START PLANNING YOUR HOLIDAY PARTY!

Find the perfect venue, entertainment, and dinner ideas for your company's holiday party this year. It's never too early to start planning holiday parties.

Follow a few easy tips to plan the perfect event and pick the perfect location for your company, association, and team holiday parties. Check out great places to host your event in Stark County.

With Halloween approaching, the holiday season is right around the corner, which means holiday content is coming soon! Please be sure to submit all holiday events and business updates now to be included in holiday content!

Upcoming Blog Content

• Seasonal Sweets & Treats
• Thanksgiving Meals
• Weekend After Thanksgiving Fun
• Holiday Meals
• New Year's Eve Celebrations
• Winter Break Fun

Email WillisB@VisitCanton.com to be included in upcoming holiday content!

October Roundtable | October 19th

Join us on Zoom at 12:00 PM for a Visit Canton Partner Roundtable to catch updates from our team and share your updates with us and other tourism partners. The goal of these meetings is to have a casual forum to discuss updates and news from our Visit Canton team and our tourism partners! Tell us what you're up to, ask us any questions you might have, and network with fellow tourism partners.

Merry Mixer | November 16th

This year's Merry Mixer will be held at the Ohio Christmas Factory, Stark County's newest attraction! Visit Canton Partners will be among the first to see it at this event! 

Tourism Partners are invited to join us for appetizers, holiday treats, a cash bar, and networking. Visit Canton encourages you to wear your holiday cheer - the more ugly sweaters, sequins, and themed attire, the better!

Prepare for an indoor snowball fight, photos with the Grinch and Santa, a hot chocolate bar, and more!

Date: Thursday, November 16th

Time: 3:00 - 6:00 PM 

Location: Ohio Christmas Factory

4125 Mahoning Rd NE, Canton, OH 44705

Parking: Free parking is available in the surface lot located on the East Side of the building.

Please RSVP by November 2, 2023

The tourism industry never slows down, and our team knows how many hats you often wear, but we're here to remind you to update your online business profiles! It is incredibly important to claim your business listings, update your profiles, list your events, and respond to reviews.

Not only are these tools FREE to use, but ignoring them can be detrimental to your business as well. Imagine seeing a Facebook Page for a restaurant you are planning to visit but the page doesn't have their hours listed. You search for them on online, only to find that their Google Listing and their website have two different sets of hours. Do you believe most people would continue to spend time looking for accurate information, or making a phone call to find out... or would they close out of the browser and move on?

Do you plan events? Between your website and newsletters, to Facebook, Visit Canton, TourismOhio, and local media outlets, it takes an investment of time to get all event listings submitted. It can be time consuming, but getting the word out about your events is vitally important. Keep in mind that content planning by Visit Canton and other media outlets is done months in advance. We encourage you to submit your events at least three months ahead! For those large scale annual events - submit the next year's date as soon as this year's is over!

The Visit Canton Partner Extranet is the place to submit your public events and update your profile description, images, and hours on our website! Our team uses these listings and updates to curate social media content, e-newsletters, blogs, and more!

Ohio.org is the heart of TourismOhio’s efforts to provide information on all the great things there are to see and do here in Ohio. Thousands of potential travelers – and customers – visit Ohio.org or call 1-800-BUCKEYE looking for information every month.

A staggering 8.5 billion searches are performed per day using Google. Be sure to claim your Google Business Listing, update your info, submit your hours, and respond to reviews!

Microsoft's Bing search engine may receive a fraction of the searches that Google does - but those numbers are still large. Bing is the search engine used by Amazon's Alexa and Echo devices, plus all of your Microsoft products.

The Ohio EventFinder (OEF) is the online database of arts and cultural events in Ohio. It feeds event calendars on  ArtsInOhio.com and Ohio.org, as well as various regional calendars across the state.

OEF is free to use for all artists and arts organizations in the state of Ohio. OEF is intended only for arts/cultural events that are open to the public, including gallery and museum exhibitions, theater and dance performances, concerts, film screenings, and arts festivals.

But wait, there's more!

Have you heard the news about Apple Business Connect?

Don't forget about Yelp! The website is integrated with Apple Maps.

TripAdvisor is still a busting travel review site!

Plus, don't forget your Social Media presence! Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), TikTok, Pinterest... find your audience and speak to them!

2024 ExploreBoard Network Profiles Available!

Join the ExploreBoard Network to have your business showcased on interactive digital touch screens to visitors in 25 high-traffic locations in Stark County!

