Mainstreet/Downtown Organizations

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sandytf

sandytf

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Feb 16, 2009
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www.trigsfloral.com
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I'm just wondering if anyone else on Flowerchat is involved in your local Mainstreet or downtown organizations? I'm involved in our local Mainstreet organization, Downtown Rhinelander, Inc. www.downtownrhinelander.com I'm on our promotions committee and we plan events in our downtown historical district.

I would love to hear from any others who have planned events (successful ones!) for their downtown districts. We are always looking for ideas for new events.

We started a couple of new events in 2008. Taste of Chocolate was held on the first Friday in February for 2008 and 2009. We got approximately 35 downtown retailers to offer "tastes" of chocolate to customers and it was a huge success! We won an award in our statewide Mainstreet organization for the event.

We are also planning our 2nd annual Creative Arts Walk which pairs local artists with downtown retailers. They are encouraged to demonstrate as well as sell their art. Our retailers are also encouraged to do something creative that ties in with their business. We at Trig's Floral did a mini "Art in Bloom" last year. This year we are teaming up with another downtown local florist and displaying them in a newly renovated historic building that now houses a photography studio.

What other types of events do your local downtowns do?
 
Our city has Cafe Alfresco every May. Really a networking event, but all the restaurants have booths and you can make a dinner of it. Other businesses have space too. They close several blocks to put up tents and charge about $10 admission.

We also have an Artwalk the 1st friday of every month, wine and cheese in the galleries and surrounding shops.

Classic car shows, one weekend a month. Radio show and newspapers sponser this. No charge to the public. Booth space available for a charge.

Farmers market every Saturday in a park.

All of these bring traffic to our downtown area which they are trying to revitalize.
 
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Our Mainstreet program does Summer Concerts downtown Saturday nights for 6 weeks straight. Local businesses sponsor the bands, streets are closed, some park benches brought in, most people bring lawnchairs, refreshments and beverages are sold. most retail are closed, restaurants and bars benefit at the moment. For the rest of us exposure of our storefronts to these people is only benefit at the moment. i do hear lots of comments from our customers about enjoying the free concert.
Christmas Stroll first weekend in December.
Scarecrow contest in the fall involving students in elementary schools.
Egg Walk in the spring again involving students. Eggs and scarecrow are voted on by popular vote using ballots in each store.
Spring festival in May.
Our Main Street program has two active leaders employed by the city. And an amazing group of volunteers and committee members. If you are interested, I'm sure they would welcome a phone call. PM me.
 
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We belong to the MBCA Metropolitan Business Association...I am on their board we are in the process of planning our summer fund raiser...You can check it out at www.ACMETBIZ.com we do a lot for the community and the monies we raise we give out schlorships. at our last fund raiser we had over 400 people...very successful
Becky
 
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Our downtown has virtually no retail, unless you count a few wig shops, second hand stores, and convenience stores...:(

We do particpate in our Local First organization which encourages people to spend their dollars locally, but so far they've only done B2B networking events.
 
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We are a member of the Old Downtown Carrollton Association. There is a website but I'm too embarrassed to post it here, its awful.

We have several events throughout the year with the Chocolate Walk being the best for the retailers. Each retailer provides some type of chocolate and a drink and the shoppers circulate through all the stores.

Also:

Old Fashioned Fourth with a Chevy Car Show
Santa Fe Days
Pink on the Square (Breast Cancer fund raiser)
Holiday Open House near Christmas
Christmas on the Square
Mens Night Out
Children's Visit with Santa
Candlelight Christmas

This year we had a new event called Flower Power - Living Green. It was only vendors that had something to do with recycling, gardening, green living, etc. We got started a little late planning and the date was too late in the spring but we got great feedback, decent traffic so we really going to push it next year.

I love our location just for this reason.. we have several times throughout the year that traffic is driven right to us.

Nicole
 
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We are in a small retirment community that is growing...so we started a "chalk art" on the sidewalk downtown, this is very appleasing to familes and the locals,
great networking for business and attendees.
The chalk comes from the local businesses, and all you do is sign up and do your chalk work of art...
 
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VP of the Mt. Airy Business Association. I Chair our local First Friday committee - Mt. Airy First Friday. I also am on the Promotions Committee.

HERE is a new site we just launched. There are SO many groups in this small area of the City, I thought it would be good to start a central web portal for ALL the groups to belong to.

