In the Company of Bloggers

This weekend, Columbia's Director of Community & Economic Development, Paul Ellis, will be travelling to Chicago for the 2009 National Main Street Conference, where he'll be part of a group presentation entitled: "Blogging, Multi-media & Bunnies: Three Things You Need Not Fear."

His co-presenters are Rob Voigt, author of Civic Blogger, and Cac Kamak, a planner with the City of Oak Harbor. The National Main Street Center is making a big push this year to demonstrate the value of social media as marketing and communications venues for revitalization efforts in smaller communities. As the practitioner in the group (although Columbia's Main Street program is only Introductory as yet), Paul will relate experience with blogging in Tacoma, Washington and, subsequently, deploying three blogs in Columbia.

This is not his first experience covering this ground at a national conference. In 2007, Paul presented at the annual conference for the International Downtown Association (IDA). That group is where the larger metropolitan districts get together to compare notes, while the current conference is the national gathering for smaller cities, towns and villages.

One very cool element of this conference is the live conference blog that Rob and Cac have set up. Main Street participants from around the country can catch the conference via this venue from the comfort of their storefronts--even their homes!