GLASGOW — By LISA SIMPSON STRANGE

Glasgow Daily Times

Handing out business cards to network and promote business has been standard procedure for decades.

While giving someone a business card has been a good way to disseminate information, it doesn’t really have a hook or that impressive “wow” factor needed for a good marketing campaign.

Industrial Development Economic Authority executive director Dan Iacconi and interim executive director Don Doty have launched a new project to help promote Glasgow and Barren County to industries interested in relocating to the area.

With the help of David Downing of DM Media, Iacconi and Doty have developed a jump drive that contains all types of information about the area that would be of interest to potential employers. They passed several out at a recent meeting in Atlanta.

“We wanted to be kind of innovative here and creative so we put together this jump drive instead of just handing out business cards. We thought we would give them a jump drive and just try another approach to marketing,” Iacconi said.

The drive is smaller than a business card, but holds a thousand times the amount of information. Once it is plugged into a computer, it presents the viewer with a program that shows multiple aspects of the community.

“The jump drive covers everything from education, workforce, fiber optics, medicine – we have T.J. Samson’s (Community Hospital) disk on there, a video they made,” Iacconi said. “It covers all the demographics – what we have available for local and state incentive programs. It covers the spectrum.”

Both Iacconi and Doty said feedback on the drive has been very positive.

The plug-in also has IDEA’s Web site information on it, Doty said.

“Everything that would take you probably 30 minutes to watch. Plug that in and see our whole show,” he said. “We thought they were neat little devices and a lot of people looked at those and were impressed with them.”

Another initiative IDEA has launched is a partnership through the Kentucky Economic Development Cabinet with a regional magazine publication.

“The Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development is launching a new centerpiece for their marketing strategy,” Iacconi said. “Ernie Myers (Glasgow-Barren County Chamber of Commerce executive vice president) brought this to our attention probably about a month and a half ago.”

The Kentucky cabinet is working with Journal Communications to put out a multimedia magazine, he said. Iacconi spoke with Economic Development Cabinet Interim Secretary Larry Hayes and Gov. Steve Beshear during a recent trip to Frankfort and said both are advocates of the magazine.

“They appreciated our interest in it right away,” he said. “What I like about this promotion strategy is we are going to be partnering up with the Kentucky cabinet because they completely support this magazine – talking to Gov. Beshear and Sec. Hayes.”

There will be an article and advertising in the publication, which will will highlight the Glasgow and Barren County area. The magazine will be published in May. The cabinet will distribute 15,000 copies to key business partners and will pass them out at conferences and trade shows. The information will also be posted on Journal Communi-cations’ Web site.

The publication will be available locally with 400 copies being distributed to industries and other locations.

“This magazine will promote our progressive community,” Iacconi said. “Glasgow and Barren County will be represented ... very well.”

The global automotive industry downturn has had a real impact on the local community, Iacconi said.

“This is uncharted water in my career. I’ve never seen such a downturn,” he said. “We recognize it’s having a negative impact on our community. It’s across the board in the automotive sector.”

With one type of industry losing ground locally, others must be found to take its place in order to provide jobs to area workers.

“We’re looking for anything to get a competitive edge here in marketing strategy,” Iacconi said. “Marketing is going to be key to be successful in economic growth right now. Job creation to me is the key.”

For more information about IDEA, go to its Web site at www.glasgowbarrenidea.com.