October 25-27, 2010
Alabama-Mississippi Rural Tourism Conference
Monday, October 25, 2010
Early Arrivals Tour (optional) Click here for more information.
Reception Sponsored by: Oxford Downtown Inn & Suites
Evening Opening Night Dinner at Taylor Grocery Sponsored by: Oxford Tourism and Visitors Bureau
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
8:00 Registration
8:30 Welcome
8:45 Culinary Tourism
John T. Edge, Southern Foodway Alliance, Oxford, Mississippi
Erich H. Ogle, Interim Director, MUW Culinary Art Institute
9:45 Panel Discussion on Genealogy, Libraries as a resource and
famous people
Rufus Ward, Historian, West Point, Mississippi
Mona Vance, Archivist, Columbus Lowndes Public Library,
Columbus, Mississippi
Carolyn Burns, Research Specialist, Luke Peterson Kaye Architects, Columbus, Mississippi
10:30 Break
10:45 Internet Successes Among the Ranks
Mary-Kathryn Millner, Director, Oxford Convention & Visitors Bureau, Oxford, Mississippi
Jeannie Waller, Director of Communications,
Mississippi Main Street Association
Exhibitor Introductions
Open Discussion of Success Stories
10 Ideas in 10 Minutes
12:00 Luncheon
1:30 Historical Tours of Your Downtown Used for Tourism
Julie Heinz, Professor, Mississippi School for Mathematics & Science, Columbus, Mississippi
2:15 Geo-caching in the area
Robert Ratliff, Executive Director, Tuscaloosa Convention &
Visitors Bureau, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
4:15 Free Time
6:00 Reception
7:00 Dinner on your own
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
8:30 Welcome
8:45 Sessions on Extraordinary Results in Ordinary Communities
Vaughan Grisham
9:45 Cemeteries as a Tourism Draw
Chuck Yarbrough, Professor, Mississippi School for Mathematics & Science, Columbus, Mississippi
10:30 Break
10:45 Using Photography for Tourism
John Dersham, DeKalb County Tourist Association,
Fort Payne, Alabama
12:00 Adjourn
Pre-conference Tours include a driving tour of Oxford and the University of Mississippi. You will board the authentic double-decker bus and experience the charm and stories of Oxford on a guided driving tour. You will also visit the beautiful University of Mississippi campus and learn about the history of the university.
Along the way you will stop at Rowan Oak, built by a pioneer settler in 1844. Rowan Oak became home to the Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner in 1930. Faulkner christened the house “Rowan Oak” after the legend of the mystic Rowan tree, believed by Celtic people to harbor magic powers of safety and protection.
While residing there with his wife and child, he wrote such masterpieces as Absalom, Absalom!, Light in August, A Fable and The Sound and the Fury. Rowan Oak remained home to Faulkner until his death in 1962.
Following your tour of Rowan Oak, you stop at the L.Q.C. Lamar House, rescued by the Oxford-Lafayette County Heritage Foundation in 2004. This national landmark is just a few blocks away from the Courthouse Square.
Its head-to-toe restoration was completed in the spring 2008, including a landscaping facelift for its three-acre site. L.Q.C. Lamar was active in national affairs both before and after the Civil War. As such, he was one of only a handful of Americans who served in all three branches of the federal government, from Senator, to Secretary of the Interior to Supreme Court Judge.
The bus will make a stop on Oxford’s historic Square, where you will find many shopping and dining options. Whether you want to visit the nationally known independent bookstore, Square Books; shop at the South’s Oldest Department Store, Neilson’s or check out one of the many boutiques, coffee shops and galleries, you’ll want to find time for the place that Lucky magazine names “a small town with big style!”
