The organizers for the Miles of Possibility Route 66 Conference, scheduled for Oct. 19-22 in Bloomington-Normal, announced the keynote speakers for the event a few days ago.
The theme for the eighth conference will be “The Great American Road Trip,” and the speeches will be on Oct. 20-21. The conference will be headquartered at the Bloomington-Normal Station at 11 Uptown Circle in Normal (map here).
Here are the keynote speakers:
— Evan Stern will present “Beyond Nostalgia and Neon: The Voices of Route 66.” Stern, an Austin, Texas, native, is the host and creator of “Vanishing Postcards,” which represents a synthesis of passions and was hailed as “one of the best podcasts of 2022” by Digital Trends.
— Jim Hinckley will present “In the Beginning: Dawn of the Great American Road Trip.” Hinckley, from Kingman, Arizona, is the creator of “Jim Hinckley’s America” travel network as well as an author, speaker, historian and tourism development consultant. He has 22 books and countless articles in publications ranging from American Road to True West.
— T. Lindsay Baker will present “Roadside Food and Mother Road Travelers.” Baker has written two dozen books on the American West, among them “Portrait of Route 66: Images from the Curt Teich Postcard Archives” and “Eating Up Route 66: Foodways on America’s Mother Road.” Baker is undertaking research for a history and heritage tourists’ driving guide to former U.S. 66 across the Texas Panhandle.
— Marian Pavel will present “Post-pandemic Route 66.” Pavel, from Bratislava, Slovakia, has spent 23 years working in Slovak media at local and multinational publishing houses. Since 2017, he has been committed to the Route 66 Navigation app and Route 66 Passport projects, overseeing their development, marketing and communication efforts.
New this year to the conference is the “Lunch and Learn” series of special sessions for tourism and community staff and volunteers. “Lunch and Learn” will be offered Thursday through Saturday, Oct. 19-21. Presenters for these three sessions include three seasoned tourism professionals.
— Bob Navarro will present “What’s New along The First Hundred Miles of ol’ Route 66.” He is the president and CEO of the Heritage Corridor Convention and Visitors Bureau. In the last two fiscal years, he received grants of $1.5 million and $1.6 million, respectively, for attraction development along Route 66.
— Scott Dahl will present “Route 66: The Road to 2026.” Dahl has served as director of the Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau since August 2018.
— Cory Jobe will present “The Last 100 Miles of Route 66 in Illinois.” Jobe is the president and CEO of the Great Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau.
The conference has opened registration with an early-bird fee of $100.
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