Blogger, Stepheny Houghtlin, Headed to Goldsboro and the Main Street Conference

Paramount Theater Location for Conference

I’m headed to Goldsboro, NC and the Main Street Conference. I hope you have read the various posts I write about the Main Street program. I attended the March 10-12, 2020 conference in New Bern and loved every minute of the programing and meeting other enthusiasts who were there in different capacities. I’m honored to be a Main Street Champion. I support this approach to the revitalization of towns that have lost their luster.

While John Jesso was the Rocky Mount Downtown Development Manager, he developed for the city, a relationship with the Main Street folks. We gained accreditation, which is the pathway to grants and other good stuff. We’ve lost that and though nice to be affiliated, there is a distinct difference.

Goldsboro has their accreditation, and if you haven’t seen the on-going results, it is about a 45 minute drive. With only one visit, while there, I thought about chaining myself to a sculpture in a round about. The Preservation of Goldsboro is one reason why the Main Street Conference called to me. That and the offerings I am interested in: Writing the story of your community and related sessions are top of my list. See below what I have signed up for. My list doesn’t give you the breadth of offerings for those with different interests and responsibilities.

I wish I could take you with me. We would have lunch at one of the restaurants with a delicious menu. We could take a walk on the beautiful brick patterned sidewalks.

I’m not staying for the evening fun in order to get back home early enough to turn around and go back the next morning. It is my aging car, not aging me, that need your prayers: no car trouble and safe round trips. I’m sure I will be full of myself at the end of the conference with new thoughts, information, and possibilities. I want the Main Street blog to keep growing, become better informed, with expanded topics to talk about on my Main Street Bench.

On a beautiful blue-skied day I found Goldsboro waiting to show off its historical commercial downtown, to impress me and make me envious. Goldsboro’s revitalization once again validated my belief in the Main Street Program. How happy I will be when Rocky Mount embraces the Program and we are once again accredited.

The Main Street Program can brag about the success of a Goldsboro who took up their tenants to revitalize their community. This beautiful brick wall on one of the commercial buildings, symbolizes the preservation, restoration and repurposing of historical architecture along Main Streets. While at the conference I hope to find this wall again and place my hand on the brick. I then think of the bricklayers, craftsman, everyone responsible for a building that carries a story that is a part of the history of a place and times.

TUESDAY SCHEDULE

8:30 – 9:30: Do You Have the Capacity for Grants?
10:00 – 11:00: IGNITE Your Creativity with Canva
1:30 – 2:45: This is How You Tell Your Story
3:15: Opening Remarks Erin Barnes: Place Matters
Vernice Miller-Travis & Irvin Henderson: Better Together: Expanding Ownership and Equity in North Carolina’s Main Streets
Hanna Love: Investing in Transformative Placemaking for Downtown Prosperity

WEDNESDAY SCHEDULE

8:30 – 9:00 Opening Remarks
Mary Helmer Wirth: Advocacy – Why You Need a Great Story
Jon Schallert: The Power of Uniqueness: The Key to a Destination Downtown
10:45 – Mural, Mural on the Wall
2:00 – 3:15 Making Your Downtown Famous, One Business at a Time
3:30 – 4:30 Tour Options #3: Unique & Large Building Tour

THURSDAY SCEDULE
8:00 – 9:00 Tour Options #4: Downtown Living: Upper Story Apartments
9:15 – 10:30 The Write Stuff: Empowered Writing for the Places We Love
This is not a complete schedule of each day, but these are my choices.

Can’t wait.