Northwest Iowa Development Receives Excellence in Economic Development Award from the International Economic Development Council - using Map-N-Tour Technology

WASHINGTON, DC (October 02, 2018) – Northwest Iowa Development received a Bronze Excellence in Economic Development Award for its Northwest Iowa Regional Virtual Business Location Tour, a project in the category of New Media of the International Economic Development Council (IEDC).

The honor was presented at an awards ceremony on Tuesday, October 2, during the IEDC Annual Conference, which was held September 29 – October 3, in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.

“Northwest Iowa Development takes great pride in our partnership approach to marketing and promoting our highly attractive region. The recognition from IEDC for our virtual business location tour reinforces our strong belief in the use of cutting –edge marketing tools to position Northwest Iowa as a vibrant economic engine that should be considered by growing companies,” said Dave Miller, Board Member, Northwest Iowa Development.

Northwest Iowa Development (NWID) is multi member partnership focused on marketing and positioning the region for business expansion and new locations. The population of the Northwest Iowa region is 103,034. The Northwest Iowa Regional Virtual Business Location Tour project is being submitted by the City of Rock Valley on behalf of Northwest Iowa Development, a six county regional partnership.

The Northwest Iowa Virtual Regional Business Location Tour allows a site selector or a business exploring expansion or new location sites, to quickly and efficiently visually explore featured business parks in all six counties. A 50,000 square foot virtual manufacturing/distribution building model was designed to be strategically displayed on each of the 6 featured business parks. The virtual building was carefully sited in each park to maximize access to infrastructure, highways and visibility. Access to the Virtual Tour will be primarily through the Northwest Iowa Development website (www.northwestiowa.com) and has been prominently highlighted on the homepage. Smart Solutions Group (http://smartsolutionsgroup.net) of DesMoines Iowa served as the economic development marketing consultants for the project and the tour is powered by Midland, MI based Map-N-Tour web and mobile technology (www.mapntour.com ). 

"This year our judges reviewed some extraordinary projects that advanced both communities and businesses. We congratulate all the award winners, and thank everyone who nominated their projects for sharing their success with fellow IEDC members. What we learn from each other helps us to grow and advance as a profession. We look forward to even greater participation from economic developers across the globe in the 2019 awards program.” -Craig Richard, CEcD, FM, President and CEO, Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corporation located in Tampa, Florida, and 2018 IEDC Board Chair

About the International Economic Development Council

The International Economic Development Council (IEDC) is the world's largest membership organization for economic development professionals. Economic developers promote economic well-being and quality of life in their communities by creating, retaining, and expanding jobs that facilitate growth and provide a stable tax base. From public to private, rural to urban, and local to international, our members represent the entire range of economic development. Learn more at iedconline.org.

Northwest Iowa Development’s member, Sheldon Chamber and Development, added promotional content of three of their prime business parks. They showcase business expansion opportunities on the interactive map and offer prospects a fly-through tour video.

Map-N-Tour Launches the STORY ROAD UTAH App

Story Road Utah - imaginative storytelling app is assisting travelers

Because Getting There Should be Half the Fun!

by Laurel Anderson

A few sample stories that are on the Story Road Utah app now available through the App Store or Play Store.

Story Road Utah is a fantastic, and free, travel genie. It’s a downloadable smart phone storytelling app assisting travelers with road and trail information and much more. Click once after the free download and enjoy detailed information about everything around you as you travel, including professionally produced stories about many of the interesting “story sites” you are passing. It’s a new geo-specific app providing a mega-load of valuable information for anyone visiting southern Utah.

Ping! You’ve downloaded the Story Road Utah app and are traveling along Route 89 or some other highway or byway here in southern Utah. On the way to Kanab, your friendly ping alerts you that a “Story Road Destination” is coming up.

This time it might be the Rollaway Saloon; just one of the many story road destinations recorded for your enjoyment along the way. Click on the banner coming up on your phone and listen to the hilarious story of a saloon that rolled back and forth across the UT/AZ border every Sunday.

A few miles down the road, another ping let’s you know you are approaching the helpful Southern Utah/Kane County Visitor Center.

Other helpful destinations along the way ping as you go, so it’s an immediately interactive information source guiding you to the places you might need and find enjoyable to explore.

