Palestinian Delegation meets with Vision Shared in Wheeling
Something fairly novel and very interesting happened yesterday. The State Department arranged a 16-day tour for a group of five Palestinian journalists. They got to see cities like Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., Chicago, Gettysburg...and Wheeling, WV!
At each city, the journalists met with a specific group (for example Visit Pittsburgh) to learn more about the goings on in that town from a grass roots level. This "America Beyond the Headlines" tour selected Vision Shared to represent Wheeling. President Julie Terry, RED's Don Rigby, and I sat down to discuss West Virginia and Wheeling. Much of our discussion focused on economic development and what we can do to make our cities more attractive as creative communities.
In addition to getting to tell our story, these gentlemen also learned about West Virginia, a place they had never heard of previously. As Don mentioned, although we worry a lot about negative stereotypes, sometimes the bigger problem is that there aren't any impressions at all of WV held by other Americans or citizens of other countries. Hopefully through these journalists and their organizations (Issa Mohammad Rabi Sharabati of Alhayat Aljadida and the Chicago Tribune; Yousef Husameddin Yousef Shayeb of Al-Ghad, Al-Akhbar, and Al-Ayyam; Fadi H. T. AbuSaada of the Palestine News Network; Zaki Zakariya Abu Elhalaweh of Al Quds; and Baseem M. J. Roomie of the Arabic Media Network) America's best kept secret will slowly start to leak out.
My only regret was not getting more time to ask them about Palestine and their backgrounds (although Julie thankfully reverted back into reporter mode for awhile). As great as it was for us to spread our word, I always like learning other folks' stories. Maybe on the next tour they'll have time to stop for a beer hot tea and we can get to know each other more personally.
Big thanks to Julie and Algis Silas over at the State Department for making this happen.
- Justin Seibert
Direct Online Marketing
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