Communicating the progress occurring in your district annually can come in many forms. Join this session and learn from three UPMO leaders who are gathering data and creating a benchmark for tracking development, investment, housing, and other areas of importance. These reports are used to better understand the current state of their downtowns and to help determine priorities and action steps. Learn how sharing the results can elevate your credibility and attract new investment.
Webinar
Type: Webinar
Advancing Places: Building on Recovery for Urban Place Management
As the COVID-19 vaccination rate increases, we are finally seeing more and more activity and vibrancy in our urban cores. What are the actions that UPMOs can take (or continue taking) to ensure that downtowns, city centers, and urban districts can recover more strongly?
Advancing Places: Pinnacle Award Spotlight
Winning an IDA Pinnacle Award is the highest level of recognition for urban place management professionals. We’ll walk through two programs pulling communities through the COVID-19 pandemic: the planning of a gift card program benefiting local businesses and a public space activation offering an outdoor office for flexibility in work and wellness. This webinar highlights The Cincy Card Connection and O2: Outdoor Office in Rosslyn, VA.
Advancing Places: Reimagining Downtown Commons
Streets, parking spaces and sidewalks comprise the largest area among types of public space in downtowns across the world. Pre-pandemic, managing parking for delivery bikes and procuring permits for outdoor cafés was challenging. However, reduced traffic presented opportunities to take advantage of these resources in new ways. Join this discussion of management models, programs, and regulatory frameworks that have shifted the use of our public assets to small businesses that need it most.
Advancing Places: Connecting with Downtown Neighborhoods
We often inherit a complicated relationship with the neighborhoods adjacent to the traditional downtown core. Those adjacent neighborhoods are sometimes very different in history and composition – the buildings are likely older, the land is less developed, and the community less affluent. The neighborhoods may be separated from downtown by historic and political barriers, including racist and exclusionary policies and years of broken economic development promises.
Advancing Places: Art as a Tool for Healing
The past year and a half has been filled with extraordinary challenges brought on by a global pandemic. Join this session and learn from two 2021 Pinnacle Award Winning projects on how BIDs can participate in social, cultural and political moments by bringing in the arts community. This pandemic has changed the relationship between people and public space, and new partnerships have developed over time.
Advancing Places: The Virtual Public Realm
In a hybrid era of virtual and physical, how can urban place management organizations showcase their assets and developments? Learn how the Downtown Center BID (DCBID) in Los Angeles developed a virtual tour platform to showcase the downtown real estate market, its most significant properties, public spaces, and development projects, to investors, developers, brokers, prospective commercial and residential tenants.
Advancing Places: Public Private Partnerships for Placemaking and Activations
Activating public space is crucial to bringing people back to the district as we move into recovery mode. Making this happen takes a lot of work developing the right partnerships to make your activations successful. Learn from two seasoned professionals how they approached activations during the pandemic and how they are moving into recovery mode which includes incorporating storefronts to benefit businesses more directly.
Advancing Places: Marketing Your Downtown as Open for Business
Every downtown and district is struggling with how to support the businesses under their purview to provide much-needed foot traffic, sales and revenues, but the fact remains that we’re all “open for business”. From ongoing campaigns targeting locals, tourists and visitors to larger 40,000-foot view strategic planning, in this session you’ll learn from two very different place management practitioners and the strategic consultancy working with both of them to deploy data and technology.
Advancing Places: Real Estate Tools and Incentives for Investment and Attraction
For professionals in urban place management and economic development, there is a need to understand the different types of real estate tools and incentives to attract investment and businesses to your district. This session will outline the basics of tax increment financing (TIF), rebates, historic tax credits, new market tax credits, opportunity zones and various type of grants.
Advancing Places: Holiday and Winter Place Activations
It may be summer but it’s never too early to start thinking about holiday events, lighting and winter activations. Join this webinar to hear how Downtown Grand Rapids, Inc. is embracing all seasons to make it a four seasons city. During the pandemic they curated a two-month long activation, “World of Winter.” This 2021 Pinnacle Award-winning project attracted over 400,000 attendees during the cold winter months. Next, learn about holiday and lighting programs from the Georgetown BID. And finally, Midtown Alliance in Atlanta will present how they have added onto their Midtown Bright program each year as it continues to grow.
Advancing Places: Zoning for Downtown Vitality
With the shrinking demand for brick-and-mortar spaces, we as downtown and neighborhood district leaders need to understand the basics of the zoning and permitting process to help attract businesses. Whether you are new to business attraction or a seasoned practitioner, this session will be led by two experts who will share the basics of planning and zoning while also addressing some of the issues communities are facing.
Advancing Places: Understanding Your Place in Economic Development
Knowing where your organization fits into the overall economic development strategy of your community and knowing your role is important. Join us as this experienced panel of place management and commercial real estate professionals share insights and tips on how to navigate your community as well as the real estate development community to create a win-win in bringing business to your district.
