(Fuquay-Varina, NC — February 13, 2009) G&W Events is currently seeking a new, private location for the first annual Experience OBX festival, an Outer Banks oriented event that will bring together locals, tourists, businesses, and non-profits to educate, inform and entertain visitors. The original location, Roanoke Island Festival Park, has suddenly backed out for unknown reasons.

“The early response from local businesses and non-profits has blown us away,” explains event co-founder Jessica Galvanek. “We’ve already received requests from many local businesses indicating that they’d like to be a part of the festival and help local non-profits, but now we are faced with the task of finding a new location that can accommodate the size of the festival and its expected attendees.”

G&W Events is soliciting bids from Outer Banks private locations that have a large indoor or outdoor space, ample parking, and a central location on the island that is easily accessible. The event is expected to draw tourists, locals, and business owners and would be an excellent opportunity to showcase your location and help the community.   

“Because admission to Experience OBX is free for all visitors, we expect to capture a significant amount of the 5 million visitors that come to the Outer Banks each year,” says co-founder Paxton Galvanek. “Participating in Experience OBX gives local businesses increased exposure, a multitude of new sales opportunities, and a chance to give back to the local community. The hosting location for the event would receive all the same benefits as our sponsors.”

If you have a centrally located Outer Banks indoor or outdoor event space and are interested in accommodating Experience OBX, please e-mail Paxton and Jessica Galvanek at contact@experienceobx.com or call 252-489-4885.

First of all, we would like to thank all of the local businesses, non-profits, and our friends and family for their outpouring of support and enthusiasm about Experience OBX 2009. We never imagined that our event would attract so many potential sponsors and participants. We are still committed to getting the event off the ground for this upcoming summer, however we have recently encoutered some delays and setbacks concerning the location of the event, Roanoke Island Festival Park.

After an excellent and informative meeting with Scott Stroh, executive director at Roanoke Island Festival Park, on January 23rd, we identified several areas of concern for RIFP. Namely, Scott and the RIFP were concerned about the level of community involvement and questioned the demand and interest in an event of this type.  We have taken action on our end to rectify these issues, however we have been unable to get a hold of Scott and RIFP since the meeting.

Since Experience OBX is first and foremost an event for the community, its businesses, residents, and visitors, we are asking you all to please reach out to Scott and RIFP to express your support and anticipation for the event. Based on the number of inquiries we have already received, we are confident that this event will be successful, but now we need your help convincing RIFP of that.

Scott Stroh can be reached at Scott.Stroh@ncmail.net. Please show your support and email your words of encouragement and excitement about Experience OBX and the financial benefits it will bring to the local economy and non-profits.

Thanks again for your continuing support and we look forward to seeing you this summer!

In two articles published in late 2008, travel experts offer OBX businesses an optimistic forecast for the 2009 Summer Travel season. According to an article posted on The Travel Advocate (“the travel industry is facing grim forecasts for 2009. Yet, according to a report released by travel industry supplier travel market that is more than $24 billion is poised to grow next year – vacation rental properties.” Bookt, one niche

The competitive pricing of vacation rental properties are more appealing in this recession than their more expensive, and less accommodating counterparts, such as luxury hotels or resorts. Even for travelers who need to travel to OBX by air, the savings that rental properties offer can offset the increasing air travel costs. The Outer Banks was the 3rd most popular vacation rental destination in 2008.

In an article published in November 2008, Frommers offers families 20 tips for traveling during a recession. Their #2 tip urges families to pick a destination within driving distance. According to Pauline Frommer, “The family road trip is still cheapest way to travel, and especially now that we’re seeing the price of gas going down.” This is great news for Outer Banks businesses, since according to the North Carolina Department of Commerce, over 80% of NC visitors who stayed overnight arrived by automobile.

Given the advantages for both visitors that fly and visitors that drive, the OBX appears to be a truly recession proof vacation destination, good news for Outer Banks businesses who may be frightened at the prospect of a slower summer season.

Welcome to the Experience OBX Blog and I appreciate that you are taking the time to read this blog entry.

It was always our intent to help the local Outer Banks community when we developed Experience OBX, but we are trying to take things to a completely new level. Experience OBX was created to help educate tourists in an entertaining fashion while putting them directly in front of local OBX businesses and organizations. While this festival will be completely free to the public, local businesses will pay a small fee to be part of the event. 

We are also trying to help all local OBX non-profit organizations as much as possible and we are offering them the opportunity to participate in Experience OBX completely free. We plan to give each participating non-profit a 10×10 location and booth as well as time on stage to present and help them promote their “cause”. On top of all that, Experience OBX will be donating a portion of the festival proceeds to all participating non-profit organizations.

No only will these non-profits get their name out to the public and hopefully receive public donations, but Experience OBX will be donating to them directly. After spending years in the beautiful Outer Banks of North Carolina, it’s time for me to start giving back. We hope that local businesses see the potential with Experience OBX, and plan to be part of the event. If you have any questions about Experience OBX or the Outer Banks in general, please reach out to me. Thank you kindly.

-Paxton Galvanek

ExperienceOBX.com has launched the new website in late 2008 and the site is still being updated but visitors can now get a good feel for what the event is about.  Experience OBX is a family-oriented, fundraising event for the Outer Banks community.  It plans to be fun and educational for all ages and we can’t be more excited about it! 

If you find Experience OBX interesting, but want to know more than is currently available on ExperienceOBX.com, please contact us by email at contact@experienceobx.com or by phone at 252-489-4885.

Check back weekly for exciting updates to ExperienceOBX.com!