Events are a long-standing tool in every downtown’s marketing tool kit and are taking on a new importance in a post-COVID world. Whether your district has “bounced back” or is still assimilating to a WFH world, events and programming can start conversations, reposition brands and most importantly – drive foot traffic.
ROI and Metrics
Sub Categories: ROI and Metrics
Advancing Places: Why Festivals and Events?
As place management professionals, we are often charged with creating ways to bring people downtown and to our neighborhood districts. Join this session and learn from three seasoned professionals why they produce festivals and events for their districts. Who benefits and what does it take to produce them.
2019 Holiday Placemaking Initiative
During the 2018 holiday season, we saw a competing town center in our region offering holiday event content that was distressingly similar to ours – Shopping! Dining! Skating! Santa! We quickly realized we needed to take steps to truly differentiate and improve on our downtown holiday experience to make our downtown THE holiday destination.
Sponsorships, Marketing and the Controlled Chaos of Events
This session is designed to aid districts in navigating the ins and outs of event sponsorships and marketing. Learn about knowing what types of events best suit your districts, when and what to market, as well as how to capitalize on sponsorship opportunities. Case studies include Pittsburgh’s “Picklesburg,” Wilmington’s hurricane recovery events and Hartford’s multitiered space activation.
Event Planning, Advocacy and Economic Development Through Smart Data
We’ve all heard about smart data, but how does it play a role in public space activations? This panel of downtown experts will share how pedestrian data and engaging mobile surveys helped enable partners in San Francisco and Dallas advocate successfully to municipal partners, increase sponsorships in dramatic ways, enhance economic development programs and create special destinations.
Great Plates of Downtown Fort Collins
Great Plates of Downtown Fort Collins is an annual regional dining promotion with a local focus. This two-week-long celebration showcases Downtown’s culinary culture and serves as a community fundraiser, with 100 percent of proceeds going to the Food Bank for Larimer County. In 2018, Great Plates raised over $106,000 in two weeks. Overall, the promotion has raised more than $545K: each dollar donated is equivalent to $5.00 worth of food, for a grand total representation of almost $2.7 million dollars.
OverFlo: Hurricane Florence Preparation, Recovery and Resilience
| Wilmington Downtown Incorporated (WDI) led a herculean effort to prepare for, and then recover from, Hurricane Florence. The process included working closely with Emergency Management personnel, property owners, and others. After executing six months of events in one month, OverFlo raised over $128,000 for six nonprofits providing food, shelter and other services for hurricane victims. |
Downtown in December
In 2016, Downtown Greensboro, Inc. (DGI) was tasked with taking over the annual Festival of Lights, a hallmark holiday event for the community. With the goal of lighting up downtown throughout the holidays, DGI expanded holiday programming and created “Downtown in December,” a month-long celebration featuring the Festival of Lights, a holiday parade, carolers, Santa visits, an ice rink and a Santa-Con pub crawl.
Main Street Food Truck Festival
About six years ago, the Downtown Little Rock Partnership began focusing on Main Street’s empty buildings by boarding up the windows and creating the Main Street Food Truck Festival (MSFTF) DLRP’s aim was to bring people back to downtown. Since the festival began in 2011, restaurants, offices, a technology park, theaters, and art galleries have opened or reopened on Main Street. In that same time, food truck participation has increased 271% with diverse trucks from across the state joining.
SouthSounds: The Little Festival that Could
Mobile, Alabama is home to a lively music scene with fans who wanted something new. Old-style festivals kept patrons on-site, minimizing the impact to downtown businesses. A committee formed and came up with a novel concept for a music and art festival. The festival had to be fresh, with a focus on emerging Southern music. Stages would be set up inside existing bars and restaurants.
Get It In The Glebe – Awareness Marketing Campaign
Leading up to 2017, the Glebe neighborhood had seen significant changes to its product mix, including new retail, award-winning restaurants, increased events and programming, and the completion of the Lansdowne area featuring a park, recreational facilities and a stadium. The shift in the Glebe’s amenity and entertainment offerings created an opportunity for Glebe BIA to re-position the neighborhood as the place to visit while encouraging all to Get it in the Glebe.”
LIT CITY Baltimore
In 2016, Downtown Partnership of Baltimore set its sights on Preston Gardens, a green space in Downtown Baltimore positioned between the upper and lower lanes of St. Paul Street, a major artery into the city. With many projects underway, including new color-changing LED lights in the tunnel, the Marketing & Communications team brainstormed events that would engage and excite residents. The team had the idea for a party in the gardens, and it became a massive success!
Things Are Looking Up: BLINK Backstage in Downtown Cincinnati
In October 2017, downtown Cincinnati saw itself with new eyes during the inaugural BLINK light and art festival. The four-day, free event was one of the largest light and art events in the nation, featuring 57 large-scale light installations projected onto iconic buildings and landmarks throughout 20 city blocks. Over one million visitors came to see BLINK, an event that showcased the city’s revitalized urban core, celebrated its historic architecture, and drove record setting traffic downtown.
144 Activities in Town Square Park
The Anchorage Downtown Partnership, Ltd. adopted a new approach to increase the vitality, security and image of downtown, while showcasing one of downtown’s most overlooked assets: Town Square Park, a green space in the heart of downtown Anchorage. Focusing on how positive activities can organically move a space away from issues of crime, homelessness and drugs, Anchorage Downtown Partnership, Ltd. facilitated a new summer program designed to bring new energy to the park through space activation.
Music in the Park 2017 Marketing Campaign
With a newly created Marketing, Communications and Events Director on staff, San Jose Downtown Association took its four-concert Music in the Park series marketing to a whole new level, focusing on on-site digital photo kiosks, email marketing automation and strategic social media. Not only did Music in the Park achieve record attendance and revenues, marketing for the 2018 season and beyond has gathered momentum and general Downtown San Jose marketing capabilities have improved dramatically.
To Outsource or Not to Outsource: How to Monetize Events
Does your organization produce numerous events? Is it labor intensive and are you asking yourself should we be doing these events in house or outsource to a vendor? Attend this session and learn from practitioners with different perspectives on why they do events in house and/or outsource.
Activating Uncommon Spaces to Produce Memorable Events
From empty alleys to mall parking to sidewalks, the uncommon spaces of a community can provide the perfect location for “outside the box” events designed to revitalize the area. By activating these forgotten spaces, you can make the most of these unused urban assets and bring new life and crucial economic development to your community.