By now you should have received your e-mail inviting you to attend Bob's Pretty Terrific Tourism Conference at the Edgewater Hotel in Madison. As a CenStates TTRA member, you are part of our core group - the hearts and souls we depend on to advocate the mission of CenStates TTRA. As you know, that mission is to increase the value and use of research in travel marketing and development. We know you believe in this premise. And as a member, we need to see you at the conference! Take a look at the picture of beautiful Lake Mendota in the header of this newsletter -- makes me want to be there...now!

Take note that the North American Eco-Tourism Conference is also being held in Madison over the same three days as is the CenStates conference. Perhaps someone from your organization or your area is attending? Think about ride-sharing (and saving some gas)!  

We need your feedback! If you for some reason you are unable to attend the CenStates conference, we'd like to know why. Please send me an email: athorne@usintl.media.com. And while you're at it, shoot me your thoughts on how the CenStates TTRA organization could provide more value to you.

Please join me in welcoming Alisha Valentine as a new member of the CenStates TTRA board. We're thrilled to have such a dynamic new member of our team. Learn more about Alisha in the article that follows.

I look forward to seeing you soon at The Edgewater on Lake Mendota in lively downtown Madison

September 26-28

Early bird deadline: August 15 Lodging  deadline: August 25

At Bob's, you'll get 11 educational sessions for just $17.72 each! If you count meals and networking events, it's only $12.18 per event. And early birds will save even more!

This is a down-to-earth, lively meeting of tourism folks who are interested in doing their jobs better, especially when it comes to marketing. This year, you'll hear from leading Midwestern marketing experts, a veteran developer of well known product brands, and your on-the-ground tourism colleagues. Meaty, and meaningful, stuff about strategic planning, understanding your image, and how your advertising measures up.

And Bob's will be full of case studies from people who have the same challenges you do. Plus, there will be plenty of opportunities to network through interactive tabletops and fun social events.

Alisha Valentine has been involved with tourism research as both as a client and a vendor. As the marketing manager for the Indiana Office of Tourism for three years, Alisha was involved in evaluating research results to make decisions about communications messages, advertising placement and resource allocation to maximize the state's economic impact and return on investment. As a research analyst for Strategic Marketing & Research in Indianapolis, Alisha now works to provide tourism clients with results on advertising effectiveness, image and positioning, visitor profiling and website usability through consultation, questionnaire design, data analysis, and focus group moderation.