The telling of ‘Our Story’

The telling of ‘Our Story’

September 19, 2014 — By MARK MILLER

“Our Story” came to our town Thursday.

A project of the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership, “Our Story” is aimed at “defining the personality of the region,” explained Courtney Tritch, vice president of marketing for the Fort Wayne based organization. The group has been conducting meetings with community leaders in each of the 10 counties in Northeast Indiana. Thursday noon was Wells County’s turn.

The input of about 25 people here and similar-sized groups in the other communities will help shape the message to be presented about the region, Tritch told the group.

“We have a great story to tell and we need to be able to tell it better,” she said.

Scott Ochander and Tyler Borders, two consultants hired by the regional partnership, have been leading the workshops which will be conducted in two phases. The series of meetings wrapping up this week have been focused on “discovering the region’s personality,” Borders told the local gathering. A second phase will center on “messaging — how we talk about ourselves,” he added.

The goal is to construct a message that can be used as an economic development tool by the regional partnership and the individual economic development agencies in each county.

The workshops consist of a series of interactive exercises. Thursday afternoon, local leaders helped identify key words and characteristics that define Wells County and northeast Indiana.

Although the information gathered at Thursday’s meeting will be used in the second series, Tritch shared that it was not necessary to be present at that meeting to participate in the followup meeting, which will be held on Thursday, Oct 2 at the Arts, Commerce and Visitors Centre from noon until 3 p.m.

Persons interested in attending that meeting should contact the Wells County Chamber of Commerce office at 824-0510.

miller@news-banner.com