Northwest Ohio has swept two of the three top honors in the first Coolest of the Great Lakes Pitch Contest: the National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo was named the Coolest Destination on the Great Lakes, and the Black Swamp Bird Observatory’s Biggest Week in American Birding in Oak Harbor was named the Coolest Event, according to the Great Lakes Economic Development Council’s Oct. 30 announcement, distributed by EIN Presswire.
The council announced the winners Oct. 30 from the contest held last month during its Great Lakes Rising annual conference in Milwaukee, EIN Presswire reported. The contest spotlighted products, destinations and events that capture the creativity, character and economic vitality of the binational Great Lakes region.
The museum won, in the council’s words as reported by EIN Presswire, because of "its reach to every community around the Great Lakes and its function as the historical, cultural, and civic archive of its people." The Toledo museum tells the story of all five Great Lakes — not just one port — through its galleries and its historic vessels on the Maumee River, including the Col. James M. Schoonmaker museum ship and the Museum Tug Ohio.
The Biggest Week in American Birding, staged each spring around Oak Harbor and the Lake Erie marshes by the Black Swamp Bird Observatory, attracts more than 70,000 birders from around the world and creates an economic impact for Northwest Ohio of $40 million over its 10-day run, according to the council’s announcement reported by EIN Presswire.
"The entire Black Swamp Bird Observatory team is thrilled and deeply honored that the Biggest Week in American Birding was named the 2026 winner of the Coolest on the Great Lakes Pitch Contest in the Event Category," Kimberly Kaufman, the observatory’s executive director, said in the announcement reported by EIN Presswire. "It means the world to us to have the festival recognized for its impact on our region and the Great Lakes community."
Finalists presented live pitches to a panel of judges at Great Lakes Rising, EIN Presswire reported. The destination finalists the Toledo museum beat out were Erie Bayfront in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Lily Dale in New York; the event finalists alongside Biggest Week were a motorcar train tour in Wisconsin and an underwater-aged sparkling wine release party in Pennsylvania. The third winner, Coolest Product, went to the Konecranes Big Blue crane manufactured in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.
Entries were judged on the strength of their stories, their connection to the Great Lakes region and their potential to attract attention, visitors and investment, according to the council’s announcement. "Each of the winners is part of the rich tapestry of the Great Lakes story," Diane Lupke, chair of the contest committee, said in the announcement reported by EIN Presswire.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: both Ohio winners were chosen from live-pitch finalists by judges representing region-wide Great Lakes organizations, and the honors are the contest’s first, according to the council’s announcement. What we are still waiting on: how the museum and the observatory will use the titles in next year’s visitor and festival promotion — neither organization had announced a celebration event in the council’s release.
The double win lands in a busy stretch for Toledo’s riverfront. NewsForce247 has covered Toledo closing its 2026 road season with 111 residential streets resurfaced, and a very different kind of Toledo stage show in Christmas on Tour bringing a western holiday show to the Huntington Center — the museum’s honor adds a regional title to the city’s own list of draws.
For Oak Harbor and the Lake Erie shoreline, the event title confirms what local innkeepers and diners already know each May: the spring warbler migration turns a quiet stretch of Ottawa County marsh into one of the birding world’s capitals for ten days, and the visitors it draws spend across the whole region, not just at the observatory, according to the council’s $40 million impact figure.
The Great Lakes Economic Development Council describes itself as a network connecting economic development organizations, governments, nonprofits, philanthropy and private business across the binational Great Lakes economy, and it created the contest to give businesses, tourism partners, makers, students and community members a way to nominate the places and experiences that deserve a larger spotlight, EIN Presswire reported.
What happens next: the museum and the observatory carry the Coolest titles into 2027 — the museum through its winter season on Front Street in Toledo, and Biggest Week when birders return to the Oak Harbor marshes next spring. Expect both to feature the honors in the visitor campaigns that roll out in the new year.
Photo: Wolfgang Fricke, CC BY