HOISINGTON — Hoisington Main Street Inc. held a quarterly training session in Hoisington for the state-wide Main Street Inc. program with over 80 people from across the state in attendance last Thursday. On Friday, about 30 directors also attended the directors-only conference.

This is the first conference Hoisington has held for Main Street. Now that Hoisington has the motel capacity to accommodate that many people, it was decided to hold the program here.

"Everyone was impressed with the pole art," said Pat Horton. It is "something we can draw people with. The (Hoisington) people were friendly. Overall, they were very impressed with the community."

The presentations on Friday for directors were sessions on managing budgets.

Jay Schlinsog spoke on Thursday. He encouraged the audience to think about small scale events instead of only mass festivals and special events.

"Kansas is a great place," said Schlinsog. Various attendees expressed concerns about their communities dying. He suggested some solutions.

Events that pull young families are important so that younger generation become interested in downtown to have fun, is something communities could do, he said.

Schlinsog said that an important part of promotion was to develop and refine a quality image for the district.

He mentioned how tough the business climate was, but that promotion should continue. He encouraged people to seek ideas from others.

Schlinsog is the owner and managing principal of Downtown Professionals Network.

Also speaking was Ben 

partner in community branding specialist at Arnett Muldrow & Associates.