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Drops in the Bucket: Summer Event Impacts & Town of Boone Water Restrictions · Mind Your Business - A Podcast Series produced by the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: It's no secret that weekend performance helps drive the summer economy, and we are off to a good start to the season.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_03: We have some numbers next and some important details about water usage from the town of Boone.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_03: From the Boone area chamber of commerce, this is Mind Your Business.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_02: Mind Your Business.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: Brought to you by Appalachian Commercial Real Estate, providing professional commercial real estate services.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: Visit Appalachian CRE.com.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_03: Hello and welcome in to another edition of Mind Your Business.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_03: I am David Jackson, President and CEO of the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks for joining us once again this week.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_03: Whether that's through the airwaves of WATA here in Boone or as a subscriber of the podcast version of the program, which is made possible each week by our good friends at Appalachian Commercial Real Estate.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_03: If you have not yet subscribed to the show, that is not an issue.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_03: You can remedy that quickly.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_03: Just search for Mind Your Business wherever you get your podcasts.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_03: There you can gain access to our full set of archives, occasional bonus content, extended episodes, all the information that you need as we connect you with the business news that you can use from right here in the mountains of Western North Carolina.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_03: Less than a week remains in the month of June.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_03: We are officially into the summer season here in the High Country.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_03: In the rear view are the Mountaineer Ten Mile, High Country Jazz Festival, and Boonerang.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_03: More on those events later.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_03: This weekend starts an Appalachian Summer Festival, with the Punch Brothers taking the stage to kick off about a month's worth of top-flight music and arts entertainment on the App State campus.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_03: We also have the Town of Boone celebration of the 250th anniversary of the country coming up, and the Fourth of July parade is about a week away.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_03: John Party will rock the rock in about a month.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_03: These are the events that pay the bills for many of our local businesses.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_03: And so far, so good has been the common phrase when talking about the beginning to this important stretch of summer dates.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_03: As we have said on this program before, July and October, those are the money-making months for our high country business community.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_03: Top volume meets top activity when it comes to getting out and playing and enjoying this beautiful place.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_03: We are hopefully at the start of the first set of normal behavior in these two months since 2023.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_03: And because of the lingering pandemic influence at that time, you could make the case this is potentially the first normal stretch of activity since 2019.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_03: That's a long time ago.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_03: And even this stretch has its quirks, but things are improving.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_03: For one, gas prices have dropped as the war in Iran has moved more in the direction toward a resolution.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_03: According to AAA, the state's average gas price has dropped over 25 cents since its highest point a few weeks ago, just nine cents last week.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_03: And North Carolina has one of the lower gas prices in the country right now, as do several states around the Southeast for that matter.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_03: So that is a good trend.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_03: We've also seen activity of late, and we'll get deeper into the numbers on this week's Mind Your Business.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_03: The Mountaineer Ten Miler brought over 850 runners to the high country for a first-year road race a couple of weeks ago.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_03: We'll get a race recap and go over the post-race survey results, with Charlie Mercer of Capstone Events coming up here in just a little bit.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_03: Within the data points, an exciting theme emerged, and we'll start with those numbers after the break.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_03: Boon Orang was a rousing success this past weekend.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_03: While the town of Boone is crunching the numbers, we have some initial data about audience makeup and activity from the weekend.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_03: And while we're at it, a sincere thank you to Mark Fried, Brandon Holder, Brad Farthing, the Town of Boon's Cultural Resources Department, as well as Public Works, Boone Police and Fire, all of the first responders from multiple jurisdictions, the volunteers, you name them, an army of people came together to make Boonerang a success for the fifth straight year.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_03: I think it's also important to note that Boonerang does not behave the same way for every business.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_03: Some businesses crush it on those days, like all the restaurants in the downtown area, especially those around the stages.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_03: They were all busy this weekend.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_03: Retail locations and other businesses are a bit trickier on large event days, but the experience itself will bring people back, and that's when everyone wins.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_03: And we have a data set to support that theory coming up in just a few minutes.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_03: Finally, and on a much different note, Wednesday night, the town of Boone moved into voluntary water restrictions as part of our region's ongoing drought.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_03: Recent rains did very little to aid the watersheds, so the town is taking some action soon.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_03: We'll tell you what those are and what it means for both local residents and businesses alike.