Advancing Places: Crafting Recovery Messaging
The new year has brought with it many of the same challenges, but that doesn’t mean your outward messaging needs to be doom and gloom. 2021 is bound to be complicated and exciting for districts. How do we bring positive messaging back to cities and districts that are unsure about what is next? What strategies can marketing and communications professionals use to jettison economic anxiety for business owners, residents and visitors? Where do we begin crafting year-long messaging for stakeholders operating week-by-week?
Advancing Places: Planters, Parks and Greenspace
The relationship between greenspace and the urban environment can have a profound effect on a district’s public space. This webinar will focus on how a team in Austin, TX raised the standards of urban horticulture in their area. Panelists will discuss how to implement sustainable methods for planting downtown, from starting up a program and identifying partners to plant selection, soil science and innovative tools for management.
Advancing Places: Downtown Master Planning
Whether your district has experienced significant growth or is in need of revitalization, a downtown master plan is an important tool in charting a path for intentional development that aligns with community goals. Join us as this experienced panel of urban planning and place management professionals explore the basics of master plans and get actionable insights your team can apply today.
Advancing Places: Influencer Marketing
Social media influencers are a powerful link between your district and your target audiences. Successful influencer partnerships that are authentic and adaptive can become an integral part of any marketing and communication strategy. Discover how three organizations with varied budget levels researched, implemented and monitored influencer programs in their district. Hear from panelists on how they utilized emerging social media tactics to build meaningful engagement.
Advancing Places: Implementing Technology in Place Management
New technology can streamline workflow for organizations and add a plethora of data to better manage urban districts. With a growth in cloud-based systems and visualization tools, leaders are now able to precisely monitor all aspects of operations — from wayfinding asset organization to task management. Learn how to establishing criteria for a successful technology implementation without being overwhelmed by too many digital options.
Advancing Places: Housing Attainability
Every community needs housing options that meet a diversity of incomes and lifestyles. Downtowns, city centers and neighborhood districts throughout North America are working to make attainable housing a reality for people seeking an urban lifestyle. Urban place management organizations of all sizes and resource levels can play a role in encouraging more housing at a variety of price points and of varying styles.
Advancing Places: Conversation on Homelessness
Homelessness is, at its core, a human challenge, and as urban place managers we can act as conveners to collaborate and coordinate with service providers, public agencies and local organizations to ensure empathetic and successful programs. Join two panelists as they discuss their passion for addressing homelessness in their local district and how they approached the difficulties and successes when working to balance their unique situation.
Advancing Places: The Future of the Office
The pandemic-induced work-from-home experiment has altered perspectives on work, flexibility and the office. When COVID-19 is no longer a lingering health concern, workers will not be expected to come into the office for tasks that can be done from anywhere. What purpose does the office serve in the future and how will that purpose impact the way occupiers think about their portfolio footprints, location strategy and office layouts?
Advancing Places: Environmental Sustainability
The need to begin the transition towards clean energy and low carbon strategies are on the horizon for downtowns, city centers and neighborhood districts. Meanwhile rising temperatures and more severe weather rains increase flooding and create new challenges to ensure cities remain livable and vibrant. Place management professionals are working with local government and private stakeholders to put programs in place that will achieve energy savings.
Advancing Places: Global Trends Update
Join this webinar and hear insights on what’s next for downtowns, city centers and neighborhood districts given the pandemic’s impact on shifts in demographics, lifestyles and competition. Many trends are being accelerated and disrupting entire economic segments and industries. Our panelists will provide proactive recommendations on adapting to and getting ahead of trends shaping our cities. A focus on strategies for downtowns’ storefront economy will be offered, a key to economic recovery.
Advancing Places: Capital Market Insights, Real Estate and Economic Forecast
The pandemic-induced work-from-home experiment has altered perspectives on work, flexibility and the office. When COVID-19 is no longer a lingering health concern, workers will not be expected to come into the office for tasks that can be done from anywhere. What purpose does the office serve in the future and how will that purpose impact the way occupiers think about their portfolio footprints, location strategy and office layouts?
Advancing Places: Creating Customer Loyalty
Now more than ever, downtown and neighborhood district organizations are looking for ways to support local businesses and encourage consumers to shop locally. Communities across the country are implementing “shop local” campaigns. Join this webinar and learn from two practitioners, one who has experience maintaining an existing program gift card program for over ten years and another who is in the process of launching a new district gift card program. Come prepared to learn from their experiences and bring your questions to further the discussion.
Advancing Places: Branding Strategies
There are many reasons for an organization to initiate a branding project, such as creating a new district, merging with another organization or overhauling dated brand material. This webinar will discuss how to approach and implement an organization-wide brand identity effort, from initial research on target audience to finalizing external marketing collateral. Hear from two downtown practitioners who have led branding projects in large and small organizations to gain valuable insights into how positioning and messaging can amplify a newly formed brand strategy.
