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It's time to celebrate the year coming to an end with Visit Canton and fellow industry partners!

📅 Thursday, November 19, 2026
🕓 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
📍Nash Family Event & Conference Center at the Pro Football Hall of Fame

We're happy to announce that the Pro Football Hall of Fame will be hosting the Merry Mixer this year in the Nash Family Event & Conference Center.

Guests will be able to enjoy complimentary access to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Museum beginning at 2:00 PM. This is a great opportunity to take a walk through football history if you haven't, and if you have, it's a great time to see what's new & different!

At 4:00 PM, the Mixer will officially begin, and we can enjoy the company of fellow industry professionals. Guests will enjoy an assortment of appetizers, charcuterie, desserts, live music, a holiday-themed backdrop for pictures, and a 20% discount in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Store. Make sure you come with your Christmas shopping list for those football fans in your life!

We also encourage partners to bring toys to donate to the Salvation Army, as well as gifts representing your organization for our partner gift swap!

Click here to register!

If you have any questions about the event, please reach out to Gabe Baker, Partner Content Coordinator, gabeb@visitcanton.com.

Visit Canton offers a variety of grant programs to provide support to initiatives that create economic development to the region and increase visitation to Stark County.

All organizations and projects are subject to applicable annual grant application and committee review processes. Annual grant eligibility, application, and committee review processes are subject to change. Confirm and review the current grant eligibility and application details prior to submitting each cycle.

2027 Visit Canton Event Support Grants:

Visit Canton’s Event Support Grant program is designed to increase regional visitation and economic impact through visitor spending by supporting sporting events & tournaments, conferences, professional meetings, expos, and complementary experiences tied to qualifying events. Up to $10,000 per event for sporting events, tournaments, conferences, and expos that bring visitors to Stark County.

• Events must generate a minimum of 125 Stark County hotel room nights and/or 400 day visitors from outside Stark County.
• Applications must be submitted at least 90 days before the event.
• Events must take place during the 2027 calendar year.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year, pending available funding.

2027 Cultural Tourism Grants in partnership with ArtsinStark:The ArtsinStark/Visit Canton Cultural Tourism Grant program will invest up to $200,000 in 2026 to support arts and cultural events, programming, and marketing initiatives that drive regional visitation and visitor spending. Up to $20,000 per project supporting arts & cultural programming that drives regional visitation.

• Cycle 1 | Projects taking place: January 1–June 30, 2027Applications accepted: September 15–October 15, 2026
• Cycle 2 | Projects taking place: July 1–December 31, 2027Applications accepted: February 15–March 15, 2027

2027 ASL Access Grant in partnership with ArtsinStark:The ArtsinStark/Visit Canton ASL Access Grant provides funding to help arts and cultural organizations across Stark County make performances, programs and events more accessible to members of the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community. The pilot program will provide up to $20,000 in total grant funding to support ASL interpretation for eligible arts and cultural events taking place between November 15, 2026 - November 14, 2027.

Applications accepted September 15 - October 15, 2026.

Go to our Grant Programs Landing Page to learn more!

Do you want to give your visitors a unique way to interact with your organization?

Visit Canton is proud to offer partners the ability to create a unique experience for visitors via digital passes using the Bandwango platform!

Gervasi Vineyards utilizes our digital passes for their visitors during different seasons, such as their current pass, the Sip & Explore: Gervasi Destinations Fall Passport. This pass gives visitors points for spending $25 at each of their locations on the Gervasi property, as well as at the Twisted Olive & OLINDA. With their points, visitors can earn branded merchandise, GV Spa credit, GV resort credits, and more! This encourages visitors not only to spend money during their visit, but to visit more locations than they may have originally planned.

This pass exists on its own, outside of Visit Canton's regular passes intended to promote as many partners in Stark County as possible. Gervasi promotes this pass on their website and in each of their locations on the pass.

Visit Canton will build the pass for you and send you all the necessary information to promote the pass. We can also send you reports to show who has your pass and where and when they are checking in with the pass, helping you evaluate the success of the pass, or where it needs improvement.

Check out more of the Sip & Explore: Gervasi Destinations Fall Passport here!

If you have any questions about launching your own digital pass with the help of Visit Canton, please reach out to Gabe Baker, Partner Content Coordinator, gabeb@visitcanton.com.

The official Visit Canton 2026 Fall/Winter Travel Guide is here!

September to March, this will be the guide visitors need to navigate Stark County and find everything they need!

Whether they're looking for a place to eat, a place to drink, the best Christmas lights, or just interested in finding a new stop to shop, our 2026 Fall/Winter Travel Guide is a great resource for those visiting your location.

