lelan dains

Visit Emporia it touting community partnerships after it earned three first place marketing awards during the Kansas Tourism conference in Wichita last week. 

The conference was held Oct. 17 – 19.

Visit Emporia’s awards include the People’s Choice Award, print advertising for the city’s disc golf and cycling field guides, and the Emporia Visitors Guide. Director LeLan Dains said this is the second consecutive time Emporia has earned the People’s Choice Award. 

“The thing about the People’s Choice Award is it’s not going based on community size or budget size,” he said. “We’re up against Kansas City, up against bigger communities who have budgets significantly larger than ours. So, to receive that two years in a row is somewhat unprecedented and I’m really, extraordinarily proud.”

Dains said it speaks to the innovation and creativity coming out of Emporia, being able to compete with those larger organizations across the state. 

“My perception is that the innovation resonates with them a little bit more, because they see how we can do more with less,” he said. 

One of those innovations, Visit Emporia’s bike chariots, just happened to win the People’s Choice Award this year. Dains said he saw a similar project out of Wales, U.K., where people were riding around a town festival on a chariot pulled by a bicycle. Thinking it was a neat idea, he brought the idea to Emporia. 

“I thought that was really fun and that’d be a great here, since we’re known as a cycling destination,” Dains said. 

IM Design Group co-owner Shawn Honea, whose company designed the wraps and worked with Visit Emporia on its publications, said it was an exciting accolade. He said IM Design has worked with Visit Emporia for years. 

“I think have the history is a really, really important aspect of working with them, and with the city,” Honea said. “LeLan has brought a whole new process to making this guide, with all new ideas. He’s a very excited, go-getter kinda dude. He’s making things happen, and I think that shows.” 

Dains said the collaboration with IM Design helps bring Visit Emporia’s designs to life. This year, Visit Emporia published its Visitors Guide in both English and Spanish. 

“I think that’s a big sticking point is that we had it translated into Spanish and made it available digitally, which very few communities across the state of Kansas are…