Plan on hiking? There is no better virtual hiking guide than what you will find on Story Road Utah. An easy to use index pops up letting you choose an area and discover available hiking routes. Detailed maps, with descriptions and a topo map overlay, lead you by the hand as you venture into canyon country. Even in areas where cell phone service is dead, the maps remain activated, providing an informative safety factor that can be invaluable in this wilderness.

It’s designed to give confidence to trail users, providing safety and even self-guiding, interpretive features. It’s a genie app that will take you by the virtual hand and enrich your experience.

The storytelling feature is the most unique part of this dynamic app. Southern Utah is the land of tall tales and great history, and the app brings many of them to life in professionally recorded storytelling and musical presentations. All available on your phone, just check the index or respond to the ping! Hear stories about Montezuma’s Treasure, “Fire in the Bedroom/Levi’s Lament,” the Pariah Ghost Town, and many other great stories. Travel becomes exceptional when you can listen in on great local legends.

An informative and detailed outdoor tour-guide assistant, with great storytelling features? How much better does a travel app get? It even lets you know about current and upcoming festivals and events!

Story Road Utah is available throughout Kane and Garfield Counties, greatly assisting travelers in enjoying the rich beauty and unique history of our spectacular canyon country. It is not just a product – it is an experience!

You can download the app before your trip and explore options. Imagine a hike along Johnson Canyon and before you even arrive, see the maps and listen to the stories that will enrich the experience.

Story Road Utah is available through the App Store or Play Store. To see the app in action, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oEZRMm-CYk.

Map-N-Tour is Preferred Partner of Community Venture Network (CVN)

Map-N-Tour is pleased to be working with Community Venture Network to provide enhanced marketing opportunities for rural communities.  Two of our clients are already members of this valuable organization. Justin Ericksen does a tremendous job of bringing businesses and economic development professionals together at the CVN conferences which are extremely organized and beneficial to all attendees.

Professionally managed by Essex Capital, LLC, the Community Venture Network (CVN) was formed for rural communities and expanding companies in 1991 in an effort to bring high growth businesses together with economic development professionals seeking to attract business expansions and relocations to their community.

Emerging growth businesses find that the reduced operating costs, lower labor rates, attractive financial incentives and unified community support provide the maximum opportunities for successful business growth.  Too often, however, the community and the business never find each other.

Thus CVN was formed to assist communities in identifying these potential prospects.  CVN conducts active outreach programs to identify these emerging businesses and educate them on the benefits of seeking “out state” locations.  We have a significant referral network and also conduct our own outreach, targeting companies in manufacturing, distribution, technology, medical and alternative energy industries.

Three times per year, we present 8 of these companies to our Network of communities and program partners.  As a private program, we are membership-based and limited to working with 30 development groups.  Programs are hosted in Minneapolis with ND, SD, MN, IA, WI and NE communities formally represented; other states can be brought into the fold when appropriate.

Each presenter works with our staff to craft a presentation and community expansion opportunity that will be presented in a summary document for each attendee as well as a 25 minute presentation. 

If you are a rural community looking for a champion in your corner for business attraction or other economic development needs, contact CVN now.  www.communityventurenetwork.com 

Smart Solutions Group and Map-N-Tour Offer Smart Sites - Virtual Buildings Platform

Cooperative Marketing among regional partners can be a challenge.  Effectively representing all partners with key information on factors such as building sites, workforce, and infrastructure is essential to maintaining teamwork.

Smart Solutions Group (SSG) has teamed up with Map-N-Tour, an interactive virtual marketing firm which specializes in creating 3D mapping platforms and interactive visual experiences to create an exciting new marketing product .... Smart Sites and Virtual Buildings.  The combined expertise in regional marketing strategy and interactive marketing technology will allow us to position your region for success efficiently and cost effectively.

This newly produced video illustrates the power and versatility of the Smarts Sites product.  Contact us to learn how we make this product work to advance your regional strategy.  bob@smartsolutionsgroup.net.

Digital directory to promote county businesses - Wadena County, MN

Wadena County now has a digital directory of more than 400 organizations and businesses that will be used to showcase cities and sites within the county.

