NATCHEZ — The Miss-Lou is one unit, and should be marketed as such. That’s the message organizers of the Miss-Lou Regionalism Luncheon are hoping local business people will take away from an upcoming presentation Tuesday.

The Miss-Lou Regionalism Steering Committee will host a luncheon from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Vidalia Conference and Convention Center to outline its plans for marketing the area, Natchez-Adams County Chamber of Commerce Director Debbie Hudson said.

“They want to talk about some marketing initiatives that they would like to see happen over the next several years,” Hudson said. “This is the rollout of that plan.”

The regionalism committee decided earlier this year that it needed to make a move to market the entire region for economic development, Concordia Parish Economic and Industrial Development Director Heather Malone said.

“To do that funds would be required,” Malone said. “We would have to brand ourselves, and we would have to blend the materials that my office and Natchez Inc. has to create one set, to show ourselves as one product, and of course going out and marketing that.”

Tuesday is about selling that idea to the community.

“Our purpose is to lay out our three-year marketing plan,” Malone said. “It goes from the basics of branding to our ability to advertise and to attend trade shows or conferences in the target markets that fit our areas.”

Natchez Inc. Executive Director Chandler Russ said some of the joint marketing projects include having a single website to market all of the area’s assets, having common presentations prepared, and having shared mapping resources and printed literature.

“This doesn’t diminish the role or marketing efforts of either entity, from a Natchez Inc. perspective or from Concordia Parish,” Russ said. “This is pooling our resources and presenting a unified front to outside business interests that may be interested in the area.”

As part of the lunch, steering committee member Sue Stedman will be giving an address about the importance of regionalism.

“She gave a similar presentation to one of our local governments, and we felt like more than our local councils needed to hear that,” Malone said. “We wanted the local business community to understand how important it is.”

The luncheon will cost $10 at the door, and those who plan to attend are asked to make a reservation with either the Natchez-Adams County Chamber of Commerce at 601-445-4611 or the Concordia Parish Chamber of Commerce at 318-336-8223.