Tuesday, March 24
10:30 am: Welcome and Introductions
11:00 am: Google My Business – Learn how to claim and verify your listing / ensure you are found by visitors.
Presenter: Bob Dumouchel, a Grow with Google Partner
Google My Business is the search engine’s own listing platform for businesses. But many businesses don’t know how to take advantage of the platform.
Even if customers haven’t heard about Google My Business, they’ve seen the listings – searches for a specific company or category will display the listing prominently in Search and in Maps. Odds are, if a company has a physical location, it has a Google My Business listing. Google generates some listings automatically based on information that already exists on the internet. However, it isn’t always 100% accurate, which can lead to incorrect addresses, website URLs or contact information.
Ensuring the information on a Google My Business listing is accurate is a simple process of claiming the listing and verifying ownership.
Follow-up one-on-one support is available.
12:00 pm: International Visitor / Travel Trade (working lunch)
Presenter: Cindy Creamer-Rouse, Director, Trade Sales and Partnerships
Find out the answers to such questions as: What is Travel Trade? Why work with Travel Trade? Is Travel Trade for you? Am I ready for the international market? How can Travel Trade help my business? How will Travel Trade change how I do business?
1:00 pm: How to launch a profitable Facebook ad campaign.
Presenter: Angelique Binet, Paid Media Strategist
Beyond the ad you see in your newsfeed, there is so much more to the building of the ad.
We’ll provide an overview of all the necessary action items, along with tips to help you overcome obstacles and avoid a media buyer’s biggest mistakes even if you’re starting 100% from scratch and you have never run Facebook ads before.
One of the easiest ways to attract and engage local and regional customers just happens to be free – and oftentimes is neglected.
3:00 pm: Learn from our Alumni – Inspire Insights
Business, like anything else in life, is dependent on the relationships we grow and nurture over time. The Inspire program is designed to build on each of your collective talents to assist and inspire each other over the course of the program. The Inspire program is contingent on everyone supporting each member of the group so we succeed individually and collectively.
5:30 pm: An evening culinary experience at Mactaquac Provincial Park (7 kms from the Resort – transportation will be provided)
Overnight: Riverside Resort
Wednesday, March 25 – 8:30 am to 3 pm
Special presentation: To help bring your stories to life, a special workshop on Story-Telling and Interpretation by Don Enright, Interpretive Planner and Visitor Experience Advisor. (www.donenright.com)
Don Enright has been an interpretation and visitor experience professional for 37 years. He is a two-time gold medal winner from Interpretation Canada for solo interpretive programming in Kananaskis Country, Alberta. As a Parks Canada employee, Don is a three-time winner of the prestigious CEO award for the Cave and Basin Redevelopment, the National Historic Recognition Project, and the Calgary Zoo Partnership Program. Don completed the Certified Interpretative Planner course (NAI) in 2019. Don is on the board of directors of the National Association for Interpretation and the Mayne Island Conservancy and is on the evaluation jury of the Interpretation Canada Awards of Excellence program.