Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 22, 1995 TAG: 9501280008
SECTION: ECONOMY PAGE: NRV-16 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
It's all part of "The New River Valley - a global community - Vision 2000," a computer program that does double duty as an interactive, multimedia marketing tool and an electronic reference for the region. Developers of the program - still a work in progress at this point - hope eventually to distribute the program, or pertinent sections from it, to entice prospective industries and businesses to the valley.
"It's at the stage where we are starting to give it to people to tell them more about the region," said Daria Dittmer, a regional planner with the New River Valley Planning District Commission that's funding the production with grant money from the Office of Economic Adjustment in the U.S. Department of Defense and from the Economic Development Administration.
Dittmer said those working to promote the New River Valley far and wide want to make the program available on the Blacksburg Electronic Village, where it would be available to Internet users.
"That's the next big challenge," said Terry Hawthorne of Innovative Marketing Solutions in Chilhowie. Hawthorne, who is assembling the program for the Planning District Commission, explained that it will take a major reconfiguration to make it compatible for on-line systems.
However, the program already lends itself well to CD-ROM or floppy disks to include with promotional mailings to business and industrial prospects, he said. Right now, Hawthorne is busy fleshing out the program's as-yet incomplete sections. Still ahead are full-motion video sequences to augment the still pictures, and lots more audio.
The program's business slant includes such main menu choices as "Entrepreneurial Community" and "Basic Employee and Support Community."
It also lets users delve into topics such as "Education and Training," "Physical Infrastructure," "Human Development" and "Natural and Cultural Environment." There's an overview, too.
Click on the Natural and Cultural Environment category and an attractive montage of a rock climber, two children in a field of flowers and a close-up of a Virginia Tech Marching Band member appears. Detour into "tourism potential" and see pictures of various New River Valley attractions and access a calendar of special events, still incomplete at this point.
Click on "preservation and protection" and find out about the historical preservation districts in Pulaski and Blacksburg.
Yet another menu brings up a map of industrial sites. One screen lays out the step-by-step plans, including a time line, to develop the New River Industrial Park in Pulaski County at the former AT&T manufacturing site.
Within Education and Training, users can learn what's available in the region - from elementary schools to higher education - by clicking names on a valley map. Highlights include a video synopsis and detailed information about the Southwest Virginia Governors School and an audio clip of Dublin Elementary School teacher John Wenrich outlining plans to set up the D.C. Wysor World Wide Web home page on the Internet .
Other segments cover New River Community College, Virginia Tech and Radford University, including a detailed presentation of plans for the New College of Global Studies, recently eliminated through budget trimming.
"I guess we're going to have to nuke that," Dittmer said.
That capability is another of the program's pluses. Because they're electronic, information and displays can be modified and updated fairly quickly and easily, something not possible with printed brochures and booklets.
In addition to getting information, users also can add their own comments to an electronic suggestion box, sign up to get mailings or offer help, or fill in a form seeking assistance.
by CNB