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Symposium

November 10, 2011

Ohio National Road Association, together with Preservation Ohio and with support from the Ohio Humanities Council and Firefighters Local 67, hosted a one day symposium titled “Enhancing and Marketing Heritage Attractions and Byways” on November 10, 2011 at the former T&OC Railroad Station at 379 West Broad Street (the historic National Road) in Columbus, OH. For more information on the National Road Design Guide Handbook, please click on the Resources tab above.


ONRA President Dean Ringle and Preservation Ohio President (and ONRA Board member) Marian Vance (shown here) greeted attendees at the conference, including additional Ohio National Road Association Board members (not shown): Franklin County representative Mike Peppe, Licking County rep Charla Devine, Miami County rep and ONRA recent-past President Cyndie Gerken, Preble County representative Jane Lightner and At-large Board members Lynn Kartavich and Sylvia Miller.

Preservation Ohio’s Executive Director Thomas Palmer (pictured at podium) was on hand to welcome participants and to introduce Jeff Guin, the morning speaker. Thomas is responsible for the success of Preservation Ohio’s online presence, hosting the most-followed organizational Twitter page of any statewide preservation organization in the country. Other PO Board members in attendance (not pictured) were Marian Vance, Alex Bobersky, Scott Crider and Cyndie Gerken.
ONRA President Dean Ringle (shown) stands at the Ohio National Road Association’s display of free handouts, which included their popular booklet, A Traveler’s Guide to the Historic National Road in Ohio, and where some of their fund raising items were offered for sale. Their beautiful new Ohio National Road art print was debuted at this event, and soon will be available on this web site.
Philadelphia’s Jeff Guin (managing editor at Voices of the Past Heritage Media and shown here at podium) was the morning keynote speaker. Guin’s talk was entitled “How to Make the Past Matter on the Social Web,” and centered not only on various practical online tools for preservation organizations, heritage attractions, historical societies, and communities, but also on methods to approach and execute social media plans. Guin encouraged attendees to use a “thoughtful approach” to the task, thereby increasing the likelihood that such efforts can be sustainable and effective.
ONRA’s Design Handbook was highlighted by historic preservation consultant (and ONRA Board member) Judy Williams (shown here) and fellow Handbook author, Tedd Hardesty, in the afternoon’s workshop “Effectively Using the Ohio Historic National Road Design Handbook.” The Handbook is as relevant now as when it was produced five years ago, and applicable to any community or byway, not just the National Road.
Tedd Hardesty (shown standing), co-founder of The Edge Group, tag teamed the presentation of the Ohio Historic National Road Design Handbook workshop with Judy Williams. They, along with Frank Elmer, were the Handbook’s creators, and as such were able to share intimate knowledge of the book and their years of experience with community design guidelines and historic preservation. This was the first of four workshops which will be held by ONRA to get the Handbook “off the shelf “and into use.