BRAGGIN' RIGHTS

It's not often that the Kansas Sampler Foundation brags about itself and the many projects that we work on. But this time, we're pretty proud of two awards bestowed on us by the Travel Industry Association of Kansas (TIAK).

We entered three foundation projects in the TIAK Marketing Awards Program. TIAK is membership based and composed of travel/tourism related organizations. A conference is held each year where marketing awards are given out for unique approaches to promoting tourism related projects.

The Kansas Sampler Foundation felt that due to the amount of new and unique projects we had implemented in the past year and a half that we wanted to see how we measured up. We entered projects for the following categories:

• Promotional Campaign with a $15,000 project budget and below: The 8 Wonders of Kansas
  

• Community Education Campaign with a $15,000 project budget and below: Bring Your Own Lawn Chair series (B.Y.O.L.C.)
  

• Website - Outsourced Design: Designed by LogicMaze of Hutchinson

There are many talented and dedicated travel and tourism groups in Kansas who are constantly coming up with fun and interesting marketing campaigns to woo more visitors. After having a chance to look through some of the entries on display before the winners were announced it was evident that the judges had a hard time choosing a winner for each category.

The winners were announced at the Annual Banquet the last night of the conference, held in Wichita this past October. Were Marci and I ever surprised when the foundation won not one but two awards - the first for the 8 Wonders project and the other to the B.Y.O.L.C. series!

It's nice to have shiny trophies to display but the ultimate satisfaction is knowing that all our hard work was acknowledged and appreciated by our collegues.

Thanks must be given to Marci's sister, Liz King, who is a graphic designer now living in San Francisco. She is the designer of the 8 Wonder of Kansas logo and the fantastic B.Y.O.L.C. brochure.
Thanks Liz!