By Jim Sellers, Executive Director

Grand Lake Area Chamber of Commerce

September 26^th & 27^th may seem like a long way off, but now is the time to make plans for our annual Hook-N-Cookoff. This year it will be for two days starting at 5:00 p.m. Friday afternoon the 26th with Carnival rides, the Grand Lake Live Radio Show, Food, Beverages, and entertainment. All of this plus we have a Little Miss Catfish Contest in two age groups; the winner of this contest will be selected by the number of tickets sold for the Saturday events, plus some other prizes.

Saturday at 9:30 a.m. the gates will open and all the vendor booths will be set up to show you their offerings. The Power Squadron will have a swap meet set up with all sorts of boat stuff to trade, buy or wish you had. The Mustang Club will be there to show off their hard work on restoring one of America’s legend automobiles. A Fishing Seminar will be presented by GrandFishingReport.com and will feature long-time professional guide Ivan Martin, of Martin Guide Service, as well as other Grand Lake area fishing guides.

There will be a live band, more food and beverages and we plan on having a display boats and RV’s for you to see. Judging for the three categories of the cooking teams will take place just before all ticket holders start enjoying all the catfish, hush puppies and cole slaw.

As you can tell this is going to be a great family festival with something for everyone to enjoy. The Hook-N-Cookoff Committee is lead by Jay Vickers of the Grand Explorer magazine. There is still time for anyone to become a sponsor, a vendor or book a Cooking Team. Call the Chamber office on 918-782-3214 for information.

If you get this publication early enough you may still have time to make it to our luncheon meeting Thursday July 24^th at Arrowhead Yacht Club. Our program is by Lynn Smith from Rogers State University Innovations Center. She will have great information on marketing tools you can put to work in your business. This is just one more program to help small businesses in the Grand Lake area, a focus of our President Judy Florida of Harbors View Marina.

Next Tuesday is the time for everyone to voice their opinion by going to the polls and vote. There are County Clerk and Commissioner positions to be selected as well as State and Congressional positions. If you do not get out and vote you should not feel as though you have the right to complain!

Marketing Tip of the Week: Mistakes that are often made…

Masking the assumption that a company’s marketing and advertising is successful because the company is successful, and the reverse. For example, the new Tahoe may be a great seller for Chevrolet because of market place demand for SUV’s and not because Joe’s Chevrolet has good advertising. It is estimated that perhaps as little as 25% of a company’s sales is directly influenced by ONLY advertising… and yet, marketers and creators of advertising, are often unjustly blamed or given undue credit for a company’s total sales successes or failures.

HAVE A GREAT GRAND DAY!!!