You might even find something new for you! This guide covers all of Stark County, so it's sure to shine a light on something you and Stark County residents didn't know about!

If you need a box of Travel Guides at your location, please reach out to Carole Camarata, Guest Services Manager, to request a delivery: carolec@visitcanton.com.

Do you have upcoming events and need more support from volunteers?

If your organization has volunteer needs, we’d love for you to share those opportunities with us.

Volunteer opportunities can include events, community programs, visitor services, or other areas where additional support would be helpful. Please include a brief description of the opportunity and what volunteers would be asked to do.

Even if you only need volunteers occasionally, we encourage you to share those opportunities with us. Our goal is to make it easier for community members to get involved and support local organizations and events. Thank you for helping us create more ways for people to volunteer and make a positive impact in our community!

Email Zita Blile, Sports Services & Marketing Coordinator, to help get your opportunities listed: zitab@visitcanton.com.

Visit Canton has a number of passes to help highlight and attract visitors to your business, attraction, or experience!

From the VIP Savings Pass to our newest pass, the Explore Stark: Autumn Adventures Bingo Pass, together we can find the best way to market and promote you to both residents of Stark County and our visitors.

The best part about our digital passes, the only one that isn't free is our Museum Pass. Passholders sign up online, then instantly receive an email & text with their digital pass and access to all the deals included. The passes can be downloaded to their phone, so they look and act like an app.

We are also promoting our partners that have Military Deals & Discounts. While this isn't in digital pass form, it's a great way to list your deals and let Veterans know how you support them. Whether you have an admission deal or discount on your products, we'd love to host it on our Veterans Guide to Canton!

Pass Breakdowns:

• VIP Savings Pass: Highlights your business to visitors with deals and discounts. This can include admission specials, product discounts, or anything else that would be considered a special.
• Pigskin's Pals Adventure Pass: Pigskin's Pals is for families of Stark County with children 12 & under. If you have any deals for kids 12 & under, we'd love to include them on this pass!
• Hall of Fame Hops: The Stark County Craft Brew Trail is back! HOF Hops encourages passholders to visit their favorite and new breweries continually. They will earn points that can be redeemed for brewery-branded & HOF Hops exclusive merch!
• Explore Stark Autumn Adventures Bingo: Our newest pass is live! Explore Stark Bingo has over 130 categorized activities for passholders to visit, checking in to earn a bingo. The first 50 bingos will be able to pick up a coupon for a FREE pie from the Hartville Kitchen & Bakery.
• Museum Pass: Our only paid pass offers visitors a discount to visit our area museums. There are four options available: a one-day Museum Pass including the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and a three-day Museum Pass including the Pro Football Hall of Fame. We also have both a one-day and three-day pass that does not include the Pro Football Hall of Fame for those who aren't football fans.

Our passes are completely digital, so your deal can be edited at any time, and it will change instantly for all passholders!

If you have any questions or would like to participate in one of the passes, please reach out to Gabe Baker, Partner Content Coordinator: gabeb@visitcanton.com.

Visit Canton is excited to announce or next pass, Explore Stark Bingo: Autumn Adventures!

Explore Stark Bingo: Autumn Adventures is a free digital experience inviting visitors to explore Stark County’s fall attractions, events, restaurants, shops and seasonal experiences. We're proud to highlight 130 of our partners who have seasonal events, experiences, and more!

From pumpkin patches and fall festivals to haunted attractions, seasonal treats, outdoor adventures and more, there’s something for everyone to discover. Gather your family and friends, get out and explore, and start checking off the squares on your BINGO board!

🎟️ FREE TO SIGN UP!
📱 Download the digital pass right to your phone
🍁 Valid September 15 - November 15

GET BINGO. GET PIE!

Participants will receive a digital BINGO board featuring a variety of Autumn Adventures throughout Stark County. Just like traditional BINGO, the goal is to get 5 squares in a row - horizontally, vertically or diagonally - to get BINGO!

Visit the featured activities on your BINGO board and check in through the digital pass to mark each square. Once you have 5 in a row, you’ve got BINGO!

The first 50 participants to get BINGO will receive a FREE pie from Hartville Kitchen Restaurant & Bakery!

Have a question about the pass? Reach out to Gabe Baker, Partner Content Coordinator, at gabeb@visitcanton.com.

Thank you all for creating such a great Industry Development Day with Visit Canton! We hope you learned something new and made new connections! A special thank you to Stark Parks for hosting their Exploration Gateway at Sippo Lake Park! It is a great place to host any type of event, and we hope you consider planning an event there in the future!