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_03: It is a jam-packed show, so come back and join us after the break.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_03: You are listening to mind your business.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: Appalachian Commercial Real Estate provides professional commercial real estate services in the Boone area.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: It provides sales, leasing, consulting, and appraisal services to owners and users of commercial real estate.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: For more information, go to their website at Appalachian CRE.com.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome back to Mind Your Business.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_03: I'm David Jackson.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_03: Before we dive into some event numbers for the next few minutes, let us highlight a local resource disk that will break out his advocates anytime you need to crunch the numbers on great commercial space opportunities.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_03: That's James Milner in Appalachian Commercial Real Estate.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_03: They solve simple and complex commercial real estate problems in and around the Boone area and beyond.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_03: Whether you own or lease commercial real estate, regardless of the property type, have an advocate on your side, along with the expertise and experience that you need to assist your business.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_03: For more information, check them out on the web, Appalachian CRE.com.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_03: The Mountaineer Ten Miler capped a busy mid-June weekend in the High Country, which was highlighted by High Country Jazz Festival as well as a few other events.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_03: Now back to the race, a first-year running event organized by Capstone Events.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_03: It was in coordination with the town of Boone, Watauga County, and Appalachian State University, among others.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_03: Capstone Events operates these types of races all over the East Coast.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_03: Destination running events, where the medals weigh as much as your car.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_03: The post race party celebrates both athletic accomplishment as well as the local community.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_03: And again, I'll go back to the destination aspect of this.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_03: These events are magnets for people that travel great lengths to do a hard thing.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_03: This was actually three races in one event: a four-miler, a ten miler, and a double down, which you guessed correctly is a combination of both the four and ten mile races.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_03: I'm tired just saying all of that.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_03: Over eight hundred and fifty runners came to Boone for this first year event, a milestone in itself for a first year race.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_03: As we will find out from race organizer Charlie Mercer, this event did its job in terms of bringing people to the community for the weekend, and they're already saying they want to come back.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_04: It went exceedingly well from our perspective.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_03: You know, every good first event requires a lot of follow-up with a variety of constituency groups, whether that's the operations team that put it on, the volunteer team that supports, and then certainly the end users.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_03: Uh you put out a very elaborate runner survey quickly after the race ended.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: What were some of the things that you all took as helpful feedback out of that process?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, um those surveys for us are solid gold.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um we've we've been doing them for a decade.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_04: And um, you know, there's certain statistics that we measure across all of our races, and then we ask people for just what can we do better?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_04: You know, and and the goal is always to just get better every single time we do an event.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_04: And if we if we're always getting better, um then the event, you know, get you know, 10 years from now will be phenomenal.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um and so uh this survey from a high-level um runner experience perspective, um, measuring metrics that we measure across all of our events, um, the scores were absolutely off the charts.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_04: And so one example is we measure overall satisfaction on a scale of one to five, and and we also measure every single component of sort of the participant experience.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_04: So um what was how satisfied were you with the metal, how satisfied with the shirt, how satisfied with the post-race experience, and then overall how satisfied, and and this event got a 4.7 out of five, which is really off the charts.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, we we've hit numbers like that at other races, but not usually for a first year race.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_04: And our average, even for races we've been doing for years, is about 4.6.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_04: And so the fact that first year out of the gate, 4.7 out of five, is tremendous.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_04: The the other interesting metric that that we are really, really proud of is we um we asked runners how likely are you to return?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_04: Now that doesn't mean they're actually going to return, but it how likely.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_04: And the return intent on this was a 9.46 out of 10, which is also tremendously high, particularly for one that attracted a lot of Allatown runners.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_04: So there's a lot we measure, but those were two of the highlights for me.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I think that's one of the interesting things about this when you get into the racer demographics and really the audience demographics, because I know you had a lot of spectators involved in this too.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um, when when we were talking about this initially, the hope was to bring a lot of people back to the community at a time where we could honestly use the infusion of people.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_03: What did you see in that regard?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_03: Where did people come from?
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_03: Uh notice there were a lot of out-of-town runners here just anecdotally staring around.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but but how did you see that in the post-ser uh race survey data uh and and their activity level even while they were here?
