The 3-minute interview: Elizabeth Muse
By: Leah Fabel
Examiner Staff Writer
October 25, 2009
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| Elizabeth Muse, co-founder of the blog A Day’s Outing (Courtesy photo) |
It's a beautiful autumn morning and all you know is you want to get out of the city, but after a long workweek you have no idea what's going on, or where. That scenario was too familiar for Muse, co-founder of A Day's Outing. So she created www.adaysouting.com, a free Web site offering thousands of ideas for local outings tailored to location, time and type of event.
What inspired your site?
I was visiting my mother in Roanoke with my two children and she said, 'Let's take a day trip!' It was a beautiful fall day in 2007. And I thought for sure I could find something, but I was amazed that I couldn't find a site that would take my specifications and give me a selection of ideas. So I decided to create one.
And you have a partner in this endeavor?
Yes, my business partner Cathy Jolly. We're moms and marketers -- and our children went to school together. We realized that the travel industry assumes you know where you're going when you make your plans, but a lot of people don't know about the hidden towns nearby, or festivals or performances. We decided to look at travel from the other side of the coin.
I'm guessing you use your site, so where are you headed this weekend?
We're headed up to a Philadelphia craft show, and then we'll also be going to an art opening at one of the local colleges up there -- and a small outing to a local gallery. I found the craft show on our Web site and the art show on our fan page on Facebook.
What's next?
We're focused on rolling out more outings in more cities -- so far we're strongest in the mid-Atlantic states. And then we'll focus on mobile applications so we can pinpoint outings going on nearby that the user would be interested in.
- Leah Fabel
