Register Now for the VMS Toolkit – September 15-16 in South Boston

Building a Resilient Nonprofit Together September 15-16 South Boston, Virginia Behind every exciting Main Street District beats the collective heart of volunteers, entrepreneurs and property owners working together to create an environment of invitation. Every day, residents and visitors are discovering what makes your Main Street their favorite, be it the shops, the food or … More Register Now for the VMS Toolkit – September 15-16 in South Boston

Market Your Main Street: Low-cost, high-impact strategies to get out your message

Your Main Street program is tasked with meeting the needs of many different stakeholders: visitors, business owners, municipalities, donors, volunteers, etc. How you communicate your message to a wide audience with different interests requires segmenting them and then having separate conversations unique to their interests. Join the National Main Street Center for a webinar led … More Market Your Main Street: Low-cost, high-impact strategies to get out your message

Small Business Saturday: Sign up to be a Neighborhood Champion!

Make an Impact in the Place you Call Home Become a Neighborhood Champion by October 16 at ShopSmall.com/Mainstreet  In partnership with American Express, the National Main Street Center would like to invite you to become a Neighborhood Champion for Small Business Saturday® to help make Nov. 29 one of the biggest days of the year … More Small Business Saturday: Sign up to be a Neighborhood Champion!

Main Street on YouTube

Main Street communities use all sorts of strategies to spread the word about their downtowns. Videos require more financial resource and expertise than some other strategies, but when done well, they are great public relations tools. Many communities provide a professional tour of their downtown to showcase recent improvements and exciting new initiatives. In the … More Main Street on YouTube

Winchester’s Main Street agriculture event was a success, as expected!

On Saturday, Oct. 6, 2012, Winchester’s downtown walking mall was filled with excitement for local farms. Farm Bureau, in partnership with the Winchester Old Town Development Board, Winchester Main Street Foundation and Virginia Main Street program, produced an extraordinary community event, Winchester’s Main Street Agriculture, held on the historic Loudon Street Pedestrian Mall. The partnership … More Winchester’s Main Street agriculture event was a success, as expected!

Getting Ready For Holiday Shopping on Main Street

The shopping season is upon us and Main Street retailers are working hard to make the holiday shopping experience fun, memorable and easy. To help achieve this goal, retailers should give some thought to what types of shopping experiences they want their customers to have. What should customers be saying, feeling and experiencing while in the store? What … More Getting Ready For Holiday Shopping on Main Street

Virginia’s Appalachian Trail Communities

The Appalachian Trail Community™ designation program is a new program of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, designed to recognize communities that promote and protect the Appalachian Trail (A.T.). The program serves to assist communities with sustainable economic development through tourism and outdoor recreation while preserving and protecting the A.T. Completed in 1937, the 2,180-mile-long Appalachian National Scenic … More Virginia’s Appalachian Trail Communities

From Virginia to the World

Virginia exports are rebounding after significant declines in 2008 and 2009 during the recession, increasing by nearly 6 percent in 2011 to $18.1 billion, ranking it as the 25th-largest exporting state in the U.S.  More than 83 percent of the nearly 6,600 companies that are involved in international trade, both imports and exports, have fewer than … More From Virginia to the World