LocalScoop.com–The Insider’s Guide to the Heart and Soul of any Destination
Sara Baldwin founder of New Ravenna, at one time the largest mosaic studio in North America, has a new entrepreneurial adventure. After selling New Ravenna in September of 2017, she began developing Local Scoop as an attempt to give back, solve a travelers’ dilemma, celebrate the abundant culture we love, and champion creative endeavors.
LocalScoop.com is a new website for residents and travelers alike who wish to quickly access the best local, authentic, food and drink, artists and artisans, shopping, experiences, and events. The site is built by a network of volunteer regional concierges called “curators”.
Virginia’s Eastern Shore is the proof-of-concept – an experiment to see if the undertaking is viable and worthy of expansion into other areas.
In addition to digital marketing, Local Scoop will distribute rack cards at hotels, airports, BnB’s, visitor centers and restaurants. It has also rented a south-facing billboard located just north of Eastville, starting from the middle of May and running through the summer season.
Founder Sara Baldwin refers to the people who create exceptional goods and services as “creatives”: “The goal of Local Scoop is to celebrate these enterprising creatives and promote their efforts, while at the same time editing the flea market of information available online via Yelp or TripAdvisor into an organized and concise list, only including exceptional attractions.”
Typical attraction profiles include restaurants that source locally-grown produce, shops that sell locally-made/grown and/or designed goods, galleries, meat and vegetables raised by local farmers, value-added food products, eco-tours, local artisans, writers, musicians, artists, local creative service enterprises, and selected events.
“Our hope is that Local Scoop can eventually become a Wikipedia of Creatives;” says Sara, “an economic development tool and branding platform, especially in challenged rural areas like ours”.
In the meantime, she encourages as much feedback as possible; please submit comments and suggestions via the contact form on the website.
Finally, if there are any potential curators who wish to contribute to the well-being of the Shore and its creatives (in particular she is looking for someone with basic graphic design skills who knows the upper Shore well), please contact her.
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What a great idea! Maybe you can coordinate with Cape Charles Happenings and the town of Cape Charles to cover current events. Love the format! Great job!