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it was exactly what we hoped.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_04: You know, though we we um we think about these events as as really benefit creators, and it's obvious they create benefits for the participants.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_04: And so we measure that and we've talked about that.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_04: But the other really important component to us to create an indispensable event is the benefits it creates for the community.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_04: Um, in this case, one of the big benefits that we've talked about from the beginning was economic impact, getting people to come in from out of town and stay at hotels and visit local businesses.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_04: And we also achieved that.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_04: So 81.7% of our runners um were non-local, um, which was great, exactly, exactly the objective.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_04: Um, we had you know a number of different states represented.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_04: Um, some of the obvious South Carolina, Virginia, but also people came from from further away.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_04: And in fact, our furthest traveler came from 2,800 miles away.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_04: So if there were there was somebody from Washington State and somebody from California, this one.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_04: So um, so that was a great, a great part of it, great statistic.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_04: But then we went deeper with the survey, and we actually asked people, um, you know, where where did you stay?
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_04: And um over 28% of the people who who came stayed at a hotel.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, there was another group of people that that rented, you know, uh an apartment house, probably, you know, Airbnb, VRBO type stuff.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so you add that together, about about 40% of the runners, you know, actually were staying um at a hotel or a rental property.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and we also asked of those people who visited, you know, how often do they visit?
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_04: So are these people that are always coming to Boone and they just you know saw one more thing to do, or are they actually people that either hadn't been to Boone in a while or people who are brand new?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_04: Well, 24.7, so basically 25% of the participants um had previously visited Boone, but but not recently.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_04: So we were able to bring back some people that sort of hadn't come in a while, and then almost 10% were first-time visitors.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so yes, we attracted people who visit Boone regularly and and and know Boone well, but we were also able to bring people who either hadn't been here a while or who had never been been to Boone.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, interesting.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_03: And we'll we'll get into some of the numbers in in Chamber report as we put some of these out uh about you know some of the interactions, the number of them that say they went to a restaurant, the number that went to retail establishments, things like that.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_03: I wonder if you can kind of describe for the listeners just the behavior of this subset of people, right?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_03: It's the destination runner that that goes to a community, yes, for a race, but they do other things.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I I think about some of my own experiences in that regard.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_03: Did this did this race fit the profile that is typical with this community, if you will?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, um any event um that's that's really a destination event, and we have several of them.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_04: Um you know, we see you know the the sort of the obvious behavior, which is that people visit, you know, uh restaurants and and breweries or wineries or bars or whatever.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_04: So so that certainly held.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, 93% of uh of people reported that they they dine at a restaurant or cafe during their stay.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_04: Um but what was interesting to me that's a little different is because of the tie-in with App State, you know, almost 50% of our participants had some affiliation, whether they were alumni, whether they were, you know, students.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_04: And so um actually almost 50% of people reported that they visited gift or souvenir shops.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_04: And so, you know, the combination of alumni coming back and wanting to to go back to some of their you know uh places they they remember from from being in school, get new app state year, but also people who had not been here before and wanted to to explore Boone and and and get gifts and souvenirs um from shops.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_04: So that was that was the unique one that we saw here compared to some of the other um destination um events that we have.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_03: Great to hear that uh more black and gold merch will be sprinkled throughout the region for sure.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um speaking of things that that are a part of this and kind of getting into that tie back to App State.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_03: I know that you had designated a philanthropic partner for this event.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_03: Can you tell us a little bit about what that ended up looking like?
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so the App State Foundation um is the beneficiary this year.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you know, uh over um the you know, in the future uh events there there may be more charity beneficiaries, but for this year it was the App State Foundation.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_04: And and basically, like when you kind of add it all up, um that foundation will will receive uh about 10% of all the revenues generated from the event.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_04: So so you know, there will be some give back uh to the AppState Foundation that hopefully will continue to benefit the community um beyond the race.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but we also had some some other groups involved in different ways beyond that, and um, you know, mainly through volunteer engagement, and we were able to offer donations to these groups for volunteering.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_04: So um groups like the Mountain Alliance group, um, groups like Farm Cafe that came out, um, volunteer had volunteer groups and were able to get some financial benefit also.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_03: Couple final questions for you.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_03: I think a lot of people just probably wonder what's the difference then between year one and year two?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_03: What what will this experience help you with as you contemplate the second version of this coming up uh hopefully next summer?
