Statewide downtown revitalization conference comes to Morganton in 2027

Downtown Morganton businesses can expect to see a surge in foot traffic next spring as the city hosts the 2027 North Carolina Main Street Conference, an event expected to bring in hundreds of people for the largest downtown revitalization event in the country.

Morganton’s Main Street Manager Makenzie McGinnis is already planning for the weeklong event, just a week after returning from this year’s conference in New Bern, which brought in over 800 people from 157 different cities across 16 states.

The state’s Main Street program remains a model for other states, and McGinnis said she’s excited for people to see how much Morganton’s downtown has grown since the last time Morganton hosted the event, over a decade ago.

The conference, which will be from March 8-11, will bring Main Street leaders into downtown Morganton to hear keynote speakers, participate in workshops, and other professional development programs. The event also brings in statewide elected officials, with the possibility of a visit from Governor Josh Stein and other high-ranking state officials.

The event gives Main Street leaders the opportunity to learn what other communities are doing and how to best implement new initiatives that would bring revitalization to their downtowns. It gives leaders information about how to measure trends in economic development.

Preparation will be a citywide effort, and the City of Morganton Municipal Auditorium will be utilized for keynote speakers, but McGinnis said she hasn’t quite fleshed out where other workshops and sessions will take place. In the past, local churches, the Community House, and the downtown theater were used, but details are still being worked out.

The city will create a committee to prepare for the event, and each department will be in charge of helping in some capacity, McGinnis said. North Carolina Main Street will be in charge of programming.

McGinnis had the opportunity to speak at the New Bern conference about Morganton’s Downtown Bucks program, which are gift certificates that can be used in downtown businesses. They come in $5 increments and can be spent in retail businesses, restaurants, and the movie theater. Once collected, businesses return the Bucks to the Main Street office for cash.

McGinnis said she had the opportunity to explain how the program works administratively, and how the program works with promotional events like Buck Wild, which won Best Retail Promotion at this year’s conference.

“We all come together, we share ideas, and it gives you a chance to explore and learn from different towns and cities across the state,” McGinnis said. Since she became manager in Morganton, she and Kasey Goodfellow have attended conferences in Goldsboro and Mooresville.

The City of Morganton has been a Main Street Community since 1982, and city leaders are getting more involved in the program, with nine leaders going to this year’s conference.

Morganton Mayor Pro Tem Wendy Cato was among the nine, and was recognized as a Main Street Champion, someone who is committed to downtown revitalization and building strong communities. City Manager Sally Sandy, City Councilman Chris Jernigan, Creative and Cultural Development Director Sharon Jablonski, Chairman of the Main Street Advisory Board Tal Stephanides, and Discover Burke County’s Katherine Christie also attended the conference.

Prepping for next year’s event means notifying all downtown businesses, so they can be prepared to make the most of the increased foot traffic downtown. New Bern’s Mayor reported weekend-like sales for businesses in the middle of the week as the conference was underway in the coastal community.

“Everybody has to come together,” McGinnis said. “You’re going to get the traffic and we need to be able to accommodate people, so it’s a really good opportunity.”

It’s the perfect time for business owners to spruce up their appearance and host a special event to entice visitors, McGinnis said.

“It’s kind of like the championship. You’re on display, and here’s your time to shine,” McGinnis said.

Her hope is that people will take inspiration from downtown Morganton, and incorporate that inspiration into their own communities. For McGinnis, this year’s conference sparked inspiration of transforming older downtown buildings into boutique hotels, or assessing downtown’s anchors.

“It’s an anchor’s job to generate activity, it’s the block’s job to capture it,” she said, adding that she learned the phrase at this year’s conference, and it drives home that it’s a collective effort of all the businesses on a block to keep foot traffic in the area.

“We’re grateful to be a really developed Main Street program. We’ve been through a lot, and learned a lot, but we can always learn from other people too,” McGinnis said.

“This is all of us welcoming people to downtown and showing them who we are, what we have to offer, and also where we’re going to go because we have a lot of room to grow, too,” she said.