We're thrilled to officially announce VSBMU! Over the last few weeks, we've been working to transtion this in-person professional development series online. It's now a FREE 5-part series of webinars to be held weekly starting at 9 a.m. Thursday, April 23.

Join us then for a one-hour session with Jocelyn Vare, founder of Propeller Marketing in Fishers, Ind., called Google Analytics 101. Jocelyn plans to offer an introduction to Google Analytics and discuss how it tracks valuable data from your website. Attendees will receive tips to interpret GA data efficiently and meaningfully track results while informing their marketing strategies.

Future sessions will cover email marketing, social media communication tips during COVID-19, comeback strategies and the dos and don'ts of successful content marketing.

You and/or members of your staff can sign up for any and all of the sessions at the link below. We look forward to connecting with our partners during these webinars and empowering us all with the strategies needed to help our destination rebound from this pandemic.

During these uncertain times, we recognize the need for accurate information. Providing it to our partners has been a top priority since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an effort to keep everyone up to date, we've created an Industry Partner Resource page on visitsouthbend.com. Whether you're looking for the local expertise of the South Bend Regional Chamber or want to tap into the perspective of Destinations International, you'll find helpful links, social media accounts and toolkits on the resource page.

Several events around The Bend have been canceled or postponed in light of restrictions against the gathering of large groups. But our new normal doesn't mean we aren't getting together at all.

Instead many are offering virtual gatherings like behind-the-scenes tours or Facebook lives. We'd like to add these events to our online calendar. The events page on visitsouthbend.com generally receives a high volume of traffic, so it's a great way to promote virtual programming.