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's a great question.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_04: Um the the good news is that there weren't um huge uh misses or or there there weren't any notes from our surveys or our debriefs so far that suggest that there's something we dramatically need to change.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_04: You know, the the event delivered the experience that participants expect from us.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_04: Um that said, there are some minor tweaks.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_04: There are some things that like an example is is food.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_04: We feel like the food offering needs to be better next year.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_04: So there will be some experience enhancers that that we will um you know hope to achieve next year.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_04: But the you know, the bigger thing is is we want uh more runners next year, you know, we want to grow the events substantially.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um, we were able to bring almost 300 runners um via the capstone database.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_04: So, so runners who had run another capstone event sometime in the past.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and so a big driver of people coming in was our audience.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_04: Um, our hope is that uh next year um we'll continue to drive even more people from our database and our audience, but also we're driving more people via other audiences that you know through App State or through other partners that we may have locally.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_04: So we want more runners and we also want more community involvement.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_04: So we had some great partners this year.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_04: Um, obviously, the the Chamber of Commerce was a was a big one.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_04: Um mountain running company was involved, high country hydration, several hotel partners, um, you know, a law office, a CPA group.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_04: So we had some great partners, but we just want to be creating as many benefits as we can for as many organizations as possible.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_04: And so we want, you know, the pre-race activities that had a few partners there to have even more, and we want more folks out there on race day, adding to the experience for the participants.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and that dovetails perfectly.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, my final question for you uh what does that timeline look like?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_03: If there is a business out there that said, hey, you know, I ran in that, want to get more involved, or uh even repeat businesses that want to make sure that that's on their calendar, uh, when does that sponsorship information usually come out?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_03: And and when will you try to lock in a date for next year?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_04: Uh as soon as possible.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_04: So a lot of the decision about you know dates and and next year and all that is about like, do we have partners that really want to continue to be involved and and to expand their their role with the event?
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_04: And so um, you know, people can reach out starting now if there is interest in in sort of developing the event alongside us.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we'll certainly put that that info in the show notes and and make sure that people have got your contact information.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_03: Is there anywhere that people can download the pre-race playlist?
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_03: Because there were like a dance party broke out right before the uh the starting gun went off.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, that's great.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I was in the command center, so I didn't unfortunately get to partake in that party.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_04: But our our DJ Um who attends many of our events is fantastic.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_04: And he goes by DJ P Dog.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_04: And and I think if you Google him, I think he does have a a mix that that you can listen to that he uses for a lot of these events.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_03: That'll be on the training playlist for a lot of people for sure.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um well, Charlie, we we certainly thank you for for giving us the insight kind of along the way here.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_03: We got a chance to talk to you right when this was happening, right as things were coming together from the event perspective, and then certainly to get this kind of feedback as quickly as as you were able to give it right after the race gets a lot of wheels in motion here in the community.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_03: So thanks for that.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_03: And we look forward to talking to you about a successful year two of the Mountaineer 10 Miler coming around the corner before we know it.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_04: That sounds great.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_04: Well, thank you for all your support and and really to anyone listening from the community.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_04: Thanks to all of you because um the community really is what makes these events possible and what makes them special.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_04: So we greatly appreciate the support.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks to Charlie Mercer for wrapping up the Mountaineer 10 miler for us.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_03: As for more numbers, 151 runners out of 856 did that double-down 14 mile race.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_03: Think of that the next time you hit the snooze button on a workout, right?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_03: As Charlie mentioned, 49% of participants had some connection to AppState.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_03: About a quarter of those were alumni, another 11% identified as parents of current AppState students.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_03: Again, some of the standout numbers from this race 81% of participants were non local.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_03: That meant they came from outside Boone and the high country area.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: There were 18 states represented, with Virginia and South Carolina sending the most out of state runners, that makes sense.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_03: Average room nights per runner 1.78, meaning that many people stayed for the entire weekend, if not more.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_03: That led to over 600 room nights for the event in local hotels and short-term rentals.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_03: Some final points to consider.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_03: 32% of participants said they have either visited Boone infrequently or were first time visitors.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_03: About 11% of that number were the first timers.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_03: And perhaps the best stat of all?
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_03: 98.2% of all participants said they would likely return to Boone for a non-race event based on the experience they had at the event.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_03: What does that mean?
