Travelocity ‘finds’ Free State Brewery

Great. Now it’ll be even harder to get a table at Free State Brewery.

The downtown Lawrence establishment — the first legal brewery in Kansas since Prohibition — is listed among 10 “Local Secrets, Big Finds” in Kansas uncovered by Travelocity, the online travel site that booked $4.9 billion of travel last year.

Free State is among the 578 restaurants, parks, events and other “discoveries” that made the Web site’s list of places to go when on the road in the United States and Canada.

The feature was two years in the making. Travelocity editors considered more than 30,000 submissions before coming up with their “exclusive” list of places “often overlooked” by tourists but considered essentials by the people who know them best — the locals.

“Who doesn’t want to do as the locals do?” said Amy Ziff, the company’s editor-at-large. “Our goal in compiling this list was to make exploration simple and fun by pointing travelers in the right direction to find authentic local flavor no matter where they go.”

Among Free State’s strengths, cited by Travelocity editors: “amazing appetizers,” “truly complex” barleywine beer and an overall status as a “true Lawrence original.”

For more, click on www.travelocity.com/localsecrets.

Leadership

Chamber official completes program

Alicia Janesko, director of economic development for the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, recently completed the University of Oklahoma’s Economic Development Institute’s sessions in Phoenix.

The three-session program provides a broad spectrum of advanced education for economic development professionals and is accredited by the International Economic Development Council.

The classes focused on three core areas: business retention and expansion, real estate and finance. It also provided lessons in marketing, strategic planning and managing economic development organizations.

Janesko has worked for the chamber since 2001 and is a graduate of Kansas University.

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