Partner Zone

Partners, this is the place to stay updated on time sensitive announcements, upcoming deadlines, news you need to know! Don't have CVBuzz coming to your inbox? Sign-up to receive the weekly e-blast!

Visit Canton's Merry Mixer is less than a month away! Are you registered to attend?

Click here to register!

If you have any questions about the event, please reach out to Gabe Baker, Partner Content Coordinator, gabeb@visitcanton.com.

Do you need assistance adapting your meetings and events to be accessible to all?

Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities is hosting a virtual meeting to share best practices for ensuring your meetings and events are fully accessible to all participants.

📅Thursday, November 19th
🕓10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
📍Virtual

This webinar discusses best practices for embedding accessibility into every stage of event planning for both physical and digital environments. Learn tips on how to prepare staff, volunteers, and event teams through disability awareness and accessibility training.

We hope you can join Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities for this short webinar and learn how to make your events even more accessible!

Are you looking for more support for your 2027 events and initiatives?

There are plenty of grant opportunities available to you from different organizations, with the same goal of helping you execute your 2027 plans!

Below are just 4 options with a brief overview of how they can help you:

Spark Planning Grants | Applications due by November 20, 2026
Spark grants provide non-profit organizations with the funds to develop projects that champion Ohio stories. The projects can be limited in scope, subject matter, and intended audience. The projects should still aim to appeal to a broad public audience.

GIG Fund: Interstate Touring | Phase 1 applications due November 4, 2026.
GIG Fund provides cost-share grants of $2,000-$10,000 to help smaller Midwestern nonprofits present professional artists from outside their state.

Levitt Family Foundation Festival Grants | Applications due by November 20, 2026.
The Levitt Family Foundation supports free outdoor music festivals that expand access to the arts, celebrate community, and create positive social impact.

Big Yellow School Bus | Applications due 8 weeks before your event.
The Big Yellow School Bus program helps schools and other educational groups defray student transportation costs to professional arts and culturally diverse activities.

Have you considered whether your website is truly accessible to all?

Many of us created our websites and mobile apps with one thing in mind, marketing our products. What we didn't think about, and should, is whether we are marketing to everybody we can.

Our visitors and target market are most likely impacted by a disability of some sort. From dyslexia to color blindness, navigating any website can be a challenge for many of our visitors.

Great Lakes Studios provided an in-depth presentation at OTA, encouraging and highlighting how we can update our site to be more inclusive, leading to a better visitor experience for all. Whether it's adjusting the colors on your site, using larger and bold headings, or just adding captions to videos, there are many ways to improve our sites and digital assets for our visitors.

View the full presentation here!

Do you have a major anniversary in 2027?

Whether you're a festival, special event, business, or any of our other partners, we want to know about the anniversaries you have coming up next year!

America 250 might be over, but we want to shine a light on your specific attraction's anniversary.

It can be 10 years or 125, we want to know!

If you have an anniversary coming, please email Gabe Baker, Partner Content Coordinator, gabeb@visitcanton.com.

Do you have Holiday specials or Black Friday deals?

Let us know what deals, discounts, or specials you have coming up for the Holiday season!

We will include you in our Holiday Hoopla and other promotions to try and help drive visitors and residents to your businesses!

These promotions will help us showcase our destination and encourage visitors to experience all that our community has to offer during the holidays. We're looking for any offers from accommodations, dining, attractions, shopping, events, and other visitor experiences!

Please email your specials to Gabe Baker, Partner Content Coordinator, gabeb@visitcanton.com.

Visit Canton offers a variety of grant programs to provide support to initiatives that create economic development to the region and increase visitation to Stark County.

All organizations and projects are subject to applicable annual grant application and committee review processes. Annual grant eligibility, application, and committee review processes are subject to change. Confirm and review the current grant eligibility and application details prior to submitting each cycle.

2027 Visit Canton Event Support Grants:

Visit Canton’s Event Support Grant program is designed to increase regional visitation and economic impact through visitor spending by supporting sporting events & tournaments, conferences, professional meetings, expos, and complementary experiences tied to qualifying events. Up to $10,000 per event for sporting events, tournaments, conferences, and expos that bring visitors to Stark County.

• Events must generate a minimum of 125 Stark County hotel room nights and/or 400 day visitors from outside Stark County.
• Applications must be submitted at least 90 days before the event.
• Events must take place during the 2027 calendar year.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year, pending available funding.

2027 Cultural Tourism Grants in partnership with ArtsinStark:The ArtsinStark/Visit Canton Cultural Tourism Grant program will invest up to $200,000 in 2026 to support arts and cultural events, programming, and marketing initiatives that drive regional visitation and visitor spending. Up to $20,000 per project supporting arts & cultural programming that drives regional visitation.

