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Colorado Governor's Tourism Conference Professional Scholarship

Program Summary

The Colorado Governor's Tourism Conference Professional Scholarship helps tourism professionals attend the Colorado Governor's Tourism Conference (Gov Con) for the first time. The scholarship includes conference registration and hotel. All other expenses and transport are the scholarship recipient's responsibility.

The scholarship will provide up to 10 recipients with:

  • One free conference registration ($450 value)
  • One room at the host hotel for the nights of September 25 and September 26, 2024

GovCon 2024
September 25 - 27, 2024
Mt. Crested Butte, CO

Applications are now open.

Overview

Type: Scholarship

For: Tourism professionals

Amount: Free conference registration and hotel 

Application period: Summer 2024

OEDIT division: Colorado Tourism Office

To apply for this scholarship, you need to:

  • Be 21 years of age or older and a resident of Colorado 
  • Be a small business owner, a volunteer of or employed by an entity within a sector of the Colorado tourism industry
  • First-time attendee of the Governor's Tourism Conference 
  • Not be a current State of Colorado employee

Scholarship awards will be limited to one person per organization. Scholarships are awarded to individuals and are non-transferrable.

Businesses that support and provide services to tourism industry partners are not the intended recipients of these scholarship funds. The scholarship is for organizations and businesses that work directly with visitors and provide direct services to visitors who are the intended recipients.

The Colorado Governor's Tourism Conference Student Sponsorship is available for university student first-time attendees. The sponsorship covers conference registration and hotel. 

  Applications are now open.

Apply online through the OEDIT application portal. Log in or create a new account. New users are manually added to the portal for security reasons, so activating your account may take several days.

The application process is as follows: 

  1. Verify your eligibility by reading through the guidelines carefully.
  2. Prepare your application materials by filling out this Governors Tourism Conference Professional Scholarship Application Materials, (PDF). This document includes all application questions.
  3. Submit your application in the OEDIT application portal.
  4. Applications will be reviewed.
  5. Scholarship status notification within one week after the application closes.

A panel of Colorado Tourism Office staff reviews applications and recommends awards based on application criteria and available funds. This is a competitive award program, and not all applicants receive the scholarship.

The panel reviews applications on these criteria:

  • Merit (50%): your qualifications, eligibility, background, experience, and eagerness to learn.
  • Impact (50%): how you plan to apply the skills and knowledge gained to benefit your career, your organization, and your destination or industry sector

Sponsorship recipients need to attend and participate in all conference activities, events, and sessions. Recipients will also be required to participate in a conference follow up webinar discussing new attendees’ experiences at the conference.

The following table outlines the timeline for the scholarships awarded in 2024.

July 1, 2024Application opens
August 1, 2024Application closes at 4:00 pm
August 8, 2024Applicant notification via email
September 1, 2024Deadline to complete registration
September 25 - 27, 2024Attend Gov Con 
TBD within two weeks post-conferenceParticipate in conference follow up webinar

 

Program Manager

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