Mark Hanson is the director of the West Central Economic Development Alliance and the economic development director for the county. He has been working on the digital directory and had already completed the cities of Sebeka and Menahga.

He presented an update on his work to the Wadena County Board last week.

"We just completed the city of Wadena and we now have over 400 locations plotted on Google Maps to showcase our county and cities," he said.

The digital directory is found online at gatewaytothenorthtour.com and includes an aerial map with businesses and other area attractions categorized by location, service type and more.

Hanson said it will be used as a tourism piece and be updated continually.

"There's always new businesses being opened and others closing so I'll keep updating as that happens," he said.

A demonstration of how the website worked showed that clicking Wadena and then on the business category brings up all the businesses in Wadena.

"As I click business, the map changes and zooms into the businesses of Wadena. Different colors represent different categories," Hanson said.

The website also includes government entities, health, education and more. It is free for all businesses.

"The goal is to work with the county, then the cities and chambers to have this adopted as the official digital directory for the county," he added.

The goal is also to have the community to get used to using it.

Some discussion was had about when Verndale and Staples would be added. Hanson said Verndale will be the next step and some of the larger businesses on the west part of Staples can be added such as the golf course, airport and Central Lakes College.

The county board adopted this as the official digital directory and it will be added to the county's website as a link.

Hanson added that the directory is also available at gatewaytothenorthtour.com.

The West Central Economic Development Alliance is a non-profit organization without direct ties to any community, county or other government entities. The county has been working with the county, however, on some projects.

By Anna Erickson on Apr 16, 2016 at 12:10 a.m.

New 3D Mapping Platform - coming soon to Map-N-Tour Application

We are pleased to announce Map-N-Tour will soon move its 3D maps to TerriaJS - a modern technology platform that integrates seamlessly with all modern browsers. 

Our clients and their customers will realize many benefits with this upcoming transition:

• Built on a plug-in free modern technology(WebGL)
• Access from Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Linux browsers -access for a more international audience
• Maps are now accessible directly from mobile browsers
• Map content can be viewed in both 2D and 3D
• Map load time and responsiveness is improved
• All media types we currently use are supported
• It positions us to deliver 3D on mobile devices in the future

Expected Differences:

• There is no ability to import 3D layers from Google.  However, streaming of 3D buildings in select major metropolitan areas from CyberCity 3D will be available as of summer 2015.  There is a utility to convert your existing 3D models.  This will allow customers to utilize their existing investment in 3D models while realizing the benefits of the new platform.
• You may notice some slight differences in map navigation and UI, although we expect a continued great user experience.

Get a sneak peak at the new platform:

Midland Virtual Tour       Redwood County Virtual Tour      Gerald R Ford Tour

Map-N-Tour a Third Party Vendor for LOIS (Location One Information Systems)

A link to the Map-N-Tour virtual experience tour can now be added to the Overview section of any record in the LocationOne Administration website. It will display in the Building and Site list view and in the Overview section of any record as a link under More Photos and also as a drop-down under Images/Documents.

View more information about how Map-N-Tour's dynamic marketing resource for economic and community development organizations can enhance understanding and interest in your community and gives you the winning edge in the competition for investment.   More information is available on the LOIS website.

Map-N-Tour Featured in World-wide Family History Campaign →

On August 9 and 10, 2015  Family Search International launched a campaign to 1 million subscribers who had ancestors in an 1846 military group named The Mormon Battalion.  As part of the campaign The Mormon Battalion Trail Virtual Tour was featured. 

Family Search shares information about members of The Mormon Battalion and their route to California with their subscribers and descendants world-wide.

Redwood County, MN Virtual Tour Launched

Map-N-Tour's newest customer is Redwood Area  Development Corporation and Redwood County Economic Development Corporation in Minnesota.  The Theme of their Virtual Tour will be "Redwood County is Ready for YOU!"  Attracting new business and recruiting a skilled workforce is their main focus.  We look forward to working with them to feature the unique characteristics of their area.  

Click this image to take the Redwood County Virtual Tour!

