On Wednesday, April 28, 2010, The Annual Rural Maine Small Business Conference and Business To Business Show will be held in Dover-Foxcroft at the Penquis Higher Education Center located at 50 Mayo Street.

The purpose of the conference is to help foster the success of microenterprises and small businesses in the greater Piscataquis County area and all of rural Maine. The conference expects to attract over 100 micro & small business owners.

The conference will filled with many topic such as a presentation from Microsoft, Using Social Media and the Web in your business, Keynote Speaker David Lee of the HumanNature@Work, What’s In It For Me session, lunch, networking and Business to Business services and resources.

Making the Most of Social Media & The Web by Jenika Scott

Jenika manages Hall’s parent channel relationships, as well as assists with Hall’s inbound marketing efforts. www.hallme.com/blog/author/jenika/ Hall Web Services is a Maine owned web design, web development and internet marketing firm, providing business class web services to small and medium sized companies worldwide.

Keynote Speaker David Lee & “What’s In It For Me” Session

David is the founder of HumanNature@Work and is an internationally recognized authority on organizational and managerial practices that optimize performance. Some of the areas he will be covering: Get Great or Become Extinct, Why Good is No Longer Good Enough, In Today’s “Tell All” World, Creating the “Wow” Experience, If You Want Lot’s of Repeat Business and Free PR, Here’s What You Do plus take home tools to help your business. He will be offer a follow up tele-conference. FMI: www.humannatureatwork.com This training is part of the Maine Woods Tourism Training Initiative – a project supported by the Maine Woods Consortium with funding from the Betterment Fund and USDA Rural Development. To learn more, visit www.mainewoodsconsortium.org/mmh/programs/content/tourism-training.html.

Business 2 Business Show still has spaces open for business to business products, services and/or resources. For more information please visit the web site.

Penquis products display is open to any business taking part in the conference. For more information please visit the web site.

Remember to bring your business card for some great networking opportunities

The Rural Maine Small Business Conference’s sponsors and partners are Penquis, MaineStream Finance, Piscataquis County Economic Development Council, Penquis Higher Education Center, James Macomber’s Maine’s Best Web & Media Design & Green Web Hosting, Hall Web Services, Small Business Administration, Piscataquis Chamber of Commerce, Moosehead Lake Chamber of Commerce, Maine Woods Tourism Training Initiative, Maine Woods Consortium, Betterment Fund and USDA Rural Development

Scholarships are still available. To register go online at www.ruralmainebiz.org and click “Registration” then choose online or download the registration.

FMI:

www.ruralmainebiz.org

Contact persons: Sheree Brown or James Macomber

Phone: 564-7116 or 1-800-215-4942

Email: sabrown@penquis.org or jmacomber@penquis.org

Are consumer magazines dead? Yes ….. and no! It’s all in how (and where) you look at it.

Jewel of the Maine Coast, the signature publication of the Camden-Rockport-Lincolnville Chamber of Commerce, is now also available in an interactive electronic edition. Just launched via the Chamber’s website, www.visitcamden.com, the “flip book” Jewel makes it easy to check upcoming events, locate shops and restaurants, plan entertainment and recreation, and link instantly to many Chamber members’ websites–all from your desktop or smartphone.

Navigating a flip book is intuitive and fun. To read the digital magazine, use the Next and Back arrows or point your cursor arrow at any corner to flip from page to page. In a hurry? Browse page thumbnails, jump to a story or business category from the table of contents, or search by name or key word. Faster still, inline links connect to each Jewel advertiser’s home page in just one click.

E-zines have other benefits: You can zoom contents up to twice original size for custom legibility or share pages by email to friends or any social networking site.

Read by more than 120,000 people each year, the 128-page, four-color Jewel of the Maine Coast is a free, valuable resource to area residents as well as visitors. Read the flip book edition at www.visitcamden.com, or pick up a printed copy at the Rockport-Camden-Lincolnville Chamber of Commerce, 2 Public Landing, Camden, Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Call 207-236-4404 to receive a copy by mail.

PORTLAND, Maine – Promenade Media, a web marketing firm in Maine, has launched its brand new, WordPress-powered website. Promenade Media offers services in creating transparency, generating qualified leads, and spreading awareness and knowledge using social media marketing tools, online video production, and effective web copy. Promenade Media specializes in working with small businesses, non-profits, and musicians – helping them harness the power of enthusiasm on the web in order to raise their online profile and strengthen their brand identity.

“It can be very frustrating relying on another company – Google – for the success of an SEO campaign and, ultimately, the growth of a business,” says Owner and Chief Marketing Strategist, Josh Valentine. “We strive to motivate business owners, activists, and musicians to take control of their marketing efforts and focus more on social media optimization (SMO) – such as participation on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, consistent blogging, or online video. SMO is becoming more and more important – until, of course, the next thing comes around.”