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_03: Experience and hospitality matter.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_03: You've heard us say that on this program time and time again.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_03: We have the type of market that drives future visits and multiple times of year.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_03: So let me go back to the point I made about Boonerang for a moment.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_03: It might be true that you don't come to Boone for music festivals or football Saturdays for that matter and walk around all day with a fresh purchase of expensive art or a bag full of clothes or a bike.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_03: You get the point.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_03: But these numbers suggest that a positive experience brings people back, and at times when those larger purchases are more likely.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_03: It means this too.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_03: But the positive hospitality that your business provides may just be setting up your neighbor for future success.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_03: Last stat from the Mountaineer Ten Mile: 92% of participants said they visited a restaurant or cafe while they were in town.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_03: 46% said they visited a retail store.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_03: Those are the folks that many of you cater toward.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_03: And perhaps the next time they come back, they'll return to that restaurant.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_03: And hopefully they'll shop our retail scene with a little bit more time and purpose on their next trip.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_03: We'll break down some early economic numbers from Boonarang.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_03: Next, you are listening to MindYour Business.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_02: Appalachian Commercial Real Estate provides professional commercial real estate services in the Boone area.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_02: They provide sales, leasing, consulting, and appraisal services to owners and users of commercial real estate.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: For more information, go to their website at Appalachian CRE.com.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome back to Mind Your Business.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_03: I'm David Jackson.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_03: We continue our deep dive on the analytics of high country weekends.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_03: Boonerang 2026 was a success, both meteorologically and musically speaking.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_03: The three-day festival brought live music, arts vendors, and curious spectators to the streets of downtown Boone, but the impact of this event carried throughout the community.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_03: The Boone Area Chamber of Commerce receives data on visitor behavior from Placer AI.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_03: For our champion members and above, we do regular analysis of events or general traffic to help people understand patterns.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_03: We can't tell you who comes, but we can tell you where they come from and how long they stay.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_03: If you think that's a little big brother, you may be right, and we may feel slightly the same.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_03: But then I'd also encourage you to read the fine print on every set of terms and conditions you accept each time you download an app on your phone.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_03: You are telling people plenty about your patterns, whether you know it or not.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_03: Back to the data.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_03: And for a snapshot of what a weekend like Boonerang means for the entire high country.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_03: During the first weekend of June, Watauga County saw 162,000 non-resident visitors.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_03: That was for June 5th through the 7th.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_03: Some of those folks just passing through, but many were in town for the weekend, and this is countywide, so that takes into account visitors in Blowing Rock, parts of Beach Mountain, Beaver Dam, and Meat Camp 2.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_03: You get the picture.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_03: Last weekend, that number jumped by 20% to 194,000 non-resident visitors over the three days of Boonerang.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_03: Now, summer vacation is in full swing.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_03: Even our through trippers are more abundant at this time of year.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_03: But that Boonerang number is baked in to that percentage jump.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_03: As we look a little closer, and as reported in the Wataga Democrat this week, Boonerang 2026 was not necessarily bigger in terms of size, but it was more efficient and more spread out, making the attendee experience better, for lack of a better word.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_03: The numbers say there were a few more out-of-towners at this year's festival, up one and a half percent over last year's Boonerang weekend.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_03: Again, those are non-resident visits.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_03: From three o'clock in the afternoon to eight o'clock in the evening Saturday, an average of over 9,000 people were in the immediate downtown area, and that average stayed higher for longer throughout the day.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_03: If you were at Boonerang, you likely felt that there were three crowds the morning crew, the mid-afternoon to early evening crowd, and then the nighttime audience, or maybe better said, the silent discoers.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_03: And the numbers bear that out.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_03: One other interesting note that supports the anecdotal feel that Friday night played out almost like a locals night, with a higher concentration of attendees coming from within the high country rather than from off the mountain, as compared to Saturday.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_03: Now, speaking of visitors, the makeup of audience is largely regional, with the high country counties, Wataga, Ash, and Avery, making up the majority of the visits, with nearby counties like Burke, Caldwell, and Wilkes adding to the audience.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_03: Lenore, hey, you moved up two spots to number four as it relates to top out-of-town community represented.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_03: Carrie chimed in at number eight this year.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_03: I guess that's all the people that couldn't attend the Hurricanes Parade Saturday.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe they just came to Boonerang instead.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_03: Now, next week the chamber will be releasing a summary of both the Mountaineer Ten Mile and Boonerang, so be on the lookout for that.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_03: And also remember this we aren't done yet.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_03: In fact, summer has only just begun.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_03: We have an Appalachian Summer Festival kicking off this weekend, running the entire month of July.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_03: Artists like the Punch Brothers, Gladys Knight, Rick Springfield among the headliners.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_03: Abstate Athletics hosts John Party later in July.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_03: There's also traditional stuff too, like camping, hiking, biking, fishing, floating, Grandfather Mountain, Mystery Hill, Tweetsy Railroad, all of the things that bring people here.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_03: Here's hoping our summer continues to behave in a way that people stay entertained and our businesses continue their rebound.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_03: You are listening to Mind Your Business.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: Are you a young professional looking to expand your network?
