Brand Coach – Colleen Walton - Brand Acceleration

Brand Coach
Colleen Walton

As a marketing strategist for Brand Acceleration, Colleen oversees brand identification and marketing program implementation for communities, counties, and regions in a 17-state territory. She frequently writes for the Brand Report which provides in-depth insight into site selection trends and a fresh perspective on economic development marketing. She also travels the country to speak about creative marketing, social media, and public relations.

She’s a regular attendee at state and regional economic development conferences and an active member of the Southern Economic Development Council, and the North Carolina Economic Development Association. Colleen is a graduate of the Basic Economic Development Course at her alma mater, Ball State University. She lives in Tampa, Florida.

Colleen delivers presentations on a variety of topics, including her most popular:

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Social Media

Handling Controversy in a Rapidly Evolving Social Culture: How to Not Get Burned in the Dumpster Fire

Doing a Lot with a Little: How to Best Spend Your Marketing Dollars

Talent Attraction Marketing: How to Market to People Instead of Businesses

Mastering Your Community Pitch

Here are some of Colleen’s recent virtual presentations.

The Retail Coach Webinar:
Accelerating Your Economic Development Marketing Strategy

Colleen joined Charles Parker, Project Director at The Retail Coach, to discuss how communities can develop their own marketing strategies. They walked participants through an activity to help them identify their objectives, audiences, assets, and best marketing tactics. They also shared some advice on the best ways to use social media as a marketing tool.

The Difference Podcast: Marketing Your Community Now

This podcast episode tackles the important question of how and what to market amid the pandemic and the aftermath. Colleen joined Kristin Harper, Marketing Director for Convergent Nonprofit Solutions, to share stories, tips, and advice for communities looking to “build a new boat” as you’re thinking about recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.

Crystal Morphis, CEcD

Creative Economic Development Consulting

Founder and CEO

Colleen Walton did a great job presenting at the Women’s Economic Development Network forum, Learn and Lead 2017. She offered practical social media and marketing advice – things you could take back to the office and do. The audience was engaged and connected to what she was saying. I believe Colleen’s expertise would fit well into a wide range of conference programs, especially programs on marketing, new technologies, and communications strategies.

Paul Brehm

Ohio Economic Development Association

Past President

Colleen Walton from Brand Acceleration, Inc. is a dynamic speaker who will add value to your event. Her presentation to our statewide conference on the value of social media in economic development was both entertaining and interesting. She demonstrated a clear understanding of our industry, showing how you can use social media to better promote your community, attract business investment, and even improve your workforce. Outstanding advice from a true professional who understands the challenges that face economic development professionals today.

Marcel W. Wagner, Jr., CEcD

Great River (Illinois) Economic Development Foundation

President

The Great River Economic Development Foundation was privileged to have Colleen Walton in Quincy, Illinois, to meet with our board and be the keynote speaker at our annual meeting. Colleen gave our audience of 300 business leaders an inspired presentation about what our community needs to do going forward to stay competitive, secure our existing industry, and cultivate the next generation workforce that will be required. I would highly recommend Colleen. She is engaging and informative and the best comment I received from one of my board members was that “Colleen told me what I didn’t want to hear but very much needed to hear.

Mitch Robinson

Salina (Kansas) Community Economic Development Organization

Executive Director

Colleen presented to the Kansas Economic Development Alliance’s 2018 Fall Conference. Her presentation – Doing a Lot with a Little: How to Best Spend Your Marketing Dollars – was a big hit among our attendees. Those who had been in the business for many years and others just starting in our profession found Colleen’s information helpful. Her suggestions were useful for communities with limited resources as well those with well-funded marketing programs. I would highly recommend any organization looking for speakers to select Colleen on a wide variety of topics in the economic development marketing field.

Roberta "Robbie" Baylor, PCED

West Virginia Economic Development Council

I highly recommend both Colleen and Jim Walton. They both gave presentations at the West Virginia Economic Development Conference. Both are dynamic presenters and the presentations were educational and interesting. They kept the audience engaged.

Charles Parker

The Retail Coach

Project Director

Colleen and I partnered on a webinar presentation regarding marketing strategies for economic development professionals – which was met with high praise from our attendees. As a “guest” on our webinar series, she was over-prepared and took on much more responsibility in preparations than was required and made everyone else’s job much easier.

Colleen is an extremely clear communicator and understands how to translate concepts into examples of everyday application. In the days of webinar-fatigue, Colleen understands how to deliver a message effectively to create a strong engagement without the feeling of a lecture. I highly recommend Colleen as a speaker or presenter and cannot wait to collaborate with her again!

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