• Cycle 1 | Projects taking place: January 1–June 30, 2027Applications accepted: September 15–October 15, 2026
• Cycle 2 | Projects taking place: July 1–December 31, 2027Applications accepted: February 15–March 15, 2027

2027 ASL Access Grant in partnership with ArtsinStark:The ArtsinStark/Visit Canton ASL Access Grant provides funding to help arts and cultural organizations across Stark County make performances, programs and events more accessible to members of the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community. The pilot program will provide up to $20,000 in total grant funding to support ASL interpretation for eligible arts and cultural events taking place between November 15, 2026 - November 14, 2027.

Applications accepted September 15 - October 15, 2026.

Go to our Grant Programs Landing Page to learn more!

Looking for a different way to promote your attraction with Visit Canton?

Visit Canton is always out and about at different festivals, fairs, and events, promoting all the fun things there are to do in Stark County.

If you want to be included in these events without a physical presence, giveaways & promotional items are a great way to be involved!

Items we give away include anything from tchotchkes to admission tickets to discounts, and more! Anything with your brand name on it is a great way to promote you to visitors and residents of Stark County.

We use these giveaways on our prize wheel as well as sign-up promotions for larger prizes that you'd like to be more exclusive.

If you would like to be a part of our giveaways and promotions, please reach out to Taylor Helbig, Guest Experience & Outreach Manager, taylorh@visitcanton.com.

Visit Canton hosted an exclusive Event Planner Luncheon on October 15th at the historic Grand Concourse in Pittsburgh, bringing together 20 regional event planners to explore Stark County as a premier host destination.

Representatives from key Stark County tourism partners joined the Visit Canton sales team to showcase Stark County's venues, hospitality offerings, and unique attractions. Guests connected over an exceptional lunch in the iconic former train station, learning how Visit Canton can elevate their upcoming meetings, conventions, and special events.

The intimate setting provided an ideal platform for collaborative networking and one-on-one discussions between planners and local industry partners. By highlighting convenient travel access, versatile event spaces, and signature Stark County experiences, the luncheon successfully strengthened connections with Pittsburgh-based planners and positioned Stark County as an accessible, high-value choice for future regional events. Our team is currently working on our 2027 events.

A special thank you to our partners who were able to join us! We were grateful to have the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Gervasi Destinations, Embassy Suites by Hilton Akron-Canton, and DoubleTree by Hilton Downtown Canton represented at our event.

If you'd like to participate in a Visit Canton Sales Team event, please contact Leslianne Lake at 330.542.6379 or lesliannel@visitcanton.com.

Do you want to give your visitors a unique way to interact with your organization?

Visit Canton is proud to offer partners the ability to create a unique experience for visitors via digital passes using the Bandwango platform!

Gervasi Vineyards utilizes our digital passes for their visitors during different seasons, such as their current pass, the Sip & Explore: Gervasi Destinations Fall Passport. This pass gives visitors points for spending $25 at each of their locations on the Gervasi property, as well as at the Twisted Olive & OLINDA. With their points, visitors can earn branded merchandise, GV Spa credit, GV resort credits, and more! This encourages visitors not only to spend money during their visit, but to visit more locations than they may have originally planned.

This pass exists on its own, outside of Visit Canton's regular passes intended to promote as many partners in Stark County as possible. Gervasi promotes this pass on their website and in each of their locations on the pass.

Visit Canton will build the pass for you and send you all the necessary information to promote the pass. We can also send you reports to show who has your pass and where and when they are checking in with the pass, helping you evaluate the success of the pass, or where it needs improvement.

Check out more of the Sip & Explore: Gervasi Destinations Fall Passport here!

If you have any questions about launching your own digital pass with the help of Visit Canton, please reach out to Gabe Baker, Partner Content Coordinator, gabeb@visitcanton.com.

Do you have upcoming events and need more support from volunteers?

If your organization has volunteer needs, we’d love for you to share those opportunities with us.

Volunteer opportunities can include events, community programs, visitor services, or other areas where additional support would be helpful. Please include a brief description of the opportunity and what volunteers would be asked to do.

Even if you only need volunteers occasionally, we encourage you to share those opportunities with us. Our goal is to make it easier for community members to get involved and support local organizations and events. Thank you for helping us create more ways for people to volunteer and make a positive impact in our community!

Email Zita Blile, Sports Services & Marketing Coordinator, to help get your opportunities listed: zitab@visitcanton.com.

Visit Canton has a number of passes to help highlight and attract visitors to your business, attraction, or experience!