Michigan's State SBDC - Features Map-N-Tour

Michigan Couple Turns Hiking Experience into 3D Virtual Tour App & Tech Start-Up

July 2014

Denny and Kevin Henson of Midland, Michigan have evolved their love of hiking trails, reading maps, and reliving history into a 3D, interactive virtual tour application for Web, mobile, and tablet devices.  The award-winning, cloud-based software application of Map-N-Tour, Inc. can be used to create custom, media-rich tours for heritage tourism, historical and recreational trails, downtown and business districts, community profiling, events, genealogy and much more.

The virtual trail idea started back in 2007 when Kevin Henson learned his Boy Scout Troop wanted to participate in the River of Time Living History event (Bay City, www.riveroftime.org).  After looking into the event, he discovered there was no representation from the Mexican War and that a number of his Mid-Michigan, 11-year old scouts had ancestors who had served in the conflict as members of the Mormon Battalion.  From there, Kevin began researching the 2,100 mile march of the military group and discovered there were discrepancies between the stories written in journals and the physical maps of the accepted route.

As Scout Leader and an avid living history re-enactor, Kevin set out to retrace the steps of the military group and the areas in which the infantry had passed through to provide an accurate account of history for his scouts and to engage other family members of those who had participated in the march.  Kevin’s wife, Denny, joined him on the six-month trek from Iowa to California.  During the hike, the couple began sharing what they found online via an early version of their application using Google Earth with pinpoints and text bubbles along the trail.

“I was the storyteller who wanted to make it easy for others to access historical data,” said Kevin Henson, Mapping and Project Consultant for Map-N-Tour.  “Denny was the visionary behind the application as she saw greater potential for using the tool on multi-dimensional levels.”

Denny’s vision was to share, educate, and enrich others’ experiences by bringing stories to life online in an interactive manner.  She wanted the user to feel immersed in the story whether it was following a historical trail, getting to know a community, or participating in an event … even if they couldn’t be there.

“We knew this application had the power to engage as we’d watch people lean into the screen as we did our early presentations,” shared Denny Henson, President/CEO of Map-N-Tours.  “One of our stories held the attention of a 5-year old for over 30 minutes.  That was truly inspiring!”

With no programming skills, the initial platform and interface was simple.  But Denny knew they needed to expand its capabilities; as well as, make it mobile-friendly.  So she got busy.  She found tech consultants to work with, hired developers, and assembled an Advisory Team that included professionals with information technology (IT), business management, sales, and marketing experience.  

During this time, Denny also began working with a number of the Business Consultants from the Michigan Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Great Lakes Bay Region (GLBR) and Technology Business Consultants from the Michigan SBDC Tech Team.  Together, these SBDC consultants provided her with a diverse array of no-cost, hands-on support in developing the company’s business plan, preparing financial models, understanding management strategies, obtaining market research, designing marketing strategies, and more.  The consultants also provided introductions to key business professionals and contacts.

“The SBDC has had a great impact in shaping our business as they showed me I didn’t have to do this alone,” said Denny Henson.  “From introducing us to our first client and providing us with valuable business resources to just being a cheerleader for our product.”

Since the launch of Map-N-Tour, the company has grown its team of developers who have inspired several generations of their cloud-based software application.  The company added mobile/tablet applications to their list of core competencies in 2013 and filed its first provisional patent application in early 2014.  The Map-N-Tour team strives every day to make the application the best it can be using the latest advances in technology.  The company was also recently invited to integrate its application with the Location One Information Services (LOIS), which is the oldest and largest economic development building, site and community database system in the country.

The company has also received several awards, including being selected as the 2012 Best Small Business for the Michigan SBDC GLBR and received a Silver Excellence in Economic Development Award for New Media in 2013 from the International Economic Development Council (IEDC).  One of their first clients, Midland Tomorrow, also received a Silver Award in New Media from the IEDC in 2012 for using Map-N-Tour’s application and a Web Site Award for a Community with a Population of 50,000 – 100,000 People from the Michigan Economic Developer Association (MEDA) in 2012.

“The awards are wonderful but what we hear back from our clients is the most rewarding,” shared Denny Henson.  A few of those statements, include:  “It’s not just a product but an experience!” and “It allows us the opportunity to teach the unknown in a multi-dimensional experience.”