Actually, to night is the wrap-up of our Mt. Airy Scavenger Hunt (click on the link from the above web site...). Very successful, and gets folks in your store. But, as with many organizations, the SAME few folks are always running the event. Me, and 3 others for this one.

Alas, this will be my last as Chair. I am resigning to make room for my newly elected post on the Methacton School Board. I ran last month for School Director and won. Also, maybe if I leave, someone else might step in.

It's a shame - there are over 13 of us on this Promo Committee and only 4 or 5 ever seem to DO anything! The others volunteer, but not for much! They just want to be heard...

- Herb
 
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Our town is a Main Street community and I have been on the Promotions and Marketing Committee for almost five years now. I have been the chair for three buy am looking to pass it on.

We would like to do more but are limited by the size of our committee. We have a huge holiday open house in late Nov. and it is a success.

We want to do a spring open house with a green theme but don't have any experience with it yet.

We are getting ready to start a monthly thing we will call "3rd Fridays" where we will be having live music, art, sales, hands-on events, and such on the third Friday of each month from 5 to 9 pm. A lot of this work is getting people together on the same day doing what they are already doing. Some new stuff but not starting from scratch.

We will be doing a brochure all about the downtown for distribution throughout the area.

And last but not least, we have a successful event as a summer promotion every summer. We have all the merchants that want to participate pitch in $100. This goes to prize money. For every $10 a customer spends at participating businesses, they get an entry into a drawing. Top prize is $1500 cash. All the businesses also contribute another prize and there are always two other, much smaller, cash prizes. Very popular with the customers.

We have done postcards of our downtown before as scenic little billboards but I believe the brochure will be better.

Love all the ideas that people are sharing.

Wanda
 
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DistinctiveFlorist said:
Our town is a Main Street community and I have been on the Promotions and Marketing Committee for almost five years now. I have been the chair for three buy am looking to pass it on.

We would like to do more but are limited by the size of our committee. We have a huge holiday open house in late Nov. and it is a success.

We want to do a spring open house with a green theme but don't have any experience with it yet.

We are getting ready to start a monthly thing we will call "3rd Fridays" where we will be having live music, art, sales, hands-on events, and such on the third Friday of each month from 5 to 9 pm. A lot of this work is getting people together on the same day doing what they are already doing. Some new stuff but not starting from scratch.

We will be doing a brochure all about the downtown for distribution throughout the area.

And last but not least, we have a successful event as a summer promotion every summer. We have all the merchants that want to participate pitch in $100. This goes to prize money. For every $10 a customer spends at participating businesses, they get an entry into a drawing. Top prize is $1500 cash. All the businesses also contribute another prize and there are always two other, much smaller, cash prizes. Very popular with the customers.

We have done postcards of our downtown before as scenic little billboards but I believe the brochure will be better.

Love all the ideas that people are sharing.

Wanda
Click to expand...

Everyone has good ideas/events going on. This is a great thread.

Wanda, I'm wondering if the musicians are paid for the "3rd Friday" events? If so, does the money come from the pool of $ generated from the merchants?

Thanks.
 
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Dorothy, It will be different depending on the situation. For instance, multiple restaurants around here have live music several times a month. We will just be asking them to make one of those dates the 3rd Friday and it will be up to them to pay them as usual.

We have two businesses here that the owners or their spouses are professional musicians so that will provide music outside on occasion, gratis.

One of these musicians also teaches lessons and will give his students an opportunity to play. I am assuming this will mostly be his best students but I didn't actually ask him. :)

We also have a local community orchestra that appreciates the opportunity to play.

And last but not least, we will be contacting other people we know that sing, including churches, to see if they are interested in performing. The plan is that they will perform for free but can totally promote their singing services if they sing for weddings, etc. and they can also pass out business cards, sell CD's, etc. I am not sure but I think they may also be told that they can pass the hat, so to speak, while they perform.

If we get to the point that we need to pay, then we will talk to local large businesses about sponsoring 3rd Fridays. We don't have the funds to pay.

Right now, there will be somewhat more emphasis on art such as paintings and sculptures with artist receptions and such. But since music is a form of art, and it adds a party atmosphere, we will want it in sevral restaurants as well as on the street in the warmer months. We will also be inviting the civic players to have street theater as well and pass the hat there as well.

We hope to have art contests, sidewalk art, caricaturists, etc. as time goes on.

