NEW BERN, N.C. (WITN) – The city is on display as hundreds of community leaders pack downtown and the riverfront convention center to study its main street success and give local businesses a boost in the process.
More than 800 community and economic development leaders from across North Carolina are in New Bern Tuesday for the 25th annual NC Main Street and Rural Planning Conference.
The three-day event, organized by the North Carolina Department of Commerce and its N.C. Main Street and Rural Planning Center is being held at the Riverfront Convention Center and throughout downtown.
The NC Main Street Conference is recognized as the largest statewide downtown revitalization conference in the nation. The theme for this year’s gathering, Main Street: Inspiring Impactful Change, focuses on how the Main Street program drives meaningful, long-term transformation in communities.
“New Bern has always been a vibrant community. I think the vibrancy just continues to grow in this downtown,” NC Main Street and Rural Planning Center director Liz Parham said.
New Bern was one of the first Main Street communities in North Carolina, joining the program in 1980. The city has hosted the conference several times before, including in 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic moved the event online for a few years.
Since then, local leaders say a lot has changed. The Riverfront Convention Center has been fully restored, older buildings have been reused in new ways, and additional businesses have opened downtown.
Swiss Bear, Inc., New Bern’s nonprofit Main Street program, points to projects like The Harvey — an older commercial building that’s now an e-boutique hotel — as an example of how historic structures can be reimagined instead of remaining vacant.
“One of the exciting businesses here that I think a lot of people are interested to learn about is our e-boutique hotels,” said Swiss Bear Executive Director Karen Sullivan. “We have The Harvey, that’s one of the new e-boutique hotels that, when you look at that building and [see how] they turned it into that, instead of just turning it into another office building… It’s about having a vision.”
Sullivan said she hopes conference attendees will leave New Bern with ideas they can adapt back home.
“I want them to see that and go back to their communities energized and excited about how they can do just like we did and rebuild their downtown,” Sullivan said.
The conference footprint extends beyond the convention center. Attendees are encouraged to leave the building at midday to eat, shop, and explore downtown New Bern, which means more people on the sidewalks and more customers in businesses.
“I love the fact that they pretty much close this down from noon to 2 p.m., so they have to go into downtown and eat,” said Jeff Serio, owner of Pinky’s Pub & Eatery. “Anything that puts people on the street to walk our beautiful city and enjoy it, to see what we have to offer, I think it’s a good thing. I think we have a lot to offer.”
Across downtown, other restaurant owners share that sentiment.
“I don’t even know if we have a thousand seats or restaurants down here, so we’re going to be packed,” said Tyler Griffin, owner of Baxter’s 1892. “Everyone is going to be packed when we get back, so it’s great for business across the board.”
Serio and Griffin both say that while they welcome the extra foot traffic, they are also using the conference as a chance to learn what’s working in other communities and bring those ideas back to their own businesses.
The NC Main Street Conference runs through Thursday, with toolkit sessions, breakout workshops, awards, and guided tours continuing in downtown New Bern.
Copyright 2026 WITN. All rights reserved.