Visit Cook County was the big winner at the January 31 Explore Minnesota annual conference held at the St. Paul River Center this past week, picking up three awards. Front row: Molly O’Neill, Visit Cook County; and Pascha Apter, CEO – Giant Voices. Back row from left to right: Kjersti Vick, Visit Cook County; Lynn Nelson, LIN Public Relations; Katie Krantz, Visit Cook County; Linda Jurek, executive director – Visit Cook County, John Edman, chair and CEO – Explore Minnesota Tourism.
On Jan. 31, 2017, Visit Cook County, the tourism organization for Grand Marais and surrounding communities, received a record-breaking three awards during the Explore Minnesota annual conference.
Linda Jurek, VCC executive director was named a rising star at the conference, as well as accepted an award for each of the following VCC-created events: the Lutsen 99er and Storm Fest.
No organization has previously received that many awards during one conference. The awards were for Linda Jurek, VCC executive director, who was named a rising star, and for two VCC-created events: the Lutsen 99er, an extreme 99-mile bike race that occurs on Lutsen Mountains every June; and Storm Fest, a November celebration of the might of Lake Superior.
“I give a lot of credit to my team,” says Kratt. “My staff is extremely creative and hard-working. And our partnership with marketing firm Giant Voices in Duluth and LIN Public Relations in the Twin Cities has been extremely productive.
VCC nominator Pascha Apter, CEO of Giant Voices, said, “Working with Visit Cook County is truly enjoyable. We have the good fortune of marketing one of the most beautiful tourism destinations in the world, and we have gotten some tremendous results during the past three years.”
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