Promenade Media’s past projects include work with USM’s Muskie School of Public Service, Working Together: Expanding Maine’s Workforce, Maine Animal Coalition, and Maine Businesses for Sustainability. They have also done video campaigns for The Island, a side project of the popular national jam band, The Disco Biscuits. Currently in the works: a video campaign for New York jam band, God Street Wine, social media marketing for Maine Center on Deafness, and an interview series on social media for musicians with Tears For Fears co-founder and bassist, Curt Smith.

“One of our company goals is to differentiate ourselves in the crowded world of social media and internet marketing,” says Valentine. “We look to work closely with small business owners or marketing executives and coach them on growing their business using online tools; maintaining web presences for non-profits looking to promote a cause; or musicians interested in taking control of their career and promoting their art without an intrusive record company.”

Valentine goes on to explain that Promenade Media is a “green business, highly focused on social responsibility and sustainability. The expansion of non-profits and theses types of activities will only be a boon to Maine’s future economy.” He says, “non-profits must be as aggressive as small businesses when it comes to participating online. Social media is a new way of doing business and the transparency it creates is mostly a good thing.”

Promenade Media was founded in 2007 by Josh Valentine, Owner and Chief Marketing Strategist. Josh is also the President of the Maine Marketing Association (with his term beginning next month). Connect with Promenade Media on their website, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Planned giving is an aspect of development growing out of the deepest, most profound relationships between donors and non-profit organizations.

Planned gifts – typically absorbed into endowment funds – generally involve more complicated gift arrangements than current gifts of cash or marketable securities. They also typically begin at the 6 figure level, involve gift, estate and/or income tax benefits to their donors, and can increase significantly the financial resources of nonprofit organizations for their long-term operation.

In this course, we will review and explore:

* organizational prerequisites, including board and staff roles
* underlying policies and procedures
* the industry of planned giving
* wealth transfer and tax implications that incentivize planned gifts
* mechanics of planned gifts
* resources to support planned giving programs (e.g. allied professionals, web-based services)
* the concept of appropriate donor recognition and stewardship

We will also discuss how to identify potential planned giving opportunities.

Sarah Ruef-Lindquist, J.D. is a graduate of the Institute for Civic Leadership and a Certified Trust and Financial Advisor (”CTFA”). She has practiced law, was Vice President for Southern Maine at the Maine Community Foundation and Sr. Administrative Trust officer at Union Trust Company. She is a frequent writer and speaker on the topics of trust and estate planning, charitable gift planning and planned giving.

Wednesday, April 14, and Thursday, April 15, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
call USM Cont Ed. 1-800-787-0468  or go to USM Cont Ed web site here
$285 (12 contact hours/ 1.2 CEUs)
Abromson Center, 88 Bedford Street, USM Portland campus

Sarah Ruef-Lindquist can be reached at her web-site, Planning for Good here

released 3/22/2010

FREEPORT, Maine – This Summer!!!  Announcing a fun, new, more effective way to advertise your Maine tourism business or events!!  Maine Things To Do – 101 Things To Do in Vacationland, details 101 fun and educational “Things To Do” in and about the State of Maine, containing maps, event listings, activities, attractions, lodging, dining and more.

Mainethingstodo.com has a online travel booking engine licensed through Kayak.com, booking flights, lodging and car rental. The site offers Activities, Attractions, Resorts, Hotels and Motels, Inns, Bed and Breakfasts and Sporting Camps in Maine, a prominent, indexed and searchable spotlight including photos, editorial, and event listings, all linkable to your a url of choice.

Increase your bookings- and visibility with mainethingstodo.com.  Online bookings are increasing every year, Mainethingstodo.com is dedicated to providing easy access to your business online. Through its carefully indexed and searchable pages, it provides the reader with great information about Maine, and compliments that info along side your advertising.

Mainethingstodo.com needs your support! (and feedback)! If you have an idea on a Thing To Do in Maine, or want to add some information on a Thing To Do, please contact us. Please make sure you also take advantage of our free listings, and feel free to call or email anytime.

Look for promotional giveaways in April, Like Whale Watch, Sky Dive, Free Over Night Accommodations at a Maine Bed and Breakfast, Whitewater River Rafting trips, Guided Kayak Trips, Sea Dog Tickets, Schooner Cruises, and more.

For more information on how your tourism business can be a part of this,

Contact-

info@mainethingstodo.com

207-838-8198

Twitter: http://twitter.com/MaineThingsToDo

Facebook-become a fan!

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