By Audrey Posten
Kelsey Bergan is excited to help promote Clayton County, support local businesses and grow tourism as the new director of Clayton County Development Group (CCDG).
Bergan has been in the role for just over a month, and is in what she called “hyper investigation mode,” meeting with people and sharing ideas around the county.
She said now felt like the right time for a new adventure.
Bergan was born and raised in Elkader, growing up on a farm with four siblings and graduating from Central High School in 2010. She has a degree in marketing and design, and after high school, spent time in Denver Colo., where she built an 11-year career in sales.
She and her husband moved back to the area in 2023, to be closer to family, and now Bergan is sharing her experience in sales, marketing and design with Clayton County.
“I was at my last job for 11 years, working remotely, and working remotely can be lonely. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” she said. “I just thought it was the right time, and this job popped up. I really identified with helping the community, helping it grow.”
Bergan got married in Clayton County five years ago, and got a taste then for what it’s like to promote this unique part of Iowa. She played tour guide for out-of-town friends, “and it was just so fun showing off what we had and how well received it was from people who had no idea this little pocket of Iowa existed,” she shared. “All of Iowa is beautiful, but we are very lucky to have the scenic bluffs and the rivers, this type of topography and nature. It’s a hidden gem.”
As a Clayton County native who moved away and has returned home, she also hopes to promote that to others.
“I think there’s an opportunity for people my age coming back to raise families, to have a more affordable way of living,” Bergan reflected.
Another attractive aspect of the job is supporting small businesses.
“Our Main Streets are beautiful,” she said. “How can I help prospective small businesses come in? How can I support people who have a dream of owning a small business? I think there’s a lot of people out there who like the idea of it, but maybe don’t have the resources to understand what it would take to open a small business or even have the confidence to talk to somebody about owning a business. I really want to see where that aspect of this job could grow or move forward.”
Bergan valued a three-week transition period where she could pick the brain of outgoing CCDG Director Darla Kelchen. She learned about projects and grant opportunities, and started making connections with people around Clayton County.
“I didn’t really come from an economic development background, so I’ve spent the last few weeks filling my calendar with meeting people in the industry. What do they do? What’s successful? What’s not successful? Where are the gaps?” she said.
Bergan is also exploring how she can help local small towns and Main Streets continue to bring people in.
“I want to spend a lot of time getting to know what’s important for each community and come up with something that is unique for them, but collectively it all works out for Clayton County,” she said. “I support all of Clayton County, and I really want people to trust that the money is going as far as it can to help everybody.”
In the tourism realm, Bergan is evaluating how to implement more social media efforts, including video content, while updating photos and information.
“It’s easy to show off what we have, but it’s not so easy to figure out where to push that information,” she noted.
Bergan is considering ways to drive new tourism, including niche areas like geocaching. While there have been geocache sites around Clayton County for over a decade, there have been few updates to draw visitors back.
“There’s a huge market of people who do that,” she said. “It’s low investment, easy to implement, easy to maintain. I’d like to focus or figure out what are some low-hanging-fruit opportunities that wouldn’t take a ton of time, but reach a lot of people.”
Additionally, Bergan hopes to pursue “higher investment, longer time frame” attractions for Clayton County, giving the popular wooden troll art installations in Clinton as an example.
Driving more local tourism is a priority too.
“After COVID, I think people became more content staying home, and things are more expensive. But we don’t need 100% of tourism to come from out of our county. We also need to tour each other,” Bergan said. “There’s a whole lot I didn’t even know, and I grew up and graduated from here. There’s parks I had never heard of, like Bixby State Preserve in Edgewood. So I think we need to support each other as well.”
CCDG’s recent Farm to Fork meal, now in its second year, is another example.
“I’d like to figure out how to keep pushing this farm to fork aspect. People really loved the idea of eating local and supporting local. And it was a good forum for the producers to come up and talk about what they do and how they do things and why it’s important,” Bergan said.
Collaboration will be key to executing these goals, according to Bergan, whether it’s within Clayton County, within Iowa or even the tri-state region.
“I have so many ideas, and everyone has so many ideas, but how do you bridge the gap to make something new happen? Coming together, I think, can bring way more successful projects, programs, trainings, industry, businesses coming in,” she said. “We all want the same thing: for our towns, and county as a whole, to be successful.”
