BLYN — Roosevelt elk soup, blackberry Pavlovas and BlackBerry mobile communication devices will commingle this Wednesday, all to tout North Olympic Peninsula tourism.
The annual Olympic Peninsula Tourism Summit, a gathering of adventure outfitters, ultramodern marketers, hoteliers and this year, 11 local chefs, will take place at the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Center from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Space is still available, said Diane Schostak, executive director of the Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau based in Port Angeles.
She urged registrants to phone 360-452-8552 Monday to make reservations for the event.
The $50 admission includes a lunch showcasing everything from chanterelle mushrooms, mussels, clams and salmon to elk soup, Ozette potatoes and other fresh vegetables — all foraged or harvested from nearby waters, fields and forests.
Dessert will be those blackberry Pavlovas, light meringue cakes made with local fruit and fromage blanc from Mt. Townsend Creamery.
This is the debut of the Olympic Culinary Loop Association, a group intent on promoting the North Olympic Peninsula as a mecca for those with a refined sense of taste.
Alongside all of the chefs’ creations, the summit features experts such as Melody Johnson, a member of the International Culinary Tourism Association Board of Directors.
She’ll take part in a morning panel discussion and present an afternoon breakout session titled “Culinary Tourism 101.”
Kathy McAree, owner of the Vancouver Island culinary tour company Travel With Taste, will also lead an afternoon discussion on how Peninsula tourism promoters can learn from successes in British Columbia.
Well-fortified summit participants can then go to the “social media checkup and hands-on lab” presented by Go See Tell, a Portland, Ore., Internet social networking service focused on travel.
Twitter, Facebook
Go See Tell representatives will teach ways to use Twitter, Facebook, blogs and other social media to promote Peninsula tourism, so summit organizer Mary Brelsford urged participants bring their laptops and mobile devices for on-site lessons.
The summit will finish with a talk by Shelli Johnson of National Parks Interactive.
She’ll pull the day together, Brelsford said, by explaining how the Olympic Peninsula can capitalize on attention from the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, sustain the tourism spurred by the “Twilight” series of novels and movies, develop interest in culinary tourism, and market outlying destinations as part of an Olympic National Park vacation.
The annual summit, Schostak added, is a day to taste the enthusiasm local tourism promoters feel for the North Olympic Peninsula.
“Hospitality people love to get together and get people excited,” she said.
“We all love where we are. This is our chance to share our love of place, and learn about marketing, communications and how to do better. And in these times, that information is even sweeter.”
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
