Small Town Renewal

by Bernard Kelly
(Geelong, Australia)

You may recall that I offer a four session series on "Towards a Creative Retirement" with sessions being

1.  How to Maintain a Zest for Living
2.  Zany playgrounds for Adults
3.  Hobbies that Make Money
4. $2 Travel Club

My clients are generally Neighborhood Houses - they offer lifelong learning programs (mainly to seniors) and are comfortable with paying tutors (which is important to me!)

Now a recent client is in a rural community, population 1000, and when I was sharing some ideas to attract students for my program, we got chatting about how they could re-vitalize the township.

So I gave them some off-the-cuff suggestions and then, on the drive back to my office, my mind started to swirl with ideas.  

Doors do keep opening, and overnight I created a new venture SMALL TOWN RENEWAL - now I'm the "management consultant" steering the whole show.

Firstly I created a non-existent town - Yacumunda - and I'm building case studies and putting them up on my new YouTube channel SMALL TOWN RENEWAL.

The first project is to establish an enthusiastic community and task them to create an economic identity out of the abandoned town hall, and use all those huge rooms.    

With my guidance, we've established the YACUMUNDA DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE and we're currently seeking suggestions from the community.  

Some of the better ones are to brand ourselves as the Yacumunda Events Venue and market the venue for funerals, weddings, a community choir, a small business expo, a yodelering contest, birthday parties for modern elders, the National Toe Wrestling Championship and so on.  

And adjacent to the town hall there is a church on excessive land.  So we're moving ahead with planning for a farmers' market on the second Saturday each month - that will attract Christmas shoppers in December and frustrated parents in January - but the entertainment (to draw the crowd) is a 10.00 am poultry auction.  

It's a no-cost event, but word-of-mouth marketing will be priceless.

let's keep chatting

Bernard 

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