“Back by popular demand…”

It’s such a cliché, but in the case of the Finger Lakes Study Tour, it is so true.

It was my pleasure and honour to guide the tour, both years, with our driver Harvey (right). He got us there and back safely – even through freezing rain and grumpy border guards. Photo: Tracy Haskett

With help from Southwest Ontario Tourism and Norfolk County, I had the great pleasure and honour to guide 40+ business and community leaders through the Finger Lakes in March 2015. It was a great success. The tour concept won the award for Cross Border Cooperation and Regionalism from the Economic Developer’s Council of Ontario.

Participants enjoyed it and learned so much – they asked me to organize another tour. So, Finger Lakes Study Tour II happened in April 2016.

So, again this year, I wrote up a summary report about what we learned, based on a survey of participants. Over the course of a few blog posts, I’ll break the report down into manageable chunks.

Or – feel free to download the entire report at norfolkbusiness.ca.

In my next post, I’ll tell you about the 10 “learning moments” we experienced: enabling neighbourhood projects, upselling second-floor apartments, story-telling for business, social enterprise, and so on.

You can also read about last year’s Finger Lakes tour starting at Finger Lakes 2015 – Post #1

But first, special thanks to the many people who made the Finger Lakes Study Tour in April 2016 a success:

• Andrew Tompkins, Finger Lakes Boating Museum
• Brandon Kane and Joe Romano, GreenStar Cooperative Market
• Chef Richard Larman
• Chris Iversen, Birkett Landing
• Chris Wright, Penn Yan
• Christine Peacock and staff, Watkins Glen Harbor Hotel
• Coleen Fabrizi, Corning’s Gaffer District
• Debra Loehnert and staff, Three Birds Restaurant
• Frédéric Bouché, Ports of New York
• Harvey the Driver, Attridge Transportation Inc.
• Jeremy Coffey and staff, Hermann Wiemer Vineyards
• Joanne Wolnik and Jen Moore, Southwest Ontario Tourism Corp.
• Joe Myer, Myer Farm Distillers
• John Johnson, The Technology Farm
• Karen Taft, Amanda Vinson and staff, New York State Wine & Culinary Centre
• Katharine Korona and staff, Three Brothers Winery
• Kris Pearson and Sandy Murrin, Arts Centre Yates County
• Lauren Lowman and staff, Coltivare
• Lorin Hostetler, Shtayburne Farm
• Patrick Gaffney and John Jensen, Greater Hammondsport Chamber of Commerce
• Phyllisa DeSarno, JoAnn Cornish and Annie Sherman, City of Ithaca
• Sage Gerling, City of Geneva
• Steve Griffin, Finger Lakes Economic Development Center
• Suzan Richards, Susan Wolff, George and Carolyn Schaeffer, Milly’s Pantry
• Trevor Davis and staff, Rooster Fish Brewery
• Zach and Laura Cutlip, Winewagen Tours
• Plus … Gail Bouw, Fritz Enzlin, Tracy Haskett for their photos in the report

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