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Editor's corner

It has been a busy first of the year for me. I've traveled to:

• Williams, Arizona, the gateway town to the Grand Canyon, to work on a project that will target Grand Canyon tourists
• New Mexico to consult with the Inn of the Mountain Gods on adding additional entertainment to their resort and casino
• Davis Farmland in Massachusetts work on several projects (see article in this issue)
• Silverlake, The Family Place in the greater Cincinnati area, to check out their major addition we worked on (see article in this issue)
• An agritourism farm in Ohio to consult on a new master plan for growth
• Attend the North American Farmers Direct Marketing Association Agritourism Conference in Indianapolis, where I gave a presentation Value Added 2.0, the New Value Equation. In the presentation, I discussed the three experiential pillars it takes today to be competitive at agritourism/agritainment farms:
  1. Offering contemporary quality food and beverage
  2. Transformative experiences
  3. Appealing to conscientious consumers

In his recent blog, Hugh McPherson, the founder of Maze Quest, said my presentation “was the most though provoking of the conference.”

In March, I will be traveling to:

• A bowling alley in Oklahoma to work on renovation plans
• Two different agritainment farms in Georgia that offer u-pick peaches and other crops, farm markets, corn mazes and pumpkin patches. One holds different festivals and other events throughout the year. I consulted with one of the farms two years ago, so this will be a return visit.

Once again I was honored to be featured as one of the experts in Canvas8's Outlook 2019 annual predictions. Canvas8 is a leading consultancy on consumer behaviors offering research and expert analysis on the latest trends. Under the leisure predictions section, mine below was titled Domestic Bliss.

You can access a PDF of all the Canvas8 predictions for 2019 by clicking here. There is also a SlideShare version you can access by clicking here.

We have a good selection of articles for you in this issue, most dealing with trends that impact out-of-home leisure and entertainment businesses. I hope you find them of value.

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