Looking forward to 2-0-0-8!

I've been told that I am not allowed to spill the beans about all of the great entertainment lined up for this summer at the Cottonwood Festival(June13-15), Flatwater Folk Festival(July 19&20), Adams County Fairfest (July 23-27) and Kool-Aid Days (August 8-10). But I can say that the summer of 2008 will showcase a great line-up of artists so mark your calendars.

Hang in there the real announcement is soon to follow!

COMING SOON TO HASTINGS...

Come and Get it! BBQ
2604 West 2nd
461-4BBQ
Hours are 11-9, Mon thru Saturday; Closed on Sunday

I just got word of a new barbecue place opening in January in Hastings. They will serve smoked meats such as smoked brisket,chicken and pork, bratwurst,wings. Loaded potatoes. Potato salad, coleslaw, baked beans,cornbread muffins and cheesecake all made in the store from scratch. Additionally, they will cater all sizes of events.

CVB Christmas Letter

We hope this Christmas Letter BLOG finds you happy, healthy and ready to travel. The past year has been an exciting one for the staff of the Adams County Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Margaret Peirce is the friendly face that will greet you as you enter the Visitor Center. Margaret has been working for the CVB for two years in February. Margaret spends her days restocking visitor information, cutting relevant newspaper articles and stuffing visitor information packets. She also answers a variety of telephone inquiries and provides directions to locations throughout the community everyday. She and her husband Jim have been Hastings residents since 1965 and she was excited to report the birth of her second grand daughter in December.

We added a new member to our staff this year. Christine Young started at the CVB in February of last year and works part-time as the Services Coordinator. Chris's primary responsibility is servicing the groups that choose Hastings for their meeting or event. We share her with the Hastings Museum where she also works part-time as the Marketing Coordinator. Her knowledge of museum happenings is hugely beneficial to the CVB as her experience in meeting planning, printing and advertising sales. Chris is a life long Hastings resident and Hastings College graduate who is very active in the Hastings Community Theatre.

Kaleena (Reeves) Fong has been at the CVB since July of 2006 she wears many hats including accountant, designer, ad buyer, grant writer, grounds maintenance supervisor, janitorial staff, event planner and brand manager. Kaleena has a passion for promoting Hastings and spends many afternoons annoying her staff with joyous rants in their one room office. She got married in October to Matt Fong who works at the Hastings College Foundation.

A new logo and website have changed our look for the new year and the addition of a 1% increase in lodging tax collections will make us a stronger player in recruiting convention business to the area.

We are up in the "hut" north of town hoping that in the next year you make time to Visit Hastings Nebraska! Don't forget to stop in to see us!

Merry Christmas!

Nebraska State Fair

Representatives from Grand Island, Kearney and North Platte are all in Lincoln today to convince the states Agriculture Committee to move the Nebraska State Fair to Central Nebraska. While I appreciate their efforts and believe that the fair would have a huge impact on Central Nebraska I appreciate the entire uproar for another reason.

When was the last time that a story of any kind caused Joe Public to consider the impact that events such as the State Fair can have on local economies? The impact of such a development, the gaurentee of that influx of people for 11 days every summer and the statewide publicity would be huge for any community.

This is what Convention & Visitors Bureau's do! We don't just hand out brochures.... we support the local economy by generating visitor dollars and we do so by attracting events such as the State Fair to our communities.

Sure Hastings isn't big enough for the State Fair but we host numerous other conventions, tournaments and events every year that bring visitors to the community of Hastings and business owners all over town see the impact of our efforts!

I salute my counterparts for not only fighting for their communities right to host this event but for continuing the conversation on a larger stage. What we do is important!

Visit Hastings, Nebraska!