01.
Tampa

Upon landing in Tampa, we took a quick trip over to the St. Pete Pier to unwind and catch up for an exciting week ahead. The spot: Doc Ford’s Rum Bar + Grill. After rehydrating, a quick trip over to Madeira Beach was needed to catch one of those picturesque Gulf Coast sunsets.

The next morning we espresso’d up and joined the team over at the Treasure Island and Madeira Beach Chamber of Commerce for one of their coffee and networking events.

The team and every person had a great story. Each person we met and networked with wanted to tour us around and clearly felt the energy growing over the past few years.

02.
Gulfport Farmers Market

As the sun reached its peak, we headed over to Gulfport Farmers Market to meet with local merchant organizations, familiarize ourselves with their members and destination marketing needs, and to just get a “vibe” of the great little city. We checked in with Zyon Christiante, who gave us a personal tour of the city, introduced us to a ton of the local artisans, and even hooked up our stay at an amazing Airbnb called the Blue Bayou House.

Hands shook, cards collected, callbacks in place, we made it a point to shoot over to Archibald Beach for the last hour of the workday. Laptops, chairs, and Wi-Fi hotspots prepped and sand in between toes, we cranked emails and ripped into our pending emails.

BLKDOG is all about a healthy work-life balance and it immediately struck us that this would be the perfect place to attain that harmony.

03.
Clearwater

Early Wednesday, we took the short trip up to Clearwater and met with Mark Zinda of AMPLIFY Clearwater to better understand their member base, the marketing and branding needs of the area, and where opportunity lies, specifically in economic development, and tourism + hospitality branding campaign needs.

The meetings with these two chambers really helped us understand and solidify the needs and opportunities of this booming market. While we were in the area, we had to hit the Dali Museum to take in some more of the local culture.

On day three, BLKDOG took the Jungle Prada Tour. David Anderson, curator of the tour, provided incredible insights about local history in the region. Meeting David and feeling the energy of his family’s legacy in preserving the Jungle Prada historic area with Discover Florida Tours for generations was inspiring. It’s great to see such a small business put so much value into the tourism economy.

04.
WHAT WE

OFFER