Missouri Main Street Connection Visited Phillideliphia for the 2025 Main Street Now Conference
April 30, 2025 | Logan Breer
Missouri Main Street Connection visited Philadelphia for the 2025 Main Street Now conference. This annual conference provides Coordinating Main Street and local Main Street programs time to hear from thought leaders during educational sessions and mobile workshops surrounding the conference themes and the Main Street Approach™. These sessions deliver tailored information to attendees from Missouri and across the county in alignment with the core theme “A Healthy Main Street Movement” and it’s three sub-themes of “Connect”, “Innovate”, and “Sustain”. Over 50 individuals from Missouri Main Street Connection’s (MMSC) network brought back many great ideas and new perspectives that we can’t wait to share with our colleagues and begin to implement.
For MMSC, the Main Street Now conference starts off the weekend before the Opening Plenary with Coordinator’s Meetings presented by Main Street America. Our State Coordinator, Gayla Roten, alongside MMSC Vice-President Bridgette Kelch and MMSC Executive Leadership Trustee Steven Hoffman, connected with other Coordinating Programs to learn new things that Main Street America has planned for the coming year. Additionally, Ben White, Senior Program Specialist, and Bob Lewis, MMSC Immediate Past President, arrived to participate in the Economic Vitality and Design workshops available to staff and board members of Coordinating Main Street programs.
Overall, the MMSC staff, board, and volunteers attended incredible sessions that will enable them to better serve Missouri’s Main Street communities. Several have major takeaways from attending the conference that they wanted to share with those who could not attend.
Gayla Roten, MMSC State Director, shared, “As Missouri’s State Coordinating Program, we immersed ourselves in all the meetings, sessions, and Philly experiences. Every year, my team and I enjoy hearing what our peers are achieving in their Coordinating Programs; learning new insights of what Main Streets are accomplishing in local communities; and experiencing the uniqueness of each city Main Street Now is hosted in. The National Main Street team and the other Coordinating Programs continue to inspire me to do more for our communities here in Missouri. I always tell my team, ‘it’s been a productive and insightful meeting if you leave with Coordinator envy.’ Yes, Coordinator envy! We continue to strive to provide top experiences, services, and training to our communities, and hearing what others are achieving gives us ideas and tools to, rip off and duplicate, or R&D just like we train our local programs to do.”
Logan Breer, Marketing & Communications Manager, shared, “This was my fourth in-person Main Street Now conference. Just like previous years, the conference sessions opened my perspective to new ways to implement the Main Street Approach™.
My favorite session was Wednesday’s Main Idea session “How to Dream, Play, and Build: Hands on Community Engagement.” This Main Idea session was revolutionary about the way Main Streets can implement revitalization projects by gaining community participation and opinions using, essentially, play therapy. John Kamp and James Rojas brilliantly showed how they lead community engagement workshops that utilize both visual and verbal elements to tap into people’s memories and allow them to express their wants, not their perceived needs, leading to fantastic spaces being created where the community can come together. This Main Idea session was followed by a Deep Dive that I attended instead of the sessions I had planned because I knew I needed to learn more about their method of community engagement workshops. This is the best part of attending as a group as I could make changes to my planned sessions.
Lastly, I enjoyed sitting with staff and volunteers from our communities. I ended up in many sessions with Waymon from Warrensburg. It was great to be present in these sessions, overlapping with our communities, and be able to chat with staff and volunteers afterwards to flesh out the concepts learned. It was also a privilege to be able to provide insight during a Q&A session to further the conversation regarding a community’s question from another state.”
Bob Lewis, MMSC Immediate Past-President, shared “Not surprisingly, the conference was fun with an abundance of enthusiastic delegates from all over the country. I learned a lot while listening to the speakers including some new ideas, while other concepts I previously knew were reinforced. I would love for you to be inspired by the following concepts that I believe need to make their way to Missouri:
(1) A Business Community Ownership fund (check out Seattle) to cover the increases in gentrification-driven rent for well-established small businesses.
(2) Including hands-on, sensory workshops into the planning process of Main Street’s placemaking projects and other initiatives including: walkabouts, pop-up models, Lego building, involving kids and old folks, and the like. It’s not just about talking and numbers.
(3) Work on creating a Main Street district inventory by adding your community’s buildings and parcels to the BOOMS Tracker. Use the data to inform infill plans, tenanting strategies, and attracting upper story housing. The BOOMS Tracker can also include business types.”
Katelyn Brotherton, Strategic Partnership Coordinator, articulated, “The Main Street Now conference is always so energizing because we get to learn from the network of communities and states that are doing the work we are doing in Missouri. To feel the energy of that many people working toward the same goal and being of the same mindset makes you excited for what Main Street can accomplish.
This conference really highlighted how flexible the Main Street Approach™ is. There is no “correct” way to accomplish revitalization and each community must do what works for them. The approach is a framework for success that, with creativity and perseverance, allows communities to customize how they reach their goals. Main Street work is very hard and can be draining, but it is also so rewarding and impactful. The sessions targeted at supporting the longevity of Main Street Directors and being realistic about the challenges resonated with me. We have to support those implementing the Main Street work so that it can continue!”
Every year the Main Street Now conference widens the perspective of all who attend through the interactions with other attendees, the conference location, and the speakers. Missouri Main Street Connection extends their gratitude to Main Street America and Pennsylvania Downtown Center for hosting Main Street Now.
If you missed attending the 2025 Main Street Now, you can join Missouri Main Street Connection in St. Charles from July 22-24 for the 2025 Missouri’s Premier Downtown Revitalization Conference to experience our conference while you wait for next year to go to Tulsa for the 2026 Main Street Now conference.
