do NOT step over that threshold, the whole thing will close up on you and you'll be locked in forever!")
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
But then I saw the piano in the back of the vault and I really, really, wanted to go in. Thank goodness my first Goldsboro encounter was with Father David - pretty sure he put in a good word for me! I turned on my flash, leaned forward without taking one more step, and got a decent pic...then ran to catch up with my group, hoping they wouldn't notice I was sweating and shaking just a bit. And then I saw the sign! I found the twin of
Shoes Cup and Cork in Leesburg, Virginia! I had no idea the image - which I will never understand how it's a shoe! Isn't that a goose? - wasn't one of a kind, but here it is in
Downtown Goldsboro, SC.
6. Every single business that I walked into was filled with people who were sweet, engaging and kind. I met the couple who own
The Picket Fence and learned the story behind their 'Baby Girl' BBQ Sauce. I shopped at
First Impressions where I found the best outfit, and a little bit of town gossip, too! And apparently a few other ladies did, too...there were three of us with the same fabulous top at the conference the next day! What surprised me most of all was that while I was waiting for my dinner to be ready at
Thai Garden, owned by an older Taiwanese couple, the husband was excitedly making conversation the entire time - asking about my family and telling me about his journey to the US thirty years ago and his son, who owns another restaurant.
He told me it's too expensive for him, but insisted I should go visit his home town. As I left he handed me the hand-written bill and on the back was the name of his place of origin. "You go!" he said.
Although I missed my dog, my own bed, my house and my son, it was difficult to leave Goldsboro - this was a conference like no other for me. The weather was 70+ and sunny and the people were under 70 and sunny! I learned so much on this trip - from the speakers, the sponsors, the connections, the history, the networking and engagement. I will forever judge conferences, going forward, based on the really high bar set by the North Carolina Main Street Conference. (I won't make you say it again...but you were thinking it, weren't you?)
Comments
Post a Comment