Campus No. 805 is an award-winning adaptive re-use project that converted a former middle school campus into a mixed-use entertainment experience with multiple local breweries, restaurants, entertainment options and a public green space. Join us as we kick-off the inaugural Place Branding & Placemaking Summit with a multi-stop reception where attendees will get to experience why “school’s out forever” and full-time fun is the new curriculum at Campus No. 805.
Communications
Sub Topics: Communications
Placemaking Summit 2019 Closing Master Talk Presentations
Closing Master Talk with Rob Robinson, Managing Principal, Urban Design Associates (Pittsburgh, PA), Anna Lowder, Co-Founder, Matter Design Co. (Montgomery, AL), Nick Lasater, Co-Owner & CEO, Rocket City Digital (Huntsville, AL), and Josh Yeager, Co-Founder, Bright Brothers Strategy Group (Philadelphia, PA).
Strengthen Your BID Through Branding
How do you brand something as complex as a city? Two BIDs talk through how their successful rebrands not only modernized and unified their identities, amplified the effectiveness of all of the organization’s endeavors, increased the recognition the BIDs got from stakeholders, and saved time and money – but also accomplished something larger. Rebranding positioned both BIDs to move from identifying their communities as a “place” to representing a “destination” – answering the questions “Why visit here?” “Why live here?” and “Why invest here?” No matter the size of your BID, these branding insights will make your work more effective.
Standout Place Branding
Change is constant in our line of work, and when change continually occurs in urban places and spaces, the stories that we tell about them must hold true. But how do you change the narrative of place and what does that entail? For urban place managers, branding a district / place conjures more questions than answers: how much will it cost? How many stakeholder groups do we need to involve and who? How long will it take? What are we actually branding? What is our brand? Will this even make a difference? In this panel, practitioners will detail the process of refreshing or enhancing a brand, including insights into the somewhat complicated and contentious process of deciding when to take action, how to set budgets, who to work with and how a brand refresh impacts more than just marketing collateral – it also affects the entire built environment and visitor experience.
Downtown Long Beach Economic Profile Press Release
This 2015 sample press release from Downtown Long Beach Associates is spreading the word about their recently published Downtown Economic Profile. The press release highlights a number of statistics from the report, summarizes the report’s introductory letter, and provides a brief description of the organization.
Developing a Retail Strategy
All downtowns are dealing with the changing world of retail and developing strategies for retention and attraction. Learn from Cherry Creek North, Downtown Memphis and Downtown OKC, three very distinct downtowns, as they discuss their respective approaches for filling vacant spaces and retaining and attracting retailers.
New Development Meets a Neglected Neighborhood
Congress Heights Community Training and Development Corporation developed a framework for investing in a place-based inclusive economic and social development strategy centered around Congress Heights. It was built on extensive community engagement with a broad variety of stakeholders, from large developers to local youth, to city economic development officials, to local civic association members and more.
Making the Switch: Branding the Organization
In 2011, the Downtown Denver Partnership acknowledged the need for a cohesive brand for downtown Denver and embarked on a branding campaign that encouraged residents, visitors, and employees to enjoy all that downtown Denver had to offer. The downtown Denver brand was already beginning to surface organically as the city emerged from an economic downturn, and the Partnership embarked on creating a strategic marketing strategy to more intentionally encapsulate the place brand.
Transformation of 16th Street Mall
While considered the spine of downtown Denver, by 2016, the Mall’s image had become one of a place overrun by homeless and violent individuals. Comments on social media and media reports led to a general perception that the Mall was lost to crime and homelessness and not a place to visit. However, what most of the public did not realize was that the Downtown Denver Partnership had already been working with stakeholders to develop a Security Action Plan (SAP).
BID Responses for Emergency
BID’s play an important role as a liaison between the public and private sector. Downtown stakeholders rely on BID’s to ensure they receive accurate information regarding critical incidents that affect the people working and living downtown. Join this session to hear from subject matter experts about the role BIDs can play in emergency preparedness, planning, response, and recovery. Become a BID with a robust emergency plan and notification system prepared to respond and recover effectively when a disaster strikes.
Developing a Retail Strategy
All downtowns are dealing with the changing world of retail and developing strategies for retention and attraction. Learn from Cherry Creek North, Downtown Memphis and Downtown OKC, three very distinct downtowns, as they discuss their respective approaches for filling vacant spaces and retaining and attracting retailers.
Innovative Approaches to Commercial Tenant Attraction and Engagement
There has been a gradual expansion of a BID’s role to influence the commercial vitality of their communities. BIDs can ill afford to sit on the sidelines and watch market forces shape its area of management and must be active change agents to ensure a desired business mix, optimal occupancy levels, and that the district is a reliable investment opportunity. Learn from three BIDs engaging different techniques and partnerships to actively recruit and attract new commercial businesses.
