News Release: 2/15/2019 -2019 Annual Banquet Recap
On January 28th, the McMinnville-Warren County Chamber of Commerce held the 2019 Annual Membership Banquet with a sold-out crowd at the Bridgestone Learning Center. This year's theme, Destination Warren County with a Taste of McMinnville, centered around tourism and the prosperity it's bringing to Warren County.
McMinnville Young Professionals & Chamber Ambassadors
In 2018, the Chamber of Commerce started two new programs, the McMinnville Young Professionals and Chamber Ambassadors. The McMinnville Young Professionals' focus is to network and grow as young leaders in the community while giving back. Donations were made throughout the year to benefit the club's Community Outreach Partner, the Hamilton Street Activity Center. The Chamber Ambassadors began as a way to encourage membership growth within the Chamber as well as assist with Ribbon Cuttings, Networking Events, and Luncheons. The Chamber recruited 47 NEW members in 2018 with our Ambassadors securing over a dozen of those.
The Adventure Tourism Plan: The Four Pillars
The Chamber released the Adventure Tourism Plan in 2018 and implemented several strategies during the year. Chamber staff attended two brand awareness events in Chattanooga and Nashville, two key target markets. Concurrent with our brand awareness campaign, we released two marketing videos showcasing our community. The first video, featuring social media influencer Natalie Allen, reached 234,959 people through Facebook and had 13,370 engagements. Meanwhile, the Visit McMinnville, TN Facebook page grew by 347.6%! The Life in Full Bloom Videos can be seen by clicking here.
Our Life in Bloom campaign was featured in the 2018 Governor's Conference on Hospitality and Tourism. It has also been submitted for the ADDY Awards by Designsensory.
Future plans are to strengthen and expand support for industries and activities in retail, food, music, non-traditional lodging, hiking/biking trails, master parks plan, and more river access.
Community & Tourism Magazines
With the launch of our Tourism Plan we have also started a Community Magazine containing articles from top employers as well as articles on our river culture, farmers market, Cumberland Caverns, and Isha. These magazines will be distributed throughout the community and to relocation leads. Employers recruiting from outside of Warren County are strongly encouraged to use this magazine to introduce our community to prospective employees. The winter of 2019 kicks off the development of our Tourism Magazine. This magazine will focus on the primary tourism drivers and secondary drivers such as retail and restaurants. Three thousand will be distributed across Tennessee at welcome centers.
New Chamber Site
Out with the old and in with the new. As part of our rebranding campaign we introduced a redesigned Chamber website. It is now modernized and optimized for mobile devices and desktops. To view our new website click here.
Warren County Strategic Plan
In 2018, the Upper Cumberland Development District completed our Comprehensive plan for Warren County. Below are the Champions assigned to each aspect. Executive Haley spoke on the importance of this plan and the strong partnership between the County and Chamber to bring this plan to fruition. Citizens are encouraged to join various task forces to implement action items in the following areas:
Marketing: Chamber of Commerce
Tourism & Downtown: Chamber of Commerce
Education & Workforce Development: School Board/ Superintendent
Entrepreneurship: Chamber of Commerce
Parks & Recreation: County Executive
Health & Wellness: Department of Health or Saint Thomas River Park Hospital
Residential Development & Rehabilitation: City of McMinnville
Commercial Development: Chamber of Commerce
Agriculture: UT Ag Extension Agent
Economic Development & Existing Industry: Industrial Development Board
Fiscal Strength: Finance Director
Transportation & Public Parking: County Executive/ City Mayor
To view the Warren County Strategic Plan click here.
Citizens are welcomed to contact the Chamber to sign up for a task force.
To view the complete slide show presentation click here.
Below is a picture of Chamber President, Mandy Eller, presenting at the Annual Banquet.
To view the complete set of pictures click here.
A special thank you to our Sponsors!
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