[OMS_MANAGERS] Good morning

Tue May 15 13:02:16 PDT 2018

I love our Downtown Managers! What great ideas. I’ll be checking out Becky McCray. Here are a couple things that come to mind.

Rally the troops

I agree with Allison. When I worked with Downtown Lebanon it was just before they built a Wal-Mart in town. Talk about an issue to rally around.

We started a “Downtown Thursday Nights” event for the summer with businesses staying open until 7 or maybe it was 8 pm (it was 18 years ago forgive me). We themed each week. “Fiesta Night” the local Mexican restaurant made an piñata and the fire department closed a side street and we hung the piñata from the ladder. We had a “50s Night” inviting a car club. Other themes, too. It was successful enough for Albany to ask what’s up in Lebanon!

City of Albany has a “Cup with a Cop” program when an officer or two sit and visit over coffee with anyone who comes in. It was well attended. I’m reaching out to APD to see if we can do that or a Downtown Watch event soon. Downtown Albany was recently victim of a “Tree Mugging” as the press called it. Many of our newly planted streetscape trees were broken and planters smashed. Damage was estimated at $5500. After the initial leads didn’t pan out, APD released some merchant video and announced the $700 reward from ADA members. When that hit TV and social media, the culprit turned himself in (after his mother saw his photo on Facebook and told him to). Again it was an incident that rallied folks. And now everyone knows don’t mess with Downtown Albany!

Trainings

Albany Downtown Association holds training a once or twice a year. In 2016, the Facebook training was popular and kicked off an Economic Development Committee co-op advertising campaign. Seminar attendee could get 50% back on Facebook ads up to a $100 check. Ads were limited to a specific time frame. It was first-come first served. They had to submit a request to reserve the dollars, so we stayed in our overall budget for the program. In 2017, we offered the co-op program to any members. 

Our 2018 training was on eCommerce and how brick ‘n mortar businesses can compete. Attendance was good. It was more of an overview. Merchants have asked future training be more hands on. I’m looking at a Instagram training, not because I think merchants should be putting energy there, but to get them in the door. Then we can reinforce the ranking of the various social media options (from training at Main Street Now) and introduce a free dashboard tool to publish to multiple social media sites. This provides consistence, structure and saves time. It looks like Buffer is what we’ll be suggesting. If anyone has recent experience with Buffer or another free options (Hootsuite, Tweetdeck), please email me directly.

Thank you,

Lise Grato

Executive Director

Albany Downtown Association

126 SW Ferry Street

Albany, OR 97321

Email: director at albanydowntown.com

Phone: (541) 928-2469

Cell: (541) 905-2908

From: OMS_MANAGERS [mailto:oms_managers-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us] On Behalf Of Allison McKenzie
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2018 12:15 PM
To: Oregon Main Street program managers <oms_managers at listsmart.osl.state.or.us>
Subject: Re: [OMS_MANAGERS] Good morning

Hi Kelly.  I’ll think about this and get back to you when I get a brainwave.  It’s an issue in many small communities, not just Dayton.  

Is there an issue that they can all clamor around, either a problem to solve or a time-sensitive opportunity to take advantage of?  (like capturing business of wine travelers during Memorial Day weekend or similar?)

We do a lot of collaborative work but it’s often through a class that we hold or some other “connecting” experience.

And we run into us vs. them all the time, not just with businesses but with communities.  When people are scared they run back into their silos.  Lots of angst out there these days and that doesn’t help, even if it is happening somewhere else.

One thing that might be fun is watching a video from Becky McCray together.  I think the subscription is $20/mo or something like that.  I think I have an email from her recently and will forward it to you so you have the contact info.  We are considering doing this ourselves.  She and her biz partner Deb have very creative ways for small communities to build great economies, and her talking points can be a segue into other conversations.  Watching those together and discussing them may be helpful.  And more interesting/productive than having cocktails (though that doesn’t hurt).  Depending on when they open for business, it is possible to have a monthly coffee time or breakfast if evenings don’t work (evenings are difficult for everyone right now, esp. in the summer)?

Allison

503.871.5188

From: Kelly Haverkate <mailto:kellyjhaverkate at gmail.com>  

Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2018 8:17 AM

To: Managers OMS <mailto:oms_managers at listsmart.osl.state.or.us>  

Subject: [OMS_MANAGERS] Good morning

I'm looking for ideas to get our business owners working together.  Activities I can employ to start a "bonding" process.  :) 

Want to build camaraderie!

We have a bit of an "us vs. them" mentality among a few.

Remembering that we have only about 6-8 business in our downtown, we lack the ability to have the normal "after hours cocktail parties to loosen folks up.  (with so few people).

Thoughts for possible training opportunities?  

Shared events that are not "contests"?  (I've been told by a few they don't like contests, ie:  holiday window displays etc).

I think it boils down to a bit of education that shows them that the more prosperous their neighbor is, the more prosperous THEY will be.  

Thanks much!

Kelly 

Kelly Haverkate

Program Manager

Dayton Downtown

971-241-2076

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