New opportunities on the Farm - Community and Farm Revitalization in Five Eastern Kentucky Counties

New opportunities on the Farm - Community and Farm Revitalization in Five Eastern Kentucky Counties

Summary

In 2009, Eastern Kentucky Foothills Eco-Agritourism, Inc.,(FEAT) proposed a conference entitled New Opportunities on the Farm to be held in West Liberty, Kentucky with participants from the five county area of Carter, Elliott, Morgan, Wolfe, and Menifee. The purpose of the conference was to bring together members of the five FEAT counties for the purpose of networking ideas to revitalize the local economy with the establishment of rural businesses and the implementation of existing businesses that were engaged in agritourism or supporting businesses. An average of 48 people attended the three day conference to share ideas and to attend workshops that would help them bring their idea to fruition as a true business.

Objectives/Performance Targets

The objective was to build community awareness of eco/agri-tourism as an alternative enterprise for landowners and other entrepreneurs and how it connects to overall economic development. This could be initiated by building and strengthening leadership team to work within each county. The teams would receive strength from information and training in the development and operation of eco-agritourism enterprises to landowners and other entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs would then be connected to technical and other assistance as they developed their enterprises and activities. Awareness of opportunities available through Kentucky State government for value added products and agritourism ventures would be introduced the new entrepreneurs. Networking across county lines would be encouraged since one poor county working alone would find it harder to achieve success in building local economy than five counties working in tandem. Marketing strategies would be designed for the five county region. Successes in the area would be celebrated and publicized.

Accomplishments/Milestones

The 2010 conference held in West Liberty was a success with renowned workshop instructors Vaughn Grisham, Director of the McLean Institute for Community Development at the University of Mississippi; Peter Hille, Director of the Brushy Fork Institute, Berea College, Berea, Kentucky; and Todd Comen, Director of the Institute for Integrated Rural Tourism and an Associate Professor of business and hospitality management at Johnson State college in Vermont. On the final day of the conference these workshop leaders were joined by members of the different departments of state government on agritourism, adventure tourism, insurance, signage, marketing, and the unique Kentucky Proud program. Attendees were able to list the training necessary to go forth with their business plan which would eventually become workshop training program through FEAT. On the first two evenings of the conference, members were able to enjoy visiting actual agri-tourism venues to see the process at work. The success of the conference has spread, bringing FEAT recognition as designing a new conference model for use in spurring integrated rural tourism.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

FEAT has remained active in the development of new business ideas brought to the conference. From the needs proposed during the conference, FEAT has hosted workshops on marketing the product, telling the story of the product, pricing the product, and photographing the product. FEAT will also host a workshop on website design and maintenance and on brochure design from which participants will emerge with a website and a brochure using the photographs produced in the photography workshop. This will enable them to enter the global market. FEAT will also host a business planning workshop for ten members who attended the 2010 conference. On completion of this workshop, the members will present their business plan to the members of the 2011 conference for critiquing. Because of the success of our conference, the state agritourism department has included our organization as a vital part of the movement toward a statewide agritourism entity not affected by political changes in state government.

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