Northwest Arkansas draws so much national praise these days that it’s easy to miss some of it.

The region ranks high economically in most circles, and Northwest Arkansas residents are increasingly finding success that’s more and more noteworthy.

Couple that with the region’s consistent quality-of-life upgrades and its remarkable number of weekend activities and it’s fast becoming a full-time job just to stay in the know.

We’re here to help.

The Northwest Arkansas Council recently updated a portion of its Finding NWA website to pull together information about the region’s latest accolades, about key upcoming events, and about success stories of the region’s companies, nonprofits, cities and residents.

The centralized #FindingNWA culture and news source is a one-stop place that captures all that’s good about Northwest Arkansas, and it doubles as a guide for users who want to find out more about certain topics.

The new webpage allows users to set preferences that prioritizes the information that’s of the most interest to them. For instance, readers can focus on information on the region’s outdoors, its rapidly expanding craft beer scene, the arts scene or specific cities.

Those maintaining the #FindingNWA culture and news page update the content regularly, curating it from more than 1,000 social media accounts and websites.

The team combs through more than 13,000 posts and blogs in a typical month, paying particular attention to national media outlets that might be writing about Northwest Arkansas. They also monitor Facebook pages, other types of social media and organizations’ websites in an effort to track all that’s being said about Northwest Arkansas.

“With so much attention being paid to social media and to what’s being written about Northwest Arkansas, we wanted to create a way to quickly find the most important, most interesting content and this component of our Finding NWA program certainly accomplishes that,” said Nelson Peacock, president and CEO of the Northwest Arkansas Council. “We’re certain it’s going to be valuable to people who want to learn about what it’s like to live and work in Northwest Arkansas and to people who already live here who are interested in keeping up with what’s happening.”

The Northwest Arkansas Council created its Finding NWA program in mid-2016, using it to help people elsewhere learn more about the region. The Council works with Northwest Arkansas human resources managers and job recruiters as part of that effort, and it uses the Finding NWA website as a gateway to information about the region’s businesses, schools, cities and quality-of-life amenities.

The Council also maintains its Northwest Arkansas Digital Ambassadors program as a way to expand knowledge of the region. The staff at the Council, which established the ambassadors program in 2013, sends periodic emails to more than 630 volunteer ambassadors and requests that they share specific information on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn about the region.

Yet, the story of Northwest Arkansas is being told well by many organizations and companies. There are other good ways to learn about the region’s accolades, amenities, upcoming events and people. They include:

• Leisurlist. It’s an excellent website and now an iPhone app. Leisurlist provides some original content such as Northwest Arkansas newcomer Monica Diodati’s recent post about the “Ultimate 10 Hours in Springdale.” While Finding NWA’s culture and news page focuses on accolades and the stories about people in Northwest Arkansas, the Leisurlist staff does an great job of identifying upcoming events of interest to people across the region.
• Ozarks At Large. The KUAF program airs each weekday at noon and 7 p.m., and it consistently provides updates about what’s happening in the region. The hour-long radio broadcast, which host Kyle Kellams created, does an exceptional job of giving attention to local musicians and the region’s arts scene.
• What’s Up! The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the region’s only daily newspaper, publishes an entertainment-focused section each Friday. That content is listed on the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s website.
• Explore Northwest Arkansas. The website is maintained by the Northwest Arkansas Tourism Association, and it publishes a quarterly newsletter on what’s happening each winter, spring, summer and fall in a four-county area of Northwest Arkansas.
• Fayetteville Flyer. The publication focuses its attention on the city and the University of Arkansas, and it doesn’t miss many opportunities to write about the region’s craft beer scene. Moreover, it regularly writes about matters beyond Fayetteville. Every city needs a Fayetteville Flyer.