We are grateful to have had an informative and insightful panel for both our Economic Impact Panel and the Partnership Playbook Panel. Some things to keep in mind from each panel are listed below.

Economic Impact Panel:

• You will benefit from experiences and improvements that enhance your destination for both visitors and residents. If residents are happy with their community, visitors are likely to feel the same.
• Residents can overlook what they have available to them. Enhance your attractions, experiences, other businesses to attract visitors, while also marketing them to residents.
• It is easy to view businesses in your community as competition, but we would all benefit from supporting each other. View your fellow businesses as tools and resources rather than competition.

Partnership Playbook Panel:

• Learn what and who you have around, and use those relationships for your benefit. If you are lacking in certain areas, leverage your community partnerships to overcome those hurdles.
• Visitors often travel to a region with one main attraction in their plans, whether that be a museum, event or other experience. Be the reason those visitors expand their plans and seek to do more during their trip.
• Volunteers are often times the driving force that makes our communities operate at the level they do. Solidify your volunteer base and support them, so they will want to support you and continue to create a great visitor experience.

Visit Canton is proud to support all of you and your missions as they relate to ours, enhancing that Stark County destination and attracting visitors. Here are a few resources to keep in mind as you plan for 2027 and look to strengthen your relationship with us.

• Audience Dashboard/Economic Impact Numbers
• 2027 Partner Packages
  • Please remember, your travel guide ad commitment is due September 25th. You can contact Nicole Cardinale, ncardinale@GLStudios.com, to make your commitment.

• Partner Benefits & Resources

• Visit Canton Sales Luncheon - The Visit Canton Sales Team is changing things up a little for our Pittsburgh Sales Outreach! Instead of our 2-day sales blitz we had originally planned, we are now hosting a Sales Luncheon! If you're interested in joining, please reach out to Leslianne Lake, lesliannel@visitcanton.com.
• Visit Canton Grant Information
• Please submit any photos you got and would like to share from the event here!

Below you will find the media vendors that attended and their contacts if you didn't have a chance to connect with them, or if you did and would like to work together!

Great Lakes Studios: Nicole Cardinale, ncardinale@GLStudios.com
POS Innovation: Erik Miller, emiller@posinnovation.net, & Jon Metzger, jon@posinnovation.net
Advance Travel & Tourism: Wanda Mayhew, wmayhew@advancetravelandtourism.com
Outfront Media: Sharon Moses, sharon.moses@outfront.com
Qfactor Ads: Morgan Lesperance, morgan@qfactorads.com
Certified Travel Media: Lori Lam, llam@ctmmedia.com
Spectrum Reach: Suzanne Shively, suzanne.shively@charter.com, & Mickey Haba, mickey.haba@charter.com
Enjoy NEO: Mercedes Graham, mercedes@enjoyneo.com

Finally, we hope you enjoyed our newest addition to Industry Development day, the 30 Second Pitch Challenge! It was a fun portion, but we also hope you learned more about your Stark County partners and what they have to offer, as well as got some pitch practice in!

Pitch Award Winners:

• Bricks & Minifigs: Coach’s Pick Award – The attraction or experience you are most excited to visit.
• National First Ladies Library & Museum: Secret Play Award – A unique place or experience that deserves more attention.
• Stark Parks: Hall of Fame Moment Award – The most unforgettable presentation.
• Canton Palace Theatre: Rookie of the Year Award – The organization with the most exciting new experience or announcement for 2027.
• Stark Parks: Gold Jacket Award – The presentation everyone will be talking about after today's event.

Join OHLA for a happy hour mixer designed to reconnect, reenergize, and grow our hospitality community.

The Akron/Canton regional Membership Mixer brings together property members and allied partners for a relaxed, engaging opportunity to build meaningful connections. This is your chance to help shape a stronger, more connected local network—one conversation at a time. This will take place at 5010 S Main Street Akron, OH 44319.

📅 Thursday, October 15, 2026
🕦 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
📍Caston & Main Brew Yard, 5010 S Main Street Akron, OH 44319

Stop by for complimentary drinks and appetizers while connecting with fellow industry professionals. Whether you’re a longtime member or exploring what OHLA has to offer, enjoy networking, sharing ideas, and building valuable industry relationships.

Click here to register!

If you have any questions or issues regarding registration contact Sara with OHLA, at sara@ohla.org.

We are deep in the throes of 2027 planning, including next year's Travel Guide, activations in the community, and content ideas!

