Danny Twilley of the Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative at West Virginia University #100

Trail EAffect Episode 100 with Danny Twilley of the Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative at West Virginia University

This is Part 1 of a 4 Part Series featuring the Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative

Danny Twilley Backstory
Stacking Outdoor Experiences
Outdoor Recreation Transforming People and Place
The Bailey’s Trail System Backstory in Athens County Ohio
Becoming part of the IMBA Trail Labs Presenters Team
How Danny ended up at West Virginia University Backstory
Side Topic – Back to Bailey’s Trail System
Creating the Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative
- Born out of an idea at the 2019 Snowshoe WV World Cup Event
Selling the vision through a data driven approach and presentation
Asset Mapping and how they used data see how West Virginia compares to other outdoor recreation communities
Danny attending a presentation by Brad Smith, the CEO of Intuit at the time
Tulsa, OK and Outdoor Recreation, and how that lead to Danny digging deeper
- What Tulsa Remote was doing
Learning and leveraging the Remote Worker Concept
- Looking at other states similar to West Virginia and learning / creating the narrative on the West Virginia Advantage
Pressure testing the concept of Remote Work
The first meeting / presentation to Brad Smith
The gift of 25 million dollars from Brad and Alys Smith
Building out the Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative through the core of COVID – 2020 / 2021
Partnering with the West Virginia Department of Tourism
Creating Ascend West Virginia
Tourism is the Red Carpet to Residency
- Creating Ambassadors for the state
The West Virginia Advantage: Valuable, Rare and Hard to Imitate
Really digging deep into community data, and a complete holistic approach on this
- Ground Truthing this by actually talking to the residents of the communities
Trails – the arteries of Outdoor Recreation that can be built unlike other outdoor recreation assets
Putting trails in within a mile of every house in Morgantown, WV
The reason for hiring an expert in trail development for the team such as Rich Edwards
The reason for hiring Andy Williamson his understanding of non-profits, communities and outdoor recreation
The importance of a good Trail Plan / Design in unlocking funding for trail building
Closing Comments and teasers for Parts 2, 3 and 4 of this series

Links:

Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative: https://oedc.wvu.edu/

Dr. Danny Twilley Bio: https://oedc.wvu.edu/about-us/meet-the-team/danny-twilley

Brad D. Smith: https://braddsmith.com/

Ascend West Virginia: https://ascendwv.com/

Bailey’s Trail System: https://baileystrailsystem.org/

This Podcast has been edited and produced by Evolution Trail Services

Trail EAffect Show Links:

Evolution Trail Services: www.evotrails.com

Contact Josh at evolutiontrails@gmail.com

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