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<br />Northern Water launched its cell phone audio tour of the back yard of its Berthoud <br />headquarters June 19,2007. <br /> <br />The cell phone audio tour's purpose is to provide an interesting and interactive way to <br />teach visitors about two components of the back yard - the Colorado-Big Thompson <br />Project Interpretive Area and the Conservation Gardens - while integrating practical <br />conservation lessons. <br /> <br />The primary goals of the tour are to: <br />· pique the interest of the general public and increase the number of visitors to the <br />Conservation Gardens by enticing them with a new and unique experience <br />· educate visitors to Northern Water's bacl< yard about the sources and scarcity of <br />Colorado water and especially about practical water conservation tips and <br />techniques that they can apply to their own landscapes. <br />· reach people who visit the back yard during the evenings and weekends when <br />Northern Water staff is not available to speal< to them. <br /> <br />THE PROCESS <br /> <br />· Northern Water subscribed to the cell phone audio tour service through Guide by <br />Cell, a California-based company. Guide by Cell set up the toll-free number, <br />through which Northern Water staff members recorded the audio prompts from <br />telephones in the Northern Water office. <br />. Public Information Specialist Jill Boyd, with assistance from other staff members, <br />drafted a script for the audio prompts (script is included with this report). The <br />script included descriptions of each of the stops as well as conservation tips and <br />advice. The script was reviewed by Public Information Officer Brian Werner, <br />Landscape Water Conservation Specialist Brent Mecham and General Manager <br />Eric Will<inson before staff members recorded the tour. <br />· Northern Water's public information team designed signs to mark each of the <br />audio stops on the tour. The heavy-duty, aluminum signs were put together by <br />Schlosser Signs and High Impact Signs, both of Loveland. Northern Water's <br />facilities crew installed them in the bacl< yard. <br />· Northern Water advertised the cell phone audio tour in four local newspapers - <br />The Old Berthoud Recorder, Berthoud Surveyor, Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald <br />and Longmont Daily Times-Call - every other Friday for the months of June, July <br />and August. The ads in the daily newspapers were in color, and the ads in the <br />weekly newspapers were in blacl<-and-white. Additionally, Northern Water ran a <br />one-time, full-page ad in the Summer in Berthoud magazine. <br />· Northern Water sent a press release regarding the cell phone audio tour to the <br />media outlets within Northern Water's boundaries and the major media outlets in <br />Denver. <br />