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: The High Country Young Professionals, affectionately dubbed the High Country Young Ros, is a dedicated group of 200-plus professional young adults under the age of 40 serving in various industries across the High Country.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Join us for our casual networking event on the first Tuesday of each month from 5 to 7 p.m.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: As we visit locations across the high country.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: Events are free of charge, however, donations are appreciated.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: Not a chamber member?
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: No membership needed to join us.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: You just have to be under 40.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: Learn more about High Country GoPros at boonchamber.com slash H C Y P.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: Mind your business.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_02: Brought to you by Appalachian Commercial Real Estate, offering sales, leasing, consulting, and appraisal services.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_02: Visit Appalachian CRE.com.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_03: While we celebrate summer, we do need rain.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_03: The entire state needs it for that matter.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_03: Not a crazy heavy rain.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_03: And yes, I know this sounds a bit counterintuitive to everything I've said on this episode, but a couple days of steady, soothing rain would certainly be helpful.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_03: It might not completely solve the extreme drought conditions we are facing here in western North Carolina, but it would help.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_03: Wednesday night, the town of Boone took action on a water conservation measure due to the lack of rainfall over time.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_03: Victoria O'Connor is the town's water conservation program coordinator and community improvement officer.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_03: And she starts by telling us exactly what the restriction of water usage in the town means from an ordinance perspective.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: So the action is the stage two water conservation.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: Technically, we are always in stage one because stage one is all voluntary actions.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: We always want people to conserve water, in short.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_01: Stage two is when we enter mandatory restrictions.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: These are put in by the ordinances that we have.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: What triggers it is when the water level reading is less than 7.5 at the Southport intake.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: That also means that we're at greater than 90% production capacity for three consecutive days at any time.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: So when that happens, that's when we enforce mandatory restrictions.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: Some of the major things are watering plants, lawns, shrubbery can only happen from 5 to 8 p.m.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: And that's it.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's actually a best practice as well, because that's when the plants can absorb the most water and be prepared for the heat of the day and prevent the most amount of evaporation.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_01: Another prohibited activity is washing cars that just waste a bunch of water.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: Unless it is at a car wash that recycles the water.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: Most of the newer ones do.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_01: Our staff is going to be going out on an enforcement effort to see if the older car washes have that recycling of their water because then they'll be able to.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: Another major thing is you can't empty and refill a pole or hot tub.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_03: When the ordinance is triggered, uh, and and you mentioned some of these actions, I know that you you were just mentioning best practices a moment ago.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_03: What are some of the things, you know, from a voluntary standpoint that that people could be uh adhering to, whether it's during this time or or others, to help on the conf conservation end of things, uh especially understanding the conditions that we're in now uh throughout the region?
