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Check out our latest edition of "Monroeville at Your Service."

Clue: This City is known as “The City of Love” and “The City of Lights”. Let us know your answer in the comment section below.

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Read my Substack Newsletter for the latest Cities Guides, Reviews, and Serious Matters I will be talking about. Cheers, Selma

New Orleans is a city where culture runs deep and the energy of the crowd is as vibrant as its rich history. 🎺✨ Our own Rich Vallaster III, CEM, DES brought back not just beignets and blues but invaluable insights from the @NSBA Conference for Public Education Leaders. Here are three takeaways for event professionals looking to make the most out of their host cities: 1️⃣ Destination Matters: Choose a city that beckons not just you, but also your attendees AND their families. A destination worth the travel. 2️⃣ Merge Event with Experience: Blur the lines between event spaces and city streets. Plan activities that splash the local colors into your event palette. 3️⃣ Leave a Positive Footprint: Whether through service or advocacy, ensure your event leaves a lasting positive legacy in the city. Want to catch these tips in action? 🎥 Watch Rich’s latest video for on-the-ground insights and strategies to elevate your next event! #EventProfs #IndustryInsights #EventPlanning

How do you get a nation of homebodies out of the house and to a live experience? We're sharing three key insights on what motivates people to get off their couches. Read the full article below!   #LiveEvents #AudienceEngagement #CulturalShift #MarketingStrategies

One of my favorite parts of traveling with Raashan Ahmad throughout New Mexico to do research for the 2024 Creative Industries Study (https://lnkd.in/gaWcdSbG) was learning about spaces like Uncle Mike's in Portales, NM. Check out this KENW video about Uncle Mike's: https://lnkd.in/giP9XztN. A post-lockdown brainchild of local musician Mike Morrision, Uncle Mike's is a true do-it-together community art space, grounded in music, built and maintained and loved by people who are, tbh, more authentic punks than some of my dear safety-pin jacketed pals. There are free snacks, pro A/V equipment that everybody pooled their money to buy, a stage the whole collective hammered up together. My fancy words for it might include "right-sized resilience," but I also grew up in a town a lot like Portales, and the less fancy truth is that I would've loved to have something like this in my town when I was a teenager. (Even if it might've taken some cool "big city" band coming through for me to respect it—another story, I guess). "Real deal" art shouldn't be confined to urban centers. Spaces to do pro-grade creativity together, learning from each other, outside the pressures of profit—these are so critical for smaller communities to thrive. It's also true that there is something "so New Mexico" about Uncle Mike's. Almost everywhere we went in New Mexico, we found threads of subsidiarity: the belief that we should take care of the most we possibly can within our immediate circles before moving outward for more help. Back and forth between long ago and right now, acequia associations to resolanas to kivas to art collectives, there's a consistent echo of collectivist spirit. So much community-rooted expression and innovation exists in New Mexico outside of the usual tourist thoroughfares. I'm excited to see how the New Mexico Economic Development Department's new Creative Industries Division—led by Shani Harvie—can support a truly statewide vision of community development through creativity! 🤩

Tango Charities - #FeedTheCity is one of our favorite organizations to serve with! The event is seamlessly cooridanted by passionate community volunteers like you and me, and you can get involved super easy at the link below in an event/packing group near you. My favorite story of #impact was one of my first packing sessions. I remember the host of the event telling a story of a young kid in south Dallas. Incredibly smart, a scholarship shoe-in easy, only, he would intentionally fail HIS FAVORITE CLASS (math/algebra) each year, so that he could attend summer school for the (continued) free lunches... only he picked Math so he would at least enjoy school year round. 20%, or 1 in 5 Texas children experiences hunger. I don't know about you but as a native Texan, this is unacceptable to me. Hunger deprives kids of more than just food. According to Feeding America and many other organizations in the space of solving #foodinsecurities like #TangoCharities and Feed My Starving Children; kids who don’t get enough to eat — begin life at a serious disadvantage. FOOD IS THE FOUNDATION. For a healthy economy we need healthy minds, For healthy minds we need healthy foundations of food security. Resource to coordinate your own food packing group or setup up a sustaining contribution connect with Nick Marino Jr.

Officially on the 2nd half of the tour- with only 4 stops remaining! Two major learnings from this stop: This was held at the Detroit Institute of Arts - Detroit's #1 museum. We had our own private room for the session, but our check in table was visible to the public who was exploring the museum. If you've been to a tour stop, you know our check in table is covered in stickers for attendees. Surprisingly, we had a TON of people - random people walking around the museum - come up to the table and take stickers - kids and adults (check the comments below, I'll even add a sneaky photo that I took to prove it)! By the end of the event, there were only 2 out of maybe 150 stickers left on the table (30% attendees and 70% taken by the public). Had I known the power of a WELL DESIGNED (because I do take pride in our amazing designer and tour merch) stickers, I would've had a bonus one created specifically for people not in ERGs - or even one that defines ERGs in a creative way. 💡 The takeaway - make sure your free swag (especially ones that everyone can have) actually peaks interest of people with both the design and message. Speaking of peaking interest, I had to explain to dozens of people the "obvious" question of What Is An ERG? A question that's plagued me - rather ironically - because the standard definition is full of buzzwords that mean nothing to the average person. Redefining ERGs had already been something on my radar, so this was the ultimate chance to test out how close I am. Some of my favorite people to explain this to were the kids - "what's an erg?" 🤣 "erg" pronounced as one word. 💬 "It's how you make friends at work!" is what I often landed on - and hopefully planted some seeds of love for the future employees. That answer often intrigued the adults, giving me the opportunity to elaborate more and even get a few new Linkedin followers! All in all, I feel like more of this work needs to be done. TOO MANY PEOPLE have NO IDEA what ERGs are. Adding this into my MANY To-Do's for the ERG space 🤔 more to come! Excited to a very modest Denver stop this week! -The ERG Homegirl Huge shoutout to Carla Tinsley-Smith for making this happen!