After two years ferrying consultants to towns across rural Nevada, the BizMobile is up on blocks.
The traveling economic development office brainchild of Nevada Commission on Economic Development is a casualty of an aesthetic upgrade and the economic downturn.
NCED had leased the full-sized bus from a charter tour company. But this year the tour company decided to upgrade its newer buses and dump its oldest vehicles including the BizMobile, which was used for standard charter tours in between business trips.
And the commission couldn't afford to buy the bus outright, says Kimberly Elliott, director of marketing.
Besides, its planned source of funding fell through. Earlier this year NCED officials spoke of plans to sell commercial sponsorships for this year's bus trips and commission a new shrink-wrap to display those business logos. (The bus was formerly wrapped with logos of non-profit agencies only.)
The idea didn't roll, says Elliott.
"Sponsors saw the bus as leaving the region and going where they didn't have customers," she says.
High gas prices were the final straw that broke the Bizbus back.
While the flashy BizMobile will no longer be the talk of tiny rural towns, NCED staff will continue to travel the hinterlands in unmarked cars.
Executive Director Michael Skaggs moderated a recent two-day Business Growth Workshop at the Bristlecone Convention Center in Ely. It's the first of 10 such outreach events planned. Autumn dates target Mesquite, Tonapah, Hawthorne and Carson City.
However, says Elliott, NCED now has a tougher task generating buzz about the task force arrival without the presence of the rolling billboard that was the BizMobile.
NNBW staff
