Wisconsin Main Street has added the Destination Creation Course to its services for local businesses and communities across its State. Adriana Saia, the agency’s Downtown Development Promotions Manager, recently completed the Facilitator course and is now certified to lead Destination Creation classes.
“I think this course would be great for a lot of the communities that I serve,” Saia says. “I thought this would be a great way to help with their marketing and their social media. It’s a lot about different marketing tools, different steps to take to make a business a Destination Business. A lot of the examples were really interesting and good and relevant for our communities.”
The Destination Creation Course is a condensed version of the Destination Business BootCamp, Schallert’s extensive, deep-dive into the entire 14-step Destination strategy process that makes consumer-oriented businesses irresistible to both local and out-of-town consumers. Unlike the BootCamp, the Destination Creation Course includes 10 webinars on that material and nine interviews with selected business experts and authors.
“The Destination Creation Course is a way that any size community can start to teach their local businesses how to become Destinations, with information that can help them grow their sales, pull more customers to them, and start being more successful, regardless of the size of their city or town,” Schallert says. “The owners get a workbook and access to all the learning, and the class is usually lead by a local Facilitator. Adding Adriana Saia and the Wisconsin Main Street Program to our Facilitator team means that this Destination training has a chance to reach thousands of independent business owners in Wisconsin.”
The course, which can be presented online or in-person, typically meets two to three hours on one night a week for eight weeks.
Errin Welty, Wisconsin’s Downtown Development Program Manager who oversees the Main Street and Connect Communities programs that serve more than 100 communities in Wisconsin on downtown revitalization, says she was familiar with Schallert from his long relationship with Main Street programs across the United States. She says the program addresses concerned heightened by the impact of the global pandemic.
“Increasingly during this last year, change is something that our communities are very concerned about – recruiting and retaining small businesses,” Welty says. “That’s what makes our downtowns unique. The Destination Creation Course is one more tool in that toolbox to help them change and adapt moving forward. It’s one more strategy they can employ.”
Communities interested in having a Destination Creation Course Facilitator in their State or community will have the opportunity to attend the Destination Train-the-Trainer class January 18-20, 2022. After completing this class, one can be certified in the training and lead it in their city or town.
