Wonderful Women in Waxahachie

August 2019 Main Street Matters

By Anita Brown Simpson, Main Street Manager, Waxahachie

In the fall of 2016, the Waxahachie Main Street Program and Waxahachie Convention & Visitors Bureau were approached by Janine Pettit, host of the Girl Camper podcast and contributor to GoRving.com and Country Living Magazine, about hosting women’s outdoor adventure show centering around vintage and new trailers camped in Getzendaner Park. The podcast has listeners nationwide that are encouraged and inspired by the host, Ms. Pettit, to overcome their fears of camping through inspirational interviews with women who have made the leap. “Going Places. Doing Things.” is the motto of the Girl Camper.

Wonderful Women in Waxahachie was the 2018 TDA President’s Winner for Best Promotional Event.

After listening to Pettit promote the historic charm of Waxahachie and being centrally located in Texas, Waxahachie has become a popular destination for first-time campers. Downtown Waxahachie would be the main attraction to draw these women to Texas from all around the United States. In addition to nature, the real beauty of Getzendaner Park is that it conveniently connects to Main Street and is only 12 blocks from the courthouse square. Campers could also access downtown Waxahachie via the scenic route of the Waxahachie Creek Hike & Bike Trail that runs from the park to downtown.

The main goal of Wonderful Women in Waxahachie was to introduce and attract a whole new demographic—women outdoor adventure enthusiasts —to downtown Waxahachie. Always on the lookout for new and interesting events and groups to share our wonderful community with, Waxahachie jumped on the chance to host this group. To ensure the success of the event, the Girl Camper invited her friends, founders of Sisters on the Fly, to cohost the event, and they graciously accepted the invite. Sisters on the Fly is an international membership organization that consists of over 10,000 members with the motto of “Having More Fun than Anyone.” Waxahachie had “Sisters” represented from all regions of the state of Texas at the Wonderful Women in Waxahachie.

The estimated attendance of Wonderful Women in Waxahachie in 2018 was 100 registered campers representing 13 states (AZ, CA, CO, KS, KY, MI, MO, NY, OK, PA, SC, WA, and TX) and one international destination (New Zealand), plus hundreds of spectators that visited Waxahachie to tour the decorated trailers and campsites. Also in attendance were other bloggers and podcasters such as Kate Dunbar - KatesCuriousKitchen.com and contributor to RV Family Travel Atlas’s Campground of the Week; Instagrammer Jill Jones Evans – @trailerandwagon; and Tiffany Bonner – WhereisTiffany.com.

Wonderful Women in Waxahachie impacted the community and contributed to the revitalization of our downtown/commercial district in multiple ways, including:

• Publicity – Downtown Waxahachie has been featured on multiple episodes of the Girl Camper podcast from 2017 to present day not only promoting the Wonderful Women in Waxahachie event, but other events like the Farm-to-Table event that takes place in the month of November, keeping Waxahachie top of mind with that audience year-round. The event has proven to serve as a media trip for travel bloggers just as much as an outdoor adventure show for women with multiple bloggers in attendance from Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, and Kentucky. This is publicity for downtown Waxahachie that would not be possible without the appeal of this event.

• Economic Impact – The real motto of most of these women is “Shop ‘til You Drop, Then Crawl.” It was reported by our Waxahachie Downtown Merchants Association that this group of 100 campers, plus their followers, made a big impact on their business that weekend, and stood out above the other traffic that was created by some large regional events taking place that same weekend.

  The attendees also make an economic impact on the Crossroads of Texas Film & Music Festival held in conjunction with the Wonderful Women in Waxahachie event because part of their registration fee pays for a VIP pass to the film and music event. Part of Waxahachie’s commitment to host the campers includes providing food and parties for the women in the evening, so the Crossroads of Texas Film & Music Festival accomplishes that goal for the Wonderful Women, plus adds attendance and flair to Film & Music Festival.

• Social Media – Through Janine Pettit’s Girl Camper connection with GoRVing.com, she was allowed to host a Facebook Live event from Getzendaner Park in Waxahachie for their 765,000 Facebook followers, of which 23,000 viewed.

  Wonderful Women in Waxahachie is the perfect example of “conversion catalyst” whereby we turn a social visitor into a social agent. The attendees tend to be some of the savviest at creating “Facebook envy” by posting photos of everything that they do every step of the way; therefore, the reach of 100 women combined with dedicated group pages of the Sisters on the Fly and Girl Camper = priceless social agents.

  The majority of the attendees also went the extra mile on Facebook to thank the City of Waxahachie for working so hard to make their stay perfect and acknowledging the community pride that they witnessed. All of the above represent a breadth of “advertising” we could not afford to purchase.

• Word of mouth back to all regions of the country and beyond – The Wonderful Women in Waxahachie have proven to be great brand ambassadors for downtown Waxahachie. In 2017, there were only 10 registered campers at the event that created a unique bond, and they traveled together to many campouts during the course of the year telling their story that began in Waxahachie. They recruited 90 more women from 13 different states and New Zealand to join them in 2018, and we know it will grow even larger in the future.