Out goal is that at least once a month, local people will WANT to be downtown because that is where the party is. Since the businesses will be open, we are hoping to capture some of the folks that eat downtown but do not shop downtown. We will also have fun activities in the stores as we are able such as a scavenger hunt and so on.

Hope that helps,
Wanda
 
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I have a few questions:

If you have a chocolate walk, do the merchants provide their own chocolate and is it good chocolate?

Someone mentioned Santa Fe days. What is that?

Wanda
 
DistinctiveFlorist said:
I have a few questions:

If you have a chocolate walk, do the merchants provide their own chocolate and is it good chocolate?

Wanda
Click to expand...


For our Taste of Chocolate, the merchants provide the chocolate. It varies in amount and quality. Cellar 70 (our beverage dept. at Trig's) gave tasting of Chocolate Cherry wine. We gave out small pieces of chocolate cream cheese bars. We had everything from chocolate chip cookies to sipping chocolate to brownies to chocolate hand scrubs! The past two years it has been totally free to attend, but we are thinking of selling "passports" for $5 next year and limiting it to 500. It gets really expensive for the shops to give away free chocolate to over 1000 people. We're thinking if we do the passport we can give them all a goodie bag with coupons and stuff in it. Still thinking on that-but we realize we have to somehow limit the number of people or the merchants will quite participating. It is hugely popular-people talked about it for weeks! I'm a little worried we'll lose some steam by charging, but it's better to make that change now then in 5 years when it's really established.
 
I know of chocolatiers here who hook up with the local wineries...florists should be in on that experience/ambience! Networking....

Added: I just attended my first wine tasting experience last weekend...and I've been in Wine Country for 9 years! I'm sure there are many of us out there.
 
Herb,
I went to find out more info about the scavenger hunt and the link was changed to July's events (go figure!) :) and I can't remember what it said the first time I read it.

Can you please refresh my memory?

THanks so much,
Wanda
 
Beach Blanket Bingo

Our Retail Association came up with a new event that we are doing the week after next on a Friday evening. Its Beach Blanket Bingo on the Square.

Each merchant decorates their shop (in and out) to match the summer beach theme. We all have Bingo cards to hand out to the customers that want to participate. We also have a jar full of bingo numbers and stickers to mark the cards. Here's how its supposed to work:

  1. Obviously send out an email blast to your customer list about the event.
  2. Customer shows up and gets a bingo card from a shop and draws a number.
  3. If the bingo number is on their card the merchant applies a sticker covering the square.
  4. Repeat until they get a bingo or are tired of walking around.
  5. Cards will be collected and prizes divvied up the following day.
I just picked up the flyer from the association last night and didnt really have time to read through it. It sounds like it could be fun for the customers and really force traffic from shop to shop. However, it also sounds complicated... which most of the time leads to lack of participation and potential disaster.

I'll let you know how it turns out!

Nicole
 
DistinctiveFlorist said:
I have a few questions:

If you have a chocolate walk, do the merchants provide their own chocolate and is it good chocolate?

Someone mentioned Santa Fe days. What is that?

Wanda
Click to expand...


Sorry I missed this question about Santa Fe Days. Heres the blurb from the webiste:

Our desire is to:

Educate about the culture of the Native American community, through the wonderful and unique artisans and culturally diverse food.

Provide the opportunity to experience traditional Native American songs as preformed by world renowned drum Bear Claw.

Offer demonstrations of a number of time honored art forms such as pottery and jewelry making.

Provide culturally enriched collaborations including special guest dance troupe, Evelio Flores and the Aztec Dancers. Sharon Perdasofphy brings a variety of talented Championship Dancers such as Dennis Begay-Harold Rogers-John Roadie-Kasey Reynolds

Link to the (horrible) website here... http://www.santafedays.com/index.html




It has been a really successful event for the square and has gotten larger and larger each year.


 
Nicole: yes, let us know how the bingo game works out!! You could add an event to this day by having the customers dress in a certain way to get discounts at each shop. We had a luau party in our downtown one year to celebrate the end of a construction project and if those coming down wore a Hawaiian shirt then they would qualify for a specific nice discount at each store. Almost everyone that came down wore such a shirt and it made the party much more fun. We gave away the cheap leis that are available and asked all the businesses to have their staff dress in Hawaiian garb. It was a success! You could use the same ideas for your event to make it more than just a bingo game (in case that is all you had planned thus far).

Thanks for the info on Santa Fe Days, nmwinn!

Wanda
 
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