Charlie Walker, President and CEO of the Chippewa County Economic Development Corporation in Wisconsin shared, “The tool is flexible and allows us to do a lot of unique, creative, and innovative things.  Being able to customize our virtual tours to specific industries has given us a competitive advantage.”

Founded in 2012, Map-N-Tour is a certified woman-owned, privately-held business located in Midland.  The company’s award-winning software excels at marketing tourism, economic development, public history, events, and genealogy.  To learn more about Map-N-Tour and to view one of their tours, visit them online at www.mapntour.com.  You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter.  To request more information or to schedule a presentation of the application, contact Denny Henson at (989) 493-5147 or via e-mail at denny@mapntour.com.

MSU Extension: New website helps visitors plan outdoor adventures in Port Austin, Michigan

Interactive web-based virtual tour allows people to explore the Port Austin community to plan their outdoor adventures.

Posted on January 14, 2014  by Mary Bohling, Michigan State University Extension at http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/new_website_helps_visitors_plan_outdoor_adventures_in_port_austin_michigan 

In an effort to promote Port Austin, Michigan as a great place to get families outdoors on a natural resource adventure, Port Austin Kayak has partnered with Map-N-Tour to develop a virtual tour that maps out all the great kayaking, biking, paddle boarding, hiking and geo-caching locations in the area. The objective behind the development of this online tool is that families will choose to vacation in Port Austin as this website highlights all the great outdoor activities in the area and shows site visitors a map of where to go and what to expect.

The project is an outgrowth of the Lower Lake Huron Integrated Assessment Project, funded byMichigan Sea Grant and led by researchers at Michigan State Universityand the University of Michigan. The project focused on how stakeholders in Michigan’s Thumb region could work together to promote natural resource-based activities related to community and economic development. Several recreation profiles and sample itineraries were developed through stakeholder input on the project.

This new online tour offers people a chance to explore, virtually, the region to plan vacations and other outings. When users visit the tour website, it is recommended that they start by clicking on the top left guided tour. From there, users are taken through the best outdoor adventures in the Port Austin area. After the tour, visitors may try clicking on some of the icons to open up bubbles with descriptions and pictures of why the trail or spot was mapped. Sample itineraries take visitors on a virtual tour of places and environmental features such as sea caves, sand dunes, Lake Huron shoreline, Pinnebog River, Table Rock, Turnip Rock, and Port Crescent State Park. “We’re excited to be a part of this great project. We hope that by virtually highlighting these opportunities, people will be encouraged to visit and experience Port Austin” said Chris Boyle, owner of Port Austin Kayak.

The website works best with Google Chrome and requires the use of Google Earth. It also functions as an app on many mobile phones and other portable devices. The tour is available via the web and mobile platforms. For mobile and tablet devices, search for Map-N-Tour in your favorite app store.

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visithttp://www.msue.msu.edu. To contact an expert in your area, visit http://expert.msue.msu.edu, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).

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See original story at http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/new_website_helps_visitors_plan_outdoor_adventures_in_port_austin_michigan 

CBS Detroit: Michigan-Built Online Tool Boosts Tourism, Economic Development

A screenshot of Map-N-Tour Inc.’s tour map of Detroit’s Eastern Market.

MIDLAND (WWJ) – A husband-and-wife team of IT and map enthusiasts has combined the two into an online tool that gives users an easy and compelling way to share stories on a map.

Map-N-Tour Inc.’s application is being used by tourism groups, tourism business owners, local historical groups, economic development officials and others to create maps that feature engaging details, content, pictures and more.

Founders Kevin and Denny Henson were ideally suited to create Map-N-Tour. Kevin Harrison is a former earth sciences teacher who later became a consultant to the medical imaging industry. Denny worked as a project manager for a company that did online litigation support for Dow Chemical Co. Together, they created the tool while spending seven months hiking the Mormon Battalion Trail from Council Bluffs, Iowa to San Diego Calif., as a way to share their adventure online.

The first version of Map-N-Tour was rolled out in 2006, and the latest version hit the market a year ago. It’s a cloud based content management system that allows people to tell stories on a map — a maplike presentation with icons that users can click on for more information. It’s available for both computers and mobile devices.