BONUS: If you have an ExploreBoard Profile, your event submissions to Visit Canton will also be displayed on the ExploreBoard event widget!

For a list of ExploreBoard Locations, and extra details and information, check out the sign-up form or email LauraF@VisitCanton.com with questions!

Cooperative Advertising Deadline Approaching

Be reimbursed up to 50% of expenses for sales and marketing campaigns that promote your Stark County businesses to leisure audiences, event planners, and other site selectors.

1. Create campaigns customized to your business needs.
2. Submit the application by November 17th.
3. Include Visit Canton brand elements and be reimbursed up to 50% of approved campaign expenses.

Click here to learn more about the 2024 Cooperative Advertising.

Application Deadline is November 17, 2023

Destination Enhancement Grants

• In 2024, Visit Canton will award the final funds available for Destination Enhancement projects. Stark County community partners have one more opportunity to apply for funds. Visit Canton will award up to $350,000 in support of major enhancement projects that fulfill the mission and strategic plan of Visit Canton.

• Applications Open: September 20-October 31, 2023
• Grant Awards: $10,000 to $50,000
• Destination Enhancement Grant Criteria

Cultural Tourism Grants

• Visit Canton in partnership with ArtsinStark will award grants for the purpose of generating increased visitation and economic impact for the region through the support of arts and culture events and marketing initiatives. Up to $210,000 will be awarded in support of approved projects.

• Applications Open: October 15-November 15, 2023
• Grant Award: Up to $20,000 per project
• Cultural Tourism Grant Criteria

Event Support Grants

• Grants will be awarded with the purpose of generating increased visitation and economic impact for the region through the support of major events including but not limited to, conferences, reunions, meetings, sporting events & tournaments and complementing festivals and events. Minimum Economic Eligibility = 100 Stark County hotel room nights and/or 350 day trip visitors.

• Applications Open: Rolling Applications
• Grant Award: Award Based on Event’s Potential Economic Impact
• Event Support Grant Criteria

Check out upcoming seminars brought to you by SCORE! Register for SCORE's free live webinars available to all business owners nationwide. Presented by SCORE mentors and other industry experts, these sessions will help you understand how to start, manage, grow or successfully exit your business.

Ohio leads the country with the most haunted houses according to the Scare Factor! They also ranked Canton's Factory of Terror, #4 in the top ten haunted houses in Ohio!

Stark Parks has added an adaptive kayak launch to Sippo Lake Park! This will make the task of getting in and out of the kayak a much easier process!

October 12 | Mysterious Worlds - Soup at Six

McKinley Presidential Library & Museum

October 12 | Candlelight: Featuring Vivaldi's Four Seasons & More

Lions Lincoln Theatre

October 13 | Second Fridays Louisville

Downtown Louisville

October 14 | Duck, Duck Jeep Downtown Fall Festival

Downtown Alliance

October 14 | 'Crosse Out Cancer College Lacrosse Showcase

ForeverLawn Sports Complex

October 14 | Woodsman Sale & Expo

Hartville Hardware

October 14 | Stark Vintage Market

Stark County Fairgrounds

October 14 | Sidestreet MKTS

Oakwood Square Plaza

October 18-19 & 25 | Ghoul's Night Out

Gervasi Vineyard

October 19 | Boo Bash

Play Action Plaza

October 19 | Keller Gallery Opening: Habitat

McKinley Presidential Library & Museum

October 19 | A Night of Music and Film

Canton Palace Theatre

October 21 | GMAC Men's and Women's Cross Country Championships

Pioneer Park

October 21 | Dessert with the Dead

Canton Woman's Club

October 21 | Haunted Wine Run 5K

Gervasi Vineyard

October 21 | Cole Swindell: Twelve Tour

Canton Memorial Civic Center

October 21 | Swan Lake presented by Grand Kyiv Ballet

Canton Palace Theatre

October 22 | Goldy the G.O.A.T.'s Birthday Party

Pro Football Hall of Fame

October 25 | Pumpkinpalooza

North Canton Civic Center

October 27 | Boo'seum

McKinley Presidential Library & Museum

October 28 | Haunted Pub Party

The Twisted Olive

October 28 | Alternative Wellness Fair

Quonset Hut Community Event Space

October 28-29 | Tyrant Wrestling Gridiron Duals & Open

Center for Performance

October 29 | Hallo-wine Dinner

Gervasi Vineyard

VIEW EVENTS ON VISITCANTON.COM/PARTNERS