Transforming Downtown Transit Streets
Great streets are the hallmark of successful cities. In cities that lack underground rail, surface street buses are the lifeblood of downtown mobility, and one or two streets can act as dedicated busways. In addition to carrying people to and through downtown, these transit streets are also important pedestrian corridors. Learn how Denver, Minneapolis, and Seattle are reinventing the way they do transit and manage their transit streets.
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.
My Bad Reputation: Overcoming a Place’s Negative Perception
They say perception is reality, but often negative perceptions about a place obscure positive changes, inhibiting growth and success. Whether the narrative is about high crime rates or inauthentic tourist traps, changing perceptions can require a multi-prong effort. Using case studies from a variety of locations, panelists will discuss how tools such as audience research, re-branding and press strategy can highlight local assets and reshape the narrative.
Craft Data-Informed Persona in Places of All Sizes
Downtown associations know their attraction and retention results are due in part to their marketing efforts. But how do you produce content that helps your downtown stand out from the rest? In this panel, downtown regions like Bozeman, MT; Los Angeles, CA; and Memphis, TN will discuss how marketing their narrative started with understanding the unique pieces of their story – namely, their data.
Making the Case: Market Analysis Scenario Workshop
Today, downtown and urban district professionals need clear and concise data to strategically inform management and investment decisions. This workshop begins with a baseline understanding of the data that can be useful for understanding the local market, including how to retrieve the data and how to supplement the data with local knowledge. Structured as a practicum, participants will then work in small groups to apply the methodologies and analyses to build a comprehensive district profile.
Building a Social Media Strategy for your Downtown
What’s your social strategy? A question we’ve all been asked, but have no simple answer. From understanding your goals and audience to maintaining your brand, come learn tools for crafting a social strategy to fit your downtown and organization.
Pop-Up Winnipeg Public Toilet
| The Pop-Up Winnipeg Public Toilet initiative aims to lead by example through providing an accessible, clean, secure, well-maintained, monitored public washroom facility. The Pop-Up has captured the imagination of people in Winnipeg and beyond, generated enthusiastic media coverage, and stirred conversations recognizing the importance of human dignity and access to public toilets in the downtown. |
NYC BID Trends Report – Telling the Story of NYC BIDs
The annual NYC BID Trends Report targets multiple audiences, serving both a promotional and educational role for the public and NYC BIDs themselves. SBS collects, analyzes, and features program output data, budget information, and highlights of exceptional programming in this report each year. The report highlights the overall impact and financial data for all BIDs and expense and output data organized by comparable BID cohorts. The report also provides financial and output data from individual BIDs.
Main Street Christmas Light Extravaganza
The Main Street Christmas Light Extravaganza is an event that spans four city blocks in downtown Macon. Over 500,000 Christmas lights adorn the landscape in the medians of Poplar Street and Third Street. Bryan Nichols partnered with NewTown Macon to win grant funding to launch the show and achieve the goal of attracting more people. In 2018, the Main Street Christmas Light Show doubled attendance and attracted over 200,000 people to downtown Macon during the holiday season.
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. |
DowntownDC’s District of Fashion Runway Show
The District of Fashion runway show seeks to align DC with industry-standard practices in fashion and highlight the unique talent located in the DC area. The project is designed to elevate and support the local retail and fashion industry. With high retail space prices and tepid support for the industry, this event sought to give the fashion and shopping retail industry a needed boost both for the perception of the industry and for consumers who spend money at brick and mortar retailers in DowntownDC.
PATH Clothing Drive: Social Media Campaign
The Toronto Financial District BIA worked with YSM to create a social media strategy to promote the PATH Clothing Drive and increase donations. It created two videos, both with a clear call to action. The BIA also compiled a list of ‘influencers’ they would reach out to on social media to share the video. In total the project resulted in 821,318 social media impressions, 450,150 video views and 6,500 bags of donated clothing: all record highs for the clothing drive.
Soda City Market
Columbia’s Soda City weekly street market started within the confines of a single block and now runs along the 1300-1500 blocks of Main Street and has a large economic impact. There are 5,000-7,000 visitors to Soda City Market on a regular Saturday and up to 10,000 on a special event day. Patrons can find farmers, artisans, and artists who all fall into one of three categories: Brain, Body, or Belly.
Bonayo Open 311 Project
Bonayo.org is a unique and time-saving web application that Lower Polk Community Benefit District developed in-house. Bonayo works by taking 311 call data directly from the city and routing it to LPCBD’s workers. Bonayo is currently free to use, and users can choose to get receive live notifications via text and/or email. Each text and/or email shows the location of the service call, the service call type, and a photo when available.
Dupont Circle BID Brand Launch & Implementation
The Dupont Circle BID catalyzed renewal of the area’s public infrastructure through $25 million in streetscape upgrades and an innovative plaza deck over an avenue dividing the retail core. Flowing from Dupont Circle, it will be an exciting, programmable gathering space for the entire city. Its marketing roll-out includes a content-rich website, social media platforms, colorful street light banners, monthly newsletters, transit advertising, a neighborhood guide, and materials for retail brokers.