“It is much more of a virtual experience than just visiting a website or looking at printed materials,” said Denny Henson, who is CEO of the company.”People get to be part of the adventure. Be it the view from a kayak paddling around famous Turnip Rock, the challenge ahead from one of Michigan’s beautiful golf courses, or even the inside of a historic home on a virtual tour from the Bay County Historical Society, users are a part of the scene.”

Map-N-Tour allows users to create custom, interactive 3D maps and geo-locate all types of web content and media inside information “bubbles.” Automated tours from tourism groups, festivals, events and destination venues can reach out to potential visitors and give them a more true-to-life, engaging experience from their computers, tablets or smart phones, helping them to make travel destination decisions, enrich experiences during their trip and reminisce about visits they’ve made.

The proprietary Map-N-Tour tool is being used by customers nationwide. The company won the 2013 Silver Excellence in Economic Development Award in new media from the International Economic Development Council and 2012 “Best Small Business Award” from the Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center.

To check out a tour of paddling, biking and hiking trails in Port Austin at the tip of Michigan’s Thumb, visit  www.mapntour.com/viewer.php?c=394#, a tour created by Chris Boyle, owner of a Port Austin kayak shop. There’s a kayak trip around Turnip Rock by the same person at http://www.mapntour.com/viewer.php?c=394&p=138892 and a tour of Port Austin at http://mapntour.com/viewer.php?t=147&hideNav.

“For years I have been trying to figure out the best way to market kayaking trails using maps, pictures and video in the Port Austin area,” Boyle said. “Map-N-Tour provided the perfect format. After seeing the virtual tours in action, I thought, why stop at kayaking? Last year we started an outdoor adventure camp for kids. Why not highlight all the great outdoor adventures in the area and make it easy to get families outdoors and on an adventure? My goal when creating the virtual tour was to promote Port Austin as a great place to take a family vacation and get outdoors.”

Denny Henson also produced an Eastern Market map tour as a sample for a tourism conference. It’s available at http://www.mapntour.com/viewer.php?c=374&p=63473.

And Ron Bloomfield, director of the Bay City Historical Society, produced a historic homes tour of his city at http://www.mapntour.com/viewer.php?c=144&p=32387.

There’s also a walking tour of historic sites in Traverse City, produced by the local historical society and schoolchildren at http://www.mapntour.com/viewer.php?c=319&p=62260.

As for economic development applications, there’s one for Midland at http://www.tourmidland.com and another for Chippewa County, Wisconsin at http://www.mapntour.com/viewer.php?c=353&p=62928 and http://www.chippewa-wi.com/index.php/virtual-tour.html. The tool also integrates with GIS data — see http://www.mapntour.com/viewer.php?c=353&p=138871

Map-N-Tour’s revenues are generated by a setup fee for the tool and monthly maintenance charges.

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See the original story here: http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/12/19/michigan-built-online-tool-boosts-tourism-economic-development/

Business Spotlight Features Map-N-Tour

View the full article here.

Congrats to our very own Map-N-Tour from Midland for receiving the Silver Excellence in Economic Development Award from the International Economic Development Council (IEDC).  The award was presented to the Map-N-Tour team at the IEDC Annual Conference in October.  Visit their Web site to read the full story posted on their 'News' page.  Follow on Facebook and Twitter!

  From Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Great Lakes Bay Region

Map-N-Tour at 2013 International Economic Development Council

Map-N-Tour exhibits at the 2013 International Economic Development Council Conference in Philadelphia.  

Map-N-Tour, Inc. Receives Excellence in Economic Development Award from the International Economic Development Council

Map-N-Tour, Inc. received a Silver Excellence in Economic Development Award for its 2012 project in the category of New Media for communities with populations of 25,000 – 200,000 from the International Economic Development Council (IEDC).

The honor was presented at an awards ceremony on Tuesday, October 8, during the IEDC Annual Conference, which was held October 6-9, in Philadelphia, Penn.

“The Excellence in Economic Development Awards recognize Map-N-Tour as being one of the leading organizations in the industry for innovation, creativity and successful strategies,” said IEDC chair, Paul Krutko. “These awards are meant to honor the organizations and individuals who are dedicated to making a positive change in their communities.  This organization uses creative solutions and inventive ideas, and offers other regions a wonderful example to learn and benefit from. The award represents an acknowledgment and appreciation for Map-N-Tour’s dedication to continuous growth within itself, as well as improving the industry overall.”

