Visit Northwest Illinois turned their website into their community's go-to events calendar

Matthew Hardy Thomas

Co-founder

January 26, 2026

About Visit Northwest Illinois

Bison roam free at Nachusa Grasslands. The Mississippi River carves through dramatic bluffs at Palisades State Park. Ronald Reagan's boyhood home sits quietly in Dixon. This is Northwest Illinois, 2,700 square miles of "ooh, what's that?" spread across Carroll, Lee, Ogle, and Whiteside counties.

Visit Northwest Illinois is the official CVB charged with putting this hidden gem on the map. Run by a small team out of Dixon, Illinois, they punch well above their weight, promoting everything from charming small-town Main Streets to world-class outdoor recreation.

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The challenge

Before Whereabouts, the team wrestled with a clunky customized WordPress plug-in to keep track of the 1,000 businesses in the area and show them on the destination’s website. When one of those businesses changed their hours of operation, the small team had to find and update that listing in different places all over the website. The old WordPress plugin had a steep learning curve. They knew there had to be a better way.

For a lean DMO watching every dollar, it was frustrating. Too much time fighting software, not enough time telling their region's story.

Whereabouts gives NW Illinois's members detailed profiles, which get turned into visitor-friendly, searchable listings on their website

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Why Whereabouts?

Here's the thing about Matthew Lenox: he's not your typical tourism executive. Before taking the helm at Visit Northwest Illinois, he founded Dixon Digital Solutions and built expertise in digital marketing and AI development. The man knows good software when he sees it.

So when it came time to find a new platform, Matthew didn't just grab the first option. He put the field through its paces and looked at everything: scrappy startups, industry behemoths like Simpleview, everything in between.

Whereabouts won.

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"I tried a lot of different tools before choosing Whereabouts. Everything from brand new startups to the big players like Simpleview. But Whereabouts was the right fit for us."

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What sealed the deal?

Real value for real budgets: "We live in a region where the budget is pretty tight. I didn't want to spend too much money on software solutions, and I get a lot of value out of the cost of Whereabouts." Translation: enterprise-level capability without the enterprise-level price tag.
Freedom, not lock-in: Simpleview and others want you in their ecosystem forever. Whereabouts doesn't play that game. You're not locked in or paying for every additional feature. One invoice, once a year, all features included.
Features that actually matter: "The features in Whereabouts are the ones that people actually use." No fluff. Just tools that work.

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"It's kind of stupid easy to use."

Matthew Lenox, Executive Director at Visit Northwest Illinois

The experience

Remember that steep learning curve with the old WordPress setup? Gone.

Whereabouts offers training, but the Visit Northwest Illinois team barely needed it. They got up and running with just the online developer tools and FAQs.

"The UI is incredibly friendly. It's very easy to use. Thankfully, with Whereabouts, very little training was needed."

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Results

The community's go-to calendar

The event calendar didn't just work, it took off. Local organizations started submitting events immediately, and residents quickly learned where to look for what's happening.

"The event calendar is really cool and has been adopted really quickly by the community. It's really simple to accept event submissions and have them on the website. Now our website is a trusted source for things that are happening in the community."

That's the dream for any DMO: becoming the place people turn to first.

NW Illinois' members upload their events to Whereabouts, and, once approved, are published directly to the visitor site.

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Stakeholder questions? No sweat.

Board member wants to know how the website's performing? Funder asking about engagement? Matthew doesn't break a sweat.

"When I log into Whereabouts, I jump over to the stats to take a look at the important data that's at hand. Just in case I'm ever asked by a stakeholder how things are performing, I know that that's just a few clicks away."

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Looking ahead

The team is gearing up for Broadcasts—a new feature that lets them push training materials and reports directly to members. And they're not surprised it's coming.

"We like that Whereabouts continues to add new functionality based on what their customers are asking for."

That's the Whereabouts way: build what DMOs actually need.

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Key takeaways

Intuitive interface that requires almost no training
Budget-friendly without sacrificing capability
No vendor lock-in or ecosystem traps: all features included
Event calendar that became a community hub
Performance data ready for any stakeholder conversation
A product team that actually listens