 Lakeland Currents, your public affairs program for North Central Minnesota, produced by Lakeland PBS, with host Ray Gildow. Production funding for Lakeland Currents is made possible by Bemidji Regional Airport, serving the region with daily flights to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, for information available at BemidjiAirport.org. Closed captioning for Lakeland Currents is sponsored by Niswa Tax Service, tax preparation for businesses and individuals online at NiswaTax.com. Hello again everyone and welcome to Lakeland Currents. Where tonight we get to talk about our great state of Minnesota. And I think anybody who lives here would agree this is a wonderful place to live, except sometimes in January and February, gets a little bit hairy. But we're going to talk tonight about Explore Minnesota, which is actually an organization that's been in business for quite some time. And we're going to find out about all things Minnesota as we go through the program this evening. My guest is the regional manager for Explore Minnesota, Nicole Alum, and she is hails from right now New York Mills. I do. And welcome to the show. Thank you very much Ray, I appreciate it. And let's just talk a little bit about you first, because you're pretty new to this job. But you're not new to the job of public relations and promotional things. Tell us what you've done. Right, yes. So I started just in May with Explore Minnesota. Prior to that, I was the chamber director at Park Rapids, for their Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau. Before that, I worked at a resort in Otter Tail, Minnesota, Thumper Pond. Oh sure. Resort as well. We're the rough cave-in. It did, but it's all better now. I heard that. All better now. And yeah, so I've been in the tourism industry for a while, but now I'm working at the state agency Explore Minnesota. And as the regional manager, what are your general duties? So our region that we cover northwest and central is basically everything from Lake of the Woods down to Hutchinson and then Fargo Moorhead over to Hill City. And so we work with industry partners, accommodations, attractions, dining, and other tourism destination marketing organizations to promote this particular region. And then also, I am the coordinator for the governor's fishing opener, David Bergman, who's in the northwest region. He coordinates the deer hunting opener. Our southern regional manager coordinates the pheasant opener. Those are all media press events that we do on an annual basis. So how many regions are there technically? There are five. Five regions? There's northwest and central that David Bergman and I work in in the southern. There is the Metro Minneapolis-St. Paul region and then the northeast region, which goes up the North Shore. Do you have any idea what tourism is worth to the economy of Minnesota? Tourism in Minnesota is a $14 billion industry. Wow. It is a 17% of our sales tax revenues. We're an agency that's funded through the legislature, through sales tax and the general fund. Wow. That's a lot of money, $17 billion. And I'm sure you've got one of the, I would say, one of the real nice areas because of all the lakes. It would probably be a little more challenging to get people to go to some other parts of the area. Maybe where there's just more agriculture, not as many things to see and do on the outdoors as we have in this region. We're definitely covering Cabin country here, the lakes country for sure. With malax, all the way up Leech, all the way up to Lake of the Woods. There's so much to see and do here. And I am just starting to scratch the surface of everything that there is. And I've grown up in Ottertail County, but realizing how little I know. So when you say your job is to promote your region, that's your primary focus in addition to doing the governor's fishing over, which is a huge task in itself. I've been involved in a number of those over the years. It takes a lot of planning, a lot of coordination. I would guess you're working on it now. We are. 2018 will be in the Wilmer Lakes area. And so we're going to be on Green Lake outside of Spicer. Looking forward to exploring New London and Wilmer. The fishing openers, all of the openers, they're really a media event. So we invite media who will promote that particular area. So what we're looking for in a host community is for them to have a committed committee of people who just really want to shine a spotlight on everything they have to offer. Not just fishing or deer hunting, but really what does the community have to offer any kind of visitor at any time of year. So you're working with Wilmer, but I would guess that means some of the Spicer and some of the little communities around will also be involved. Oh, certainly. It's the Wilmer Lakes area. So we have committee members on the executive committee from all of those communities are represented, represented as well as the DNR is represented. And we're just doing our best to really shine a spotlight on the whole area. So getting back to your region that you're working in, which is, do you call it the central region? Is that the central region? Primarily, yes. I work in the central region. Does that involve you're working with other states? Do you do things out of Minnesota to get people attracted to Minnesota? How does that work? So as an agency, we have some partnerships, both with brand USA on a country level to promote the United States of America to other countries. Oh, really? Also with the Great Lakes Association to promote kind of, I want to say it's like a nine or 10 state area to the rest of the country. And so we work in partnership with those. We also do our own international marketing. China is a really good growth market for us. Really? We're also looking at the Scandinavian countries, obviously with our heritage here. We tend to be a good draw that way. France is