Map-N-Tour (http://www.mapntour.com) is a 3D mapping application that enables communities to more effectively convey lifestyle benefits to potential businesses, highlight city attractions as an economic draw for tourism, and help increase revenues for participating businesses.  It makes a community’s story more immersive, interactive, and engaging.  This tool helps decrease costs, increase outreach, and provide anytime/anywhere access via web, mobile, and tablet devices.   Map-N-Tour offers the advantage of simplicity, affordability, and versatility.  Only basic computer skills are required to create professional, dynamic web, mobile, and tablet applications using our unified content management system.   The Map-N-Tour app is available in both the Apple and Android app stores.   As a complimentary product to traditional statistical and demographic data of GIS systems, Map-N-Tour can seamlessly integrate with GIS augmenting it with a more visual representation of a community’s assets. 

IEDC's Excellence in Economic Development Awards recognize the world’s best economic development programs and partnerships, marketing materials, and the year’s most influential leaders. These awards honor organizations and individuals for their efforts in creating positive change in urban, suburban, and rural communities.

About the International Economic Development Council

The International Economic Development Council (IEDC) is a non-profit membership organization serving economic developers. With more than 4,000 members, IEDC is the largest organization of its kind. Economic developers promote economic well-being and quality of life for their communities, by creating, retaining and expanding jobs that facilitate growth, enhance wealth and provide a stable tax base.  From public to private, rural to urban, and local to international, IEDC’s members are engaged in the full range of economic development experience. Given the breadth of economic development work, our members are employed in a wide variety of settings including local, state, provincial and federal governments, public private partnerships, chambers of commerce, universities and a variety of other institutions. When we succeed, our members create high-quality jobs, develop vibrant communities, and improve the quality of life in their regions.www.iedconline.org

About Map-N-Tour, Inc.

Map-N-Tour‘s innovative cloud-based tool creates custom 3D maps that easily and quickly share information in one convenient location.   Giving end-users a more true-to-life sense of being on location, combined with the ability to incorporate rich interactive content to tell stories makes this a powerful marketing tool for a variety of industries.   Whatever your story, wherever it happens, we can help. Map-N-Tour's tool-set brings your story to life and puts you on the map - in a BIG way.

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Map-N-Tour receives International Economic Development Council Silver Award from Paul L. Krutko, FM - Chair, IEDC and President & CEO, Ann Arbor SPARK and Bryan T. Daniels, CEcD - Chair, IEDC Awards Advisory Committee and President & CEO, Blount Partnership

What’s Their Story?

We have been fascinated with the unique ways groups use the Map-N-Tour tool and wanted to share their stories.

The Historical Pioneer Research Group based in Omaha, Nebraska has created the “Crossroads to the West” and “Mormon Pioneer Cemeteries” virtual tours.  We interviewed Terry Latey project administrator for the two tours.  The genesis for this non-profit group began twenty years ago in an effort to search Mormon pioneers’ names and histories and share them with descendants and other interested groups.    Local historians and others wanting to preserve the history of the area joined together to create a database of names and locations.   The research expanded with the addition of projects done in the area by Brigham Young University, and support by the LDS Church History Library.   “Our early LDS database website (http://earlylds.com/) is genealogically focused,” explained Latey.  “To really tell the story we needed to go beyond the people to the places and events.  It was at Thurman, Iowa three years ago when we saw a presentation using the Map-N-Tour software that it really dawned on us that this tool was the key to sharing all the information we wanted to share.”

Terry says their audience has expanded.  “Many in the area, share in the legacy which is the history of the Mormon pioneers whether of that faith today or not. And interest grows among the descendants of these noble people.   People have come to us with information about cemeteries we haven’t known about because there is now a place to put the information.  Once the tours came online people with many different interests are paying attention.  Our audience has expanded to those who are interested in history as well as cemetery research – pioneer cemeteries in particular.  Some groups are becoming more focused on cemetery research spurred on by our project.”