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: So voluntary, one of the great things that we do is offer the toilet rebate program.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_01: So for single-family residential, you can get a$100 rebate for replacing your old high flush fixture.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: If you are in a multifamily unit or commercial property, then you can receive a$50 rebate.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_01: That's an excellent way to save the water.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: Another thing is to just turn off faucets when you're brushing your teeth, shaving, washing dishes.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: Speaking of washing dishes, just load a full load in your dishwasher if you have one and run that on a full cycle because your dishwasher saves water better than hand washing.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: Same thing with washing your clothes, doing only full loads only during the summertime.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: We all like to hang out outside and enjoy our spaces.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: Don't clean those spaces with water, just use your blowers or your crews instead.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's another great way to save water.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: If you see something, say something.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_01: If you see a hydrant is leaking and we don't know about it, we'd rather you call us.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: Even if we do know about it, we'd rather you call us because we don't want water just being wasted.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: Something a lot of people don't know is that the town fire hydrants, those are actually hooked up to our clean water that we drink because those lines are already there.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_01: So if a leak is happening and we're not aware of it, that's a lot of water wasted.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes the hardest part about water leaks is finding them.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: So we may be aware that there's a leak somewhere, but if we don't know exactly where it is, then we can't start the repair process.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_03: This being a business podcast, uh, and and a lot of folks in the business community listening to this, what uh as we get back to the phase two or the level two restrictions, what types of things will immediately find themselves on a business's radar when that level is achieved?
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: So for restaurants, the thing we will be enforcing in stage two is for waiters and waitresses who cannot greet a table with water.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_01: The customers will have to explicitly ask for water to receive it.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_01: That is something that we will be enforcing.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: Something that is encouraged for restaurant owners is to be serving with disposables.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: Now, Town of Moon is ordinarily a very sustainable town, and we want to encourage sustainability, so typically we're not encouraging disposables.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: In stage two, we are encouraging that.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: If we were to enter stage three, that would become mandatory.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_01: We don't want to enter stage three.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: But in stage two, we are only enforcing the no-serving unnecessary water unless asked by the customers and encouraging use of disposables.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_03: You mentioned stage three and and understanding that it doesn't look like there's going to be a ton of rain between now and and the next few days.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_03: What what progression leads to stage three?
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_03: How how much less capacity do you see at the at the intake before it moves into that category?
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_01: Stage three is significantly less.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I do have it up on here.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: So the reading in the ordinances is a water level reading of less than 7.6 at the intake and South Fork or discharge of less than 50 square feet per second, or 100% of production capacity on any day.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_01: That is significant.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: We're nowhere near that right now, which is good.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_01: And the whole thing about stage two is that for us to be able to conserve that amount of water or extra water per day.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: So that way we don't enter the stage three.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_03: Um I I know there's no exact scientific way probably to calculate this, but but given the fact that we've been in this throughout, I'm sure that you have been uh dealing with these kinds of questions all the time.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_03: What would it take to get out of stage two at this point in time?
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_03: Not necessarily from the readings perspective, but any kind of idea on amount of rain, you know, target your best case scenario looking at raised weather uh graphics on the screen kind of thing?
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_01: We need about 10 inches of rain.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: The big loss that we took were in the months of April and May when we didn't receive any rain, hardly.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_01: Not only did we not receive any rain, it was also hot.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: So that affected the levels of evaporation.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: So we need to see at least 10 inches of rain.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_01: Something that we don't like to see is just crazy big pour downs when it's raining, cats and dogs.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: That doesn't affect the water table.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: That just runs off.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_01: What we need to see is just a slow, steady drizzle over many days.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that that actually sounds soothing as you're talking about it as well as helpful.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_03: Um, one of the things I'd I'd love to make sure that you've got time to mention, uh, every drop counts has been something we've talked about before.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_03: The town of Boone has always been very proactive and helping people understand uh conservation, um, you know, water usage at your home.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_03: You you've outlined some of those things.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_03: Uh what uh a program like this broadly implemented throughout town, what what are your goals for that?
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_03: And and how can people again use this period of time where maybe this is on your mind a little bit more than it normally would be to make sure that you're infusing these practices into your residences and businesses?
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: My goals with Every Drop Counts is to always purchase just outreach and education.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: That is why every year we go to the second grade classes and we teach the kids about water conservation.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: Kids love to feel like they're being able to take charge in something.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so we have the water coaster contest that allows them to unlock their creativity with and run with a theme about conservation.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_01: We also do tabling events throughout the year, sometimes at ASU.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_01: I always go to the sustainability committee meetings so that way I can talk to the people of the public and let them know kind of what events we have going on.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: But just getting out there and being able to talk to people, hand out pamphlets, hand out die tabs.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_01: We have die tabs here at the public works building, but we also have them at town hall available for people to pick up when they want to pay their water bill.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_01: Leaks can cause a slow leak can cause more water loss than people expect.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so repairing leaks when they can is really important.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so we always try to educate people on repairing leaks, changing out those high volume fixtures for low volume fixtures and just educating the public.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, last question on that from a technology standpoint.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_03: And and I know you touched on this a little bit at the town council meeting the other day.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_03: How often does that type of technology change?