Upload your 2027 events with as many details as possible so we can include them in our upcoming promotional opportunities!

Our Travel Guide will continue to include a calendar of events that will highlight our communities. We are also planning event activations with Pigskin, our Welcome Wagon, and Pop-Up Shops! Our content team is looking forward to new and exciting ways to continue capturing your destinations and market them to visitors.

If you have any questions or issues uploading your events with the event submission form, Reach out to Gabe Baker, Partner Content Coordinator, gabeb@visitcanton.com.

The Visit Canton Sales Team is changing things up a little for our Pittsburgh Sales Outreach!

Instead of our 2-day sales blitz we had originally planned, we are now hosting a Sales Luncheon!

Event details:

• When: Thursday, October 15, 2026 ~ 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
• Where: Grand Concourse | 100 W Station Square Dr, Pittsburgh, PA 15219
• Who: Visit Canton sales team, Stark County tourism partners, Pittsburgh area meeting planners, group tour operators, and sporting events rights holders.
• Partner Requirements to participate:
  • Door prize valued $100+
  • 30-50 giveaway items

Have questions or would like to attend? Please reach out to Leslianne Lake, Visit Canton Sales Manager by Friday, September 11, 2026, lesliannel@visitcanton.com.

Spooky Season is on the way, get your Fall Fun & Halloween events submitted!

If you are hosting a fall festival, pumpkin patch, corn maze, Halloween event, haunted attraction, trunk-or-treat, or any other seasonal activity, we encourage you to submit it to our Event Calendar.

Be sure to submit your event as early as possible so it has the best opportunity to be included in our promotions. Complete event details, photos, and updates help us share your event more effectively.

Together, we can create a vibrant lineup of seasonal experiences that encourage visitors to explore, stay longer, and support local businesses! Thank you for partnering with us to make this fall and Halloween season one to remember.

We look forward to helping you spread the word!

Submit your events here!

Contact our Partner Content Coordinator, Gabe Baker, at gabeb@visitcanton.com for additional assistance or questions!

Visit Canton Pittsburgh Sales Luncheon: Visit Canton’s Pittsburgh Sales Blitz on October 15 will provide an exciting opportunity for tourism and hospitality partners to connect directly with meeting planners, association executives, and business leaders in the Pittsburgh market. If you’d like to find out more information and attend with Visit Canton, please contact Leslianne Lake, Visit Canton Sales Manager, lesliannel@visitcanton.com.

• Date: Thursday, October 15, 2026
• Location: Grand Concourse | 100 W Station Square Dr, Pittsburgh, PA 15219

Visit Canton Merry Mixer: Join fellow attractions, restaurants, hotels, venues, arts and culture organizations, and community partners for an evening of networking, celebration, and holiday cheer as we reflect on another successful year of tourism in Stark County.

• Date: Thursday, November 19, 2026
• Time: 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
• Location: It could be YOU!

Click here to find out more information and register to attend events.

Business and Event Listings Updates, Exploreboard Maintenance, and New Partner Onboarding: Gabe Baker, gabeb@visitcanton.com

Website Updates and Social Content Requests: Willis Brienza, willisb@visitcanton.com

Welcome Center Brochures and Travel Guide Requests: Carole Camarata, carolec@visitcanton.com

Grants, Industry Partner Programs, Marketing and Promotions Opportunities: Allison Gromofsky, allisong@visitcanton.com

Important Reminders Regarding the Use of “America 250” Logos & Brand Placement:

• The word mark “America 250” is owned by the national America 250 Commission.
• The Ohio Commission holds the license to use the words “America 250” in our logo and communications.
  
• Permission to use the words “America 250” can be granted if:
  • Your organization is an official America 250-Ohio Community, or
  • You have signed an America 250-Ohio logo agreement.

• If your organization wishes to use the national America 250 logo, permission must be obtained from the national organization.

We encourage all partners to review these resources to support your 2026 America 250 projects and ensure proper use of the America 250 brand. You can also download the America 250-OH Stark County logo here.

We want to see your best shots!

Whether it's a scenic view, a fun event, or your latest photoshoot, upload your photos and videos to help us showcase what makes our area a great destination.

Upload Directly to Visit Canton, or use the submission further down this page!

• Partner Benefits & Industry Resources
• Event Planning Resource Guide

Visit Canton uses a technology platform to aggregate event listings from Google-indexed data. If your event is listed on Eventbrite, Ticketmaster, Facebook, or your website, it may already be listed. View the Event Guide for more information on the automation process.

If you prefer to submit your event manually, please submit event details here.