Latey says their vision has also expanded.  “We want to expand our cemetery project to include all the trails across the state of Iowa and down into Kansas, Missouri, and other different places along the trails.”  This October they plan to hold a webinar to discuss this expansion in hopes of identifying graves along the trails.  Anyone interested in collaborating or has relevant information is invited to contact them to participate.    “I now know what it feels like to have this spirit of collaboration and cooperation with the groups in our local area, but I can’t imagine how powerful it would be to have that with groups all along the trails in several states!”

The Historical Pioneer Research Group has found their virtual tours “enormously helpful” in accomplishing their goals.  When visitors to the area ask where certain historic locations are, they are able to pull up the map and show them.    In June they spent a week doing field research and ground penetrating radar.  Four days out of that week they met with people who knew of burial sites that the HPRG was unaware of and wanted them documented on their map.   A specific  goal for the tours is to allow people to have a sense of “being there” as if they were at the place.  Latey says, “Viewing a location online is exciting, but to have it on a mobile device while standing there and hear someone like our local historian Gail Holmes explain what happened there, is very powerful.  When he says ‘Look to the north or the south,’ you can do that and be in the place where the pioneers stood. Even though Gail may not be there personally, people will have access to his expertise.’”

Today, this small but dedicated group has interacted with a number of historical and genealogical organizations throughout the Middle-Missouri River Valley and feel like using the Map-N-Tour tool to preserve and share the information has opened many doors to make this a collaborative effort.   If you have information to share or want to participate in the upcoming webinar on October 26th, please contact Terry Latey  at  tglatey@cox.net

Great Lakes Bay Region Represented at White House Forum for Economic Development

Midland Tomorrow Chief Executive Officer Scott Walker and Saginaw Future Inc. President JoAnn Crary joined approximately 50 economic development professionals from across the country at a White House forum on economic development today. This is the second year the International Economic Development Council(IEDC), SelectUSA and other partners have hosted the forum at the White House.

Key topics were discussed that have the greatest potential to positively impact job creation in the near- and long-term. The event featured substantive dialogue and exchanges of ideas between attendees and the most senior decisions makers involved in federal economic development programming and policies from several federal agencies, including the White House Business Council.

“The Great Lakes Bay Region is an important economic engine and has great companies that are vitally important to our national economy,” said Scott Walker, Midland Tomorrow Chief Executive Officer, “It's critical to participate in the Washington DC forums regarding the key issues facing our country.”

Crary spoke at a session titled ‘Facilitating Investment and Promoting Economic Growth in the US’. “This was a tremendous opportunity to interact with the recently appointed Commerce Secretary Pritzker, Select USA Director Thummalapally and other federal leaders impacting economic development,” Crary stated. “We look forward to our collaborative efforts to attract jobs and investment to the Great Lakes Bay Region."

Map-N-Tour shares the fun at MYPros Fury at the Currie

Midland Area Chamber of Commerce created an app for their popular Midland Young Professionals Golf Outing and Map-N-Tour was there to share in the fun. See the MYPros Fury at Currie Tour on the Map-N-Tour web or mobile app.  One group visited the web app the night before to see what the venue looked like and where they needed to go.  Another used the mobile app to help them get back on track when they got “lost.”  It was a creative way to let the golfers know what the challenge was at each hole and definitely put the event sponsors “on the map.”   Another example of the creative ways people come up with to use the tool!  Great Job!

Map-N-Tour releases their Android App for mobile.

Enjoy Map-N-Tour on your Android device. Go to the app store to get the app today and see screenshots and get more information.

Map-N-Tour invites you to explore the world by using our award-winning, content-rich, interactive, and engaging maps. Let us immerse you in the experience of virtually touring a location! Take tours of businesses, historic places and trails, communities, events, or tourist attractions. Using this cutting-edge technology you can gain understanding and perspective about a location's, past, present, and future.

Map-N-Tour allows you to explore a region by clicking on placemarks and seeing the data associated with that location. Users can embed videos, audio, photos, 360° panoramas, PDFs, and even interactive web pages inside their descriptions. Users can also display images, paths, and boundaries overlaid across the map to help you understand how regions have changed or to see how things are currently laid out. Map-N-Tour downloads the tour to your device allowing quick access to that tour any time you want to view it.
Let us introduce you to a virtual tour experience like no other!