2023

UMassD hosts Fall River Entrepreneurship Day

Charlton College of Business presents regional tourism panel to community stakeholders

For the second year in a row, Fall River Entrepreneurship Day celebrated the innovative, resilient, and incredible entrepreneurs in the city as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW), which UMass Dartmouth and Bristol Community College teamed up to lead for the Massachusetts SouthCoast.

Among a host of events taking place around the region, UMassD's Charlton College of Business was especially proud to host the Regional Tourism Panel Wednesday, Nov. 15 with key community stakeholders to discuss visitor information from various attractions and events in the region, research the college has been conducting since mid-2022.

The event featured appearances from Bristol County Visitors Bureau CEO and former Southcoast One Chamber CEO Rick Kidder, current Chamber CEO Mike O'Sullivan, Executive Director of Viva Fall River Patti Rego, and more.

"The Charlton College of Business's mission is to create and disseminate knowledge that positively impacts lives, careers, and innovation in organizations and communities. We're proud to lead events like this that connect academia, business, local leadership, and the community to drive innovation and economic activity on the SouthCoast."
John Williams, Charlton College of Business Dean

"The Charlton College of Business's mission is to create and disseminate knowledge that positively impacts lives, careers, and innovation in organizations and communities," said Charlton College of Business Dean, John Williams. "We're proud to lead events like this that connect academia, business, local leadership, and the community to drive innovation and economic activity on the SouthCoast."

"We've now accumulated a significant trove of visitor profile information and are starting to share it more widely with the community to bring together key players in the local tourist economy to attract more visitors and the spending they bring," said Associate Professor of Management, Paul Bacdayan. "This includes restaurants, lodging, museums, festivals, entertainment venues, and more on the SouthCoast."

Charlton intends to continue these discussions in the spring with a larger tourism summit to further develop ideas for increasing the volume of visitors to area attractions.