In an attempt to manage all the special events, festivals and community meetings that take place in Starkville, the Greater Starkville Development Partnership is creating a calendar so people will know when and where events take place. “In an active community like ours, with a major university, both public and private high schools and many civic, religious, social and business groups, a community events calendar can be especially valuable,” David Thornell, president and CEO of the GSDP said in a press release.
The city of Starkville already has a calendar of community events, but according to Kristi Brown, the executive director of the Starkville Chamber of Commerce, this calendar is new and improved.
“The difference in this calendar is that we are trying to let everyone know that we do produce it,” Brown said. “We are revamping it and trying to combine all the information into one comprehensive Web site.”
The calendar will bind the city of Starkville together so that one organization will not have an event going on the same day and time as another organization.
“The calendar will prevent duplication of effort and avoid conflicts with major events,” Brown said. “It is critical to keep people informed.”
Brown said that a calendar such as this will foster economic and cultural development in the community.
“It gets people out and about spending money,” Brown said. “Keeping people informed contributes to the overall economic prosperity of our community.”
With the fifth annual Magnolia Film Festival coming to Starkville in February and the second annual Cotton District Arts Festival arriving in April, Arma de la Cruz, a marketing assistant at the Convention and Visitors Bureau, said she thinks Starkville is getting closer to becoming somewhat of a cultural hot seat.
“I think we’re starting to get a lot of new events in Starkville, and our old ones are enhancing,” Cruz said.
All organizations in Starkville and the surrounding area are encouraged to submit an event to the calendar. An organization that wants to list one of their functions on the Web site calendar should include the event name, time, date, location, contact name and phone number. Visit [email protected] to include an event.
The current city Web site is www.starkville.org. The new calendar should be available in early February, according to Brown. Mississippi State University always has some kind of event going on, with the Campus Activities Board putting on many of these events. Paula Raffo, assistant director of CAB expressed enthusiasm over the calendar.
“We’ve always tried to get our events out to the community,” Raffo said. “If we use the calendar the Starkville Chamber of Commerce is offering, more people will know more about what’s happening on campus.”
Raffo said she first received word that a community calendar was in progress last December. This week CAB is finalizing its schedule of events that runs through April.
Some of the events that Raffo is submitting to the calendar include a relationship speaker, a music speaker, casino night and a bridal fair.