another country that we do a lot of work in. So we're doing things that you'll see to explore Minnesota. And we can talk about some of those. But there's things that we'll never see here in marketing programs in China. So are these television promotions? Are they print promotions? What are they? Some of them are. You go to China, for example. Some of them are publications. And some of them are industry-facing, where we work with travel operators and group tour planners to package Minnesota and spend 10 days in the land of 10,000 lakes. Technically 12,000 lakes. But yeah, so we work with them. We also have in-country representation in some of those markets as well. So when you have all of these things you're working on, it's just you're an office of two people here, aren't you? I am. But the agency is in St. Paul. The headquarters are in St. Paul. Division that's dedicated to international and group tour travel. There's a division that's dedicated to marketing the state with other partners as well as doing the media campaigns. I know years ago I used to do some work with the Minnesota Resort Association and I know that's a real big partner of yours. Yes. I was just at their annual meeting for the Resort and Campground Association. It was just up at Breezy Point, so it was a nice quick drive for me coming from the Brainerd area. But there is also the Community of Minnesota Resorts, which is another statewide organization. There's a Bed and Breakfast Association. We work in partnership with all of them to assist in marketing the products that their members have to offer to visitors as well. You said you won't see what's happening in some of these foreign countries, but you'll see what's happening here. Here's some examples of things that Minnesotans in the central region might see in the next year. Well, one of the things, we have this little event coming up in February down in the metro called the Super Bowl. And one of the things that we've done is we've partnered with Minneapolis St. Paul to produce a series of videos called My North. And they are putting out a video a week, so it's 52 videos between last year's Super Bowl and this year's Super Bowl. And where are they going to be shown? You can search for them right online. You can just search My North series and you'll find them. Otherwise, you can go to explore Minnesota and find them. So are these going to be shown in other states too, or just Minnesota? They've been shown, well, so they're digital, so they're on social media, so they're being shared all over the place. All over the world. Yes, certainly. One of my favorites that they've done so far is they're interviewing Minnesotans. So they've done famous Minnesotans that are Steve's on and some others. But one of my favorites is Amy Thielen from the Park Rapids Lakes area. She's a food network, she had a food network show and she's a chef. Oh, okay. And they're interviewing famous Minnesotans really about what it means to them to be from Minnesota and what Minnesota means to them when they come back, that sort of thing. And it's just the My North series has been really, really good at telling that Minnesota story. How is it that you folks are evaluated to see if what you're doing is working? How does that happen? There is a slew of research that is done, both with consumers, with travelers and tourists, as well as research just on the leisure hospitality industry within the state. We work with Deed. We have our own research analysis analyst that works on that. So you're in charge of the fishing opener this next May. And that involves working with Chambers of Commerce and all kinds of organizations in those areas. And I know that there's been different levels of success in fishing openers and probably with pheasant openers too, depending on the commitment from the community, wouldn't you say that would be a huge portion of how successful these events will be because it takes a huge number of volunteers to make this really successful, doesn't it? It does take a large number of volunteers. It also takes a lot of planning. And so when I think from what I can see when communities really communicate about what it is and what's going on, it just lends itself to that much more successful of an event. When you have a small committee that does an event and they don't really let the community in on it, it might not be as successful for them. So you have your initiatives, and we can talk about those in a minute, but if there's a community, let's just say theoretically, Pequot Lakes or Pine River, if they want to do something unique with Explore Minnesota, is that an option they have or are you limited by your resources for what you can do outside of your normal agenda? We have a lot of different programs that companies and organizations in the tourism industry can take advantage of. We have a partnerships program. I mentioned the My North series is one example of that. The Sound of the North where they brought the Vikings out throughout the state, that was another Explore Minnesota partnership. What was the point of that? What were they doing there? They Sound the North tour went to different communities and they sounded the horn. And it was just building some excitement over the Super Bowl and the event that's coming up. They're talking about a potential million people in the metro area for the Super Bowl. There's going to be a huge spotlight on Minnesota. I was reading some of the places close to the US Bank Stadium are actually renting out their places for $5,000 to $10,000 a night. That's a pretty good Explore opportunity for Minnesotans, isn't it? There's an opportunity for those metro people to get out too. I know I've heard similar to when I lived in Duluth and everyone would leave town for the Grandma's Marathon so that there wasn't so much traffic around. I know that Otter Tail, the Otter Tail Lakes area is planning a