Advancing Places: Successful Ambassador Teams
As districts enter into the open-for-business phase, it’s important to know the types of services that downtown and neighborhood districts should consider offering to local stakeholders. From safety and security to hospitality and outreach, district service programs can ensure businesses, residents and visitors are taken care of. Join this webinar and hear from two practitioners who are offering different types of programs and how services are unique to each districts’ needs.
Advancing Places: Winter City Design
The winter of 2020 promises to be a long one, especially for the small businesses forced to operate with reduced customer capacity due to COVID-19. There are choices and recommendations we can make to help business and communities outlast the pandemic – by embracing the idea of the winter city. The economic need is urgent and cannot be understated. We can make our streets, parks and plazas great places to be for all four seasons and create space for our businesses and communities to thrive through the winter months.
Advancing Places: Small-scale Manufacturing
Shared spaces for businesses in downtowns are key to reviving a local economy, jumpstarting new businesses and putting people back to work. These spaces also help to break down racial barriers between business owners, creating targeted actions to better support black-owned businesses and other owners of color. Inclusive shared spaces, both formal or informal, in newly vacant storefronts are an essential ingredient to maintain our places and build a stronger, more resilient local economy.
Advancing Places: Small Business Support Services
During these challenging times, public-private partnerships are more important than ever before. Small businesses and micro-enterprises are facing unprecedented economic pressure. Hear from three different organizations and learn about the support services, resources and investments they are providing to their respective business communities. Come away with ideas to apply in your city.
Advancing Places: Small Business Retail & Restaurant
Small businesses are pivoting and innovating through the COVID-19 crisis, advancing their online presence and customer outreach activities, and undertaking actions to enhance the appeal of their physical locations on the outside and within.
Advancing Places: Contracting & Procurement for District Organizations
This webinar will focus on the various details involved when writing a request for proposal (RFP), focusing on what questions district leaders should being asking when considering entering a contract with a third party and when to consider initiating a formal procurement process. Hear from panelists about how to set up standard operation procedures (SOPs) for contracting and procurement along with sample timelines and RFPs.
Advancing Places: Resilience in Managing Places
Managing all aspects of leading a business district can be challenging at times. View this webinar to learn from three case studies that address the need for managing public spaces for demonstrations while also working to support street front and small businesses during a pandemic.
Advancing Places: Public Space
This practical and tactical session will address the opportunities and challenges downtowns and commercial districts have in repositioning our public spaces in the post-COVID-19 world. The panelists will address flexible design strategies, safe and healthy operations and working with businesses, public agencies and partners to creatively address new uses and demands for our sidewalks, streets and open spaces.
Advancing Places: Entrepreneurship and Retail Pop-Ups
With the pandemic lingering into the coming months, unfortunately we are all seeing vacancies pop up in our districts. Join this session and learn about how two downtown organizations and one economic development corporation worked with partners to create pop-up retail programs to recruit, train and assist entrepreneurs with starting a business.
Advancing Places: Parklets
As public space becomes increasingly more valuable, the community interest and benefits of parklets have steadily increased throughout 2020. Generally defined as people-friendly spaces which introduce street furnishings (in street) curbside, parklets are providing respite and generating revenues in their communities. Panelists will discuss the process to put together and maintain parklets of all kinds in their district.
Advancing Places: Parking & Mobility
To support local economies during the current pandemic, municipal and downtown district leaders will hear from three experts who have their eye on parking and curbside policies and opportunities for interventions. Learn about overall trends and implications resulting from changes in travel habits, declines in transit use, an anticipated rebound in commuting by private vehicle and an uptick in bicycling and curbside use.
Advancing Places: Membership and Fundraising
Membership and fundraising during given the rise of financial insecurity amid a public health crisis. Learn from three practitioners from three different types of organizations on how they are working to engage and retain members and stakeholders during these challenging times. Bring your questions for a lively conversation!
Advancing Places: Innovative Events
City builders have been working hard to turn lemons into lemonade for the past six months. As summer winds down, marketing and events professionals are steadfast in brainstorming new ideas to keep their communities healthy and engaged during the coming months. Join this webinar to discover how two practitioners are working to both re-imagine their premier annual events and think outside the box for brand new district-wide activations.
Advancing Places: Holiday Retail Promotions
The holiday season is a crucial part of the year for many main streets and downtowns. Successful retail promotions can boost the economic development for all business owners and reconnect residents with local merchants. Join this webinar to hear from two district leaders on how they are transforming traditional holiday events into innovative activities that are well-received by both consumers and businesses. Come prepared to share with colleagues how you are navigating this unique holiday season.