Canal NY Annual Meeting Recap

Last Friday, November 17, Canal NY Marketing & Business Alliance held its Annual Meeting at FLX Live in Geneva, NY. In addition to the election of officers and board members for 2024, a briefing on seasonal canal maintenance and upcoming projects were provided by Joell Murney-Karston from the NYS Canal Corporation, and Jennifer Kime, Manager of the Finger Lakes Welcome Center, provided news on the welcome center and visitation. Insights and updates on Geneva were presented by Catherine Price, Operations and Events Manager, Geneva Business Improvement District (Catherine's presentation deck is linked here).

Jean Mackay, Director of Communications and Outreach at the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, provided an update on the Erie Canalway Bicentennial Celebration and discussed work on the development of an Erie Canalway Bicentennial Promotional Toolkit:

"The Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor is developing social media content, a 1-minute promotional video, banners, and giveaways to share with communities and sites along the canal to promote the Erie Canal bicentennial in 2025. Canal NY members got a sneak preview of some of the content at their recent meeting in Geneva. The Promotional Toolkit will be available in 2024, thanks to funding support from a grant from Market New York through I LOVE NY/ New York State's Division of Tourism as a part of the Regional Economic Development Council awards." Contact jean_mackay@partner.nps.gov for more information.