large party on the ice on Otter Tail Lake. For the Super Bowl? On that weekend with concerts and all kinds of events and things. So it isn't all things right by the US Bank Stadium? No. It's things all over Minnesota. Well, in the Brainerd fishing extravaganza is that weekend as well. Oh. There's all kinds of things going on in Minnesota. So do you have a, obviously you have a website, but on your website do you list all things Minnesotans can go to see across the state? We have a very comprehensive events listing. Everything from arts and cultural events to town festivals and fairs to, you know, workshops and things you can go to learn to make bread or what have you. Events listings on explore minnesota.com are, that's one of our most popular pages and databases that get searched. So you do the fishing opener, which I would guess probably takes the most person power to manage, but what are some of the other initiatives? I know you do the pheasant opener and the deer hunting opener too, right? We do. Are those the three kind of outdoor openers that are covered by explore Minnesota? Those are our major like mass media familiarization events that we do, but there is an opportunity if we have an outdoor writer who perhaps freelances for the Wall Street Journal that will take that writer and take them around the state so that they can see different things and experience Minnesota and go back and write a really good article about it. We do it on a small scale as well with different media partners. There was a case of about two years ago and I'm sure you saw this where the gentleman wrote some negative things. I think it was over by Red Lake Falls. It was Red Lake County, right? Yeah, Red Lake County. He lives there now. And now he's moved his family and found out Minnesota is a pretty nice place to live over there. That's really sort of ironic, isn't it? That's quite a story. So besides those three openers then and the pheasant obviously is probably not as big as a fishing opener, I would guess for, is that an accurate statement for the numbers? Well, it hasn't been around as long. No. It's about what, three or four years? I think plenty started it. Maybe about seven. The fishing opener has been around 71 years. Has it really? This will be the 71st, yeah. Wow. And then the deer hunting is even newer, isn't it? It's around the same, I think. About the same? Yeah, as the pheasant. So those are some things that communities can get involved in but we also have different campaigns that they can get involved in as well. Like what are some examples? So we do a thing called a marketing grant program where marketing organizations can access grant funds through Explore Minnesota in order to market their particular community. So rather than being a part of the overall overarching campaign, they have an opportunity to do their own marketing with their own targets really to invite people to come and experience what they have to offer. So someone like Crosby who's got the bike trails could tie into that and probably already have as far as I know. And then they can promote just that segment that they're doing. Exactly, exactly. So that's one program we also have. And how are those judged? How are they determined? How are they given out? Is that a committee that looks at that? Those are basically, there's a deadline for application. And we try to grant to the full, this year it's $7,000. We have a pool of money and depending on how many requests we get and how much money they request because some request the full amount and some don't. We just try to give away all the money so that the marketing is being done. We also have a new program this year, an events program. So communities throughout the state that are really looking at starting a new event or soliciting to have an event happen in their community can possibly apply and access some funding to help them operate that and produce an event. Because really people when they visit or travel it's what can I see and what can I eat. And so we've started an events program that's been really very successful in bringing some things, you know, Minnesota we've had the Ryder Cup and we've had the X Games and now we have the Super Bowl coming so Final Four is on its way. There's really big events coming to Minnesota but there's other things that people are executing as well in order to inspire travel. It's just amazing to me all the things that are going on and the diversity that's in our state. I mean I don't know that people think about the differences between New Olm and that area to the Iron Range and to the western Minnesota. I mean really I think all of us could say there's a lot of Minnesota that we haven't seen. Oh, certainly. I mean a lot of the business that could explore Minnesota could come from Minnesotans because I know I'm guilty of that. There's a lot of places I've heard about or read about I think that would be neat to go to. Years ago Jason Davis had this on the road again on Channel 5 and I thought that was one of the things they did so well is they covered interesting people in Minnesota in so many places. It really is the stories, the little things that you never knew that makes places so unique. There's Dorset for example. Even after it burned down it's risen above the ashes. It has, it's like a phoenix, right? We did an article this year on unique places to watch movies and the communities that do movies in the park are the drive-in theaters that are still here. Are there still some drive-ins? There are, yes. There's not many. Not many but there are still drive-in theaters and it's just those things make us so special I think. Yeah and so when they go on your website they can see a lot of these places. I would guess you're just constantly adding new things, new features to the website. Currently we're in the process of switching over to the winter transition and it's long and it's