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_03: Like if you built a house 10 years ago and installed a sink, is there a more efficient product that's on the line that quickly?
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_03: And how quickly is that technology kind of refreshing itself?
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure about how quickly it's refreshing itself per se, but I do know that companies are constantly trying to better their products.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_01: So there was one man who's on the sustainability committee who he used to work for Kohler, and he told me all about the different products, the different types of toilets, the different types of sinks.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_01: So something that people may not think about is your sink has a flow volume as well as your toilet.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_01: So when they first came out with the low flow toilets, they basically just switched the amount of water volume in those toilets and didn't make them to work with that volume.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_01: Now the technology that they have works better with accepting that low flow rate.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_01: So that's really what's changing now.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's just the pairs of things, not necessarily anything super crazy.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_03: So the decisions that you make though, and home renovations and things like that can go a long way to helping efforts like this and saving every drop that you can, especially when we're at these times.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_03: I would imagine that that is a big part of the education.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um, a last thing for you, Victoria, if if people have questions about um either what's voluntary, what's mandatory, um, any other best practices, how can they best get in touch with you?
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_01: They can call the Public Works Department phone number.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_01: That is 828-268-6250.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_01: I have put together a frequently asked questions guide.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_01: So hopefully those questions can be answered and we can distribute that across the town so that way more people can help answer those common questions.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: But if somebody wants to report somebody for violating any of these regulations, they can call me and ask for Victoria because I'll be the one enforcing that.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: The first stage is always a warning, and then the second offense is when the fines occur.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_01: Gotcha.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we appreciate the time and appreciate the the work that you're doing at this point.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_03: We wish you nothing but but rain in the future uh to to to at least take this uh uh alleviate some of this, but uh certainly appreciate the information and we'll pass along the the uh FAQ in the show notes as well.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_03: So thanks for taking the time today.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate talking with you.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks to Victoria, and we'll keep you up to date on any further changes.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_03: Now, these restrictions are enforceable inside the town of Boone.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_03: If you are like me and live in Wataga County on a well accepted system, these best practices are helpful to consider, as well as obviously need water too.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_03: We've just not seen a lot of that fall from the sky as of late.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_03: We are back to wrap up this episode right after this.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_03: You are listening to Mind Your Business.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_03: As we close out this week, a quick note on the news announced Wednesday that Carolina West Wireless will be transitioning its service and networks to Verizon later this year.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_03: The chamber released a statement shortly after that announcement, and I will restate that here.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_03: While changes like this are inevitable, especially in the rapidly evolving technology sector, let us stop for a moment to consider the impact of Carolina West Wireless and all they have fostered in our community over 35 years of service.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_03: During that time, they brought wireless connectivity to a region that is not the easiest to cover, with a staff largely from this area, so they spoke with local knowledge about products and coverage areas.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_03: They have invested millions of dollars in event sponsorships, nonprofit fundraisers, supportive local public schools, and other causes.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_03: Their staff members have invested their time and talents within our community through countless hours of volunteer support.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_03: Carolina West Wireless has been a shining example of how business can positively impact the community around them.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_03: Our thoughts are with their staff members that have just recently learned of this news, and we encourage our local businesses to keep the employees of Carolina West Wireless on your minds.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_03: While some staff may be moving to Verizon as part of that transition, others will be looking for new opportunities.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_03: The Boone Area Chamber of Commerce is committed to helping employees understand all of the employment resources available in this market and encourage local businesses to consider these employees for current openings as seasonal and long-term hiring continues.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_03: That'll do it for this week's Mind Your Business.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_03: This program is written and produced each week by the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_03: Thanks to WATA for putting us on the airwaves each and every week, and thanks as always to James Milner and the team at Appalachian Commercial Real Estate for making the podcast version of this program possible.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_03: If you have not yet subscribed to this program, you may fix that issue.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_03: Just search again for Mind Your Business wherever you get your podcast.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_03: You can also visit us online anytime at Boomchamber.com.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_03: Until next week, so long, everybody.