DVBIA’s Ambassador Dashboard
The Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (DVBIA) created a bespoke electronic dashboard to monitor and inform the DVBIA’s Clean & Safe team’s operations using collected data. The metrics on the dashboard focused on safety-related actions and observations such as reported theft from autos, open drug use, graffiti, and illegal encampments. The dashboard positively impacted the Clean & Safe team’s operations and accountability while also boosting the team’s morale.
She Tempe
In an effort to revitalize and refresh the district’s street-level appearance, the Downtown Tempe Authority (DTA) decided to wrap the fourteen news racks throughout the downtown district in works of art. Eleven local female artists were asked to submit works that portrayed females. This project celebrates local creative talent, enhances a sense of place and helps create an engaging and vibrant pedestrian experience in Downtown Tempe.
50th Annual Fall Tempe Festival of the Arts
This 3-day art festival takes place in the streets of Downtown a.k.a. the heart of Tempe. A .42-mile radius that spans from one of few Arizona reservoirs, Tempe Town Lake, to University Drive bordering the Arizona State University campus. One of our organization’s goal is to curate diverse and impactful experiences that cultivate community engagement, which is a major factor in why the Downtown Tempe BID produces the Tempe Festival of the Arts in-house.
Homemade In Downtown
Downtown Sioux Falls, Inc. (DTSF) and local advertising agency, Fresh Produce, collaborated to create a comprehensive marketing campaign that featured co-op advertising opportunities for DTSF business members. Strong communication between DTSF, Fresh Produce, and members – as well as support from key stakeholders – made it possible to develop creative that pleased the large majority of members, and led to high satisfaction among participating businesses.
Downtown San Diego: Create the Future
The Downtown San Diego Partnership spearheaded an initiative in partnership with Grizzly Creative, IVC Media and The San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation to create and launch a brand for Downtown San Diego. It defined a narrative and visual language for downtown that positioned our urban core positively and attractively by elevating what’s already happening there and demonstrating what a tremendous opportunity we have to create the future.
Downtown London’s Free Comic Book Day
In 2015, Downtown London began to hear concerns about the amount of people lined up on the sidewalk and the limited space for people to safely participate in Free Comic Book Day. Many of the attendees are children, and most people dress up as characters from their favorite movie, book, or video game. For three successful years now, Downtown London closes Dundas Street and programs it each year with a street festival of comic artists, clubs and performers.
CollaborEAT
CollaborEAT is an annual event of CityBuild Denver, an initiative of the Downtown Denver Partnership. Each year, it transforms an outdoor public space into a dining experience for 250 CityBuilders. The event is designed to educate and inspire, while providing a space for attendees to engage in innovative thinking around the opportunities and challenges facing Denver. There is no other event in Denver like CollaborEAT, which combines tactical urbanism, education, networking and city building.
A Taste of Colorado 2018
A Taste of Colorado, a free Denver tradition, continued its 35-year tradition of being the largest free admission food and music festival in Colorado attracting over 500,000 attendees over the three-day weekend. A Taste of Colorado has something for everyone with over 50 food vendors, 175 marketplace vendors, a Kids Zone experience with arts & crafts and a children’s entertainment stage, and the elevated music experience with a main stage featuring over 25 musical acts.
Old Town Scottsdale Rebrand
The Old Town Scottsdale Rebrand started as a straightforward marketing and communications assignment to promote the Old Town area to in-state residents for the purpose of increasing local foot traffic. The perception was that Old Town was too touristy and didn’t offer much for our local residents. What began as a simple marketing strategy of how to best present Old Town’s best offerings turned into a much deeper brand exploration that would redefine a city.
Activate Houston Street
Activate Houston Street is an initiative tasked with the goal of creating a placemaking action plan for the downtown Houston Street corridor, a once-bustling retail and pedestrian thoroughfare negatively impacted by the loss of the savings and loans industry and suburban sprawl. Turning Houston Street into an active destination that encourages people to experience its uniqueness and vibrancy will transition it from a corridor you pass by to one visitors and locals will go to and stay.
Umbrella Sky
Umbrella Sky is an art concept from Sextafeira Productions, a creative design company based in Portugal. There were two major components of the project, the colorful umbrellas and two large truss systems which were used to hang the umbrellas above Giralda Plaza. The Umbrella Sky project was a resounding success. An Instagram phenomenon, the city received global recognition and publicity through multiple channels, with especially strong results on social and digital media.
Atlanta Downtown: CAP/ADID’s New Look
After years of feeling dissatisfied with a challenging and uninspiring organizational logo, paired with a need to redesign an aging website, Central Atlanta Progress and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District (CAP/ADID) made the decision to undergo a comprehensive rebranding process. It created a unifying master brand, Atlanta Downtown (ATL DTN, for short), under which CAP and ADID fall, allowing for a consumer-facing identity and two visually consistent logos that represent CAP and ADID.