It is no secret that with the decline in the mortgage market and the ever-increasing cost of gasoline, we are living in tough economic times. But, when caring people successfully connect with other caring people, wonderful things can happen – even in tough times like these. You have read about a lot of that sort of thing right here in the Lake County News.

For example, over the years, you have read about the activities of high school and middle school students to bring attention to "Middletown Days." Students actually created a worldwide buzz for this small town western parade and festival that culminated in Adam Housley of the Fox News Channel showing up, addressing the crowd and getting the event mentioned on the network. That was in 2006.

Then, in 2007, the young people impressed KRON 4 TV's "Bay Area Backroads" host Doug McConnell so much he offered to showcase "Middletown Days" on his new venture, Open Road at www.openroad.tv. (You will not see anything on the site right now about "Middletown Days." The Middletown Central Park Association has yet to decide what pictures should be sent.)

Two other interesting examples are located in Clearlake. One is the "Hot Spot" which is providing wonderful activities for young people.

The other is the soon-to-come Lake County Community Co-op. The driving force behind the co-op is JoAnn Saccato. Saccato actually was featured on an online talk show that originated from Lake County recently. You can hear what she had to say about starting this food coop by going to www.talkshoe.com/tc/1833.

In Hidden Valley Lake, perhaps one of the most unlikely places to expect to find any kind of technological innovation, is a mom and pop restaurant that specializes in serving Thai cuisine. However, Ting's Thai Kitchen is hoping to soon introduce ALL of Lake County to FREE Wi-Fi with splash page advertising. You can learn more about this by visiting their Squidoo lens at www.squidoo.com/TTK. Although this FREE Wi-Fi has yet to happen, you can see from looking at the signers of their guest book that people from around the world are endorsing this activity. Is that not amazing?

Make no mistake, there are some big challenges for the county in pressing forward. The marketing study posted online from July 2002 tells you that Lake County remains the county that is still "waiting to happen." The study says the county remains Northern California's "undiscovered country."

While that may have significant appeal to those folks here to retire, play golf and card games, it is not good news for local businesses in need of customers. There is a major need for Lake County to stop exporting its workforce and therefore its revenue earners to other counties. People are more inclined to spend their money near where they work than where they live – especially when they get a better deal for their dollar. For example, gasoline is cheaper in Santa Rosa than it is anywhere in Lake County.

What can be done to encourage folks who travel through Lake County to stop and shop? One helpful solution is advertising in a eye-catching manner to the passing traffic. And, what does that mean? It means bringing the wonders of digital signage to Lake County.

For the uneducated, this does not mean turning beautiful Lake County into some kind of Las Vegas nightmare. What it does mean is actually reducing the total number of billboards in the county to further bring out the natural beauty of the area. At the same time, it means increasing the number of small business messages (and community service messages) regarding what this area has to offer.

A few strategically placed large digital signs can do a great more for the area than the current crop of stagnant billboards that only promote a single business. However, digital signage is not just going to improve outdoor communication. The software used to create outdoor digital signage can also transform Lake County's own press kits by enabling them to showcase the county with DVDs that deliver dynamic multimedia presentations.

The time has come to replace those stagnate PDF pictures with exciting videos. What would that even look like? See for yourself. Visit www.scala.com and watch the Scala V demo.

Believe it or not, right now Lake County does not even have an opinion on digital signage. According to District 1 Supervisor Ed Robey, the county's signage ordinance has not been updated for nearly 20 years. The time has come for an update. And, Rick Coel in the Lake County Planning Department is the one who needs to be encouraged to do it.

Lake County Administrator Kelly Cox has been in communication with Kevin Comora of Vizicast Multimedia – the company that handles digital signage for the Fisherman's Wharf and the Convention and Visitors Bureau in the Bay Area. Cox is eager to see Lake County move forward. But the antiquated sign ordinance must first get updated.

You may be surprised to learn that Lake County is actually listed in the Haines City-Directory system, which is nationwide. But, our own library system thinks otherwise. This citywide directory can be extremely beneficial to small businesses looking to conduct direct-mail campaigns for targeted marketing purposes – if only the library system would bother to carry them. Please contact your local public library and ask them to carry the Haines Directory for Lake and Mendocino counties. You can easily see that it is available online at www.haines.com/covfull1.htm#Lake-Mendocino_Counties.

Lake County need not stay "undiscovered" or always "waiting to happen." Remember, when caring people connect with other caring people, wonderful things can happen.

Whatever you feed grows. Whatever you starve dies. Let's stop starving Lake County's growth. Let's instead start feeding it. Need some additional ideas? Visit “Tools to Move Middletown Forward” at www.squidoo.com/TMMF.

Lamar Morgan owns CDMM - Synergistic Business Marketing. He live in Hidden Valley Lake.

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