From the VIP Savings Pass to our newest pass, the Explore Stark: Autumn Adventures Bingo Pass, together we can find the best way to market and promote you to both residents of Stark County and our visitors.

The best part about our digital passes, the only one that isn't free is our Museum Pass. Passholders sign up online, then instantly receive an email & text with their digital pass and access to all the deals included. The passes can be downloaded to their phone, so they look and act like an app.

We are also promoting our partners that have Military Deals & Discounts. While this isn't in digital pass form, it's a great way to list your deals and let Veterans know how you support them. Whether you have an admission deal or discount on your products, we'd love to host it on our Veterans Guide to Canton!

Pass Breakdowns:

• VIP Savings Pass: Highlights your business to visitors with deals and discounts. This can include admission specials, product discounts, or anything else that would be considered a special.
• Pigskin's Pals Adventure Pass: Pigskin's Pals is for families of Stark County with children 12 & under. If you have any deals for kids 12 & under, we'd love to include them on this pass!
• Hall of Fame Hops: The Stark County Craft Brew Trail is back! HOF Hops encourages passholders to visit their favorite and new breweries continually. They will earn points that can be redeemed for brewery-branded & HOF Hops exclusive merch!
• Explore Stark Autumn Adventures Bingo: Our newest pass is live! Explore Stark Bingo has over 130 categorized activities for passholders to visit, checking in to earn a bingo. The first 50 bingos will be able to pick up a coupon for a FREE pie from the Hartville Kitchen & Bakery.
• Museum Pass: Our only paid pass offers visitors a discount to visit our area museums. There are four options available: a one-day Museum Pass including the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and a three-day Museum Pass including the Pro Football Hall of Fame. We also have both a one-day and three-day pass that does not include the Pro Football Hall of Fame for those who aren't football fans.

Our passes are completely digital, so your deal can be edited at any time, and it will change instantly for all passholders!

If you have any questions or would like to participate in one of the passes, please reach out to Gabe Baker, Partner Content Coordinator: gabeb@visitcanton.com.

We are deep in the throes of 2027 planning, including next year's Travel Guide, activations in the community, and content ideas!

Upload your 2027 events with as many details as possible so we can include them in our upcoming promotional opportunities!

Our Travel Guide will continue to include a calendar of events that will highlight our communities. We are also planning event activations with Pigskin, our Welcome Wagon, and Pop-Up Shops! Our content team is looking forward to new and exciting ways to continue capturing your destinations and market them to visitors.

If you have any questions or issues uploading your events with the event submission form, Reach out to Gabe Baker, Partner Content Coordinator, gabeb@visitcanton.com.

Visit Canton Merry Mixer: Join fellow attractions, restaurants, hotels, venues, arts and culture organizations, and community partners for an evening of networking, celebration, and holiday cheer as we reflect on another successful year of tourism in Stark County.

• Date: Thursday, November 19, 2026
• Time: 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
• Location: It could be YOU!

Click here to find out more information and register to attend events.

Business and Event Listings Updates, Exploreboard Maintenance, and New Partner Onboarding: Gabe Baker, gabeb@visitcanton.com

Website Updates and Social Content Requests: Willis Brienza, willisb@visitcanton.com

Welcome Center Brochures and Travel Guide Requests: Carole Camarata, carolec@visitcanton.com

Grants, Industry Partner Programs, Marketing and Promotions Opportunities: Allison Gromofsky, allisong@visitcanton.com

Important Reminders Regarding the Use of “America 250” Logos & Brand Placement:

• The word mark “America 250” is owned by the national America 250 Commission.
• The Ohio Commission holds the license to use the words “America 250” in our logo and communications.
  
• Permission to use the words “America 250” can be granted if:
  • Your organization is an official America 250-Ohio Community, or
  • You have signed an America 250-Ohio logo agreement.

• If your organization wishes to use the national America 250 logo, permission must be obtained from the national organization.

We encourage all partners to review these resources to support your 2026 America 250 projects and ensure proper use of the America 250 brand. You can also download the America 250-OH Stark County logo here.

We want to see your best shots!

Whether it's a scenic view, a fun event, or your latest photoshoot, upload your photos and videos to help us showcase what makes our area a great destination.

Upload Directly to Visit Canton, or use the submission further down this page!

• Partner Benefits & Industry Resources
• Event Planning Resource Guide

Visit Canton uses a technology platform to aggregate event listings from Google-indexed data. If your event is listed on Eventbrite, Ticketmaster, Facebook, or your website, it may already be listed. View the Event Guide for more information on the automation process.

If you prefer to submit your event manually, please submit event details here.