Last Thursday, at the Virginia Main Street 25th Anniversary Milestone Achievement Awards, keynote speaker Chuck D’Aprix spoke about the importance of making your downtown attractive to entrepreneurs. One way to do this is to focus on the quality of the experience rather than the quantity of products you sell. In short, it is difficult to compete … More Quality v. quantity
Downtown Blackstone, Inc. (DBI) has been full of activity this holiday season, successfully coordinating retail promotions and image building events. The Second Annual Downtown Holiday Open House kicked off the season November 27. Following the Grand Illumination in the town park, DBi drew crowds into downtown by coordinating activities with the local merchants, such as carriage rides, choral … More Blackstone holiday events keep local elves busy
We’re turning over the space today to Jeff Curtis, director of the Orange Downtown Alliance for some tips on rallying downtown merchants for an effective training. One of the recurring issues addressed in our Business Development Committee meetings has been customer service, or more specifically, the lack of it. It’s an important issue for any community, and especially … More Guest Blogger: Orange’s Jeff Curtis on rallying Main Street around customer service training
Download the Fall 2009 Main Street Monitor for a look at revitalization efforts centered on arts and cultural assets around the commonwealth. The Art of Downtown: Revitalization with an arts and cultural approach features include 10 tips for building on your community’s cultural assets 7 best practices for implementing a mural program 3 elephants, a … More The Art of Downtown: Revitalization with an arts and culture approach
It turns out you do. At least if you are trying to gain traction and trust in the online world. It may seem purely intuitive that bad press or reviews are not good for sales, but this short article from Fortune magazine says otherwise. This article is geared toward online sales, but the idea can … More Who needs all that negativity?
We have been promoting the idea that recessions and layoffs, while very difficult to navigate, provide the impetus for an entrepreneurial boom. Now, the Kauffman Foundation has issued its report supporting our claims. In economic gardening terms, this is the equivilant of burning last years crops to make way for the new “green shoots.” … More Entrepreneurial stories
When a financial crisis arrives, it is too late to try to make the case for all the services your downtown organization provides to the community. You need to be spending that time engaging your support base and selling the future. To do that, there has to be a broad based system of support throughout the … More Tell us what you think.
While reviewing some of the great action movie stunts of all times, I was steered (get it: steered?) to this short film by French New Wave auteur Claude Lelouch. While you probably don’t want to recreate this famous and wildly reckless driving scene, take eight minutes to focus on the beauty and layout of Parisian streets. … More How to lay out a city…in eight and one half minutes
Those of you who made it to the “Livable Downtowns” training held in Harrisonburg a couple of weeks ago know that just building upper story housing or rehabbing an old warehouse into loft apartments is not quite enough to get people living downtown. It is important to have the amenities people need (dry cleaning, corner … More How to attract Gen “Y”
As champions of Virginia’s traditional commercial districts, Main Street leaders can be effective marketers for their communities. Working to earn coverage in local, regional, and national media outlets can help drive visitors and residents downtown. You might have a weekend travel package that a newspaper from a more urban area would be interested in covering. For instance, The Washington … More Getting Main Street communities in the news
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