cold and it can be miserable but if you get out there and check things out there's fat biking trails and snowshoeing and dog sledding and cross country skiing and kite surfing on the lakes. There's all kinds of things to do no matter what season it is. So would you folks get together, do you put together a strategy every year as a team for what you're going to do next year? Do you kind of look at what's worked in the past year and then sort of reevaluate your goals as an explorer Minnesota organization? Always, always looking at strategy and what the vision is and what are the trends, you know, the way that organizations and communities marketed to tourists in the past is not necessarily the way of the future. One of the things that we've done is build our social media presence. So we have a hashtag, hashtag only in MN. It has over a half a million uses already. So if anybody's on the internet and looking for inspiration just do a search on hashtag only in MN and you will find little nooks and crannies of different state parks and different communities that you never thought of before. How about the micro breweries? Are you starting to see a pattern there? I mean, there's these breweries are popping up all over that never existed five years ago. Exactly. It is an industry on the grow and it's definitely something that we cover on our site. We had a partnership actually with Growler magazine and we mapped breweries and distilleries, wineries in Minnesota and mapped them all out for you so you can make a trail and a tour. All over, aren't they? They're just still popping up all over. They are and we're doing our own thing. It's Minnesota, you know, cold weather, cold hearty fruits and grapes for wineries to make spirits and panther distillery comes to mind. There's a couple other things that they're just embracing Minnesota and telling the story in a whole new way. In that era from the Great Recession, and I know you weren't with Explore Minnesota then, but from 2008 to about 2012, I'm a fishing guide and I know we really saw a huge drop in the businesses that we had in central Minnesota and I think things are really rebounding pretty well, aren't they? It seems to be coming back, doesn't it? It seems that people not only are traveling more with their families but businesses are doing things more. There are more outfitters and more rental places, more bike shops. I just think that people are starting to value their leisure time as well and really starting to... You know, they say that you plan more for vacation. People plan for their vacations and their travel more than they plan for their retirement. Really? Wow. That's pretty scary. It can be that. But at the same time, making those kinds of memories and making those connections with different communities and with your family and your friends, it's really important to do that. I have friends who are campers and we always have talked about how hard it is to get places to stay in Florida in the wintertime just even for a couple of weeks because everything is booked. They're telling me that these state parks in Minnesota are booked so far in advance you have to really, you know, get ahead of that or you're not going to have a place to stay. And one of the things that's developing is Air BNB and some of these rental things. Do you have any link to those kinds of things? If people are looking for places to stay, let's say there's someone here watching us from North Dakota and they want to stay, do you have a place where on your website people can find places to stay? So at exploreminnesota.com you have some places to stay and you can search for bed and breakfast, you can search for camp grounds, you can search for classic Minnesota resorts or that full service luxury type of accommodation. It's there. Yes. It's all there. It is. And it's just called exploreminnesota.com. It is. Wow, that's an easy one to remember. We hope so. Yeah. What else would you like us to know? Is there anything else that we haven't talked about? Get out and explore. See what there is. Around the corner there's something, even 10 miles down the road, something you never knew. There's the Veterans Museum in their own words and per Minnesota I never knew even existed. I didn't know that. Really? What's it about? So in their own words it is an interactive museum where you can hear veterans tell their stories. Really? Yes. The World War II of Vietnam. All of the conflicts. Even the more recent conflicts. Wow. And where's that located? Right in downtown? It's in Perm. It's just on the main street as you're heading on the west side of town. I didn't even know it was there. Wow. There's things everywhere. Yeah. Wow, that's amazing. Well, we're about out of time, but we've got about a minute left. If you were to give people a heads up about two or three of the most exciting things you see coming down a road besides a Super Bowl, what might that be? What are some of the things in your region that you're seeing coming up this summer or this winter that you think people should know about? Well, there's eel pout. I see that staying in Walker. It is staying in Walker. Yes, they weren't sure, but it's going to be in Walker this year. That's one great wintertime event. About 10,000 people come to that. Just a few. Yeah. There's some in your friends, yeah? There's all kinds of trails being built and developed, which is super exciting with fat bike trails and mountain biking, hiking trails. So those are really good ways to get out and explore. And there's a lot of youth mentoring programs too, as well as teaching kids how to enjoy nature. Cool. Yeah. Well, thank you, Nicole, for jumping on to our show. It's great to hear how the good things happening with Explorer Minnesota. It's a wonderful place to be and get out there and look at it. Thank you. You've been watching Lakeland Curves. I'm Ray Gildow. So long until next time.